In the Interior West, politicians must work with federal agencies and let go of fading extractive industries, if the region is to thrive as part of the nation and not be overrun by Bruce Babbitt’s new national monuments.
High Desert Conference
Burns, Ore., is the site for the 22nd annual High Desert Conference, April 27-30, a magnet for those who love the dry and wild landscape. Field trips, slide shows, speakers and the Desert Rat Poetry Festival are slated, plus contra dancing to a live band. Contact Gilly Lyons at the Oregon Natural Desert Association at…
Fees skew the public lands mission
Dear HCN, It is clear that even flush times don’t lead legislators to significantly increase base funding when programs like “fee demo” appear to be working. When federal appropriations decline again, and belts have to tighten, these fee programs will be an excuse for reducing base appropriations. Managers would be better served by clearly explaining…
Northern Arizona Book Festival
Twenty authors, including environmental writers, will present their work at the Northern Arizona Book Festival in Flagstaff, Ariz., April 28-30. Ann Zwinger, William deBuys and Ana Castillo are a few of the authors on tap. For more information, call Rick Swanson at 520/774-9118 or visit the Web site at www.flagstaffcentral.com/bookfest. This article appeared in the…
Guess who’s not Gaelic
Dear HCN, Lisa Jones’ profile of Jim Catron describes quite accurately the philosophy and attitudes of one of several British cultures that reached what is now the United States during the 17th and 18th centuries (HCN, 3/13/00: The last Celtic warlord lives in New Mexico). But the one thing that Jim Catron’s culture is not…
Protect wildland ecosystems
Activists, lawyers and interested individuals can learn the tools and strategies to protect wildland ecosystems and wildlife habitat at the Third Annual Natural Resources Laws Conference. The May 7-8 event at Montana State University in Bozeman features speakers from advocacy groups including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and The Sonoran Institute. For registration information, visit the…
Mining is desecrating the Western landscape
Do you have photos of the mess that mining makes? The Mineral Policy Center, a group working to reform hardrock mining laws, is holding a photo contest to get the picture out that mining is desecrating the Western landscape. Photos must be submitted by May 15; awards will be given in two categories: protection and…
Incinerator plans go up in smoke
WYOMING Last April, Wilson, Wyo., resident Mary Mitchell called the Jackson Hole News demanding to know more about plans to burn nuclear waste at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. But Jackson papers had paid no attention to the Department of Energy’s plans to build an incinerator in eastern Idaho, even though the facility…
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Coming to a consensus over natural resources isn’t easy. The Alternative Dispute Resolution and Natural Resources Conference will bring together land managers, land users and environmentalists to address conflict resolution, May 16-19, at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Information about the event, which is sponsored by the Department of the Interior and the Udall…
The Wayward West
A national land trust recently preserved over 21,000 acres as open space between Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo. (HCN, 2/28/00: Acre by acre). The tract, which is the largest area of undeveloped land remaining along Colorado’s Front Range, was sold last week to The Conservation Fund, a Boulder, Colo.-based land trust, and Douglas County. “People…
Reclaiming a golden landscape
MONTANA A court-ordered cleanup plan for the Golden Sunlight Mine in western Montana marks the beginning of a golden era of mine reclamation, say local environmentalists. “For the first time since the West was opened by miners, people have stood up and told the mining industry that they can’t leave a ravaged landscape when a…
A letter fans the flames
NEVADA When Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest Supervisor Gloria Flora resigned last November, she said local hostility toward federal employees was a major reason for stepping down (HCN, 11/22/99: Nevadans drive out forest supervisor). Now, a letter has surfaced from a county official that supports her words. In a Dec. 30, 1998, letter to public land-use advisor Gene…
A new generation comes to terms with Lake Powell
The loss of Glen Canyon to Lake Powell grieves many people deeply, including those too young to have known “the place no one knew.” At 25, Provo, Utah, native Jared Farmer has known only Lake Powell, the prized destination of a new generation. Yet in his new book, Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell and…
