Up Stevens Gulch near Paonia, Colo., some Coloradans want to drive all-terrain vehicles on logging roads the Forest Service once promised it would close off. Now, the agency is offering two more timber sales, which means even more road construction, and then more ATVs. The Colorado Wildlife Federation, Colorado Environmental Coalition and the Western Slope […]
Staff
Quincy Library Group
Michael Jackson, co-founder of the Quincy Library Group, known for its controversial plan for northern California forests, will speak in Olathe, Colo., Sept. 5. The Delta/Montrose Public Lands Partnership, a coalition similar to the Quincy Group, is hosting environmental attorney Jackson, who will speak at 2 p.m. at the Olathe Community Center and participate in […]
Trailfest 1997
Hikers and trail activists will converge on Vail, Colo., Sept. 6-7 for a Continental Divide Trail Alliance conference, Trailfest 1997. There will be workshops and outdoor demonstrations about the 3,100-mile trail, which was designated a National Scenic Trail nearly 20 years ago, but which still needs work to connect trekkers from Canada to southern New […]
Montana Environmental Information Center
Members and friends of the Montana Environmental Information Center will rendezvous in the Bitterroot Valley Saturday, Sept. 13, to exchange stories and revitalize. The gathering at the Teller Wildlife Refuge near Corvallis, Mont., will include workshops on transportation, weeds and the proposed gold mine near Lincoln. All are welcome. For information, call 406/443-2520. This article […]
Waterton-Glacier International Writers Workshop
For people interested in writing about nature and conservation, the Waterton-Glacier International Writers Workshop Sept. 25-27 features workshops and speakers such as John Rimel, publisher at Missoula’s Mountain Press, The Nature Conservancy’s Jim Mepham and many Canadian writers, including Candace Savage. There will also be backcountry hikes, lake cruises and trips to area ranches, watersheds […]
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
You don’t have to be old or a broad to attend the Great Old Broads for Wilderness Annual Broadwalk and Conference Sept. 29-Oct. 5, but it helps to be feisty. The Boulder, Colo.-based environmental nonprofit, started by women over 45, is meeting in southern Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument this year. After a five-day “Broadwalk,” […]
Connections
The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative has a mission: to connect 18,000 miles of wildlife corridors and protect biodiversity for an area that is larger than most states. The Connections conference, from Oct. 2-5 in Canada’s Waterton Lakes National Park, includes speakers Dave Foreman, current chairman of the Wildlands Project, and Colleen McCrory, a director […]
American Birding Association
To encourage young people interested in wildlife and conservation, the American Birding Association is sponsoring the Young Birder of the Year Competition, with lots of prizes, beginning at the end of September. In this year-long contest, kids 10 to 18 years old will be asked to write two essays, and keep a field notebook of […]
Cold weather crowds
Winter is becoming like summer in the greater Yellowstone area, at least if you’re talking about crowds. The past two decades have seen a rising tide of winter visitors, especially snowmobilers and skiers, and with them new concerns for agency managers. This flood of visitors threatens both the health of the wilderness areas and the […]
Celebrate Mono Lake
As water returns to California’s Mono Basin, the nonprofit Mono Lake Committee is getting ready for a Restoration Days celebration, Aug. 29-Sept. 1. The four-day event is a chance for visitors to explore, discover, and help preserve the basin, says Kay Ogden, committee spokeswoman. The documentary film The Battle for Mono Lake. premieres Aug. 29, […]
The Quivira Coalition
Southern New Mexico is best known as a battleground between environmentalists and wise users. Now, two conservationists and a rancher have founded a coalition to show a third way. The group is based in Santa Fe, but its example is Jim Winder’s Double Lightning Ranch near Nutt, N.M. The coalition’s first 16-page newsletter, The Quivira […]
A Colville Valley homecoming
In the early 1800s, when Europeans first made their way into the Northwest, Washington’s Colville Valley turned into a melting pot. Canadian, Iroquois and Cree trappers joined the Salish, followed by Jesuit missionaries, Hawaiians and Scottish, Irish and French-Canadian fur traders in peaceful settlements along the Columbia River. To explore the blending of cultures in […]
Working ranches
The Sonoran Institute, a Tucson, Ariz.-based nonprofit, wants to help ranchers save agricultural lands. Its new illustrated handbook, Preserving Working Ranches in the West, says every four minutes, an acre of working land in Colorado is lost to development. Sonoran Institute spokesman Jon Shepard says ranchers in Arizona’s San Rafael Valley are finding economically viable […]
5.7, 5.7, 5.7 …
The rallying cry “5.7 million acres’ has become well known in Utah as the amount of wilderness pushed by a coalition of environmental groups. But because the proposal for wilderness preservation on Bureau of Land Management land was created 10 years ago, says Kevin Walker, a staffer with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a fresh […]
Water Partnerships
As the West’s demands on water increase, so does the need for cooperation among agricultural, city and recreational interests. Collaboration, an idea with increasing popularity in the West, will be addressed July 30-Aug. 1 at the 22nd annual Colorado Water Workshop in Gunnison, Colo. Water Partnerships: Can Competing Users Cooperate to Manage a Vital Resource […]
The Bear Essential
Attention writers: The free magazine, The Bear Essential, is holding its first annual Edward Abbey short fiction contest, deadline Sept. 2. Editor Tom Webb tells us judges want unpublished “quality work with a Western environmental aspect” and that winners receive $100 to $500. For more information, write The Bear Essential, P.O. Box 10342, Portland, OR […]
Ecological Consultants for the Public Interest
The nonprofit Ecological Consultants for the Public Interest, founded five months ago by Boulder, Colo., lawyer Randall Weiner, has already made headlines. On behalf of a Denver neighborhood exposed to a hydrogen-chloride spill, the environmental consulting firm sued Vulcan Chemical Co., which had failed to provide adequate warnings and information to residents. The neighborhood has […]
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
The government’s planning team for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is seeking ideas. The team, which includes the BLM and Utah’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology, wants proposals for papers on the geology, paleontology, biology and archaeology of the new monument. Scientists and planners at a symposium in November will assess the papers and […]
No parking in the parks
The public has spoken: America’s national parks are crowded. Consumer Reports asked 40,000 of its subscribers to rate their experiences in America’s national parks. The survey found that along with spectacular scenery, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon offered headaches over parking, bad roads and too many people. Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park, ranked 27th […]
Rising From Tradition
The work of nine Native American artists from Idaho, Oregon and Washington will be on display at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Ore., for the next nine months. The show, called Rising From Tradition: Contemporary Native Art from the Plateau, features traditional work such as coiled baskets and woven cornhusk belts and pouches, but […]
