NORTH FORK, Calif. – Hidden away in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills, this town of 3,500 lies 16 miles from the nearest major road. Occupying, as the sign on the roadside says, “the exact center of California,” it’s a nice place to live: The air is crisp, everyone knows everyone else and the oak- and fir-covered […]
Wildlife
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
Roadless rule hits the skids
The mood was unusually agreeable at a recent federal court hearing on the Clinton administration’s roadless area conservation rule for national forest lands. In Boise, Idaho, on March 30, Judge Edward Lodge heard arguments against the rule from the State of Idaho, timber company Boise Cascade, and other plaintiffs. Then he turned to the government […]
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
Plan protects foresters, not fish
Biologists say Washington salmon plan based on politics
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
After the fires, Part I
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Reforming an agency such as the Forest Service is like pushing an old truck up a hill. It’s grunt work, and unless you have a lot of friends, you won’t get anywhere. But every once in a long while, there’s a shift. A moment […]
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
The Big Blowup
The Great Fires shaped a century of fire policy
Posted inApril 9, 2001: The water empress of Vegas
Montana gets a taste of old-time logging
Massive salvage operations leave little for the birds
Posted inApril 9, 2001: The water empress of Vegas
New Mexico loggers get ‘police power’
Legislature won’t wait for feds to clean up flammable forests
Posted inMarch 26, 2001: Teach the children well
Two laws collide in the Northwest woods
IDAHO, WASHINGTON Federal legislation designed to protect Alaska’s wild areas may enable a timber company to build at least 21 miles of new road through endangered species habitat on public and private lands in the Selkirk Range of Idaho and Washington. Stimson Lumber Company says it is guaranteed access to its checkerboard of national forest […]
Posted inMarch 26, 2001: Teach the children well
Salmon feel the heat
NORTHWEST Salmon in the Snake River are in hot water, and so is the Army Corps of Engineers. On Feb. 16, a federal judge gave the Corps 60 days to come up with a plan to reduce temperatures and dissolve gas content along the river. The court ruled that the Corps violated the Clean Water […]
Posted inMarch 26, 2001: Teach the children well
Not your average Paul Bunyan
Not all forest workers wield axes and chainsaws. In the oral history compilation Voices from the Woods: Lives and Experiences of Non-timber Forest Workers, 32 mushroom harvesters, tree planters, medicinal herb gatherers, and wild huckleberry harvesters articulate their lives and work in the forests of the Pacific Northwest (HCN, 2/15/99: An entrepreneurial spirit). Antonio Perez […]
Posted inMarch 26, 2001: Teach the children well
The tale of a salmon slinger
NEHALEM RIVER, Ore. – My throwing arm always left something to be desired. A decent hitter, I was always a disaster on the softball field. Even when I could catch the ball, I couldn’t throw it to save my life. I didn’t think about that, though, when I signed on with Oregon’s Department of Fish […]
Posted inMarch 26, 2001: Teach the children well
U.S. mills fall under Canadian ax
Flood of Canadian timber hurts U.S. markets and the earth
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
State to coyote hunters: Let the games begin
UTAH Those who spent $19.95 on one of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s cuddly replicas of “Copper the Coyote,” a mascot for the 2002 Winter Olympics, could have gotten the little guy for free. Or, at least in exchange for gunning down a real coyote and sending its ears to local county officials. The Olympic […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
Will logging save the spotted owl?
A symbol of conflict struggles to survive
Posted inFebruary 26, 2001: Return of the natives
An agency in need of refuge?
Greens, managers wrangle over how to rescue neglected wildlife refuges
Posted inFebruary 26, 2001: Return of the natives
Idaho predators are under the gun
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The wolf will enjoy federal protection for at least a few more years, but other Idaho predators aren’t so lucky. In August, the seven-member Idaho Fish and Game Commission, which sets the agenda for the state Department of Fish and Game, adopted the state’s […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Coyote killing continues
COLORADO On Jan. 11, the Colorado Wildlife Commission approved a nine-year, $2.6 million coyote-killing experiment in western Colorado. Some deer hunters, outfitters and sheep ranchers in the state have lobbied long and hard for coyote control, blaming the predators for a plummeting deer population. Deer have declined in Colorado for 40 years, and biologists say […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Owl things considered
SOUTHWEST After eight years of legal wrangling, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has settled one of the Southwest’s most embittered endangered species debates – or has it? On Jan. 18, the Fish and Wildlife Service designated 4.6 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah as critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl. […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Sex-swappin’ salmon
Puzzling piscine sex reversals have left salmon researchers scratching their heads. A study released by the University of Idaho and Washington State University reported that of the female salmon sampled, 84 percent tested positive for a male genetic marker, suggesting that these females actually began life as males. Sex reversals could hold clues to declining […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Don Ewy is no timber beast
HCN subscriber Don Ewy is not your typical logger. A self-described environmentalist who has fought to limit development on public lands, Ewy has selectively logged small trees in North Park, Colorado’s only state forest, for the past 31 years. During that time his only employees have been his three children, and he says his daughter […]