High Country News December 06, 1999
Feature
Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
In Colorado's San Luis Valley, Peggy Godfrey works hard raising sheep, writing cowboy poetry, helping neighbors at calving time and living what she describes as the life of a free woman.
Dear Friends
Dear Friends
HCN in the New Yorker; Bruce Selcraig's long-lost check; Bruce Babbitt; "Douglasia" likes HCN; geology field-trippers; HCN and business; Radio High Country News.
News
Uranium haunts the Colorado Plateau
Hydro Resources, Inc. wants to open three new uranium mines near Crownpoint, N.M., but opponents on and off the nearby Navajo Reservation say the mines threaten groundwater and human health.
The Wayward West
Babbit plan lets Nevada, California and Arizona store and sell surplus Colorado River water; Al Gore wants to tax mining companies; judge rules prison can stay in wildlife area near Delta, Colo.; offensive word "squaw" to be changed in geographic names.
Babbitt's wish list grows
On a recent Colorado visit, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt discusses possible land-protection measures for Black Ridge, outside of Grand Junction, and for 150,000 acres of archaeologically rich land near Cortez, Colo.
Court reads the environment its rights
A precedent-setting legal ruling by the Montana Supreme Court says that Montana citizens have a right to a "clean and healthful" environment.
Decision may help a granddaddy keep its teeth
The Montana Supreme Court's "clean environment" ruling may help clarify the Montana Environmental Policy Act, considered the "granddaddy" of the state's environmental laws.
A river too warm
Environmentalists say that warm wastewater from a pulp and paper mill in Lewiston, Idaho, is harmful to endangered salmon, steelhead and bull trout in the Snake River.
In this election, the West is lost
Western issues and environmental issues in general don't seem to be visible on the political screen in Washington, D.C., even as the presidential race heats up.
Tribe slowed down on road to showbiz
In western Washington, the Muckleshoot Tribe's plan to build a 20,000-seat open-air amphitheater is stirring up heated opposition from other King County residents.
Battling over the bottom line
Environmentalists win more than they lose as the battle over the budget finally reaches a truce in Congress.
Fossil Creek will flow again
Arizona Public Service agrees to restore Fossil Creek by decommissioning the creek's two small hydroelectric plants.
A bighorn dilemma
The New Mexico Game Commission plans to kill up to 34 mountain lions a year in an attempt to bolster the state's dwindling population of desert bighorn sheep.
'Spiritual hucksterism' attacked in Boulder
Naropa University in Boulder, Colo., is being sued by a former student who says that Eagle Cruz, co-founder of the school's Native American Studies program, falsely claimed to be a Lakota spiritual leader.
Pumice mine is a test case
The Forest Service is suing Tufflite Inc. for illegally mining pumice on the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona's Coconino National Forest.
Book Reviews
Water crusader wants allies
Perry R. Wilkes, Jr., and his wife, Bette, founded the nonprofit Citizens for a Rational Water Policy to try to change the city of Albuquerque's water policies.
A trickle of hope
A report by a team of Mexican and U.S. researchers working with the Environmental Defense Fund, "A Delta Once More: Restoring Riparian and Wetland Habitat in the Colorado River Delta," offers suggestions for reviving a struggling ecosystem.
Hard times in rural Idaho
The report "Profile of Rural Idaho" reflects a "two-Idaho" phenomenon, where the economic gulf is widening, especially in poor rural areas.
Rivers among us
In its study, "Rivers Among Us: Local Watershed Preservation and Resource Management in the Western United States," the Reason Public Policy Institute offers a free-market, libertarian look at balancing water needs with environmental protection.
Save land now
A Montana Coalition hopes to buy 1,800 acres in the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area from Plum Creek Timber Co.
Proulx shoots holes in mythic Wyoming
Annie Proulx's new book, "Close Range: Wyoming Stories," has displeased some Wyoming residents by its gritty, unflattering look at what lies under the surface of the cowboy mythology of the state.
An angry, compassionate memorial to a mysterious tragedy
In "Fire On the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire," John N. Maclean reconstructs and analyzes all that led up to the deadly firestorm on Storm King Mountain where 14 firefighters died.
Essays
Coming home to the country
When a couple of Eastern academics bought a ranch near Ekalaka, Mont., and tried raising llamas, then bison, they faced a clash of cultures as they and their ranching neighbors tried to come to terms with each other.
Heard Around the West
Heard around the West
Jesse Ventura and Moonlight BunnyRanch; stupid bank robbers; living in your car; range cowboy Terry Schramm; brazen bike thief in Jackson, Wyo; Jerry Sullivan pursues drunk driver; Jackson, Wyo., Halloween bash; history of medicine; Navy men shoot cows.
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