Critics say bison should simply be allowed to roam
Wildlife
Posted inWotr
Sometimes, it’s trout that have to be killed
Having written for and about trout anglers for 33 years, I’ve repeatedly admonished them for their lack of what Aldo Leopold, sire of wildlife management, called an “ecological conscience.” Too often a “trout is a trout,” and where it came from and what it’s displacing doesn’t matter. So I am astonished and delighted to see […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Forest thinning slows fires, increases concerns
Not only did forest thinning slow the spread of last summer’s Hayman Fire in Colorado, it helped prevent subsequent damage from erosion, according to a study conducted by the U.S. Forest Service (HCN, 7/8/02: The anatomy of fire). The blaze, which was the largest fire in Colorado history, slowed when it hit the sites of […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Tribes, residents find a solution in the Sandias
Congress has settled a long-standing dispute between an Indian tribe, the federal government and private landowners over the western face of the Sandia Mountains (HCN, 11/9/98: Who controls the sandias?). Starting in 1976, Sandia Pueblo fought to reclaim about 10,000 acres of private and national forest land. Citing a 1748 Spanish land grant, the tribe […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Debate rages over ‘de-listing’ wolves
Wolves may not be ‘endangered’ anymore, but have they recovered?
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Tinkering with Nature
Can we leave wildlife to its own devices, or must we continue to meddle?
Posted inWotr
If wolves can return to the West, why not New York?
Eight years after a wolf walked out of a pen and howled in Yellowstone National Park, it is clear the predators are here to stay. The restoration of wolves to Idaho and Yellowstone in 1995 has been wildly successful, even though many Westerners remain bitter about an intrusive federal government. Now, a decision announced earlier […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Parasite could help save salmon
Endangered salmon may get help from a strange source: Blood-sucking, eel-like fish called lampreys. On Jan. 28 a coalition of environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect four species of lamprey under the Endangered Species Act. Two of the species are parasitic, latching onto salmon and other ocean-going fish to feed […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Bracing against the tide
On the rugged coastline of British Columbia, tribes, fishermen and environmentalists fight a ‘salmon apocalypse’
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Fish farms challenge our commitment to the wild
If you’ve ever been to the Pike Street Market in Seattle, you’ve undoubtedly witnessed one of the pinnacles of fishmonger bravado. Order up a whole salmon at Pike Place Fish and employees snap into action, shouting like a platoon of marines. One hoists the fish you’ve chosen from an ice-heaped display table. Another dashes to […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
States crack down on wildlife cruelty
Recent attacks shine a spotlight on animal mutilation and killing
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Are you gonna eat that?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Bracing against the tide.” PORTLAND, Ore. — When Dan Wasil plucks a white Styrofoam package of “Fresh Atlantic Salmon” from the grocery store cooler, he gives the label no more than a second thought. “I assume that it comes from the Atlantic,” says Wasil, […]
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
The wild card
As the Wilderness Act nears its 40th anniversary, protecting wild lands requires a new kind of deal-making.
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
Locals fight new railroad
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Grasslands take a step toward nature.” The new national grasslands plans ignore one potential impact entirely: The nation’s largest railroad construction project in more than a century. The Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad got a green light […]
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
Wilderness on the move
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The wild card.” IDAHO: Rep. Mike Simpson, R, is considering introducing a Nevada-style wilderness/development bill that would protect parts of the Boulder-White Cloud and Pioneer Mountains in central Idaho. The Idaho Conservation League is also working with local county commissioners and cattlemen to negotiate […]
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
Peaks and valleys: Protected wilderness by year
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The wild card.” The 1964 Wilderness Act instantly protected 9.1 million acres of wilderness. Since then, the wilderness system has grown to over 106 million acres. Much of that came in the late ’70s and mid-’80s, as wilderness areas identified by the Forest Service’s […]
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
Wilderness provides a ‘safe haven’ for this cowboy
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The wild card.” When I meet Cal Baird at a truck stop about 30 miles south of Vegas, he clears a space for me in the passenger’s seat of his Ford pickup (“I don’t know how we ever got by without extended cabs — […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Spotted owl back under microscope
The timber industry is celebrating a court decision which forces the federal government to take another look at the most controversial of old-growth forest dwellers: the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet. Timber industry groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to reassess the population and habitat of the birds, as […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Loggers got scant help as industry toppled
Loggers and their communities were left out in the cold during the collapse of timber cutting on federal lands in the late 1990s. This is the conclusion of a recent study of the Northwest Economic Initiative, launched in tandem with President Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan in 1994. The study, produced by a nonprofit California think […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Timber proposal undercuts Quincy Library plan
A plan the Forest Service is touting as “a measurable, science-based assessment” of logging’s impact on California spotted owls and other forest species is raising hackles in California. The proposal, released in December, calls for cutting up to 600 million board-feet of timber — enough to build 60,000 houses — and bulldozing 160 miles of […]