Feature

Colorado's prison slayer: One man's quest to unshackle a rural economy

Small businessman Tom Huerkamp fights the building of prisons in the rural West and looks for other ways to generate an economy.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

Skipped issue, long-range planning and board meeting, visiting fellow Rick Keister, interns Diane Kelly and Shea Andersen.

News

Battle likely over Utah wilderness

Utah environmentalists protest the wilderness bill introduced by Utah Republicans.

Ski resort flops in midst of land boom

A controversial Colorado proposed ski resort, Lake Catamount, suffers a setback when the major investor pulls out.

Summitville mine boss indicted

Tom Chisholm, former environmental manager of the bankrupt Summitville Mine is indicted by the EPA for his part in Colorado's worst environmental disaster.

L-P's problems mount

The EPA indicts Louisiana-Pacific for its Olathe, Colo., waferboard plant's pollution.

Salvage logging wounded but not dead

An award-winning salvage logging operation in Idaho provokes controversy and criticism.

As landfills tighten up, midnight dumpers spread out

Illegal hazardous waste dumps are increasingly discovered in national forests.

Salvage logging yields logs and controversy

President Clinton vetoes a bill that would have doubled salvage logging.

When Tuttle walks, will they listen?

Activist Larry Tuttle begins on 1,872 mile walk from Oregon to Colorado to raise support for reform of the 1872 Mining Law.

Mining reform might sneak back

Negotiations over reform of the 1872 Mining Law proceed quietly in the U.S. Senate.

Dan Beard resigns

Dan Beard resigns as director of the Bureau of Reclamation to the disappointment of environmentalists.

Essays

Xerox copiers and black helicopters

A tongue-in-cheek consideration of Colorado Republican Scott McInnis' search for waste at the Department of Interior, the closing of national parks and the Christian Coalition's involvement in both.

Wolves bring Yellowstone to vivid life

Wolf-watchers, biologists, elk and coyotes all react to the shake-up caused by wolves returning to Yellowstone.

Heard Around the West

Heard Around the West

Want ads for sheepherders, straw bale houses on the Navajo Reservation, women in the Forest Service, betting on the planet's future, New Era philanthropy, seminars on "how to stay calm."

Opinion

Will an illegal BLM study seal southern Utah's fate?

The deep flaws in the BLM's inventory of Utah wild lands may doom many irreplaceable landscapes that were eliminated from wilderness consideration.

Related Stories

Poor, rural places are magnets for prisons

Most new prisons are being built in economically troubled rural areas.

Crime is big business, on both sides of the law

Prisons are a major growth industry in the rural West.

How Colorado's hunters lost 90 acres to 300 prisoners

The Delta Correctional Facility was given unrestricted use of 91 acres in the Escalante State Wildlife Area in Colorado.

A small mountain town shows prisons can be good neighbors

The prisons in Colorado's Fremont County have brought more benefits than problems, many claim.

Lettie Hellman

Delta County resident Lettie Hellman is a proponent of prisons for economic growth and other reasons.