COLORADO The Colorado Legislature is considering a measure that could turn the tide for fish, rivers and rafters. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, would allow irrigators and municipalities to retain rights to water they choose to leave instream for fish and boaters. Under current law, irrigators must use or lose their […]
Water
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
Klamath Basin II: The saga continues
National Academy of Sciences study produces more controversy in Oregon
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
Here lies the Rio Grande
A telling end to the tangled story of a once-great river
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
A river on the line
A trip through the U.S.-Mexico borderlands reveals a tough road ahead for the Rio Grande
Posted inFebruary 4, 2002: Last dance for the sage grouse?
Scoot over, farms – ducks are moving in
A restoration effort in northern Idaho recreates wetlands
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Alternative development goes mainstream
A good hard rain in the Pacific Northwest’s urban areas can be bad news for the environment. Storm water draining off rooftops and through gutters can carry pollutants, damaging streams and wildlife habitat. Now, a group of planners may have a solution. Called low-impact development (LID), it focuses on innovative ways to manage storm water […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Show me the water
CALIFORNIA The California state assembly says developers must prove they have water rights before they receive final approval for their subdivisions. State legislators have debated a water-rights mandate for nearly a decade; it took the state’s electricity crisis (HCN, 1/29/01: Power on the loose), which raised the specter of natural resource shortages, to push Senate […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A water tale to set you on fire
Documentary filmmaker Drury Gunn Carr doesn’t seem to mind a little violence. Past projects with fellow producer Doug Hawes-Davis record coyote extermination (HCN, 7/31/00: Killing Coyote), wild horse harassment (HCN, 8/13/01: On the trail of an “exotic” native) and prairie dog shooting (HCN, 1/18/99: Another dog done gone) with a grim, unflinching eye. Thankfully, Gunn […]
Posted inNovember 19, 2001: Bringing back the bosque
Savage controversy peacefully resolved
OREGON After a decade of political discord and legal brawls with conservationists, an Oregon irrigation district has agreed to breach the Savage Rapids Dam (HCN, 6/22/98: Locals stand behind an aging dam). The dam’s sole function is to provide irrigation water from the Rogue River to local farmers, but according to federal agencies, it kills […]
Posted inNovember 19, 2001: Bringing back the bosque
Bringing back the bosque
Pueblo tribes take the lead in restoring the Rio Grande’s riverside forest
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Agencies tangle over Hells Canyon dams
Federal energy commission evades endangered species conservation
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
The Rio Grande’s unsung diplomat
River activist ‘Uncle Steve’ Harris makes waves rather than headlines
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Army Corps wavers on management plan
MISSOURI RIVER BASIN The release of an environmental impact statement on the operation of six dams along the Missouri River has resparked a 12-year-old debate on how to best use the waterway. During the late 1980s, a long drought created hard times for fish and farmers, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-evaluate […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
River of dreams
The 30-year struggle to resurrect Washington’s Elwha River and one of its spectacular salmon runs
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
‘Hydro(power) had no friends’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Orville Campbell has worked for the companies that have owned the Elwha dams for almost 30 years. He lives in Port Angeles. Orville Campbell: “From 1980-1990, the level of the drumbeat for dam removal was increasing over time, and in the early 1990s, that […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Lessons for the Colorado
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The power of place worked wonders in the fight to fund Elwha restoration. When visiting congressmen were taken to the old dam, they saw the few remaining salmon rolling in the waters below, and they made a connection that no amount of beltway lobbying […]
Posted inWotr
Floating past ghosts on the Green River
The White Rim is a strip of manila sandstone on the edge of the Green River canyon. We’ve been following it for three days now, floating this 60-mile flatwater stretch above Cataract Canyon in Utah, one small raft and a kayak; 20 miles yesterday, 15 or so today. Sometimes delicately thin, sometimes robust and thick, […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Who mans forest flows?
NATION Streams on Forest Service land may soon be a little more vulnerable. For the past eight years, the Forest Service has been able to insist on “bypass flows,” or minimum instream flows, when towns and other water users divert streams on national forests. The agency says it has the right and responsibility to demand […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
A-LP gets federal A-OK
Colorado’s huge water project poised for funding
Posted inAugust 13, 2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
LOWER KLAMATH NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Calif. – Wildlife biologist Tim Griffiths leans out his truck window, squints at the bright, scorching sun, and shakes his head with wonder. Yellow-headed blackbirds perch on slender cattails, bald eagles swoop through the sky, and white pelicans dunk their tugboat-size beaks in the shallow water. “This place is pure […]