Timber prices are now so high that renegade loggers in northern Idaho have been stealing trees from national forests. Recently, 15 people were arrested for 35 timber thefts that occurred last year on the Priest Lake District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Don Hacker, 42, of Priest River, Idaho, was fined $600 and ordered […]
Wildlife
Posted inMarch 21, 1994: On the borderline
Noisy wildlife refuges
Arizona’s endangered bobwhite quail and New Mexico’s antelope may be running away from national wildlife refuges instead of toward them. According to a recent study by the non-profit Defenders of Wildlife, military overflights continue to disrupt at least 35 refuges. The group’s report, Unfriendly Skies, says that while bombers and fighter-planes practice overhead, startled birds […]
Posted inMarch 21, 1994: On the borderline
Timber companies export logs – and jobs – to Asia
SUPERIOR, Mont. – An unusual alliance of environmentalists and millworkers has asked the government to close loopholes that let timber companies export logs from private ground in Washington and Oregon, then buy timber on national forests in Montana and Idaho. The exemption, allowed under a 1990 law that banned exports from state forests, costs Montana […]
Posted inMarch 7, 1994: Pay as you waste, says EPA
Will timber plan fly?
The Clinton administration’s final plan for Northwest forests was delayed for release until March 31, but a Feb. 23 summary reveals it hasn’t much changed since last July when it was first proposed. The plan calls for annual federal timber sales of 1.05 billion board feet across the range of the northern spotted owl. That’s […]
Posted inMarch 7, 1994: Pay as you waste, says EPA
Reclaiming high places
Alpine forget-me-not, a miniature, bright blue flower, grows above timberline through constant winds, glaring sun and only two months of summer. Now, in addition, it faces the added stresses of mines, ski areas and increased radiation through a thinning ozone layer. At the 11th annual High Altitude Revegetation Workshop, scientists and managers will discuss how […]
Posted inMarch 7, 1994: Pay as you waste, says EPA
Ex-logger Andrus says our forests are overcut
FAIRMONT HOT SPRINGS, Mont. – Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus used his time at the podium during a rare meeting of Forest Service district rangers Feb. 16 to complain that timber-sale goals in national forest management plans were boosted by politicians eager to please big timber companies. “Your ASQs (allowable sale quantities) are not accurate. They […]
Posted inMarch 7, 1994: Pay as you waste, says EPA
Orphaned cubs returned to wild
Columbia Falls, Mont. – Two orphaned black bears got a late jump on hibernation but a new lease on life when they were placed in a man-made den last month. Biologists hauled the tranquilized twin cubs by snowmobile, then tucked them into the 20 below zero snow cave. If all goes well, they will slip […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 1994: Draining the budget to desalt the Colorado
Campbell sides with Telluride
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D, Colo.) says he will introduce legislation to condemn a developer’s dream house built in Colorado’s West Elk Wilderness – if the Forest Service rejects a proposed land exchange with the developer. A Campbell spokeswoman said the senator wants to give the Forest Service another tool to deal with Tom Chapman, […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 1994: Draining the budget to desalt the Colorado
Will plan save or destroy the grizzly?
A two-month battle between environmentalists and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials over the newly released Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan may end up in court. On Jan. 26, three environmental groups, the Fund for Animals, the Colorado-based Biodiversity Legal Foundation, and the Montana-based Swan View Coalition, gave 60-days’ notice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 1994: Draining the budget to desalt the Colorado
Wyoming lawsuit would privatize wildlife
No one owns the sky. At least not yet. But ownership of the land, the water and now the wildlife is continually sought by people with too much money and a lot of greed. This country was founded by people running from kings who only let land-owning aristocrats hunt. Even if they were starving, the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Timber industry mounts an offense
The timber industry this winter launched a $1.5 million campaign in the Pacific Northwest to derail President Clinton’s Option 9 forest plan and lift court injunctions on timber sales. In addition to radio and television ads, the industry created three citizen committees in Washington, Oregon and northern California that have sent mailings to 1.5 million […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Wyoming county tries to put itself on the map
By the time you read this, 200 avid sportsmen will have enjoyed a festive three-day “coyote shoot” in which the killers of the most and biggest animals take home $500 prizes. Sponsored by the Campbell County Chamber of Commerce in northeastern Wyoming, the Feb. 3-5 shoot is not unique. Similar events go on throughout the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Why care about a snail the size of pinhead?
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Can she save ecosystems? MOLLIE BEATTIE: Even if not a single job were created, wildlife must be conserved. Why? Because we are linked to it, and it is in our immediate self-interest to care about it. When we see the snails and […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: A chronology
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Can she save ecosystems? 1885: Congress creates the Section of Economic Ornithology within the U.S. Department of Agriculture and appoints prominent naturalist C. Hart Merriam to head it. Merriam begins an exhaustive survey of the geographic distribution of the nation’s birds and […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Can she save ecosystems?
Mollie Beattie got an uncomfortable preview of the realpolitik that still pervades the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last summer while she waited for Senate confirmation as the agency’s director. One Republican senator after another anonymously exercised the right to place a “hold” on her confirmation. Some, no doubt, were simply curious about this 46-year-old […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Poachers target grizzlies
Poachers target grizzlies Bear researchers say the remote Selkirk Mountains, between Washington, Idaho and British Columbia, could support up to 90 grizzlies. Instead, the current population of about 30 bears has dropped by one. In late November an unknown person shot Sy, a 15-year-old female grizzly, who was the last bear in the Selkirks wearing […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Lost and found study
Lost and found study Under former Utah Gov. Norm Bangerter, the bumper sticker “Wilderness: land of no use” became popular. At the same time, managers under Bangerter ignored a 1991 draft state study that said wilderness could actually benefit Utah’s economy. Gov. Mike Leavitt recently unearthed the report after the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance pressed […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
The third man
The third man The number three man in the Forest Service, Deputy Chief James Overbay, has retired. Overbay, a member of the agency’s old guard, was replaced by Gray Reynolds, regional forester for the Intermountain Region of national forests in southern Idaho, Nevada, Utah and western Wyoming. Environmental activists in the Intermountain Region were not […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Judge bumps snail off endangered species list
The tiny Bruneau hot springs snail is having a large impact in Idaho – and perhaps the entire country. On Dec. 14, U.S. District Judge Frank Ryan removed the 4-millimeter animal from the endangered species list. It was the first successful challenge of an animal or plant listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. Ryan’s […]
Posted inDecember 27, 1993: Yellowstone
Wildlife refuge needs money
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Wildlife refuge needs money.