SEATTLE, Wash. – After the tear gas cleared from Seattle’s streets, environmentalists and labor unions emerged as the only clear winners from last week’s tumultuous World Trade Organization ministerial meeting. Trade officials hoped that the meeting, the first major WTO event held in the U.S., would be a smooth North American debut for the international […]
Chris Carrel
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Western environmentalists go global
SEATTLE, Wash. – When the five-day World Trade Organization conference begins here on Nov. 30, as many as 50,000 protesters are expected to hit the streets with marches and street theater, demanding environmental, labor, safety and human-rights protections in global trade rules. The activists, including local and national union activists and representatives from many Western […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Timber takes a hit
Timber targets on Northwestern national forests fell again in the latest attempt to fine-tune the Northwest Forest Plan (HCN, 11/23/98). “Now we have four years’ experience in implementing the Forest Plan,” says Forest Service spokeswoman Patty Burel. “We’re finding some things need adjusting.” The reductions, announced in December, drop the timber targets on eight national […]
Posted inDecember 21, 1998: Grand Canyon Gridlock
Ice Bump survives congressional ax
For the second year running, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP, or Ice Bump) has survived an attempt on its life in the U.S. Congress. The plan is the federal government’s most ambitious ecosystem management plan ever, covering 72 million acres of public lands sprawling across seven states. The $40 million environmental impact […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Ecosystem management hits ‘Ice Bump’ in the road
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Other regions, such as the Sierra Nevada and the interior Columbia Basin, have attempted to develop ecosystem management plans. In the interior Columbia Basin, the attempt is not going well. The Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (the initials ICBEMP inevitably became “Ice-bump’) is […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
A patchwork peace unravels
Renewed controversy threatens the truce of Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan
Posted inAugust 31, 1998: Excavating Ecotopia
Excavating Ecotopia
Note: two sidebar articles accompany this feature story under these headlines: “A run at sustainable development” and “Tribes strike back at mining.” OROVILLE, Wash. – The first gold in the state was discovered over that ridge,” says 84-year-old Web Hallauer, pointing across shimmering Lake Osoyoos and this small lakeside town and its orchards, to the […]
Posted inAugust 31, 1998: Excavating Ecotopia
A run at sustainable development
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Former Highlands Alliance President Michael “Buffalo” Mazzetti is promoting sustainable development by bottling water from Buckhorn Mountain. Mazzetti debuted the company at the Northwest Natural Foods Show in Seattle last April and secured distribution deals for the first 17,000 bottles. The bottling company has […]
Posted inAugust 31, 1998: Excavating Ecotopia
Tribes strike back at mining
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. COLVILLE INDIAN RESERVATION, Wash. – When the Battle Mountain Gold company came to this 1.4 million-acre reservation in 1994, tribal elder Georgia Iukes says, “Boy, that got my dander up.” At the meeting, she spoke forcefully against the exploration contract the company wanted the […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Fast flux on a fast track
Washington state officials have been firing warning shots at the federal Department of Energy, threatening fines for the sluggish pace of cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (HCN, 5/11/98). “We have had a change of philosophy. We are going to hold their feet to the fire,” says Democratic Gov. Gary Locke. Yet Locke is ready […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Trees and children win
How much are 30,000 acres of forest worth? Washington conservation groups and the state’s Department of Natural Resources are about to find out. On April 8, the two sides settled a trio of lawsuits over the Loomis State Forest in north-central Washington by agreeing to let the conservation groups pay to remove a chunk of […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
Cousin to mad-cow disease hits deer, elk
As anybody who has followed the Oprah Winfrey beef libel trial knows, mad-cow disease has never been found in American cattle. Deer and elk, though, are another matter. Chronic wasting disease, a cousin to the mad-cow plague that decimated British cattle herds, has been identified in deer and elk in three Western states. Infected animals […]