The Forest Service won’t allow developers on Oregon’s Mount Hood to expand onto more public land. But the agency will allow 5,000 more skiers, six new chairlifts and a restaurant on the slopes. The Mount Hood Meadows ski area is a private business that operates on Forest Service land under a special-use permit. The developers, […]
Recreation
Posted inMarch 3, 1997: Hunters close ranks, and minds
Is there oil under Utah’s new monument?
Conoco announced recently that it wants to drill one or two exploratory wells in the heart of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the newly established 1.7 million-acre wilderness preserve in southeastern Utah (HCN, 9/30/96). The oil company hopes to begin testing wells on two 10-year leases before they expire in November, but the company is […]
Posted inMarch 3, 1997: Hunters close ranks, and minds
Green groups stick to their guns
-It’s a tough sell,” admits Randy Payne, a board member of Olympic Park Associates, one of several environmental organizations that support killing non-native mountain goats in Washington’s Olympic National Park. “We’re not excited to go out and shoot the goats, either.” But the high-altitude animals, first introduced to the park in the 1920s, are now […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
Utahns fight over flights
A recent decision by a Utah county to permit backcountry helicopter skiing on a private ranch above Salt Lake City has mobilized opposition. Heli-skiing opponents, including nearby residents and backcountry skiers, worry that the decision will open the door to more helicopter ski lifts along the Wasatch Front. The company awarded the permit is already […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
Boats may get bounced
Personal watercraft, those zippy, grown-up toys with names like Jet Ski, Sea Doo and Wave Runner, may soon be banned from Lake Tahoe. Some members of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the California-Nevada coalition that governs local development, have recommended ridding the lake of them, and a decision on the controversial issue is expected Feb. […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
When parks close, towns lose
For Nevada fishing guide Jim Goff, who works at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, last winter’s government shutdown cost him a lot of money. “The first week they closed down, I had charters booked every day. I lost $1,200,” says Goff. Goff’s experience as a result of the 26-day shutdown was not unique. A […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
No home on the range
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Mont. – Like millions of other Americans tuned to the nightly news, rancher Delas Munns has watched in disgust as the death toll of Yellowstone bison climbs. The images of bloody gut piles and docile behemoths corralled and shipped to slaughterhouses like cattle do not make him happy. Munns and his five […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
For bison, it’s deja vu all over again
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – For the bison here in the world’s oldest national park, roundups and slaughterhouses are nothing new. At times, park managers tried to foster the bison herds. At other times, they killed them by the hundreds. Until the early 1950s, […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
Federal agency was careless with a live vaccine
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Conservationists, animal rights groups and Park Service officials have long been wary of the federal agency that has ordered the slaughter of Yellowstone bison. Recently, they have uncovered evidence that gives some credence to their fears. Internal documents obtained by High Country News suggest […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
‘Humane is what’s best for humans’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. This winter has been especially busy for Yellowstone National Park photographer Jim Peaco: Jim Peaco: “I photographed a Park Service roundup where rangers on horseback were trying to move bison back into Yellowstone Park. It can be a little scary to watch. These are […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
To the south, bison and cattle coexist
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. JACKSON, Wyo. – South of Yellowstone National Park near the Grand Tetons, cattle have grazed “nose-to-nose” with brucellosis-infected bison and elk for more than 75 years. How is it that this herd of nearly 300 bison that roams from Grand Teton National Park to […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
‘I kill them and cook them’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. When officials from the Montana Department of Livestock decided they needed help slaughtering bison leaving Yellowstone National Park, they thought of Mac Carelli, owner of C&C Meats in Sheridan, Mont. Even though he says scores of reporters have been all over him “like ugly […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 1997: Bringing back the bighorn
Build it, and folks will come
We came and went like the storms that passed over our heads, living at 11,300 feet in the Gore Range above Vail, Colo., where we raced against “old man winter” to build a log hut for the Tenth Mountain Division. Four of us lived in a tepee for five months while we labored, working too […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 1997: Bringing back the bighorn
Grizzlies and tourism collide on Wyoming road
CODY, Wyo. – They razed the best patch of angelica. The nondescript low forb is a favored food for grizzly bears along the highway corridor from Cody to the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The North Fork Highway, as U.S. 14-16-20 is called, was once described by Theodore Roosevelt as one of the most […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Money can’t buy a full season
Even though higher entrance fees in Yellowstone National Park are expected to raise roughly $7 million over the next three years, more money won’t guarantee that the park will stay open for its traditional season. That’s because Park Service officials in Washington determined that maintenance for deteriorating roads and buildings should be top priority for […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Silence wins in Colorado
Those who felt that the new rules governing flights over the Grand Canyon were too lenient now have something to cheer: On Jan. 3, the Federal Aviation Adminstration issued a separate rule banning all commercial flights over Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. “This is fabulous news to bring in the New Year,” said Colorado Rep. […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Grand Canyon rafting fees inflate
For many rafters, it doesn’t get any better than a float trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Would-be boaters often spend as long as 10 years waiting for one of 200 private launch dates granted each year. A new fee increase at Grand Canyon National Park may give them second thoughts: an […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
It will be noise as usual in Grand Canyon
You would never know it from the glowing news reports, but the Federal Aviation Administration has scuttled most of its plans for restricting aircraft overflights in Grand Canyon National Park. Three of the four new “flight-free zones’ the agency proposed in July (HCN, 9/16/96) have been effectively deleted in new rules released Dec. 31. Marble […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Horses, bikes push into petroglyph park
On a windswept mesa west of Albuquerque, N.M., bicyclists and horses soon may be pounding the turf where Indians say the spirits of the dead like to travel. The National Park Service is about to approve a new management plan that calls for the development of 11 to 16 miles of trails in the 7,000-acre […]
Posted inDecember 23, 1996: El Nuevo West
Parks want “drug-free’ river guides
The job description for a professional river guide might read like this: Must possess John Wesley Powell’s fearlessness, Julia Child’s culinary skills and the patience of Job. Now, add another requirement: Must pass a drug test. Periodic drug testing began this past season for outfitters licensed in Grand Canyon National Park and may soon be […]