Freshmen congressmen go to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to learn the ropes. Now, tribal leaders have a comparable resource. This winter, the University of Arizona and the Morris K. Udall Foundation, in conjunction with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, established what could become the premier training center for Indian leaders – […]
Mark Muro
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Silence of the clams
ARIZONA Environmentalists have long charged that dams and water diversions are killing the Colorado River and its delta (HCN, 7/3/00: A river resurrected: The Colorado River Delta gets a second chance). Now, scientists have quantified those accusations by counting clams. Their conclusion: The delta has lost 95 percent of its biological richness since Hoover Dam […]
Posted inNovember 20, 2000: Water pressure
Old West guns down growth initiatives
Well, so much for the great land-use greening of 2000. Colorado and Arizona’s bold citizen initiatives to toughen their states’ growth-management rules both went down in flames. Colorado’s Amendment 24 rode high all summer, but support for the proposed constitutional amendment to require towns to map future growth and obtain voter approval for changes fell […]
Posted inAugust 17, 1998: Living out the trailer dream
Crash kills a conservation deal
Dollars have downed a landmark bid to hold together one of Arizona’s most scenic ranches. This spring, Arizona State Parks offered rancher Bob Sharp and his sisters $9 million to preserve the family’s ranch in the lush San Rafael Valley south of Tucson (HCN, 3/2/98). A conservation easement would have given the state the development […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Tribe seeks its key peak
Tohono O’odham Indians have long gazed up at the soaring tower of Baboquivari Peak, southwest of Tucson, Ariz., with mingled reverence and consternation. They have never accepted a 1917 boundary survey that placed the east side of the tribe’s most sacred mountain on federal land, outside their main reservation. Now, the tribe hopes the dispute […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Exotic predators swallow the Southwest’s native frogs
LEWIS SPRINGS, Ariz. – Phil Rosen is knee-deep in a disaster this spring day. Just a few years ago, native leopard frogs filled algae-covered pools in this side drainage of the San Pedro River, one of the last free-flowing rivers in the Southwest, 70 miles southeast of Tucson. Now, Rosen keeps turning up bad news. […]
Posted inMarch 2, 1998: Wild horses: Do they belong in the West?
A conservation first for Arizona
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Ariz. – Travelers often gasp when they reach the crest of Forest Road 58 in the Patagonia Mountains and see the San Rafael Valley spreading below to Mexico. The valley, where the musical Oklahoma was filmed years ago, is a wide bowl of grassland and gentle ridges, one of the most unbroken […]
Posted inMarch 3, 1997: Hunters close ranks, and minds
‘Un-logging’ the national forests? It might just happen
Should conservation groups be able to buy federal timber just so they can leave it standing? Three environmental organizations recently posed that question in a formal petition to the Secretary of Agriculture, whose department oversees the Forest Service. Currently, the Forest Service designates only logging outfits as “responsible bidders’ on tree sales. But with their […]