Judge disciplines L-P At a criminal trial last month in Denver, a federal judge fined the Louisiana-Pacific Corp. a record $37 million for breaking environmental laws at its Olathe, Colo., waferboard plant and for selling a product whose quality didn’t meet the company’s claims. The fine is the latest chapter in the plant’s stormy history. […]
Wildlife
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Forest blowdown causes storm
The Forest Service is preparing to log nearly 3,000 acres of an October spruce and fir blowdown in Colorado’s Routt National Forest (HCN, 11/24/97). The risk of wildfire and the potential for a spruce beetle outbreak in the blowdown make the North Fork salvage sale an “emergency situation,” the regional forester says – one that […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
It rhymes with scourge
I was out weeding my native plants garden when a houseguest chided me about the ethnic cleansing that seemed to be happening there. Targets were dandelions, salsifies, thistles, chicories, henbit and donkeytail spurge, which try to crowd out naturalized grasses and bee-balm, penstemon and Jacob’s ladder. I have the satisfaction of knowing that what I […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Biologists get the ax
Seven biologists are on the endangered list after a budget cut at New Mexico’s state wildlife agency. In April, Republican Gov. Gary Johnson vetoed $620,000 in state and federal matching funds for the state’s management of all nongame wildlife. The funds were earmarked for staff positions in environmental education and endangered species protection. “Our intent […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Most favor the grizzly
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently issued a summary of 24,000 public comments on its plan to bring back grizzly bears to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of Idaho and Montana. Of the 21,000 responses that were petition signatures, 77 percent favored reintroduction, while 23 percent opposed it. The summary drew criticism from Alliance for the […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Lagged not logged
Climbed Delodo Tree. Had a bad feeling, so dry and hot. Storm last night brought plenty of lightning, little rain. Spotted smoke to south, blowing northeast and picking up … Caught hobbled mare and saddled up. Rode to Little Nelson Lake Tree, saw smoke again. Looks like a big fire … May need extra folks […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Smaller and smaller forests
Humans are cutting Colorado and Wyoming forest into an increasing number of isolated stands that threaten forest health, according to three new videos highlighting a conference devoted to forest fragmentation in the central Rocky Mountains. “Everybody who lives in these states has an opinion about forested public land, but most impressions seem to be based […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Don’t fence me in
Are bison becoming just another cow with a hump?
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Bison comeback meets resistance on the ground
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. MEDORA, N.D. – Though bison graze on a national park and some ranches here, they aren’t catching on in Medora, where for generations the industry has been cattle. Some see it as just another of the get-rich-quick schemes that periodically sweep through agriculture. Everyone […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Exotic predators swallow the Southwest’s native frogs
LEWIS SPRINGS, Ariz. – Phil Rosen is knee-deep in a disaster this spring day. Just a few years ago, native leopard frogs filled algae-covered pools in this side drainage of the San Pedro River, one of the last free-flowing rivers in the Southwest, 70 miles southeast of Tucson. Now, Rosen keeps turning up bad news. […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Snow geese have become too plentiful
Because snow geese have become too successful for their own good, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking for a wholesale hunt. The conversion of pastures to fields of grain has provided a bountiful harvest for the birds, causing the population to soar over the last three decades. Now, say agency biologists, snow geese […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Survey says: Go wild!
Most supporters of wilderness are just espresso-sipping urbanites, right? Not so, according to a survey of 500 Colorado voters, released in April by a coalition of environmental groups. “We’re talking about four out of five Coloradans,” says Elise Jones of the League of Conservation Voters’ Boulder office. “These are pretty bomb-proof numbers.” The poll, conducted […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
It only seems cruel to fool a fish
“Who hears the fishes when they cry?” That question was asked by a scold, iconoclast and master angler who worried about the pain he inflicted on his quarry. His contemporaries considered him very weird. His name was Henry Thoreau. The same concern is being voiced today by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
How California poisoned a small town
PORTOLA, Calif. – The northern pike, a voracious species, has claimed what may be its biggest victim yet: this small town. Officials of the Plumas County town of 2,200 residents say they have lost their backup water supply, half their tourism business and their reputation for a pristine mountain environment – all to the predatory […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
A summer like no other looms ahead
SWAN VALLEY, Mont. – The sweet aroma from a mock orange bush wafts through the air, but Steve Gauger is not here to look at wildflowers. He’s monitoring a wildfire. Like many firefighters, Gauger, incident commander on Montana’s recent 220-acre Goat Creek Fire, is scratching his head over this year’s early fires. On the high […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Tackling tamarisk
In the exotic shrub an ecological menace or merely the best our degraded rivers can muster?
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Killing tamarisk frees water
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Sometimes it takes a miracle to wake people up to an invasion. Sometimes it takes a lawsuit. For the ranchers and farmers who make a living along the Pecos River in southern New Mexico, it took both. The miracle occurred in 1991, when a […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Fighting exotics with exotics
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Is releasing exotic insects to control exotic plants, such as the tamarisk, a good idea? The answer depends on whom you talk to. Scientists who specialize in biological control say exotic plants often explode in foreign soils because they have left behind their natural […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Program gets a C
When the 1993 Northwest Forest Plan reduced timber production in California, Washington and Oregon, the Clinton administration began the “Jobs in the Woods’ program to retrain timber workers. It sounded like a great idea: Former loggers would work with the Forest Service and other agencies to close abandoned roads and restore streams for native fish, […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Delay for the “Oregon way’
Oregon’s Gov. John Kitzhaber has been trying to protect salmon on state and private land – and keep the fish off the endangered species list. Now, he says, the National Marine Fisheries Service threatens to upset his attempt at “managing our resources the Oregon way.” Kitzhaber’s Oregon Plan would protect salmon through voluntary efforts by […]