For a long time I was a critic of the Thunderbolt timber sale on the Payette and Boise national forests in Idaho. Its real name was the “Thunderbolt Watershed Restoration Project” because its intent, the public was told, was to help salmon. But it seemed like a timber sale since it called for 3,300 acres […]
Wildlife
Posted inMarch 18, 1996: What does the West need to know?
Is it fix or nix for the salvage rider?
Campaign politics and the prospect of widespread summer protests in the national forests are pushing President Clinton toward dismantling the salvage-logging rider he signed into law last summer. Though the president has admitted before that he miscalculated the effects of the “logging without laws’ bill, his actions in recent weeks have many convinced that a […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Did the Forest Service burn New Mexico enviros?
Did the Forest Service burn New Mexico enviros? On the day President Clinton signed what’s become known as the “logging without laws’ rider last July, a nearly 10,000 foot-high peak in southwest New Mexico burst into flames. Now federal plans for salvage logging of this area – Eagle Peak near Reserve, N.M. – have led […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Permits not part of Rainbow values
Every July some 15,000 people converge on Forest Service land in a wave of buses, outdoor kitchens and non-stop music for a month-long gathering. Now, members of the Rainbow Family say a new permit requirement by the Forest Service threatens their annual get-together. “We are faced with overzealous bureaucrats who don’t know how to let […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
A lie this big
It’s hard to believe, but the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was caught fishing without a license. Last June a game warden stopped for a routine license check at a stream near Rawlins, Wyo., and found director John Talbott didn’t have a $9 license with him. Talbott told the warden his license […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Sportsmen sue to remove prison
Two western Colorado sportsmen have notified the state of Colorado that they will bring a lawsuit against it for illegally building a prison in a state wildife area. Tom Huerkamp and Bob Morris say state prison officials built a 300-bed facility in the Escalante Wildlife Area, outside Delta, Colo., even though the land was purchased […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Bad hunters meet good old boys
In Montana, out-of-towners pay a higher price for their hunting and fishing violations, even though locals commit most of the wildlife crimes. Non-residents who illegally killed fish or other wildlife in 1994 spent three times as long in jail as Montanans, according to an Associated Press analysis. They also lost their licenses for an average […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Politics imperil Mexican wolf comeback
As public hearings on ranching issues go, the Socorro, N.M., session on the endangered Mexican wolf last fall was a rare breed. Hundreds of green-capped environmentalists easily outnumbered ranchers, who more often fill the crowd with a sea of black and white cowboy hats. Environmentalists came dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Disease threatens bighorn restoration
For decades, wildlife officials from Idaho, Washington and Oregon have worked hard to restore bighorn sheep to the Hells Canyon area. But in December, they feverishly tried to remove them after a deadly outbreak of pneumonia-like pasteurella. Hoping to contain the disease, officials netted 72 sick sheep and transported them by helicopters and trucks to […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
A call to uproot roads
After torrential rains in northern Idaho triggered widespread landslides in national forests last November, some Idaho Fish and Game officials are urging the Forest Service not to repair damaged roads. They want the roads either re-engineered or obliterated. “We want them to fix the problem, so those roads aren’t just time bombs waiting to go […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Costly Yellowstone invasion
COSTLY YELLOWSTONE INVASION There’s little hope of ridding Yellowstone Lake of its invading lake trout, says a report by the National Park Service. The illegally introduced lake trout, discovered by anglers in 1994, could diminish the native cutthroat trout population by 70 percent or more within 100 years. And by disrupting the food chain, the […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Does the Forest Service love communities as much as it loves ski areas?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Eagle County balks at fourth mega-resort. Readers of Snow Country magazine recently discovered a special advertising supplement tucked between stories of equipment and resorts: “Stewards of the Land: Skiing and the U.S. Forest Service, a public and private alliance.” The 15-page glossy infomercial, complete […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Colorado ski area dumps all over trout stream
WINTER PARK, Colo. – When a snow-grooming machine swept downhill at Colorado’s Winter Park ski area in late January, it did more than groom a wider ski run. It packed a section of Little Vasquez Creek with snow, possibly wiping out the stream’s population of cutthroat trout. Winter Park and the Forest Service are at […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Christians preach environmental gospel
God’s handiwork can only be destroyed by its maker, Wisconsin Evangelical Calvin DeWitt recently told National Public Radio. “If you didn’t make it, you’d better keep your hands off,” he warned, buttressing his argument with a verse from Revelation that says those who destroy the Earth will be destroyed. Evangelical Christians are only one source […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Biologists to Yellowstone: Feed the grizzlies
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – Feeding the grizzly bears here may not be such a bad idea; in fact, it may be the only way to ensure their survival into the next century, according to a new book, The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone: Their Ecology in the Yellowstone Ecosystem, 1959-1992. A trio of biologists sees […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 1996: Lack of enchantment: Santa Fe's boom goes flat
Buffalo hunt halted
Fighting their case through federal court, a coalition of animal rights groups and Indian tribes has stopped New Mexico from staging its first public buffalo hunt in 110 years. A federal judge ruled Jan. 26 that the U.S. Army needed to conduct a preliminary environmental analysis first. The state agency had scheduled three hunts at […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 1996: Lack of enchantment: Santa Fe's boom goes flat
Of raptors and rifles
Rancher Jim Maitland waded through chest-high waters in mid-November on a rescue mission, but not to save a calf. The creature struggling in a southwestern Oregon river was a young golden eagle that had been shot. After Maitland used a potato sack to rescue the raptor from a riverbank, it thanked him by gouging his […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 1996: Lack of enchantment: Santa Fe's boom goes flat
Keeping the wolf at bay
KEEPING THE WOLF AT BAY As U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologists ship more gray wolves into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho, the agency is considering how it can get out of the wolf reintroduction business. An agency draft proposal says the wolf could be considered recovered throughout the West once 10 breeding pairs have […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 1996: Lack of enchantment: Santa Fe's boom goes flat
Bees need our backing
Bees need our backing Scientists concerned about the decline of pollinators have found something that everyone can care about: food. “If we lost all honey bees in the U.S. without any wild pollinators taking over their chores, the resulting price increases for food in the U.S. would amount to $6 to $8 billion a year,” […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 1996: Lack of enchantment: Santa Fe's boom goes flat
Don’t just stand there: Get arrested
Everybody’s doing it – the Audubon Society’s Brock Evans, former Indiana congressman Jim Jontz, the Sierra Club’s Charlie Ogle – all going to jail for trees and to stop salvage sales. Getting handcuffed and treated roughly by gendarmes. Paying a new, for them, sort of dues. Since our travels around the West put us in […]