Will homeland security concerns keep jaguars from returning to their native U.S. range? Maybe.
Wildlife
Posted inWotr
Sometimes the priceless really is priceless
Most of us have seen those credit-card ads that go something like “Fishing license, $40. Fly casting gear, $480. Reeling in a rainbow trout in the wilderness under a 14,000-foot peak: Priceless.” But dollar signs can be associated with these “priceless” activities. Let’s start with the rainbow trout. Rainbows are native to the West Coast, […]
Posted inOctober 15, 2007: Cat Fight on the Border
Seeds of change
Post-fire restoration can affect Western rangelands for centuries
Posted inOctober 15, 2007: Cat Fight on the Border
Salvaging the atmosphere
The Forest Service joins the carbon offsets game
Posted inWotr
The BLM plays with fire in Oregon
Everyone here in Oregon loves our forests. These lands — most in public ownership — are the cornerstone for both the economic and ecological health of the state, and are central to our identity. Indeed, more and more of us are making our homes in the woods every year, in the so-called “wildlands-urban interface.” And […]
Posted inArticles
Hatching a plan for sage grouse
In 1834, ornithologist John Townsend described flushing hundreds of grouse from the sagebrush as he rode through the Green River Valley, and in the 1880s, naturalist George Grinnell reported flocks of the birds darkening the skies near Casper. But by 1906, Wyoming’s sage grouse population was declining, and, except for a few short-lived rebounds, it […]
Posted inWotr
Nobody likes regulation, but look where we’re moving
Most dry summer months, somewhere in the country, a wildfire fills the sky with flames and forbidding columns of smoke. During the rest of the year, state and local governments would do well to keep that specter in mind when they determine where many American communities will be growing. In too many places, people have […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2007: Sheep v. Sheep
Sheep v. Sheep
A legal battle over Hells Canyon grazing could determine the future of wild sheep and sheep ranching across the West
Posted inOctober 1, 2007: Sheep v. Sheep
My, what a small family tree you have
In the Northern Rockies, gray wolves may face the problems of inbreeding
Posted inWotr
West’s forests will never be the same
Last year’s Indian summer fires in Montana were so intense, so awesome in their fury, that they even spooked veteran firefighters. Pilots dumping retardant on the Jungle Fire southeast of Livingston, Mont., reported flames jumping 500 feet above the tree line. For comparison, imagine a wall of flames leaping over the Washington monument. Hotshots, those […]
Posted inArticles
Losing their luster
In the 1850s, “gold fever” lured hopeful prospectors to Colorado, but left most disappointed. Now people still flock to the state in search of gold, but instead of precious metal, they look for bright yellow aspen leaves. This autumn, however, those gold seekers, like the disenchanted souls before them, may find a depressing development: Colorado’s […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
In search of giant trees and unseen realms
One of former President Ronald Reagan’s more notorious remarks concerned the grand California redwoods. There was “nothing beautiful about them,” he said, “just that they are a little higher than the rest.” An inspiring corrective to Reagan’s indifference is Richard Preston’s The Wild Trees. The author of The Hot Zone follows professional and bare-knuckled gonzo […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
Cutting trees to save the forest
Leveraged buyouts are the newest tool in forest restoration
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
Sounding the alarm for nature
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s landmark book, Silent Spring. Twenty-seven years after her death, Carson – who would have been 100 this year – continues to influence Americans’ daily lives. Her legacy is reflected all the way from the Environmental Protection Agency’s restrictions on pesticide use down to […]
Posted inArticles
The great American cat fight
Phantom cat of forest and desert, the jaguar slinks through its surroundings, an optical illusion of tawny, sun-dappled fur. It manifests and evaporates with hardly a trace amid the darkness of South American rainforests and the shattered canyons of the arid Southwest. By the 1980s, however, a century of predator control, hunting and habitat loss […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Living precariously with wolves and cattle
Through the end of June last year, we got along fine with the wolves. I was working on a ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley, where the wolves ran elk to exhaustion in the high country while yearling cattle fattened on the lower pastures of the ranch. Peaceful coexistence with predators seemed within our grasp, and […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
The Weed-wackers
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Bonfire of the Superweeds.” Sue Rutman had been warned: Buffelgrass, she’d been told, loved disturbance. Pulling up the weed would only overturn more desert soil, spread seeds, and encourage its expansion. But as the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument botanist watched buffelgrass cover longer […]
Posted inWotr
A happy 63rd birthday to Smokey Bear
It’s time we give an overdue nod of gratitude to that venerable bruin of fire prevention: Smokey Bear, who just turned 63 this August. At a time when bears are being tranquilized and relocated all over the West for Dumpster-diving and campsite pantry raids, Smokey remains the only honorable bear role model. You won’t find […]
Posted inArticles
Super rodents build super habitat
Faster than a speeding coyote, able to leap small cacti in a single bound — two “superhero” rodents, the kangaroo rat and the prairie dog, thrive amid the heat and dry sand of the desert Southwest. Each creature influences its environment to an extent that far outweighs its size – a real-life version of Mighty […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
Two weeks in the West
White-tailed prairie dogs are short, stout rodents that burrow in the plains of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Montana. Their numbers have declined – some estimates say by as much as 90 percent – over the years, thanks to habitat loss, oil and gas development, grazing, bubonic plague and wholesale eradication efforts that include shooting and […]