The uncontrolled growth of Western states makes planning essential.
Danger on the fairway
Working on a golf course can be hazardous to your health. A survey of 618 golf course superintendents who died between 1970 and 1992 revealed that an uncommonly high number perished from cancer of the lung, brain, intestine or prostate. The culprit could be pesticide use, which has caused the demise of thousands of birds.…
Undoing a dam is expensive
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the National Park Service want to tear down two dams on the Elwha River in Washington’s Olympic National Park. But White House budget director Leon Panetta says the federal government can’t afford it. A Park Service study found that removing the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams is the best way…
Not another icon
On the 50th anniversary of the fire-surviving bear that became a symbol for the Forest Service, an 18-month-old bear cub was found digging through embers near the Tahoe City, Calif., fire. Smokey was younger than this cub when found, and spent the rest of his life at the Washington, D.C., National Zoo. But the 1994…
Does Utah need an eco-challenge?
A California promoter of “Eco-Challenge: The Adventure Race” hopes to send up to 50 five-person teams running, biking, rafting, canoeing and riding horses through 300 miles of southeastern Utah’s deserts next spring. MTV cameras and other media would document the 12-day race, which features environmental consciousness as its theme. State economic developers love the idea,…
Let’s make a deal
Hoping to gain support for the Endangered Species Act, the Interior Department offered a deal Aug. 10. Any person or group agreeing to protect endangered species through a Habitat Conservation Plan will not be expected to make further concessions. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt called the new policy flexible and urged its support. More than 130…
Flu-ing with the river
When 88 Colorado River rafters – including 22 experienced river guides – came down with stomach flu-like symptoms this June, they sounded the alarm. “That’s a lot of cases in a relatively short period of time,” says Marlene Gaither, a Coconimo County health specialist. “When it’s 100 degrees on the river and you vomit and…
The real bind is too many people everywhere
I suggest that one of the dominant environmental issues in the West’s future will be: How many people can live satisfied lives here? Population size is a factor of three variables: birth rates, death rates, and immigration. Birth, death and territory. Can any other issue cover such deep atavistic feelings? The issue will divide friends…
Get out
Dear HCN, Yellowstone Park managers are still not focusing on the main problem – true for most parks, I would guess – and that is crowds and what park officials feel they must do to accommodate them (HCN, 5/30/94). Crowds destroy the basic mood of the park itself – its differentness. This differentness is a…
The real threat in Utah
Dear HCN, When the U.S. Department of the Interior recently released regulations that would establish procedures for state and local governments to claim road rights-of-way under the old RS 2477 law (HCN, 8/22/94), there was an immediate outcry from Utah’s Sen. Bob Bennett, who said the proposed rules constituted “… a threat to the economy…
Park concessions to be corralled
A reform ending windfalls for concessionaires in national parks seems certain this fall. Only minor differences remain between House and Senate bills that passed overwhelmingly. Both bills mandate competition for contracts of more than $500,000, require that concession fees return to parks, and establish a briefer duration on contracts. The current law, passed in 1965,…
Liquid lures mountain goats
For mountain goats in Glacier National Park, Mont., sweet-tasting antifreeze seems to be the drug of choice. Heading toward 6,000-foot Logan Pass, motorists can see up to 20 goats at a time fighting for the coolant that drips from overheated cars. At the summer parking lot many habituated goats gather where the leaking liquid forms…
When planning plays catch-up
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. MONTROSE, Colo. – For decades this town with the stunning views of the jagged San Juan Mountains aggressively courted growth and collectively admitted no downside. When county commissioners tried to adopt a wimpy land-use plan 21…
Park Service trying to evict cave cafe
Thanks to the presence of a huge subterranean cafeteria, the 2 million visitors to Carlsbad Caverns National Park each year can gawk at stalagmites and stalactites while nursing a cold sandwich and soda. But the crumbs may not fall where they have been. The National Park Service and conservationists are going against a chamber of…
Some state governments try planning from top down
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. The governor of Oregon may have been a little ahead of his time, speaking out against growth and for planning: “Sagebrush subdivision, coastal ‘condomania’ and the ravenous rampage of suburbia in the Willamette Valley all threaten…
