NEW MEXICO A deadly fish disease that has been spreading across the West now has a foothold in New Mexico. Three state hatcheries recently tested positive for whirling disease, prompting New Mexico Game and Fish officials to begin testing streams, rivers and lakes. Whirling disease spores, now known to be present in 10 Western states, […]
Wildlife
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Forest chief steers agency down a rocky road
Forest supervisor warns that Dombeck’s policy will spark civil disobedience
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Hunter orange is a long shot
IDAHO Five Idaho hunters died accidentally during last year’s hunting season, the highest number of fatalities for the sport since 1982, says a report from the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Since the fall accidents, a member of one victim’s hunting party has vowed to see Idaho implement a law that would require hunters to […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A scarce bird tests the new rule
The Gunnison sage grouse thrives in open country
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Loggers tap new forests
THE SOUTH In the Pacific Northwest, the federal government can get tough with lumber companies because the forests are publicly owned. Not so in the South, where 85 percent of all timber grows on private lands. After the federal government drastically slowed logging in the Northwest in the 1990s, Boise-Cascade and other big forest-products companies […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Poison traps kill unintended victims
A rash of dog deaths puts the federal Wildlife Services agency in the hot seat
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Goose got your gander?
Pooping plagues people in urban settings
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Endangered species must learn to wait
Conservationists worry wildlife will be stuck in bureaucratic limbo
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
A new day
Note: this front-page editor’s note introduces this issue’s feature story, “After the fall.” The “giant sucking sound” that presidential candidate H. Ross Perot described in his 1992 campaign can be heard today in the Northern Rockies, where the major timber companies are about done liquidating their private land and are busily moving cash, jobs and […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Tribe calls dam a trout trap
MONTANA The Blackfeet Tribe’s Fish and Game Department wants to remove a 95-year-old dam on its reservation that backs water up three miles into Glacier National Park. Getting rid of aging Sherburne Dam, says Blackfeet biologist Ira New Breast, would eliminate the biggest threat to the St. Mary River’s bull trout, a population recently added […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Fed-bashing investigated
Gloria Flora got the ball rolling. After she resigned as supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in November (HCN, 11/22/99: Nevadans drive out forest supervisor), the Forest Service sent a team to investigate her charges of “anti-federal fervor” and “fed-bashing” in Nevada. Although the team’s report says that working conditions for Forest Service employees throughout […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Roadkill keeps the peace
WASHINGTON In January, hunters from eastern Washington’s Methow Valley delivered 300 pounds of roadkilled deer to six western Washington tribes. The delivery signaled the start of a groundbreaking agreement, in which the tribes agree to stop hunting in the valley in exchange for the meat. Tribal hunters have lost much of their traditional hunting ground […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Dog doesn’t get its day
NATION Ranchers, farmers and land developers can breathe a sigh of relief; the black-tailed prairie dog won’t be listed as an endangered species – at least not yet. Citing a lack of money and staff and a long list of species in greater need, the Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that protection for the black-tailed […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Tern terror
OREGON Near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, The Birds, has come to life. Over 10,000 pairs of Caspian terns nest on Rice Island, and while the birds aren’t attacking people, they are eating millions of young salmon (HCN, 10/26/98: Are birds to blame for vanishing salmon?). A biological assessment […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
A town defends a peacemaker
District Ranger Linda Duffy opened her door to the community
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Amend the Northwest Forest Plan
One million acres of old-growth forests in the Northwest could be opened to logging. The Clinton administration proposes to amend the Northwest Forest Plan to loosen requirements for surveys of rare plants and animals prior to timber sales. Request the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Study at 503/808-2197 or view it on the Web at www.or.blm.gov/nwfpnepa. […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness management plan
The Forest Service has extended the comment deadline for the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness management plan until March 1. The plan will manage 2.4 million acres of wilderness – the largest and one of the most heavily used in the country. Alternative 9 supports restoring wilderness conditions. To request a copy, call 208/756-5100. […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
A simpler salmon plan
Amid the hefty government reports, long-winded debates, and lengthy articles that surround salmon recovery in the Northwest, there emerges a 49-page paperback book with a simple message: Help salmon survive. Down to the Sea, by Jay W. Nicholas, a passionate fisheries biologist, struggles to explain Oregon’s recovery proposal to a baby coho salmon. “This is […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘Hunting’ for elk in the salt pits of the upper Yellowstone
This October, on a slant-sunny day, I rode with friends just outside Yellowstone Park’s southeastern corner, where an old hunting practice called salt baiting still occurs. For 30 years, commercial big-game outfitters in Wyoming’s Teton Wilderness have strewn salt in the meadows of the upper Yellowstone River and along the park boundary. They do it […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Mumma resigns – wildlife division shaken up
Nine years ago, Northern Regional Forester John Mumma stood tearfully before a House subcommittee and said he had been betrayed by the Forest Service (HCN, 10/7/91). Because he didn’t meet timber quotas in the 13 national forests under his care, he said, powerful industry and political interests had conspired to force him out of his […]