High Country News August 18, 1997
Feature
The West that was, and the West that can be
A close look at the history of the West reveals that human beings have meddled with and sometimes changed the landscape for as long as they have lived on the continent.
Dear Friends
Dear friends
The contrary West (wet weather); Silverton newspaper for sale; fun interruptions; Awesome and other news; and HCN's website gets a makeover.
News
A cover-up over fallout?
The National Cancer Institute has been sitting on a study that says up to 72,000 people - many living far from nuclear bomb test sites in Nevada - may have been exposed to dangerous amounts of radiation in the 1950s.
Navajo tribe embarks on a long-term cleanup
The Navajo Nation tries to come to terms with a growing garbage problem that has led to numerous illegal dumps on the reservation.
Accident shakes Flaming Gorge Dam
A broken pipe in Utah's Flaming Gorge Dam creates a crisis and harms a trout fishery downstream.
A small victory for logging protesters
In Oregon, five protesters win in court over trespassing charges stemming from the Warner Creek fire sale in Willamette National Forest.
A timber town yells for help
Town officials in Forks, Wash., which has been badly hit by logging restrictions, complain to the state government that they were promised economic assistance.
Dombeck shakes up agency
New Forest Service Chief Michael Dombeck shuffles personnel in the West around making changes environmentalists say are a step in the right direction.
Bombs tested in Nevada
The Department of Energy begins a series of underground nuclear detonations at the Nevada Test Site, and environmentalists and arms control groups protest.
Bad blood over good sheep
Lyle McNeal, founder of Utah State University's Navajo Sheep Project, comes to a crisis with the university and files suit against it over the future of his project to save the Churro sheep.
Babbitt brings in new brass
President Clinton and Interior Secretary Babbitt remake the Interior Dept., appointing Patrick Shea to head BLM; Jamie Rappaport Clark to head Fish & Wildlife; Kathy Karpan to the Office of Surface Mining, and Robert Stanton to direct the Park Service.
Book Reviews
Cold weather crowds
A report by the Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee, "Winter Visitor Use Management," discusses the threats to the park brought on by recent, greatly increased winter visitation.
Celebrate Mono Lake
The nonprofit Mono Lake Committee is getting ready for a Restoration Days celebration, Aug. 29-Sept. 1.
The Quivira Coalition
Two conservationists and a rancher in New Mexico found the Quivira Coalition to seek a middle way between environmentalists and wise-users.
Bear myths
Book review of Dave Smith's "Backcountry Bear Basics: The Definitive Guide to Avoiding Unpleasant Encounters."
A Colville Valley homecoming
The heritage program of the Colville National Forest will host Journey Home: The Homecoming Heritage Celebration, Aug. 21-24.
Working ranches
Book review of the Sonoran Institute's "Preserving Working Ranches in the West."
5.7, 5.7, 5.7 ...
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance coordinates volunteers to survey what's still possible wilderness in the state.
Don't blame women
Book review of "Misplaced Blame: The Real Roots of Population Growth" by Alan Thein Durning and Christopher D. Crowther.
Essays
The West may not be literary, but it's littered with reading matter
A cross-country bicycle trip through the West reveals quirky and sometimes enigmatic road signs everywhere.
How the writer learned that he is not very spiritual
A stroll through Sedona, Ariz., the West's New Age center, shows that enlightenment is there for the finding - if you have enough money.
On being wrong
A writer looks back ruefully at what went wrong with a one-time utopian, back-to-the-land community in Oregon.
If a town is more dead than alive, it's the Old West
Musing on the gravestones in Anaconda, Mont., a writer theorizes that one can tell whether a town is Old West or New West by the ratio of the buried to the currently alive inhabitants.
At war with a bunch of mice: Confessions of an ex-pacifist
After a neighbor dies of hantavirus, a California pacifist grapples with whether - and how - to destroy the deer mice that carry the disease.
Heard Around the West
Heard around the West
Aspen's swimming pool war; Phil Anschutz's golf course near Greeley, Colo.; studying prairie dog language; "Animal Farm" no defense in Newport, Wash.; animal cruelty case; trees cut in Eugene, Ore.; did Steve Mealey moon the shoreline?; "Bare Bum Beach"
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