Some western Colorado locals were nervous when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt visited the Colorado National Monument in November to announce his latest land-protection initiative. “Any time the secretary of the Interior comes to little Grand Junction, you’re apprehensive about what he’s got on his mind,” said Warren Gore, a third-generation grazing permittee. “The last thing […]
Recreation
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Nonstop service to the Mojave Desert?
A 6,500-acre swath of federally owned desert, 10 miles from California’s Mojave National Preserve, could become the site of a new Las Vegas airport. But environmentalists and the National Park Service say airport overflights will ruin the preserve visitor’s experience. “One of the really special things about Mojave is the opportunity for solace and quiet,” […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Dirty air in the deep of winter
Snowmobiles produce nearly all the air pollution in Yellowstone National Park, even though other vehicles outnumber them 16 to 1, says a new report by the National Park Service’s Air Resources Division. Air Quality Concerns Related to Snowmobile Usage found that one winter’s worth of emissions by snowmobiles amounts to 78 percent of all carbon […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Kartchner Caverns State Park
There’s a new world underground: Nov. 12 marked the grand opening of Kartchner Caverns State Park, 50 miles southeast of Tucson, and so far 30,000 people have reserved tours of the cave. Reservations are strongly recommended from 520/586-CAVE. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Kartchner Caverns State Park.
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Babbitt looks for support on his home turf
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Shivwits Plateau wasn’t on environmentalists’ radar screen a year ago. Better known as the Arizona Strip, the Shivwits lies in the extreme northwestern corner of Arizona. Cut off from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, it […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Is the Grand Staircase-Escalante a model monument?
Note: a sidebar article, “Ninety years of the Antiquities Act,” accompanies this feature story. Three years ago, Jerry Meredith was pretty sure he had landed one of the toughest jobs in the federal government. The 51-year-old middle manager for the Bureau of Land Management had just been tagged to oversee the brand-new Grand Staircase-Escalante National […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Ninety years of the Antiquities Act
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. June 1906 Congress passes the Antiquities Act. It gives the president power to “declare by public proclamation … objects of historic and scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the government of the United States to be […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Keeping Glacier Park intact
Four years of work, months of public review and a $1.5 million investment have paid off for Glacier National Park planners. Last summer, the Park Service signed the General Management Plan that will guide Glacier’s resource management for the next few decades. Project leader Mary Riddle says the plan reflects people’s desire to keep the […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
ORVs run wild and free in Utah
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Buffed-up and bristling with rock-banging, wall-climbing extras, the 1999 Grand Cherokee Jeep Laredo with all the bells and winches will set you back a cool $34,000. And you may need the power of a Grand Cherokee to conquer the Moab, Utah, trail dubbed the […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Volunteer work in the nation’s parks
Student Conservation Association interns will soon have more than pretty pictures and increased conservation acumen to show for their volunteer work in the nation’s parks, refuges and forests. Starting in 2000, the group’s resource assistants will also receive educational awards, ranging from $1,200 to $4,000, depending on program length. The money is allocated through the […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
It should embarrass the Park Service
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Dave Simon, who is based in Albuquerque, is the Southwest regional director for the nonprofit National Parks and Conservation Association. Simon helped draft the bill that established the monument. Dave Simon: “Given current circumstances, turning over total control of the monument to the National […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Monumental chaos
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The shooting has stopped at Petroglyph National Monument. Established in 1990, the park protects 17,000 petroglyphs that Native Americans pecked into volcanic boulders on what is now the city’s west side (HCN, 11/1/93). Yet just a few years ago, weekend joyriders and even the National Guard drove to the monument for target […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
We’re the good guys
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. A 24-year staffer with National Park Service, Petroglyph National Monument Superintendent Judith Cordova came to Albuquerque, N.M., from Grand Junction, Colo., where she was superintendent of Colorado National Monument. She is the only female Hispanic superintendent in the Park Service. Judith Cordova: “We’re here. […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
An overall poor attitude
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. A Park Service team, composed of employees from other monuments in the region conducted an “oversight review” of Petroglyph National Monument, submitting its 20-page report on Sept. 25, 1998. The group, chaired by Linda Stoll, asked 19 employees the question, “What is working well? […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
You have to show you care
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Matthew Schmader is the assistant superintendent for Albuquerque’s Open Space Division, which manages about 4,000 acres of city lands within the monument acquired by the city through a local, dedicated open-space tax. Matthew Schmader: “A lot of sweat and blood has gone into protecting […]
Posted inOctober 11, 1999: A home-grown Water War
Dudes on the dunes
-We struggled to scramble up near-vertical walls of loose sand,” writes Mark North in the online magazine Explore. “Still, the weight of the tent, beer, snowboard and snowboard boots on my backpack didn’t topple me over … At the summit, we’d swap snowshoes for snowboards … spray on a coat of Pledge to increase glide, […]
Posted inOctober 11, 1999: A home-grown Water War
Resort may crowd Mount Rainier
Ashford, Wash., a rural town of about 1,500 people that is only a stone’s toss from the western gate of Mount Rainier National Park, may soon have a big, new neighbor. Earlier this month, Pierce County endorsed plans for a $70 million, 400-acre resort that would more than double the number of housing units in […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
A gem of a park
Great Basin National Park is a modest gem. Set in Nevada, within a stone’s throw of Utah, deep in the stillness of the Great Basin, the park was formed out of other public land in 1986. Like many parks, it was the child of compromise: Cattle were permitted to continue to graze the alpine meadows […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
A Lewis and Clark revival hits the Northwest
While tracing the steps of Lewis and Clark, Judy Anderson has stopped off at two dozen places where the explorers walked nearly 200 years ago. Among these, Pompey’s Pillar, a lonely landmark on the plains of southeastern Montana, remains fixed in her memory. There, immortalized behind Plexiglas, she saw William Clark’s signature carved into soft […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 1999: Troubled Oasis
Fur and loafing
Cartoonist Phil Frank, creator of the San Francisco Chronicle’s cartoon strip, “Farley,” has devoted a lot of ink since 1986 to the political travails of Yosemite National Park in California. This is a park so loved – and so roaded – it is visited by more than 3 million people each year. In hilarious fashion, […]