The Snowbank Roadless Area near Cascade, Idaho, is no longer roadless. The Boise National Forest blames a mapping error for its approval of a road and a 315-acre logging operation in an area previously proposed for wilderness protection, but it’s too late now, the agency says. “We did not become aware of the mistake until […]
Wildlife
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 […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Forest Service seeks a new (roadless) road to the future
Note: see end of this feature story for a list of four accompanying sidebar articles. In his first major appearance as the 14th chief of the nation’s Forest Service, Mike Dombeck was summoned the winter of 1997 before the House Agriculture Committee to testify about a “forest health” bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Smith, the […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Timber town opts for water over logs
The vast old-growth forests of the Cascade Range built the tiny town of Detroit, Ore., and kept three local sawmills bustling. Every year, residents counted on timber from the Willamette National Forest to fuel the economy much as they waited for spring snowmelt to fill the local reservoir. The Forest Service, and the spring snowmelt, […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Will Dombeck sock it to rebellious supervisors?
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. For three decades, Tom Kovalicky worked his way up the ranks of the Forest Service bureaucracy until he became supervisor of the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho during the 1980s. Once in that position, Kovalicky attempted to restrain the logging on […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Breaking an agency of its old ways
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Andy Stahl, the executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE) oversees the largest activist organization in the country devoted exclusively to forest management issues. FSEEE was founded a decade ago by former timber planner Jeff DeBonis, to create a […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
The worker ants keep the agency alive
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Joyce Whitney is typical of many young people who enter the Forest Service with a gleam in their eyes, believing they can make a contribution to the stewardship of America’s public lands. She works on the Bozeman Ranger District of the Gallatin […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
GAO knocks Forest Service again
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. The General Accounting Office once again told the U.S. Forest Service what it was doing wrong. It took 12 pages. For more than a decade, the investigative arm of Congress has issued dozens of reports telling the Forest Service how to do […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Predator control gets out of control
In 1993, without much fanfare, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management turned their predator problems over to the experts. The agencies signed an agreement allowing the federal Animal Damage Control agency, now known as Wildlife Services, to plan for the extermination of coyotes, mountain lions and other “problem” animals that kill livestock […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Born caged: A new ‘wild’ West
I’ve tried to put my finger on the time when wild animals ceased being public property in North America and entered the domain of chattel. It isn’t an easy date to find. It’s not like a geologic event, when you can point a finger at a volcano and say: “Yes, that’s when the trouble started.” […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
Scat Spot, scat
Man’s best friend is helping the Wolf Education and Research Center in Boise, Idaho. Hounds with a hankering for fetching are being retrained to sniff out bear, lynx, wolverine and even rhino scat, resulting in less need for tagging and radio-tracking (HCN, 2/16/98). A trained dog can survey a livestock depredation site for scat, which […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
The Western Ancient Forest Campaign
Join the directors of the Hells Canyon Preservation Council and the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance June 1 for a benefit float trip down the Snake River through Hells Canyon in wooden dories. Oars/Dories guides will pilot the five-day whitewater trip, prepare meals and donate all proceeds to the organizing groups. Contact the Hells Canyon Preservation Council […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
Panel says fish gotta swim
After a two-year study, a group of scientists says half of the Snake River’s endangered salmon and steelhead should be allowed to migrate to the ocean naturally instead of being transported in barges and trucks. The report, issued by an independent science panel created by Congress, questions whether shipping salmon around dams can save fish […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
Be careful what you wish for the wolves
Half a century ago, Yellowstone’s last native wolf died with its leg clamped in the jaws of a trap. As a nation, we encouraged the extermination of wolves. But time passed and attitudes changed. Three years ago, wolves were returned to Yellowstone and central Idaho, initiating history’s most popular and successful reintroduction of an endangered […]
Posted inMarch 30, 1998: A bare-knuckled trio goes after the Forest Service
Wildlife dollars fund prison
A recent federal audit of Colorado wildlife funding has gotten some people upset. Among other violations, the audit has revealed that license fees intended for state wildlife programs were spent on land for a prison in Rifle, Colo. Each year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reimburses state agencies for a portion of their wildlife […]
Posted inMarch 30, 1998: A bare-knuckled trio goes after the Forest Service
Staffers say their agency betrayed the land
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In his 28 years of working for the U.S. Forest Service, fish biologist Jim Cooper never thought of himself as an idealist. Even when he was starting out, he says, he thought a rising human population would continually stress the national forests, yet he […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
The mouse that roared “Preble”
Naturalist E.A. Preble, who bagged a nondescript mouse on the bank of an irrigation ditch near Loveland, Colo., in 1895, might be surprised at the ruckus he’s caused. The meadow jumping mouse named for him – a subspecies restricted to the foothills of Colorado’s Front Range – is now at the center of a controversy […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
Elk are the battleground
The state of Wyoming wants to give 2,000 elk a shot in the rump and has asked a federal court for permission. Each winter as many as 10,000 elk migrate down from the deep snows of Yellowstone National Park and surrounding lands (HCN, 9/15/97). They spend the winter on the National Elk Refuge just outside […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
Lawmakers struggle to rewrite the Endangered Species Act
For six years, the federal Endangered Species Act has been on probation, limping along on a budget renewed in Congress every year while lawmakers try to come up with a new law that pleases conservationists and conservatives alike. What’s new this year is legislation introduced by Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho. Although no environmental group fully […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
Cousin to mad-cow disease hits deer, elk
As anybody who has followed the Oprah Winfrey beef libel trial knows, mad-cow disease has never been found in American cattle. Deer and elk, though, are another matter. Chronic wasting disease, a cousin to the mad-cow plague that decimated British cattle herds, has been identified in deer and elk in three Western states. Infected animals […]