Rural residents defy Washington law
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. Some landowners in rural Washington are so sick and tired of being told what to do by one planner after another, they’ve decided to do something about it: Secede. Under the banner of property rights, rebels…
‘Wise use’ plans abhor change
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. Cody, Wyo. – This county on the eastern border of Yellowstone National Park has been so sparsely settled, the prospect of a little more than 100 people moving in to work a gold mine helped set…
Busted town pursues industrial recreation
ANACONDA, Mont. – Can famous golfer Jack Nicklaus reverse the sagging fortunes of this crumbling smeltertown by building a golf course on top of a hazardous waste site? The company that owns the site, Arco, is betting $10 million that he can (HCN, 11/29/93). “Some people will say I lost my marbles,” Nicklaus told Anacondans…
How to get involved and push the process
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. Why can’t officials elected on platforms of slowing growth and preserving community character get more accomplished? The short answer is that the sentiment that elects pro-planning candidates is not unified by much else. Environmentalists make up…
To learn more: a list of sources
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, How to get involved and push the process. Wading into the world of planning is much like walking into quicksand: The more you struggle with it, the more bogged down you get. Fortunately, there are some useful starting points. General information The state…
Towns angling for tourism should beware of the great white shark
MOAB, Utah – The simplest way to describe what happened in Grand County is to say that, in 1986, our resilient community leaders got in their rowboat and went fishing for a little tourism to revive and diversify our economy. They hooked a great white shark. This monster has swamped the boat and eaten the…
This boom will end like all the others – in a deep, deep bust
In 1982 a plumber named Jeff Everett and I competed to see who was the greater fool. I won. The competition centered on a 1,000-square-foot building we owned at 124 Grand Avenue, on Paonia’s two-block-long main street. It had been home to Betsy’s and my first newspaper – North Fork Times; by 1982 it stood…
Can planning rein in a stampede?
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. By now the scenario is all too familiar: Refugees from far-off, disintegrating cities, packing their dreaded California-scale equity, swarm into some previously unfashionable zip code in the rural West. Which leads to congestion and a land…
A toolbox to shape the future
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. The planning tools being used in the West vary as widely as the character of local communities. Factors such as terrain, population profile and economics determine which tool is wielded where. Some of the tools have…
A soft-paths approach to land conservation
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, A toolbox to shape the future. Even the most gung-ho planners admit that government can only do so much to protect native plants, animals that need hundreds of miles of habitat, and human communities. Some critics are more blunt. “I left planning disgusted…
Boulder’s ingenuity has a few drawbacks
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. Few communities in the United States – let alone the West – have tried to control growth the way Boulder, Colo., has. Using imagination and innovative planning, a progressive citizenry and equally progressive elected officials have…
Golf course splits ranch family
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about growth and planning in the West. CARBONDALE, Colo. – Disagreements about how to plan for growth have reached into a ranching family here. “I’m retiring anyway, and … you can’t divide land equitably (among the heirs), but you can divide cash,” says…
Careful planning avoids takings
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories: ‘Wise use’ plans abhor change. Planners and elected officials deciding land use tend to shudder when you mention it: takings. Just how far can a community go with regulations before an irate, and often rich, landowner slaps back with a lawsuit claiming the…
Resort towns battle monsters
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Can planning rein in a stampede? People around Aspen, Colo., thought maybe it was a bit much when Prince Bandar of Saudia Arabia built a mountain home about the size of the White House – 55,000 square feet, not including outbuildings. So…
Dear friends
End of summer visitors Matt Huston and Sherry Smith of Seattle visited while on their way from a Telluride wedding to the Maroon Bells Wilderness. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday, so we got only a note: “It was good to see you weren’t working and that you take days off.” Jack Laughlin, an engineer who…