You may have seen news photos of the massive, shaggy beasts that are a national totem, standing more or less complacently while hunters approach. Easy as one, two, three, the animals come crashing down. It’s an outrageous sight, but strangely acceptable — the first hunting of Yellowstone National Park bison in 15 years. The last […]
Wildlife
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields
A buffalo hunt turns into a slaughter on the border of Yellowstone National Park. But could this be the key to setting the animals free?
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Study questions value of post-fire logging
Scientists find that salvage logging may slow forest recovery
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Tiny stream invaders may harm Western trout
Researchers tackle a problem likely to be spread by hatcheries and anglers
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Bear killing increases but protection decreases
“We call these vandal killings,” says Chris Servheen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator, “people who just kill things and let them lay.” He’s talking about the 11 grizzly bears that were killed illegally last year in northwestern Montana; one was poisoned and the rest were shot or otherwise killed. In 2004, […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Forest Service shuts down ‘three old geezers’
Eighty-year-old retiree Stewart Brandborg wouldn’t appear threatening to most people in his hometown, Hamilton. Brandborg’s father, Guy, ran the Bitterroot National Forest, headquartered in the town, from 1935 to 1955. Brandborg’s own career included stints with the Forest Service and national conservation groups. But when Brandborg tried to attend a forest press conference in Hamilton […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Timberlands up for grabs
The West’s private forests are on the auction block, pitting forest communities against developers in a red-hot real estate market
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
What’s the NRA’s beef with roadless areas?
I am a hunter who cares deeply about our hunting heritage and our ability to pass it on. Like most hunters, I consider organizations that work on behalf of hunting my friends, and those that work against hunting my adversaries. So I don’t like it when the lines become blurred. And today the lines are […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Politics, prejudice and predators
In his new book, Predatory Bureaucracy, conservationist Michael J. Robinson leads readers through the 120-year-history of the U.S. Biological Survey. When it began in the late 1800s, it was run by biologists mostly interested in studying stuffed birds. However, political pressure from cattle- and sheep-growers transformed the benign agency into a powerhouse dedicated to predator […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Backcountry Ranger
Backcountry Ranger A Photo Essay (click through photos on slider above). This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Backcountry Ranger.
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Roadless forest plans draw crowds — and lawsuits
As a crucial deadline approaches, Coloradans turn out to speak their minds
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
A desperate move to protect cattle ranchers
Wyoming’s plan to kill suspect elk could become a ‘political disaster’
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Where have all the rangers gone?
Forest Service tries to crack down on rogue off-roaders, but lacks staff to enforce rules
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
‘Green’ seal of approval considered for national forests
The Forest Service is considering “green” certification for timber produced on the national forests. And though environmental groups have long touted such certification as a way to improve the management of privately owned forests, they have misgivings about using it for the public lands. Green certification for lumber is something like organic certification for food; […]
Posted inWotr
The trouble with the Endangered Species Act is us
With House approval of his “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” last September, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., got a step closer to his career goal of eradicating the Endangered Species Act. Pombo, a developer posing as a rancher posing as an advocate of the public good, proclaims that the 32-year-old law is “broken” and a […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Bear
Bear Robert E. Bieder 286 pages, softcover: $19.95 Reaktion Books, 2005. From cave bears to dancing bears, totemic bears to teddy bears, this elegant little book comes lavishly illustrated with bear photos, drawings and paintings. Author Robert E. Bieder tells the history of this fascinating animal through time and across cultures; there’s a treat on […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
A bullet for the bearer of bad news
Biologists support salmon protection, and Congress yanks their funding
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist
Life can change dramatically, in the blink of an eye. Seven years ago, I went backcountry skiing in the Hoover Wilderness near Yosemite. I missed a turn on a steep icy slope and fell into a rocky gully. In that ugly tumble, I crushed my spinal cord. Suddenly, I was a paraplegic. Every able-bodied person […]
Posted inWotr
When hungry bears drop in for lunch
It was a few falls ago when I came home one late afternoon, only to find the floor covered in broken glass and pieces of pottery. It looked like a serious and not untalented artist had been at work. The pieces lay arranged in grotesque fashion, jutting up like mountaintops above a valley floor of […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Yellowstone fires still ignite controversy
On Sept. 7, 1988, author Rocky Barker stood with a fellow journalist near Old Faithful and witnessed this scene: “Coals were pelting his back and I could see fist-sized firebrands by my head. We jumped a small stream and stumbled through the forest toward safety. The entire area turned black as night and the howling […]