Although Wyoming’s Fontenelle Reservoir was built under pretense of providing water mostly for irrigation, it is useless for agriculture — and may have been intended all along to serve industry.
The Magazine
June 6, 1975: Game range transfer threat to wildlife?
Debate follows the decision to transfer three wildlife ranges — the Kofa Game Range in Arizona, the Charles Sheldon Antelope Range in Nevada, and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Range in Montana — to sole management by the Bureau of Land Management, after years of dual management with the Fish and Wildlife Service.
May 23, 1975: Ski Yellowstone forces choice
The Montana Wilderness Association proposes an alternative to Ski Yellowstone, a ski area and real estate development that would bring clearcut ski runs and hundreds of condos to the Hebgen Lake area near Yellowstone National Park.
May 9, 1975: Southwestern cultures collide
The Four Corners power plant is a monument of the Navajo Nation’s collision of cultures: the traditional ways that respect the land and the intruding pressure of technology and growth.
April 25, 1975: Who profits from our coal?
During the past 20 years federal incompetence has allowed billions of tons of public coal to fall into the hands of the corporate giants of the energy industry.
April 11, 1975: Ford taps Stan Hathaway for Interior
To understand newly appointed Secretary of the Interior Stan Hathaway, one must understand the history of Wyoming.
March 28, 1975: Taking the lifeblood from the land
Traditionally, cities on Colorado’s Front Range have turned to the state’s western slope when local water supplies were exhausted. But with strong environmentalist protest to trans-mountain diversion schemes, thirsty growth centers are looking elsewhere — to agricultural water.
March 14, 1975: Habitat destruction threatens wildlife
The theme of this year’s National Wildlife Week is “We Care About Animal Habitat,” and one of the animals that has had the greatest assaults on its habitat is the American peregrine falcon.
February 28, 1975: Abracadabra! Idaho Power cleans up stacks
In Idaho Power’s brochure, a confident and ever-smiling Reddy Kilowatt perches on an electrostatic precipitator, his three-fingered hand raised toward a drawing of the Jim Bridger power plant’s smokestacks — “99 plus % clean.”
February 14, 1975: Who’s getting to your legislator? (and what are they saying?)
A look inside the world of Wyoming lobbyists, who usually don’t fit the stereotypes attributed to them.
January 31, 1975: State roadblock at Beaver Creek
The state of Colorado has expressed doubt about whether Beaver Creek can be developed into a Vail-like ski resort without compromising environmental imperatives and local human needs.
January 17, 1975: Cinderella Sunshine: A tale of two principalities
Once upon a time there were on the Kingdom of Earth two major principalities — Ruritania and Metropolitania. They were linked together by the Royal Road of Progress and a secret underground passageway called Deals.
January 3, 1975: Western site sought for A-wastes
Nuclear waste disposal used to be a quiet topic of study. But now that hazardous radioactive leftovers are scheduled to move into Nevada, Idaho, or Washington, the topic is making headlines.
December 20, 1974: Jim Bridger builders break promises
Pacific Power & Light and Idaho Power, the two utilities that are constructing the Jim Bridger Power Plant near Rock Springs, Wyoming, have created unexpected impacts related to the plant’s siting and emissions.
December 6, 1974: Ranching industry on the rocks
The cattleman now finds himself confronted by an array of problems — inflation, sluggish markets, water conflicts — not seen since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.
November 22, 1974: Meeteetsee contemplates its future
Meeteetsee, a small cowtown in northwest Wyoming, may change dramatically if AMAX decides to develop an open pit copper mine in the nearby Wood River Valley.
November 8, 1974: BLM exposes own grazing abuses
A Bureau of Land Management report has found that severe overgrazing and other aspects of poor range management on public lands in Nevada have led to loss of wildlife habitat, destruction of cultural sites, and erosion.
October 25, 1974: The last great carving up of America
In Vail, Colorado, where rapid and erratic growth has created a $160 million haven of affluence and alpine luxury, the prospects for the deer aren’t good.
October 11, 1974: Cheyenne fight, again, for land
With nearly half their reservation lands covered with coal exploration permits or leases, the Northern Cheyenne tribe in Montana has reason to believe that full-scale development could threaten their continued tribal existence.
September 27, 1974: Earth energy
Although geothermal energy is often praised as clean and limitless, first attempts to utilize it have stirred up air and water pollution, radiation, and potential earthquakes — not to mention legal, financial and governmental tangles.
