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 […]
Wildlife
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 […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Burns would shear wolf funding
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., wants to kill one federal environmental program to fund another. His amendment to the recently passed Interior appropriations bill would cut wolf reintroduction budgets and give the money to whirling disease research. Burns told The Billings Gazette that “whirling disease represents a real threat to Montana’s economy and environment, while wolf […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Just burn it
JUST BURN IT A year after the Storm King fire in Glenwood Springs, Colo., claimed the lives of l4 firefighters, the Clinton administration announced that it wants to fight fire with fire. The administration’s new policy, which advocates the use of more controlled and prescribed burning, results from reviews of federal firefighting efforts that began […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Jobs for the environment
JOBS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT A proposed bill to protect the Northern Rockies ecosystem would create thousands of new jobs, according to an economic study released by an environmental group, Alliance for the Wild Rockies. The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, recently introduced by New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, would designate 20 million acres of wilderness […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Forest Service wants to play by a new set of rules
While reform of the Endangered Species Act captures headlines across the West, some conservationists say an equally important law is also in danger. It is the National Forest Management Act, or NFMA, which has governed watersheds, soils and wildlife for nearly two decades. Forest Service officials now propose wholesale changes in the regulations that implement […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Devastation at the center of his universe
For many of us, some places become more special than all others. One of mine is a raw asymmetrical land, lacking the scenic appeal of Colorado’s alps. It’s a quiltwork of lodgepole pine, spruce and Douglas fir, with heroic patches of alpine larch and whitebark pine hugging the highest and rockiest slopes. There’s old-growth ponderosa […]
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
No takers for torched timber
Though the Forest Service is selling burned timber in the West at bargain-basement prices, the timber industry doesn’t seem interested. Industry buyers haven’t even shown up at many recent sales auctions in Idaho and Washington. On the Boise National Forest in Idaho, five recent sales drew no takers, prompting federal officials to drop their prices. […]
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
Higher pay for hotter jobs?
-If they called them firefighters, they’d have to pay them like firefighters.” That’s the aim of union organizer Kenny Harrell of the Sacramento-based California Professional Firefighters. Harrell wants better pay for federal wildland fire crews, now called “forestry technicians.” Under that title, federal firefighters are paid less than municipal workers and then only while battling […]
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
Hikers find bomb in wilderness
The July discovery of a pipe bomb by three backpackers in New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness was thought to be a freak incident. Then Forest Service officials started comparing notes: It was the fourth time someone had found a bomb or explosive in the wilderness in the past 13 months. That realization jarred Forest Service employees […]