People leave things in wilderness areas: toilet paper, orange rinds, even beer cans. But in the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, Ariz., it’s human remains that are littering the Coconino National Forest. Last month, Native Americans in Arizona were upset when newspapers reported that a deceased Navajo woman’s ashes had been scattered in the […]
Wildlife
Posted inJuly 7, 1997: While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes
In Oregon, tension over coho and trees
When federal biologists listed coho salmon under the Endangered Species Act in early June, logging protesters staking out the China Left timber sale in Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest hoped their work was done. They were disappointed. The day of the listing, which protects threatened coho in streams along the Oregon-California border, forest supervisor Mike Lunn […]
Posted inJune 23, 1997: On the trail of mining's corporate nomads
Tribes say count us out
Efforts to restore salmon populations in the Columbia and Snake rivers just lost valuable support. Four Native American tribes have withdrawn from a collaboration with the federal government and three Western states, charging that the process favors hydropower, not fish. The tribes, members of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, had been participants in a […]
Posted inJune 23, 1997: On the trail of mining's corporate nomads
New plan draws hisses, boos
What do you get when two government agencies spend three-and-a-half years and $36 million on a mega-conservation plan covering all or part of seven states? That’s the question environmentalists, Indian tribes, ranchers, loggers and others in the Northwest are pondering following the release last month of the Clinton administration’s draft plan of the Interior Columbia […]
Posted inJune 23, 1997: On the trail of mining's corporate nomads
What to do about a nasty fish
When California fisheries biologists discovered northern pike in Lake Davis, 70 miles north of Lake Tahoe, they had a fix: 26,000 gallons of poison. Killing all the fish in the Plumas County lake would prevent the voracious, non-native pike from migrating down the Feather River to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where they could destroy the […]
Posted inJune 23, 1997: On the trail of mining's corporate nomads
Did agency get in bed with loggers?
Last month, when environmentalists began digging through federal documents about logging in Idaho’s Payette National Forest, they thought they’d found evidence of a Forest Service-timber industry conspiracy. Members of the Neighbors of Cuddy Mountain and the Idaho Sporting Congress discovered records of a 300-year-old grove of fir and pine trees that the Forest Service denied […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Tell it to the judge
The fate of 95 species of Southwestern wildlife is hanging in the balance. It’s been over a year since the species were proposed for listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the nonprofit Southwestern Center for Biodiversity says it will sue if nothing is done by June 13. Seventy-one of these species, including […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
The roads less funded
Last year, it was a photo finish. A bill to stop paying for logging roads on national forests fell two votes shy of making it through the House of Representatives. This year, Reps. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., and John Porter, R-Ill., want to see if they can push the measure over the top. A letter they […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Condors soar once more over the Southwest
On a Saturday morning, a small crowd gathers at Arizona’s House Rock Valley, gazing up at big black birds that glide on the thermals. The California condor has returned to canyon country. The last time anyone saw the giant cousin of the turkey vulture in this region was almost 70 years ago. The species nearly […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Dear Michael Dombeck
The Forest Service isn’t doing enough to protect fish, wildlife and plants. And this time it’s not environmentalists who say so, but people inside the agency. Biologists and botanists – 170 from 30 different forests – collaborated recently on a letter to Chief Michael Dombeck, warning him that “many forests now find their fish, wildlife […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
The system cuts a new chief down to size
Four months ago, environmentalists thought incoming Forest Service Chief Michael Dombeck made a promise to do things differently. “The unfortunate reality is that many people presently do not trust us to do the right thing,” he told Congress in February of 1997. “Until we rebuild that trust and strengthen those relationships, it is simply common […]
Posted inJuly 7, 1997: While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes
Agency wants to shoot down gun club
TUCSON, Ariz. – Forest Service officials have long dreamed of shutting down the Tucson Rod and Gun Club’s shooting range, but when they tried to silence the gunfire in March, they found themselves in the club’s crosshairs. The shooting range, which the gun club has leased from the Forest Service since the early 1950s, skirts […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Just don’t do it
Just don’t do it Oregon’s logging codes might aim to protect fish, wildlife and water quality, but they can’t always protect people. A Coos Bay company recently defied a request from the state Forestry Department that loggers voluntarily stop clear-cutting slide-prone slopes above highways and homes. The state’s request came in response to last winter’s […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Watch for fish-friendly foods
Salmon-friendly agricultural products are leaping right onto grocery store shelves this month. In the first attempt to market produce made with the Pacific Northwest’s dwindling salmon population in mind, the nonprofit Pacific Rivers Council has introduced a “Salmon-Safe” program. Twenty-four producers, ranging from wineries and vegetable growers to apple orchards and rice farms, have been […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Free-range ferrets
Black-footed ferrets could inhabit northwestern Colorado’s Moffat County and Utah’s Uintah County as soon as this fall, if a federal proposal wins approval. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chose each county because it had public lands populated by plenty of prairie dogs, the preferred prey of ferrets. Ferrets would be released into the Little […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Feds learn that a man’s ranch is his castle
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A few years ago, so the story goes, the Forest Service folks who deal with endangered species were taking aerial photographs to locate prairie dogs, and thereby the black-footed ferrets which prey on them. Which was fine – as long as the planes were flying over public land. When they started flying […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Moving in, as the snow moves on
KELLY, Wyo. – The robins arrive first, though some years it’s mountain bluebirds, with snow still on the ground at the end of March and more to come. Much more. They remind me of how we all announce ourselves as creatures of home. This is true, at least, of the creatures with whom I share […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Rancher shoots for test case
Brucellosis-infected elk are a major threat to Wyoming’s economy, says Meeteetse-area rancher Martin Thomas. Serious enough, he will argue in court, to warrant the assault-rifle attack that left nine elk dead and lots of wildlife-management questions unanswered (HCN, 3/3/97). On March 31, Thomas pleaded not guilty to charges that he illegally gunned down elk near […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Coffee is bad for birds
You pour yourself a cup of coffee and listen for the chirp and twitter of birds outside. But as you sip, you notice the quiet: What’s happened to the songbirds? The answer could be right in your cup. Songbird populations are dropping as foreign coffee plantations “modernize” to keep up with America’s thirst for the […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Judge is bullish on trout protection
Pushed by a federal judge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it has started the process of listing the bull trout under the Endangered Species Act. The announcement was sad news for the governors of Idaho and Montana, who both have crafted state recovery plans for the cold-water-loving species, partly in an attempt to […]