Feature

Has big money doomed direct democracy?

The use of initiatives and referenda - direct democracy - to change the law for environmental reasons faces a challenge when big money enters the picture.

Polluted waters divide Oregon

The Oregon Clean Streams Initiative, if passed, would enact the toughest grazing restrictions in the West in an attempt to keep cattle from fouling the waters.

An 'unfair, inflexible' bid to clean Montana's water

Montana's Clean Water Initiative arouses fierce industry protest with its plan to keep long-lived hardrock mining wastes out of the water.

Will Idaho voters derail nuclear trains?

Idaho's Proposition 3 would void Gov. Phil Batt's deal to bring some nuclear waste into the state and would require that all such agreements in the future have citizen approval.

Colorado voters decide fate of 3 million acres

Colorado's Amendment 16 would allow state school trust lands to be managed for values other than money - and some fear that would mean harm to Colorado school budgets.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

Braving blaze orange, passers through, Cal Sunderland writes: "Keep dancering."

Uncommon Westerners

She works to save the past

Longtime HCN reader Ann Phillips is an educational consultant turned archaeologist.

News

Environmental laws fenced out

A provision in the spending bill allows the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act to be waived for border projects such as fences - which could harm endangered species.

Utah counties bulldoze the BLM, Park Service

Utah county commissioners in San Juan, Garfield and Kane counties bulldoze illegal roads into BLM and Park Service lands, including wilderness study areas and the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Frequent fliers fleece Grand Canyon

One-third of Grand Canyon air-tour operators are breaking the law by not reporting flights or paying required fees.

Forest chief resigns

Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas announces his retirement.

What happens above ground...

Oregon Caves National Monument says the surrounding Siskiyou National Forest is injuring the caves by logging, mining and grazing.

Judge sends a message to cows

In Oregon, Judge Ancer Haggerty says all applications for grazing permits need to be reviewed to see if the grazing would pollute state water.

Congress' 11th-hour moment of maturity...

After an extended display of childishness, the 104th Congress ends by acting more like grown-ups.

... comes after two years of arrested development

The 104th Congress was a roller-coaster ride for environmentalists, as shown by a recap of some the Legislature's highlights.

Book Reviews

Casualties of controversy: Two editors' jobs and a biologist's naivete

Two editors of "Outdoor Life" magazine resign when Colorado bear biologist Tom Beck's essay critical of bear hunting is pulled from an issue of the magazine.

Essays

Should city slickers dictate to trappers?

A columnist says that ballot initiatives designed the way they are in Colorado allow urban areas to dictate to rural areas on sensitive issues like hunting.

A mystery the size of your fist

An explosion of blooming beargrass in the Northern Rockies leads to musing on the ways that wisdom differs from information.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Colorado too inefficient to be Switzerland; "Mrs. Paonia" in Denver; intoxicated police chiefs and neck-breaking veterinarians; doctors irk mining industry; free enterprise vs. Pepsi and Coke; spanking in Montana.

Letters

Newcomers turn out to be just like locals

It's too easy to blame others

Warty and wonderful

Burning is not the answer

Related Stories

How citizens make laws

Initiatives, referenda and constitutional amendments are explained.

Western hunters debate ethics tooth and claw

In Oregon and other Western states, hunters and environmentalists vigorously debate a variety of anti-trapping and anti-hunting ballot measures.