Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Preble’s meadow jumping mice deserve their name: By using their strong hind legs and (relatively) big feet, the three-inch mice can jump more than a foot and a half into the air and can leap three feet horizontally. Their long tails are […]
Wildlife
Posted inAugust 30, 1999: Who's stopping sprawl?
Can the Preble’s mouse trap growth on Colorado’s Front Range?
Note: a sidebar article, “The city mouse,” accompanies this feature story. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – On the 13th floor of the tallest building in town, Steve Sharkey, vice president of Picolan Inc., pulls out his plans for the Northgate development. It’s a 1,200-acre residential and commercial development at the edge of town, and it’s been […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
America’s Redrock Wilderness
America’s Redrock Wilderness “I’m here to disprove the lie that local people don’t want wilderness; the truth is that most southern Utahns are frightened by runaway growth and want to see as much land protected from development as possible.” * Linda Wood, Cedar City, Utah, testifying at Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt’s 1995 hearings on wilderness […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Dams must go
Can salmon be saved? A free, 15-page report, Returning Salmon by Restoring Rivers: The Case for Partially Removing Four Dams on the Lower Snake River, says yes. Prepared by the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, which includes 230 conservation groups, Indian tribes and others, the report says breaching the dams is the best way to […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Judge halts nine timber sales
After five years of an uneasy truce, both sides in the Pacific Northwest timber wars are slugging it out again (HCN, 11/23/98). On Aug. 2, federal Judge William Dwyer sided with 13 environmental groups and blocked nine major timber sales while threatening to stop dozens more. Dwyer ruled that the Forest Service and Bureau of […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Reviving a refuge
TULE LAKE, Calif. – It goes by the unappealing name of “Sump 1-B,” and it is a far cry from the vast lakes and marshes that covered much of the lower Klamath Basin at the turn of the century. Only inches deep, its murky water is too hot for fish. Sump 1-B has a twin, […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Facts about prairie dogs
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Prairie dogs come in five types: Utah, Gunnison, Mexican, white-tailed and black-tailed. The Utah prairie dog is listed as a threatened species and the Mexican is listed as endangered. Prairie dogs are active during the day, but only if the sun is out. Socially, […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Prairie dogs found in pet stores and pounds
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “So this is where prairie dogs live.” That was the first thought in Rebecca Fischer’s mind as she drove up to a flourishing 300-acre dog town not far from the Marias River outside Shelby, Mont. Although she hadn’t seen a dog town since she […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Craig Knowles, scientist caught in the middle
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Stoic is the word that might best describe Montana biologist Craig Knowles. If he were a university professor, some students might pan him as boring. But the students who went on to become experts themselves might dedicate their first book to him. Wearing blue […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Shooting: It’s not a hunt per se
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The man in the baseball cap sits in a chair at a table, a high-powered rifle in hand. “Right there, he’s standing straight up right in front of you,” says his companion. “Get him.” “I got him,” says Randy. Boom! The rifle sounds, and […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
One grassland grows prairie dogs
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The sage-dotted prairie of Thunder Basin National Grassland in eastern Wyoming is alive with wildlife. Coyotes skulk in the draws while antelope outrun approaching vehicles across the flats. On slight knolls, ferruginous hawks and golden eagles are often seen at rest. In the overgrazed […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Do prairie dogs steal grass?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Over the past century, conventional wisdom has said prairie dogs compete with cattle for grass and dig holes that can break the legs of unwitting livestock. Maybe stampeding cattle injured themselves during long cattle drives of the 1880s, but not many ranchers say it […]
Posted inAugust 2, 1999: Jon Marvel vs. the Marlboro Man
Poisoning a stream back to life
A plan to poison a 77-mile-long trout stream on Ted Turner’s Flying D Ranch in southwest Montana is raising the hackles of some unlikely critics. The plan is the brainchild of the state of Montana, which hopes it will bolster westslope cutthroat trout populations and ward off a federal listing under the Endangered Species Act. […]
Posted inAugust 2, 1999: Jon Marvel vs. the Marlboro Man
Old growth by the numbers
In 1987, foresters on the Clearwater National Forest in north-central Idaho pledged to set aside 10 percent of the Clearwater’s 1.8 million acres in old-growth forest reserves. The agency says it has lived up to that pledge, reserving almost 200,000 acres. Environmentalists in Idaho who have studied the agency’s data say the numbers don’t add […]
Posted inAugust 2, 1999: Jon Marvel vs. the Marlboro Man
No luck for this lynx
On the morning of June 19, a truck driver hauling road base to the Vail ski expansion reported he had seen what he believed was a squashed Canada lynx on Vail Pass. He had. A radio collar revealed it was a small, two-year-old female, trapped in British Columbia in December and released into Colorado’s San […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Governor floats a wilderness bill
In May, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt announced a 1 million-acre wilderness proposal for the West Desert, the latest step in what he calls an “incremental approach” for BLM lands. But while his proposal is supported by the Department of the Interior, it’s drawing criticism from county politicians, and it’s only a small part of the […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
A peculiar fish gets a second chance
The fluvial Arctic grayling hasn’t had an easy time of it during the last 10,000 years. Left stranded in the rivers of the Northern Rockies after the last glaciers receded, it remains the only native grayling population in the lower 48 states. But the grayling almost disappeared in Montana over the last 100 years. It’s […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Will an experimental plan be snuffed out?
As a relentless summer sun bakes the ponderosa pine forests surrounding Flagstaff, Ariz., an experimental logging project meant to restore forest health and reduce the risk of wildfire around the city has hit a snag. On June 18, an administrative appeal filed with the Forest Service by a coalition of seven environmental groups halted a […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Wolves get no welcoming party
The 1 million acres of Olympic National Park could sustain as many as 56 gray wolves, says a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report. Yet even though the peninsula provides ample prey and habitat, no wolves will wander the park soon. The obstacle is Washington Republican Sen. Slade Gorton, says Gerry Ring Erickson of Defenders […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Rural Utah braces for a latter-day plague
These crickets and hoppers eat anything in front of them