Heard around the West
Snowmobilers may be another breed. “I tolerate cold real well,” Dr. Bruce Hayse told the Jackson Hole News. Riding around on frozen Jackson Lake, Hayse says he suddenly felt the ice give way; in less than a minute, he found himself swimming. As he looked up at the Tetons from his hole in the ice,…
Environmental Justice in Natural Resources
The Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder is sponsoring a two-day workshop, Environmental Justice in Natural Resources, beginning April 14 with a “Talking Circle” at the LODO Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, Colo. Keynote speaker April 15 is Patricia Limerick from the Center of the American West. Call Kathryn Mutz,…
There’s no free lunch
Dear HCN, Hypocrites. How many times have we heard the demand that the extraction industries (mining, grazing and logging) pay fair market value for the use of public resources. The cry goes forth from those that supposedly care about the West, “why should citizens shoulder below-cost subsidies for special interests.” In fact, it is well…
Earth Day 2000, April 22
Events and celebrations are taking place throughout the West for Earth Day 2000, April 22, including an All Species of the Earth Day in Santa Fe, N.M., a Jammin” for Salmon musical celebration in Bellingham, Wash., and a Grand Canyon Forest Festival in Flagstaff, Ariz. Visit www.earthday.net for the complete schedule, or call the Earth…
Where the money’s going
Dear HCN, One of the people you interviewed for the fee demo feature article (HCN, 2/14/00: Land of the fee), Gary Guenther, asked, “Where’s the money going?” I can provide a partial answer to that question, and it’s mind-boggling. The river activist group Riverhawks and the Northwest Rafters Association have conducted an extensive audit of…
Beyond the Revolution
The struggle for the public lands is ending. Now what happens? Will the Interior West remain a rogue region, or will it choose to rejoin America?
Dear Friends
Interns go far Sometimes we think the most important thing High Country News does is provide a way station for interns. For most of them, it’s a stop after college and a series of less-than-satisfying jobs, before they decide what they will ultimately do. We had this thought most recently at the March meeting of…
The beauty of self-reliance
Reader Portia Masterson walked into the office on a drizzly day in late March. It was an unusual moment for a couple of reasons: first, Portia usually sticks close to her home in Golden, near Denver; second, when she’s out and about, she’s usually riding her bike. Masterson owns Self-Propulsion Inc., a bike shop that…
Zion takes tourists out of their cars
One of the nation’s most popular parks invites visitors to ride the bus
The West’s power game
The West is caught between congressional representatives beholden to resource industries, and federal officials with a conservation agenda. Can we find a middle ground?
Gentlemen, stop your engines!
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Zion takes tourists out of their cars.” The Park Service philosophy of accommodating humans and their machines is changing. The first sign came on March 13, when officials announced that they were leaning toward banning snowmobiles in…
Indian reservations: Environmental refuge or homeland?
To non-Indians, reservations look like vast de facto wildlife areas. But that’s not what they’re for.
The Old West is small potatoes in the new economy
Local and state governments are no match for the massive corporations moving in on the West’s open spaces
How to get right side up again
Instead of propping up corporate agriculture, let’s subsidize small farmers
Notes from a fence-sitter
Though extremists on either side would never admit it, ranchers and greens care about the same things
Boss must pay for poisoning employee
A judge hands down the first-ever conviction for knowingly exposing an employee to hazardous waste
In search of a politics of union
So far, a bigger table for decision-making has not led to more agreement, just more litigation
Water deal could drain New Mexico’s small towns
Northern New Mexico farmers fear cities will suck their communities dry
The infinite West reaches its limits
Undaunted optimism runs up against a finite landscape
An industry booster becomes a supporter of Western land
There is nothing remotely radical about Alvin M. Josephy Jr., or if there is, he hides it in his memoir, A Walk Toward Oregon. There was a comfortable childhood in Manhattan; well-to-do relatives like his uncle, the founder of the firm that published this book; a couple of years at Harvard, until his father’s financial…
Learning to think like a region
Environmental issues have nothing to do with political boundaries