Feature

No home on the range

The deliberate slaughter of bison straying from Yellowstone National Park - killed because the brucellosis they may carry might endanger livestock - provokes a storm of protest, and calls into question the concept of wildlife management in the park.

Dear Friends

Dear friends

Out for birds at N.M.'s Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge; HCN board meeting in Socorro, N.M.; 19,000 readers; subscription raise; obituary for Ruth Hutchins.

News

A tragic blend of wild and domestic

Recent maulings and a death caused by wolf-dog hybrids leads to talk of legislation in Colorado and discussion elsewhere in the West about the dangers the wolf-dogs pose.

Utahns fight over flights

A Utah County's decision to permit helicopter skiing on a private ranch raises opposition from residents and backcountry skiers.

Lost and found

The fires of summer 1996 in Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park damaged at least one petroglyph panel beyond repair - but also revealed 92 "new" archaeological sites formerly hidden by dense shrub growth.

A-LP makes a hit list

Colorado's Animas-La Plata project makes a Washington, D.C., "corporate welfare" hit list, while the Southern Ute Tribal Council ousts outspoken A-LP opponent Ray Frost over allegations of sexual harassment.

Planning begins at the ballot box

Big Horn, Wyo., residents who lost a lawsuit to stop a resort and 600-home development get revenge by ousting one of the county commissioners who allowed the development.

Who wins when a river returns?

A project to restore a riparian ecosystem would return water to California's Lower Owens River.

Clinton's budget blows off a wilder West

Environmentalists urge President Clinton to budget more money for public lands and conservation in a difficult era of cutbacks and competing causes.

Boats may get bounced

Jet skiers and those who rent and sell machines to them are irate over a possible ban of the noisy watercraft from Lake Tahoe.

Jobs open up in Washington

Sylvia Baca becomes temporary head of the BLM as Mike Dombeck moves to the Forest Service, and the National Park Service seeks a replacement for Roger Kennedy.

'Ugly' addition must go

The Forest Service wins a lawsuit over an illegal addition to an A-frame house on private property in Idaho's Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

We'd rather have weeds, Missoulians say

The non-native weeds covering Mount Sentinel in Missoula, Mont., prompt an emotional debate over the possible use of pesticides to eradicate them.

Idaho says no to grizzlies

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission opposes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's plan to restore grizzly bears to the state.

Book Reviews

Private boaters unite

The new group, the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association, seeks to unite private river runners as effectively as the professional boaters.

Whose West is it?

The Denver-based Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute holds a conference March 13-14.

When parks close, towns lose

A report by the National Parks and Conservation Association says that gateway communities suffered big economic losses when national parks closed during the 1996 government shutdown.

This trip's to the pits

ASARCO Inc. is offering tours of its giant Mission Mine near Tucson, Ariz.

The houses that HUD built

The Seattle Times has reprints of its five-part series documenting how the deregulation of tribal housing offices led to some tribal leaders building huge mansions for themselves while the majority of Native Americans live in substandard housing.

Go native

Native plant societies help gardeners learn to cultivate their state's home species.

Alien invasions

The Nature Conservancy's report, "America's Least Wanted," lists the 12 most threatening invaders of U.S. ecosystems.

Essays

When it's 25 below and dropping

Life at 25 below in towns like Livingston, Mont., is made bearable by things like poker, polar fleece and Portabello mushrooms.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Mark Wattles' 50,000-sq.-ft. Oregon mansion; bee power in Colorado; snail ranching in Oregon; repelling geese with grape spray; Sen. Craig defends Bobby Unser's wilderness trespassing; Valentine's Day "boudoir in the sky" in LA.

Related Stories

For bison, it's deja vu all over again

The history of bison in Yellowstone National Park is a century of human manipulation of wildlife.

Federal agency was careless with a live vaccine

The federal agency APHIS has broken scientific protocol by experimenting with a live brucellosis vaccine in bison herds in national parks and a national wildlife refuge without knowledge and consent of the Park Service.

'Humane is what's best for humans'

Yellowstone National Park photographer Jim Peaco, in his own words, on the bison slaughter.

To the south, bison and cattle coexist

While the Yellowstone bison are slaughtered , south of the park near Grand Teton National Park, cattle have grazed next to brucellosis-infected bison and elk for 75 years with no problems.

'I kill them and cook them'

In his own words, Mac Carelli, owner of C&C Meats in Sheridan, Wyo., describes how he deals with bison carcasses.