Once close to extinction, the black-footed ferret is making a comeback this year. Over the past decade, thousands of the critters have been raised in captivity by a federally funded breeding program. This year, scientists plan to release around 250 ferrets in five Western states, adding to the estimated 200 captive-bred ferrets already in the […]
Rebecca Clarren
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
The big picture
-These photos are a stop-gap look at a point in time, a chance to see what the landscape looked like six or 10 years ago.” *Bill DuBois From the pilot’s seat of his 44-year-old Cessna 180 plane, F.E. Bill DuBois has been taking photos of every precious metal mine in Nevada for 24 years. What […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Julia Butterfly won’t come down
Julia “Butterfly” Hill has become something of a celebrity. She has lived in a 1,000-year-old redwood tree near Stafford, Calif., for over a year, spreading the message that “each and every one of the old-growth trees is ancient, precious, and priceless.” From the 300 to 500 letters she receives daily, Hill is confident that people […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Oil wells in my backyard?
DURANGO, Colo. – -Well, in the late 1980s, the kids started lighting the lemonade on fire, so I knew something was going on,” says Carl Weston, a resident of southwestern Colorado’s La Plata County. Something was also going on miles away at Randy Ferris’ house; he was alarmed when his tap water emerged looking like […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Fishers fail trout test
That fat trout sizzling in an Idaho skillet last summer might have been a species on the edge of extinction. Even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed bull trout as threatened under the Endangered Species Act last June, that doesn’t mean anglers know what the fish looks like. Almost 70 percent of those […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Three cheers for the Treemusketeers
When the city council of El Segundo, Calif., announced that it would not support a city curbside recycling program, the Treemusketeers sprang into action. This environmental organization of young people, 10 to 14 years old, surveyed residents, contacted the city waste-hauler and then devised a subscription-based recycling program. Residents now can pay a waste-hauler $6 […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
A Wyoming river needs help
A group of Wyoming fly fishermen needs help resuscitating a river. Since 1961, a 17-foot conduit has been sucking Platte River water from Wyoming’s Fremont Canyon and tunneling it down to a hydro-electric power plant managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. When the river dries up in the summer, “the bugs dry up, the fish […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
User fee critics contest report
New gate fees charged in national parks and other federal recreation areas raise money without turning away visitors, according to a recent General Accounting Office report. But the report was based only on the comments of people at trailheads who were willing to fill out cards; those not bothering to respond or who protested by […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Does soccer tread on open space?
When a Washington state soccer association bought a 112-acre farm for its new soccer field recently, it started a bitter match over open space. The land, in the Sammamish Valley east of Seattle, is protected under King County’s 20-year-old farmland preservation program, and critics say a soccer field doesn’t measure up. “This soccer group thinks […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Cows conquer condos
A 32,000-acre ranch will remain free of subdivisions – no small feat for property that straddles the border between Moab, Utah, and Grand Junction, Colo., an area being developed at a rate that’s twice the national average. The landowner, who has asked to remain anonymous, has been working since 1979 with a land trust in […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Damning report on dams
Spawning chinook salmon would be better off if they didn’t have to swim the gantlet of four dams on Idaho’s Snake River, says a panel of independent scientists. By testing that hypothesis with a computer model, the scientists found threatened spring and summer chinook salmon would have a greater than 80 percent chance of restoration […]
Posted inJanuary 18, 1999: Desert sprawl
Crust course coming
Although they resemble bits of black rubber, clumps of lumpy soil crust found throughout the arid West prevent erosion. This slow-growing community of microscopic plants, however, is feeling the effects of cattle grazing, off-road vehicles and outdoor recreation. Next month, the Bureau of Land Management will sponsor an intensive training course on the biology and […]