Some Montanans had a rude awakening this summer when officials announced the end of business-as-usual in Glacier National Park. In July, park Superintendent David Mihalic released management proposals that included closing roads and campgrounds, removing park buildings, and limiting access to the much-loved Going-to-the-Sun Highway. These “preliminary alternatives,” the first steps in revising the 1977 […]
Recreation
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
1996: Clinton takes a 1.7 million-acre stand in Utah
A Bold Stroke: Clinton takes a 1.7 million-acre stand in Utah
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
The mother of all land grabs
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah: “In all my 20 years in the U.S. Senate, I have never seen a clearer example of the arrogance of federal power. Indeed, this is the mother of all land grabs. And, the declaration by President Clinton is being made without […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
A daunting, beautiful place
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Covering an area larger than the state of Delaware, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument encompasses some of the wildest, most desolate land in the country. The expanse of canyons, bluffs, grasslands, cliffs is dotted with fossils and Native American archaeological sites. If you stand on […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Managing the monument: The devil is in the details
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. If it survives expected legal challenges, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument will in all likelihood stop the industrialization of the Kaiparowits Plateau. While the proclamation creating the monument did not take away Andalex’s right to mine its rich coal fields, federal land managers acknowledge that […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Clinton learns the art of audacity
Editor’s note: On Sept. 18, just before President Clinton announced the creation of the nation’s newest monument, writer and University of Colorado law professor Charles Wilkinson talked about the historical precedents for protecting land through presidential action. GRAND CANYON, Ariz. – The grandest, most electrifying moments in American conservation history have always been reserved for […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Speak up for a quiet Grand Canyon
On my first visit to the Grand Canyon 45 years ago, I was overwhelmed by its magnificent silence, tranquility and timelessness. That serenity is hard to find today. It’s destroyed by the relentless drone of planes and helicopters. A thousand flights a day, 100 flights an hour rain noise down on the canyon. At best, […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Choose not to go boldly outdoors
I don’t hike often in Elk Meadow anymore, the county park near my home in Evergreen, Colo. I don’t hike often in Boulder’s open space parks, either. And I don’t hike any more in Rocky Mountain National Park. Everywhere I look our local and national wild places are crowded with ecology-minded recreationists, and I am […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Devils Tower may get a second name
To Plains Indians, the name Devils Tower dishonors a sacred place. But to local Wyoming residents, the name stands for community identity and tourist dollars. When Devils Tower National Monument Superintendent Deborah Liggett revived the idea of renaming the feature, people spoke out in opposition. At an Aug. 15 meeting, says Liggett, “I was labeled […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
New rules seek to cap canyon flights
GRAND CANYON, Ariz. – Nearly 10 years ago, when Congress set a national goal to restore natural quiet here, surveys indicated that only 43 percent of the park was unaffected by aircraft noise. Now only 31 percent of the park is considered quiet, defined as free from aircraft noise at least 75 percent of the […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
Strapped parks look for money
Visitors who go to Nevada’s Great Basin National Park to tour limestone caves and gawk at wind-twisted bristlecone pines may not notice anything different this summer. Campground gates and visitors’ center doors are open as usual. Rangers lead hikes to Alpine Lake each morning, and lecture campers in the evenings about everything from bats to […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
Yellowstone cutbacks bring out the politicians
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news story, “Strapped parks look for money.” When Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Mike Finley started to feel the budget pinch this summer, he made sure everyone knew about it. Finley closed a popular campground and two museums in Yellowstone, […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
Why Juan Valdez doesn’t haul coffee beans on a llama
Recently I read a story in an outdoor-sports magazine about how “superior” llamas are to horses, burros and mules for backcountry packing. It caused me to spit green grass juice. Over the last decade, I have trained, cared for and packed with burros, horses and llamas. I’ve even gone so far as to enter a […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
We love our parks
Congressional hopefuls take heed: It pays to support national parks. Three-quarters of voting Americans say their representative’s record on parks is important, according to a 1996 survey conducted by Colorado State University for the nonprofit National Parks and Conservation Association. The 46-page survey, American Views on National Park Issues, found that only 4 percent of […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
A cellular call of the wild
A trip into the wilds of Yellowstone National Park just got tamer. Hikers can now toss a cellular phone into their backpacks. “What’s next, cable?” asked a grubby Los Angeles resident fresh in from a couple of nights in the forest, where he spotted one of the park’s fabled grizzly bears. Park officials say the […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
Feds set “terrible precedent’ with Kolob Canyon settlement
The survivors of an outing that left two Explorer Scout leaders dead in Utah’s Kolob Canyon will get more than $2 million from an out-of-court settlement with public agencies. David Fleischer and LeRoy Kim Ellis drowned in July 1993 while descending a narrow slot canyon near Zion National Park. A surviving Scout leader, four of […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Canyon trip turns fatal
When Robin Phillips of Bountiful, Utah, planned a six-day hiking trip into the Grand Canyon for his troop of Boy Scouts last month, he knew the remote route would be waterless. But maps and guidebooks couldn’t tell him it would prove deadly. Three days into the trip, which, as it turned out, Phillips could not […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Budget crisis may doom Oregon’s state parks
LINCOLN CITY, Ore. – At first glance, Road’s End Wayside Rest Area here is simply a big asphalt parking lot, complete with a bathroom and stairs winding downhill. But the stairs lead to a huge, sandy beach, making it one of more than 60 public access points on the Oregon coast. Public beach access has […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Can the silence be unbroken?
Rocky Mountain National Park has so far been spared the headache – and earache – of commercial scenic overflights for one reason: no tour operators exist yet. Hoping to head off possible conflicts, Transportation Secretary Federico Peûa has proposed a ban on commercial overflights in the park. Peûa’s May 11 recommendation came with three alternatives: […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Ski industry masters the sneak attack
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Legislation often resembles siege warfare back in the days of the battering ram and the catapult. The attackers figure that the more stuff they throw at the walls – rocks, spears, little guys – the better the odds that something will get through. They’re right, because the defenders tend to relax after […]