Now that the public has gotten into the habit of regulating bear hunting through initiatives, the issue has become increasingly polarized. That became obvious this summer when Colorado bear biologist Tom Beck stepped out of the hunting culture to write an essay critical of the sport and attitudes toward it. Among other observations in the […]
Wildlife
Posted inOctober 28, 1996: Has big money doomed direct democracy?
Environmental laws fenced out
One sentence tucked inside the foot-thick omnibus spending bill could spell trouble for wildlife along the nation’s borders. Signed into law Oct. 1, the provision allows the U.S. attorney general to waive both the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act for border projects such as fences or roads. The provision was crafted […]
Posted inOctober 28, 1996: Has big money doomed direct democracy?
Forest chief resigns
Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas will be teaching wildlife biology instead of administering the nation’s forests next winter. Thomas announced in October his retirement from the Forest Service; he plans to accept an endowed professorship at the University of Montana in Missoula. Thomas refused to comment on the political intrigue that has ruled the […]
Posted inOctober 28, 1996: Has big money doomed direct democracy?
Western hunters debate ethics tooth and claw
Stew Churchwell considers hunting an important part of the “back to the land” lifestyle he leads near Challis, Idaho. If he doesn’t get a deer or elk, “I’ll be sentenced to beans for a whole year,” he says. He grew up in Oregon, where he hunted bear and raccoon with his father and the family’s […]
Posted inOctober 28, 1996: Has big money doomed direct democracy?
A mystery the size of your fist
I am wondering about beargrass. This summer brought such an explosion of blooms to the Northern Rockies it was front-page news – more beargrass than anyone can remember, more beargrass than anyone can explain. So much beargrass that you don’t have to be a naturalist to stop the car and marvel at the hillsides blazing […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Bring back the natives
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., recently announced the grant winners of its “Bring Back the Natives’ campaign. The 26 projects chosen in 13 states include local partnerships to preserve riparian areas and bring back native fish throughout the West. In Washington’s Olympic National Forest, for example, grant money […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Helping hands
-They treat you just like gold,” says Stan Banta, who at 79 works for Idaho’s Targhee National Forest as part of the Older American Program. Started 25 years ago by the Department of Labor, the program offers retirees some income while their labor props up cash-poor parks parks, says coordinator Marsha Phillips. To be eligible, […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Desperate wolves
Four wolves in Montana’s Sawtooth pack that were shot in September for killing livestock may have been starving and frantic to feed their 14 pups. All the wolves had badly maimed paws, says Bob Ream, a biologist at the University of Montana. “The federal trapper who shot the wolves told me that three of four […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Elk target tourists
It’s time to watch your step in Yellowstone National Park. Aggressive herds of rutting elk have taken over park headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs, as they do every year at this time, and two women tourists narrowly escaped injury at the hands – make that horns – of sexually aroused bulls. The first incident occurred […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Redwood summer roars back
Musician Bonnie Raitt wasn’t singing the blues in California Sept. 15 when she was arrested with 896 others for acts of civil disobedience – trespassing onto Pacific Lumber Co. property and chaining themselves to mill gates. Their mission was saving the Headwaters grove, the world’s largest ancient redwood forest in private ownership. An estimated 4,000 […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Who snatched the salmon?
The fish had beaten the odds. After swimming 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean, past eight dams and up to over 6,000 feet, the almost three-foot-long endangered chinook salmon finally reached the Sawtooth Hatchery in Stanley, Idaho. It was one of only 132 adult salmon to make the journey this year to spawn in the […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Tribal group tries again to save mountain
When Congress gave the University of Arizona a go-ahead to ignore environmental studies and build its third and largest telescope on Mount Graham, construction crews jumped into action (HCN, 5/13/96). Now, an obscure federal advisory group says builders moved too quickly and possibly illegally. According to the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Forest […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Will counties de(grade) wilderness?
If dirt roads in southern Utah suddenly seem free of ruts, washboards and washouts, you can thank Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Environmentalists believe Babbitt’s recent announcement of a new BLM inventory of wilderness led to a flurry of illegal road work by county crews. For if roads exist, the Bureau of Land Management can’t include […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
The bigger the mine, the better the deal
BOZEMAN, Mont. – The way things are going around here lately, we should change Montana’s nickname from the Big Sky Country to the Big Swap Country: Let’s make a deal! No doubt it’s a form of progress. So were the 1872 Mining Law and the railroad land grants in their day. But qualifiers need to […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Bear with us
If you’re a hiker or angler in black bear or grizzly territory, a modest little handbook, Bear Aware: Hiking and Camping in Bear Country, could save your life. It concisely explains the bear essentials of coexistence, such as staying alert in the outback, venturing out only with a large group, sticking to the trail and […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Do cows become the Prescott?
Arizona’s Prescott National Forest is not the place for cows and sheep, according to a lawsuit filed in August by The Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club. But the suit goes beyond the usual grazing vs. o-grazing debate. The lawsuit charges that the Forest Service violated federal law by issuing grazing permits without considering whether […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Utahns roar over lion hunt
A decision allowing hunters in Utah to kill 630 mountain lions this year has created an uproar. A hunt approved by the Utah Wildlife Board Aug. 26 allows for the killing of 150 more lions than the state allowed last year, or about one-third of Utah’s estimated lion population of 2,000. “This decision was not […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
A summer of smoke and ashes
Marines and Army soldiers joined the tens of thousands of firefighters at work in Western states this summer. On Aug. 16, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise declared a maximum Level 5 Emergency, which authorizes the use of military personnel. The additional firefighters were needed to combat the most intense fire season since 1969. […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Whatever happened to letting fires burn?
The summer wildfire season is drawing to an end, but the West is still burning. And despite a plethora of ecological research that demonstrates the value of fire as an ecological and evolutionary force, land-management agencies continue to suppress fires, except in a few wilderness areas or other reserves. Not only is such a policy […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Opal Creek is blowing in the (political) wind
Since the wilderness battles of the early 1980s, Oregon forest activists have fought to protect Opal Creek, a lovely, nearly intact old-growth watershed on the western flank of the Oregon Cascades. Last spring, Sen. Mark Hatfield announced that he would at last grant their wish. The Oregon Republican, retiring next January after 30 years in […]