When membership and funds drop, most nonprofits pinch, prune and make minor adjustments. Greenpeace USA crashed. In early August, the organization announced it would close each of its 10 regional offices, lay off over 300 employees, end its neighborhood canvass and concentrate only on its climate change and logging campaigns. Employees who work on less high-profile campaigns, such as toxics, pollution or environmental justice, want to challenge the extreme cutbacks. The group's voting membership - 172 selected staff members and volunteers - has called for a vote on the changes that were made by the eight-member board of directors ...


Ten years ago, Phil Hocker started the only national group fighting for mining reform. At the end of this year, Hocker will leave the Mineral Policy Center. Hocker says he's seen major changes during these 10 years. When he started the group, "if a mining project was proposed, people would say: It's awful, but there's nothing we can do. Today, more people are fighting these projects." ...


Earlier this year, the Interior Department approved the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf in Arizona and New Mexico. Now, media mogul Ted Turner is jumping the gun. He plans to breed the endangered wolf in pens on a ranch he owns near Truth or Consequences, N.M. Mike Phillips, who oversaw the release of Canadian gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park, will organize his project ...


When the Forest Service announced that a timber sale of 269 acres near Yosemite National Park would earn only $1,966 for taxpayers, 269 people wrote checks to the Forest Service made out for $7.31 each to "purchase" the roadless area. The Forest Service rejected the checks ...


It is back to Denver for Bill Yellowtail, a Wyola, Mont., rancher and member of the Crow Indian Tribe. He left his post as the regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency last year to launch an unsuccessful bid for Montana's sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, President Clinton is re-appointing him to the job.


* Heather Abel