Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Last chance for the Lobo.” PRE-1970 Mexican wolves extirpated from the Southwestern U.S. by private, state and government control campaigns. 1970s 1976 Mexican wolf listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. 1977-1980 Five wolves captured in Mexico to establish a captive breeding program. […]
Staff
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Two weeks in the West
Big coal remains big and the weather gets wacky in the New Year. Is there a connection?
Posted inDecember 25, 2006: Confessions of a Methane Floozy
Two weeks in the West
“People will go to any length to have these things in their possession. It’s big antlers and big egos.” — Jim Kropp, chief of wildlife law enforcement in Montana, on a wave of trophy game poaching that’s alarmed officials and angered licensed hunters in Montana, Nevada and other Western states. Mobsters or federal employees — […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
Two weeks in the West
“You guys caused the problem.” — John Mudre of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, blaming a biologist and the media for drawing too many people to a public hearing in Eureka, Calif., to consider Klamath dam relicensing. Two hundred people packed a hallway after the room reached its capacity of 350. FERC booked the same […]
Posted inNovember 27, 2006: The West: A New Center of Power
Two weeks in the West
“What are you going to do? They dumped millions on my head.” —Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., on election night, as he realized he would get voted out of office. Democrat Jerry McNerney upset Pombo with the help of an infusion of cash from various environmental groups. Indian Country thaw. The Hopi and Navajo tribes this […]
Posted inNovember 13, 2006: Bred for success
Two weeks in the West
“With no disrespect to the eagle, I’ve always thought that the horse should be our national emblem.” —Singer Willie Nelson, arguing against the slaughter of horses for human consumption Interior’s fuzzy science. If it were up to many U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists, the Endangered Species Act would now protect the Gunnison’s prairie dog, […]
Posted inOctober 30, 2006: Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico's Forests
Two weeks in the West
“It won’t be serving the Wal-Mart and Kentucky Fried Chicken crowd.” — Jeania Joseph, town clerk for Big Water, Utah, referring to the $200 million Amangiri resort slated for construction near Lake Powell. It will boast $6 million villas, $1,200 a night rooms, and a 100,000-square-foot-spa. EPA boots soot, sort of. Fine particles of soot […]
Posted inOctober 30, 2006: Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico's Forests
Dear friends
HCN BOARD MEETING The fall meeting of the High Country News Board of Directors, held in Missoula, Mont., focused on the rapidly changing world of publishing, especially the growing prominence of the Internet as a news source. Web master Paolo Bacigalupi walked board members through our Web site, hcn.org, and explained our strategy for turning […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Some ‘canned’ elk get uncanned
Although most of its neighbors have either banned or begun phasing out elk farms, the state of Idaho is still home to more than 70, with some charging shooters thousands of dollars to bag fenced, domesticated game. In August, as many as 160 elk escaped from an Idaho canned-hunt operation near Yellowstone National Park. It […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Will your favorite Forest Service campsite be closed down next summer?
Perhaps, if it doesn’t fit the agency’s increased focus on “dispersed recreation” at remote sites. The 155 national forests are now ranking their developed camping and picnic sites to determine if they meet agency standards; those that fall short will be closed or have their services reduced. According to a recent report from the Western […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
BLM busted for booting whistleblower
Former BLM staffer Earle Dixon, who was in charge of cleanup at the abandoned Yerington copper mine in Nevada, says he was fired in October 2004 after one year of work for informing local residents and the media of radioactive contamination at the mine. He accused the BLM, the State of Nevada and the U.S. […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
One dam down; four in limbo
Endangered Lost River and short-nose sucker fish in Oregon’s Klamath Basin may get some relief, now that the Modoc Point Irrigation District has voted to remove the Chiloquin dam and re-establish access to spawning habitat on the Sprague River, a tributary of the Klamath. The Interior Department will foot the $15-to-$16 million bill to take […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Mother Nature rides an ATV
Two small cacti have put a stop to motorcycles and ATVs on one of southern Utah’s most contested pieces of public land. On Sept. 20, the BLM announced that off-highway vehicle use would be restricted in the desert surrounding Factory Butte to protect the endangered Wright fishhook and the threatened Winkler cactus. The decision closes […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Wildland acres burned
As global temperatures rise, wildfires are starting earlier and lasting longer into the season. As of press time there were 10 large fires (over 500 acres) burning in the West. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Wildland acres burned.
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Give us your poor, your uninsured…
Many Westerners live in poverty, but even more lack health insurance. U.S. Percentage below poverty level: 12.6 Percentage without health coverage: 15.7 New Mexico Percentage below poverty level: 17.9 Percentage without health coverage: 21.1 Arizona Percentage below poverty level: 15.2 Percentage without health coverage: 8.1 Montana Percentage below poverty level: 13.8 Percentage without health coverage: […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
‘They both do not exist’
“They both do not exist.” — Wyoming Attorney General Patrick Crank, equating the federally protected Preble’s meadow jumping mouse with the mythical jackalope. Crank made the comparison at a congressional hearing on the mouse in Greeley, Colo., in September. U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., led the hearing. This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Roadless returns!
On Sept. 19, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte reinstated protection for some 50 million acres of roadless national forest land. (Separate rules govern the roughly 9 million roadless acres of Alaska’s Tongass.) Laporte ruled that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act when, in 2005, it repealed President […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
It’s shady in the Interior
The U.S. Interior Department’s top watchdog, Inspector General Earl Devaney, blasted the department before Congress on Sept. 13 for waiving billions of dollars in federal royalty payments from oil and gas companies. He’s also disgusted by the department’s refusal to address conflict-of-interest issues, specifically those including J. Steven Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist-turned deputy […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Half a Roan for gas, and half for everyone else
The BLM’s management plan for western Colorado’s Roan Plateau, released in Sept. 7, manages to upset everyone. The plan opens the plateau’s gas reserves to energy companies, irking environmentalists, but limits surface development to only half of the 34,758 acres on top of the plateau. The plateau, known for its wildlife and scenery, is believed […]