When it comes to killing livestock, the wolves recolonizing Montana have a reputation larger than their appetite. Carter Niemeyer has investigated more than 100 livestock carcasses where wolves were the prime suspects. He can count the number of confirmed wolf kills on one hand: five. The rest? “Nothing led us to believe further that wolves […]
Wildlife
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Montana wolves can’t find safe habitat
Two members of a pioneering wolf pack on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front were recently moved to Glacier National Park after they were blamed for killing four calves this spring. Two adults and two yearlings were allowed to remain, at least for now. But because of a political stalemate between state and federal wildlife officials, the […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
We need a regional wilderness law
Montana roadless lands have been under siege for nearly two decades. Although Montana congressmen brought forth 15 wilderness bills, they were more accurately commodity bills that strongly favored timber and mining. All failed. In June 1993, Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.) tried again. Although #16 is better in some respects than its predecessors, it is no […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A forest supervisor says ‘thank you’
I received a provocative and compelling book the other day called Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry, published by Sierra Club (HCN, 4/4/94). If you prefer looking backward instead of forward, the impact of the images and ideas in this book can only be described as deeply disturbing. The images have an emotional power, and […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Judge chastises forest plan defendant
The Clinton administration’s Northwest forest plan received a blow March 21 when a federal judge ruled the plan was prepared in violation of a federal open-meetings law. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the administration failed to include public comment and took information from a limited circle of […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
The Forest Service sells out
As the West’s economy shifts from traditional extractive industries to real estate and recreation, the region’s largest landowner is proving to be a big-time sucker. For decades the Forest Service has lost money on timber sales, and has leased valuable oil and gas reserves virtually for free. So it’s no surprise that the agency is […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Regional wilderness bill gets a hearing
Advocates of a wilderness bill covering 20 million acres in five states finally got a chance to make their case before a congressional subcommittee. The contentious dialogue April 12 at the first public hearing of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) pitted Western lawmakers against the bill’s sponsor, New York Rep. Carolyn Mulroney, D. […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Justice for owls, and for communities
A recent newspaper story on the revised Clinton forest plan was illustrated with a picture of Larry Mason standing by his abandoned lumber mill in Forks, Wash. I met Larry when I went to talk with Peter Yu, the administration official responsible for the jobs portion of the Clinton plan. Yu, by mistake, or perhaps […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Wolves get green light
Wolves will roam wild again in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho as early as fall. Although 60,000 people opposed wolf reintroduction, 100,000 people told the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service they supported its draft environmental impact statement for wolf recovery. Ed Bangs, project leader for the agency in Missoula, Mont., said many people commented […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Bats need a home
A Nevada legislative mandate to seal some 3,000 abandoned mines in Nevada threatens bats that roost in the shafts. Biologists who study bats say that as cave exploration has grown in popularity, “cavers’ have scared bats out of their natural habitat. Many now take refuge in abandoned mines. At a recent workshop with Nevada officials […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Sea lions slated for killing
Northwest lawmakers are urging legislation that would permit state wildlife officials to kill sea lions that feast upon a decreasing stock of steelhead at Seattle’s Ballard locks. Under the bills, which would amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act, states could petition the federal government to kill non-threatened sea mammals if they continue feeding on vulnerable […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Recovery plan bearly there
Seventeen environmental groups said March 16 they will sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because its Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan will fail. The announcement follows a similar notice filed by three other groups in late January (HCN, 2/21/94). All say the federal plan needs to include more specific standards for the protection of core […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Wildlife advocates stand firm
Despite pressure from Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus not to testify against the proposed Owyhee Canyon bombing range, both the Idaho Fish and Game Department and its appointed commission came out against it (HCN, 1/24/94). At a recent public hearing, department representatives opposed the northern portion of the bombing range, saying it seriously threatens the protection […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Charisma counts
Although Americans want a balanced and healthy ecosystem and favor the right of all species to exist, turtles and otters are valued above rodents and insects. Donald Coursey, public policy specialist at the University of Chicago, says his national survey “showed a difference between the public’s walk and their talk.” Conducted last fall, the survey […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Babbitt backs plans to kill predators
In a series of deft administrative maneuvers, the Bureau of Land Management side-stepped protests by environmental groups that had restricted federal predator-control activities on millions of acres of public land in the West. With approval from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the BLM is now issuing predator control plans with a provision that puts them immediately […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
A forester thrives in the belly of the beast
Wildfire is burning in the Wet Mountain Valley near Colorado Springs, Colo. I smell the smoke before I see it. I might be glad for a stirring burn: we’re a century or so overdue. But three generations of us are here for a family reunion. Just a few steps west of our cabin, the San […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Salmon: the Clinton-Babbitt train wreck
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, The salmon win one. In 1991, at the Citizens’ Salmon Congress in Hood River, Ore., Michelle DeHart of the Fish Passage Center spoke eloquently – again – about the death of salmon. The center is the tribal and Northwest states’ office that monitors the […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
A guide to the players
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, The salmon win one. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built and operates four federal dams on the lower Snake River, and four more on the Columbia River. Fishery agencies estimate these dams and reservoirs account for about 95 percent of all human-caused mortality […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
Wilderness developer accused of fraud
Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell has asked a U.S. District Attorney to investigate Tom Chapman for fraud, following a tip from one of the developer’s former business associates. Chapman is notorious for starting to build a massive, $1 million log cabin on a private inholding in the West Elk Wilderness near Paonia, Colo. After much […]