CONDORS READY FOR TAKEOFF California condors, giant vultures that can fly over 100 miles in a day, met with limited success when they were released by federal biologists in California three years ago. The endangered birds seemed inexorably drawn to human activities: Four birds died in collisions with power lines, another from drinking anti-freeze. Now, […]
Wildlife
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Greed makes cents
GREED MAKES CENTS The Forest Service would do well to emulate state and county timber-sales practices, according to a report released by the Political Economy Research Center, a think tank advocating free-market responses to environmental problems. Turning a Profit on Public Forests compares the economic and environmental performance of national forests and state and county […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
DIA jets roar over a Colorado wilderness
BOULDER, Colo. – Some environmentalists have started firing political flak at noisy commercial jets flying over a wilderness area west of here. The local Sierra Club mailed a letter this summer to federal and Denver International Airport officials complaining about the wilderness overflights. So far, the letter has been largely ignored. The problem took off […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Is the ESA being gutted in order to save it?
Like navigators of a sinking hot air balloon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hastily casting off heavy parts of the Endangered Species Act – perhaps before a reform-minded Congress grounds the law altogether. The latest changes surfaced in late July when the Interior Department announced new streamlined, “user-friendly” consultation procedures for federal land […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
BPA scapegoats fish to protect fat cats
The Bonneville Power Administration says it can’t afford to save Columbia River salmon anymore. The eight senators in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana agree. They have asked governors in their states to help write a new law effectively capping the BPA’s fish costs. Not that the BPA’s fish programs have worked. Numerous runs have gone […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Jealousy, passion, rage: It all takes place in Yellowstone National Park
MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyo. – Marsha Karle was right. Hang around long enough, Yellowstone National Park’s official spokeswoman warned me once, and you’ll get chased by an elk. Last week, it happened. Leaving a mind-numbing press conference in the Mammoth Hotel inside Yellowstone National Park, I stepped outside to see the sun low in the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Did Idaho libel the feds?
Three federal agents involved in a celebrated tangle with an Idaho rancher were packing more than pistols when they investigated the case of a shot wolf on private land. They also had a tape recorder. The tape reveals a dramatically different picture of the agents from the thug-like characters lambasted by Idaho lawmakers in the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Wolf killing will never be solved
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Did Idaho libel the feds? The wolf shot on Gene Hussey’s remote ranch south of Salmon, Idaho, trotted to her death just nine days after federal biologists set her free in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness. B13 parted from 14 other transplanted […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Tools for road-rippers
Tools for road-rippers It’s simple, they say: If you want more wilderness, get rid of forest roads. Since l990, Keith Hammer has published a scrappy guide on how to legally close and restore forest roads. He’s his own best success story. Hammer has hounded officials of Montana’s Flathead National Forest to commit to closing and […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Protecting the coho
In a long-awaited announcement, the National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed to list coho salmon as a threatened species in Oregon and California, though not in Washington. “Pacific salmon are in serious trouble,” said regional fisheries director William Stelle, in The Oregonian. “This is a wakeup call to the region.” If listed under the Endangered […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Landslide kills fish, raises questions
A thunderstorm near Idaho City, Idaho, Aug. 22 washed out dozens of streams and altered the course of the Boise River, obliterating some native fish populations. The rain fell on a watershed which burned in 1994 and which is being logged this summer as part of the Boise National Forest’s “Boise River Wildfire Recovery Project.” […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Williams almost gets his wilderness
Although Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., has never slipped a Montana wilderness bill past an unfriendly Senate, the White House has given him a temporary victory. Williams announced Aug. 23 that an administrative order from Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman will stop development on 1.7 million acres of roadless national forest in Montana. The order establishes a […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Powerlines prove fatal
Even the protected confines of Yellowstone National Park aren’t safe for grizzly bears. Park visitors Aug. 23 found three male grizzlies electrocuted by a downed powerline in the park’s Hayden Valley. The two adults and one adolescent grizzly were probably killed at different times during the previous two weeks when they touched the live powerlines. […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
An Easterner ponders the West’s alleged wildness
This is a mea culpa. Sorta. A few months ago I published a long piece in The Atlantic Monthly. An excerpt from a forthcoming book, it argued that the forests of the Appalachian spine had recovered much further than people realize – that even the wolf and the mountain lion had begun to return. The […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
The West’s fisheries spin out of control
It’s gotten to the point that even car dealers sell trout fishing. Their customers tool around the Rockies in four-wheel-drives named after a famous flyrod – the Jeep Cherokee special Orvis edition. Sticker price $33,000. All the fishing shops, from Bozeman to Taos, offer the latest gear: microporous miracle waders whose fibers somehow breathe underwater, […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Salvage logging means deep cuts
The rescissions bill signed by President Clinton July 27 directs the Forest Service to cut salvage timber – defined as dead, dying or at-risk trees – -to the maximum extent feasible.” What does that mean? An Aug. 18 letter from the Forest Service’s Washington, D.C., office to all regional foresters begins to spell this out. […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Pay-for-wolf play
Tourists who fail to catch a glimpse of wild wolves restored to Yellowstone National Park can troop to the nearby Grizzly Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Mont. For an undisclosed price, the privately owned center recently purchased a 10-member pack from a Montana breeder and unveiled the animals to the public Aug. 7. Director Gale […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Owl shuts down the Southwest
In a ruling reminiscent of the Northwest spotted owl conflict, federal Judge Carl Muecke ordered the 11 national forests of Arizona and New Mexico to halt all logging until their forest plans adequately protect the Mexican spotted owl. The Aug. 24 temporary injunction, which immediately stopped all timber operations, came in response to a lawsuit […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Taking aim at the Forest Service
Somebody in Nevada doesn’t like Toiyabe Forest Ranger Guy Pence, and to show it they’ve bombed both his office (HCN, 4/17/95) and a van parked at his Carson City home; the latter attack occurred Aug. 4. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blames the attacks on “the ugly underbelly of the county supremacy movement in Nevada.” When […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Colorado learns bear facts
As encounters between bears and people – in cars, campgrounds and backyards – increase around Colorado’s burgeoning mountain communities, the state’s Division of Wildlife is conducting ground-breaking studies on the wily bruin. Veteran researcher Tom Beck has captured 42 bears so far near Kremmling, Colo., and is tagging and radio-collaring them as part of a […]