Industry pushed Bush administration to revise Northwest Forest Plan
Wildlife
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
Dead fish clog the low-flowing Klamath
Interior Department denies responsibility for dead salmon and steelhead
Posted inSeptember 30, 2002: Delta Blues
Golfers may oust eagles
WYOMING A developer’s plan to install a golf course and 71 houses along the Snake River near Jackson has raised convoluted legal questions that sound more like bad jokes. One example: How many eagles does it take to build a golf course? That question came up when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted Dick […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 2002: Delta Blues
Crawdads get the boot, but not the boil
ARIZONA At Arizona’s Fossil Creek this August, concerned locals took a bite out of an invasive crayfish population. Two years ago, under pressure from local environmental groups, power provider Arizona Public Service agreed to remove a 90-year-old dam from the creek, which provides important habitat for native fish like Gila and roundtail chubs, desert and […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 2002: Delta Blues
It’s open season on New Mexico’s bears
Despite dire warnings, state maintains an extended hunting seaason
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
Traveling dunes
It is the largest dune complex in North America, spreading across 1,000 square miles, from Southern California to Mexico. It’s also the locale of the 32,240-acre North Algodones Dunes Wilderness area, where rare species of plants and animals thrive in the basins and flats of the dunescape (HCN, 12/18/00:Feds fight chaos in a desert playground). […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
A modest forest proposal for President Bush
President Bush just whistled through southern Oregon for a quick look at our catastrophic wildfires and a high-profile policy address at a county fairgrounds. He repeatedly told a cheering crowd that he’s for “common sense” forest management to stem “endless litigation.” His boldness inspires me to come right out and say it publicly: I, too, […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
The other firefighters
DURANGO, Colo. – “One neighbor’s house and one cabin were destroyed near here,” says Todd Swanson, surveying the blackened area behind his house outside this bustling college town. “But the thinning kept the fire back from my place until the slurry bombers were able to come and put it out.” In April, as a prologue […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Bikers waffle on wilderness
CALIFORNIA A new proposal to add two and half million acres to California’s 14 million acres of wilderness is gaining support, but not from the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA). Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., says her California Wild Heritage Act will protect the land from logging, oil drilling and road building. IMBA, however, is leery […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Suit may hamstring wildland firefighters
MONTANA A $54 million lawsuit filed against the U.S. Forest Service in July may remove a valuable tactic from firefighters’ toolboxes. On Aug. 6, 2000, in an attempt to stop the Spade Fire as it burned toward houses near Connor, Mont., federal firefighters lit backfires to deprive the fire of fuel in its path. But […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
A fish is a fish is a fish – or is it?
Are some fish created more equal than others? This conundrum is the subject of a draft policy released in late July by the National Marine Fisheries Service, regarding which salmon and steelhead deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act (HCN, 10/8/01). On one side of the debate are some Northwest farmers and landowners who bear […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Attack of the bark beetles
ISLAND PARK, Idaho – Oblivious to the dry summer heat, Forest Service silviculturist John Councilman hikes through a stand of trees looking for signs of violent struggle. It doesn’t take long. “There’s a beetle hit,” he says, pointing out a Douglas fir drizzled with thick threads of dull yellow pitch. “That tree is already dead. […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Shrinking water supply makes room for birds
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Attack of the bark beetles.” This year’s drought is bad news for most wildlife, but not for the endangered southwestern willow flycatchers at Roosevelt Lake in Arizona. During the six years of drought since […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Blame game sheds little light on fires
It was boring, made-for-C-SPAN stuff, a round of congressional testimony on June 12 by Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth on what his agency has named “The Process Predicament.” The Forest Service has been hobbled, he said, by excessive environmental analysis requirements, management inefficiencies and a breakdown in “collaborative” public involvement. That, said Bosworth, had put […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
New desert town no home to the fringe-toed lizard
Massive development could doom the dunes
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
Sound science or red tape?
A proposed amendment to the Endangered Species Act could weaken the roles of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service in deciding which species do – or do not – get federal protection. Since the Act was passed in 1973, the two agencies have been responsible for listing species and […]
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
Wasting disease sneaks south
NEW MEXICO Chronic wasting disease has reared its head in southern New Mexico, 600 miles from any previously known outbreaks. In June, an emaciated mule deer discovered at White Sands Missile Range tested positive for the disease. The state’s Department of Game and Fish was taken off guard by the discovery. Since 1999, officials have […]
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
It’s the dog days for prairie dogs
The West’s prairie dog populations are in bad shape. Of the five species in the West, two are already on the endangered species list, while a third is a candidate for listing (HCN, 2/1/99: Ranchers don’t want refugee prairie dogs). No one has been looking out for the white-tailed prairie dog – until now. In […]
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
River town gets into fish business
You’ve heard of Rocky Mountain oyesters — how about Yellowstone Caviar?
Posted inJuly 8, 2002: The anatomy of fire
White River Forest plan friend to all – and to none
COLORADO When a draft plan for how to manage Colorado’s White River National Forest was released in 1999, it was hailed as a precedent that would steer the agency toward emphasizing endangered species habitat and conservation over resource extraction and recreation (HCN, 1/17/00: STOP – A national forest tries to rein in recreation). Now, five […]