Since the U.S. Forest Service disbanded its special timber-theft task force nearly a year ago, investigations of large-scale timber theft have ground to a halt. That’s the conclusion of Unindicted Co-Conspirator, a report by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Governmental Accountability Project (GAP), a Washington, D.C.-based group that protects government […]
Wildlife
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Fire sweeps through the Southwest
The fire season started with a vengeance this year in the parched Southwest. As of June 16, firefighters had extinguished more than 2,400 fires in Arizona and New Mexico that charred some 230,000 acres. Fire crews from all over the West are camped on the airport lawn in Albuquerque, poised for assignments. “This has been […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Predator control: more pain than gain
A lot of cows die every year in Montana, most often in a slaughterhouse on their way to a hamburger bun. Others succumb to weather, disease and calving problems. Then there are predators – the lions and coyotes and bears so often scorned as the scourge of the range. The federal Animal Damage Control agency […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Development plan breaks consensus on grizzlies
The pact worked out last year between Plum Creek Timber Co. in Montana’s Swan Valley and some federal and state agencies looked like a good deal for both bears and loggers. Then this May, the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund served notice it will file suit to negate the agreement. What’s changed is Plum Creek’s […]
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
Salmon find a friend
Endangered Snake River salmon recently found a northern ally in their battle against Columbia River dams. Republican Gov. Tony Knowles of Alaska announced April 28 that his state had begun legal action to join a lawsuit brought by environmental and fishing groups against the National Marine Fisheries Service. The groups sued the agency this spring […]
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
Operation bullsling
The Forest Service really slung the bull this time – eight tons of it. To improve the vegetation and watershed of the Ishi Wilderness in northeastern California, agency officials strapped 13 tranquilized bulls into helicopter cargo nets and flew them out at the end of a 40-foot cable. The cattle were the last of a […]
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
A small fish takes a big hit
The Rio Grande silvery minnow is not a glamorous fish, but it does have a claim to fame: It’s the last minnow species to survive in New Mexico’s beleaguered stretch of the Rio Grande, where every native fish is extinct or threatened with extinction. But in April, an irrigation district diverted so much water from […]
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
Salvage logging rider barrels into a shy seabird’s world
Even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 3.9 million acres of land along the Oregon and Washington coast as “critical habitat” for the marbled murrelet in late April, nothing changed for the Citizens Murrelet Survey Project. The members of the Corvallis, Ore.-based group continue their routine of getting up at 4:30 a.m. and […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
Saved by the hair of a bear
Saved by the hair of a bear This summer when Yellowstone grizzly bears enjoy a nice back-scratch, they could be saving their own hides. Researchers from the Yellowstone Grizzly Foundation will set up triangular corrals of barbed wire at various locations in hopes that the bears will rub against the wire and leave a little […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
Wildflowers made easy
WILDFLOWERS MADE EASY If you’ve ever struggled to differentiate between pinnate and palmate vennation or corymb and cyme inflorescence, you’ll be happy to hear there’s a new wildflower guide for botanical novices. Written by G.K. Guennel, a spore and pollen expert, the two-volume Guide to Colorado Wildflowers is remarkably easy to use and includes some […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
Beavers land on the hot seat in Idaho
Idaho farmers who suspect beavers are damming water that could be irrigating their fields can call on state officials to throw the beavers out – even when their dams are on private property. Idaho Gov. Phil Batt signed the bill in mid-March. The legislation grew out of a dispute between two groups of property owners […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
In the middle of the last century, thirsty pioneers traveling along the Humboldt Trail through Utah knew how to find potable water: If there were snakes and frogs in a spring or pool, it was safe to drink. This method never failed them. When Brigham Young and his plucky tribe of Mormon refugees from persecution […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
Frogs: The ultimate indicator species
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion Native frog populations are plummeting all over the world. No one knows exactly why, but there are six prominent possibilities. Destruction of wetlands is one, contamination of water supplies by biocides, pollutants, and acid rain another. A third is […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
There’s plenty of money to study Utah’s game
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion Officials in Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources barely had time to note the news that Dick Carter was mothballing his Utah Wilderness Association before the perennial thorn in their sides was back demanding action on another issue. Carter spent […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
Salvage rider will destroy sacred sites
When Rip Lone Wolf felt it was time for his 14-year-old son’s vision quest, he did what Oregon’s Nez Perce have done for generations: He headed for the sacred land at Enola Hill. The 350-year-old Douglas fir trees that loom over this part of the Mount Hood National Forest, 45 miles east of Portland, shelter […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
A faint ray of hope for Northwest salmon
For centuries, Snake River salmon have followed the force of raging rivers on their 750-mile journey from Idaho’s mountains to the sea. Yet their migration hasn’t been natural since the mid-1970s, when the Snake and Columbia rivers were converted into a hydroelectric factory and a 350-mile-long navigation canal. Now the fish have a technical alternative, […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Burning down the house
Under a new federal policy, fire managers will be allowed to put protection of natural resources ahead of property when they battle blazes on public lands. That policy is the major contribution of a new report issued jointly by the departments of Interior and Agriculture. “In the past people expected their homes to take priority,” […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Locals sickened by bison slaughter
In tiny West Yellowstone, Mont., more than 350 bison have been gunned down after wandering out of Yellowstone National Park. The Montana Department of Livestock kills the bison because of fears they will transmit brucellosis, a disease that causes cattle to abort. But for residents such as Donna Lane, who watched state officials shoot 18 […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Back with a bang
Humans have killed five of the wolves restored to Yellowstone National Park last year, and a wolf pregnant with six pups died when she fell into a thermal pool; but biologists say at least 30 more pups are on the way. Mike Phillips, leader of the Yellowstone Wolf Recovery Team, is so impressed with the […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Can cattle save the pygmy rabbit?
The idea is heresy to some and it sounds odd coming from a wildlife biologist, but Fred Dobler is insistent: Cattle grazing might save the pygmy rabbit. The shy, nocturnal cousin of the cottontail is an endangered species in Washington and exists on isolated chunks of sagebrush-shrub steppe in just one county. “Grazing might be […]