A veterinary technician fired for protesting an ill-fated plan for releasing black-footed ferrets into Badlands National Park in South Dakota now wants to start her own care facility for geriatric or neglected ferrets. Carolyn Kinsey was hired to manage a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “conditioning” facility in Pueblo, Colo., for ferrets soon to be […]
Wildlife
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Grazing thickens forests
GRAZING THICKENS FORESTS A June 12 report from the Oregon Natural Resources Council blames livestock in addition to the usual culprits – fire suppression and poor logging practices – for the declining health of Western forests. The group’s ecologists, Joy Belsky and Dana Blumenthal, reviewed four case studies from Washington, Utah, Idaho and the Southwest, […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Toughen the ESA, scientists say
TOUGHEN THE ESA, SCIENTISTS SAY In the midst of efforts to water down the Endangered Species Act, two scientific panels announced support for the beleaguered law. Convened by the National Academy of Sciences, the first panel called for swifter action by the government to denote and protect “survival habitat.” Panel chairman Michael Clegg, a geneticist […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Wolf revival spreads to Southwest
A bronze likeness of the Mexican wolf stands in front of the University of New Mexico’s gymnasium in Albuquerque – the lobo is the mascot for the school’s sports teams. About the only other place to see the endangered predator today is in the zoo. But now, after a decade of environmentalist-rancher-government wrangling over Mexican […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Endangered law backed in court, ripped in Congress
The Endangered Species Act continues to thrive in courtrooms. But lawmakers on Capitol Hill have targeted it for extinction. In a highly anticipated ruling June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments by the timber industry that the 1973 law mostly exempted private lands. By a 6-3 count, the justices overturned a lower court ruling […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front: Sell It or Save It?
… And Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County, Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay? Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking, Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away. — John Prine The early years of my life were spent in southern West Virginia. Dad […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Wolves bring Yellowstone to vivid life
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – Dawn … low clouds … swollen river. Like a field of dark toadstools the herds of resting bison take shape across the water. Above them on the grassy benches elk begin to move – cows and calves, a few of the very young ones still hobbling. Geese fly down the […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
How Colorado’s hunters lost 90 acres to 300 prisoners
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Colorado’s prison slayer. Tom Huerkamp’s vision of the Delta Correctional Facility as a center for scientific research matches the state of Colorado’s goal when it began using the site in 1964. “The state’s noble experiment,” as a local newspaper called it at the time, […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Battle likely over Utah wilderness
As expected, Utah’s Republican delegation has introduced a wilderness bill covering portions of the state’s spectacular canyon country. And as expected, Utah environmentalists hate it. HR 1745 designates wilderness in 49 areas, totaling 1.8 million acres. Most areas are small parcels, ranging between 7,000 and 90,000 acres. The largest include Desolation Canyon on the Green […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Salvage logging wounded but not dead
In his first veto, President Clinton derailed a plan to double salvage logging over the next two years and exempt livestock grazing on national forests from environmental laws. The Rescissions Bill combined $16.4 billion in cuts, mostly from existing social programs, as well as $7.3 billion from aid to Oklahoma City and areas in California […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Salvage logging yields logs and controversy
BOISE NATIONAL FOREST, Idaho – Two years after an award-winning salvage harvest of burned timber, a half-dozen former log-storage areas along Little Rattlesnake Creek look like open wounds. Only a few wisps of grass cling to acres of disturbed ground littered with broken branches, ashes and partly burned wood. Gritty soils bleed directly into the […]
Posted inJune 12, 1995: The Southwest's last real river: Will it flow on?
Eight is enough
Eight is enough After losing their father to an illegal shooting outside of Red Lodge, Mont., eight wolf pups and their mother are in a holding pen in Yellowstone National Park. After some agonizing over the decision, federal biologists decided to move the single-parent family to the one-acre enclosure. For now, the mother receives fresh […]
Posted inJune 12, 1995: The Southwest's last real river: Will it flow on?
Man, weather conspire against salmon
The giant spring runoff that was supposed to safely whisk baby Snake River salmon over dams to the Pacific Ocean has been cut down to size. Mother Nature accomplished part of the feat. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did the rest. A series of wet winter storms had buoyed the hopes of salmon advocates […]
Posted inJune 12, 1995: The Southwest's last real river: Will it flow on?
County votes to control private-land logging
Alarmed by a rancher’s plans to log trees at the top of a watershed, a southern Colorado county is drafting regulations to stop the cut and protect the area’s water supply. Costilla County in the high, cold San Luis Valley now has no control over its watershed because the high mountain tracts – considered a […]
Posted inJune 12, 1995: The Southwest's last real river: Will it flow on?
In one man’s hands, this lynx became a teacher
John Weaver saw his first lynx in the wild and experienced a vision of sorts. The Forest Service biologist was hiking in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, when he came upon a Canada lynx sitting on its haunches about 50 yards away. “The longer I looked at that lynx,” Weaver says, “the more it […]
Posted inJune 12, 1995: The Southwest's last real river: Will it flow on?
Feds decide that the Canada lynx can slink for itself
Note: this is a sidebar to a news article titled “In one man’s hands, this lynx became a teacher.” When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied the Canada lynx a place on the list of endangered species last December, conservation groups cried foul, saying the agency ignored the recommendations of its field biologists. Politics […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Montana man charged in wolf killing
A 42-year-old unemployed Red Lodge, Mont., man has been charged with killing one of 15 wolves restored to Yellowstone National Park. Chad McKittrick appeared in U.S. District Court on May 18, where he faced misdemeanor charges of illegally killing the large male wolf. A hunting partner turned McKittrick over to authorities, who found the wolf’s […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
New rules, less protection?
New rules, LESS PROTECTION? The Forest Service says its revamped regulations under the National Forest Management Act will streamline planning for recreation, logging, grazing and other activities and better integrate ecosystem management. Critics say the new rules, published April 13 in the Federal Register, strike a blow at environmental protection. One requirement, to maintain “viable” […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Save wild connections
SAVE WILD CONNECTIONS “In every biotic community, there are story lines which fiction writers would give their eyeteeth for: Desert tortoises with allegiances to place that have lasted upward of 40,000 years, dwarfing any dynasty in Yoknapatawpha County. Fidelities between hummingbird and montane penstemon that make the fidelities of Port William, Kentucky, seem like puppy […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Huge snowmelt may lift salmon past killer dams
Just when everything looked dim for endangered salmon in 1995, the snow gods came through. They hurled tons of snow at the central mountains of Idaho, which, combined with heavy spring rain, should mean big runoff in the creeks and rivers in the weeks ahead. By the beginning of May, the floodwaters were already beginning […]