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 […]
Wildlife
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 […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Court strikes at Endangered Species Act
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cannot require private landowners to protect the habitat of endangered species, according to a recent court decision. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., stems from a lawsuit challenging federal regulations restricting timber harvesting near spotted owl nests in Oregon and […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Saving trees to save bears
In what one official calls a “directional shift” in agency policy, the Forest Service has proposed some of the country’s most stringent guidelines for protecting grizzly bear habitat in a portion of Idaho’s Targhee National Forest. Under the plan, the Forest Service would suspend new road construction and timber harvests for at least 11 years […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Salmon fishing banned
For the first time ever, salmon fishing in the Pacific Ocean has been banned. The prohibition, imposed by a federal panel, applies to waters off Washington, Oregon and California, though not to Alaska or British Columbia. “The combination of effects has created a natural disaster,” says Robert Turner, director of fisheries for the state of […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Jackalopes in Japan
Two antlered rabbits recently made their way to Osaka, Japan, from the world capital of the jackalope, Douglas, Wyo. Japanese customs officials found the man-made novelties while searching the luggage of Douglas, Wyo., trade delegate, John Blair. Unable to understand the animals’ identity, officials began to look for jackalope on a list of endangered species. […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Silent swans in Yellowstone
For the first time in recorded history, Yellowstone National Park trumpeter swans added no young to their flock last summer. The decline in cygnets parallels a decrease in the adult population from almost 500 last year to 277 this year. Ruth Shea, of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, believes a major cause is competition […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Clearcut
We can only wonder how Thoreau would have reacted, beyond suffering simultaneously from apoplexy and a coronary, to the trashing of nature that Clearcut reveals. Not just leaves and grand passages, but entire chapters have been ripped out. *David Brower In Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry, disturbing aerial views bear witness to the elimination […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Trees are more than logs
An “idea fair” sponsored by the Forest Service and a coalition of private and public organizations will show how to extract higher value from forest products before they leave timber-dependent communities. “Growing Sustainable Forest Enterprises, An Intermountain Idea Fair” examines how timber can be made into specialty products such as toys or furniture rather than […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
An open letter to Andy Kerr in rural Oregon
ENTERPRISE, Ore. – I don’t know you, Andy, although we’ve met a couple of times. You came into my bookstore 12 or 15 years ago, then we met again the evening of Allan Savory’s grazing talk. I’ve heard your voice on TV and seen your face in the newspapers over the years. I remember one […]
Posted inMarch 21, 1994: On the borderline
North Dakota may get a wilderness
In a surprise move in late February, North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer endorsed portions of a Sierra Club plan to establish the state’s first ever federal wilderness areas. Although all of North Dakota’s major newspapers and many citizen’s groups have backed the wilderness plan, Schafer, a Republican, is the state’s first politician to sign on. […]