The Magazine

In Wyoming and eastern Montana, plans for harnessing the Powder River Basin’s coal to ease the energy crisis are running into the realities of limited water supply.

Can citizens reduce demand by managing their energy more wisely? Experts believe they can, without greatly changing their lifestyles, if they wish.

As the energy crisis deepens, the clear skies of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains are threatened by the extraction of vast deposits of coal.

The Department of Interior is on the eve of releasing the shackles on oil shale development in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — but conservation organizations are worried that the cost to the environment will be too high.

Little known or understood by the average American is his prodigious use — and waste — of all forms of energy. So wasteful have Americans been that we now find ourselves on the brink of energy disaster.

Viewed in historical perspective, the disruption of our western landscape by second home developments may be of far greater importance than any other factor — more even than strip mining for coal, oil shale and uranium.

For the past year and a half, development near Cody, Wyo., has been stalled while the county writes and adopts comprehensive zoning regulations. But developers have plans for turning a narrow strip of land abutting the Shoshone National Forest into recreational homes, condominiums, and golf courses.

For years, Streamboat Springs, Colo., showed the normal, orderly growth expected in a prosperous rural community that also caters to tourists. Now, a rush of growth has pushed condos up the sides of the mountains and transformed the community.

The users of more than five million off-road recreational vehicles (ORVs) — motorcycles, four-wheelers, campers, and snowmobiles — are having difficulty sharing the public lands with those who favor traditional forms of locomotion — hikers, skiers, and showshoers.

HCN hasn’t gone from rags to riches, exactly, but we are alive and well. Happily, it’s a story not only of this paper but also you, our readers and stockholders.

The stampede into coal development in the northern Great Plains may be suddenly halted. Citizens and conservationists have filed suit to stop development until comprehensive analysis is made of the development’s regional impacts.

A hearing slated for Lander could determine how much of the Popo Agie Primitive Area in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains will be set aside as future wilderness.

Some conservationists, myself included, are tired of trading off-one region for another. No longer do we believe that one area can be saved by simply sending the energy producers elsewhere. The energy producers will be back; they have to come back.

With the waters of Lake Powell now rising to within site of Rainbow Bridge, a battle is raging over whether the reservoir’s waters will be allowed to encroach further upon the famous sandstone formation.

In a hearing concerning Wyoming’s Teton National Forest, environmental groups argued that the U.S. Forest Service had not complied with the National Environmental Policy Act or its own regulations in awarding timbering contracts.

The energy industry is increasingly offering to cooperate with environmental groups and conduct joint studies of areas like the Powder River Basin, but many environmentalists are skeptical of the industry’s intentions.

What has happened to High Country News this month is nothing short of miraculous: new subscribers and donations have put High Country News on strong footing.

The miracle may be happening. Reaction to our decision to cease publication was so swift and decisive that now, barring unforeseen circumstances, High Country News appears to be saved.

These comments on the National Water Commission’s recent report are representative of the feelings of most Westerners who have no special interest in water development, irrigation projects, barge canals or dam building.

As Montana and Wyoming struggle to enact protective legislation in the face of ever-expanding strip mining, landowners, environmentalists and an awakening public are being pitted against the energy lobby.