The Environmental Protection Agency is developing the
first emission standards for off-road motors, including
snowmobiles.
Items by Ray Ring
In West Yellowstone, Mont., where snowmobile tourism is a
mainstay of the economy, locals are split between fierce supporters
of the industry and those who favor a little more quiet and a
measure of control.
A "Time" magazine column about satellite radio that
described the New Jersey Turnpike as "the middle of nowhere"
provides unintentional humor to Westerners who know the real
meaning of nowhere.
The Bush administration picks Wyoming resident Paul
Hoffman to run the BLM as assistant secretary of the Interior for
fish, wildlife and parks.
Environmentalists adopt the conservative strategy of
working to derail the nomination of federal judges whom they fear
could harm their cause.
A federal judge rules that the Burn Area Recovery Plan,
which would log Montana's Bitterroot National Forest, must be put
on hold until the Forest Service gives the public a chance to
appeal.
The Northern Plains Resource Council is unique among
Montana environmental groups in that it was founded by cattle
ranchers, who still make up half the membership.
In his own words, Libby, Mont., accountant Wayne Hirst
talks about how Montana environmentalists went wrong.
In his own words, activist Bob Decker talks about
Montana's environmental groups and the struggle they face in their
state.
Back in the '70s, Montana led the way in progressive
environmental legislation, but now with its economy faltering,
those laws are being eviscerated, and environmentalists need to
find a new strategy.
Alberta, Canada, ranchers are frustrated by the
government's lack of oversight of the proliferating sour-gas plants
that some say harm health and livestock.
The Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill tries to give
something to everybody, as a list of some of its provisions
reveals
Environmentalists, farmers and state and federal agencies
try to find some kind of consensus even as each reaches for a share
of the overused Platte River as it flows from Colorado, through
Wyoming and across Nebraska.
The Sunnyside Mine near Silverton, Colo., is an unusual
example of a community working together with miners and
environmentalists to find a strategy to heal the damage.
Some say the often-picturesque ruins of mining create a
historical landscape that has value whether there is pollution or
not.
The story of Colorado's Summitville Mine is a story of
spectacular failures.
The old mining town of Anaconda, Mont., has turned a mine
dump into a designer golf course.
Plant physiologist Ray Brown works to help mining-damaged
ecosystems recover - with the help of a few hardy plant
species.
Lloyd Harkins, who spent his early years working in
Montana mines, now devotes himself to salvaging and collecting the
industrial paraphernalia of hardrock mining, from ore cars to a
78-ft. tall head frame.
The reclamation of Montana's hardrock mines will cost
billions, and is complicated by the fact that no one really knows
how to do it, or who should foot the bill.
A look at odd statistics in the West includes a few
surprises.
Musing on the gravestones in Anaconda, Mont., a writer
theorizes that one can tell whether a town is Old West or New West
by the ratio of the buried to the currently alive
inhabitants.
The preferential treatment Big Sky gives the pro-resort
Lone Peak Lookout over the independent Big Sky Bugle is an ironic
legacy for a hard-hitting journalist like Chet Huntley to
leave.
Seven ski resorts ring Yellowstone National Park and add
to the pressure on a fragile ecosystem.
A computerized key-pad locked road in Big Sky epitomizes a
ski resort where the "haves" are carefully kept from the
trespassing "have nots."
Big Sky founding father and famous TV newsman Chet Huntley
started the resort but did not live to see what he
created.
Former Big Sky ski patrolman J.C. Knaub in his own words
describes the difficulties faced in trying to bring neighborhood
parks and trails to Big Sky.
A Montana ski resort originally created by newsman Chet
Huntley and intended to be a model of free-market, unconstrained
development, is today a morass of lawsuits, environmental
degradation and inefficiency.
Land swaps, like the one planned to save land near
Yellowstone National Park from mining, are a bad habit with a bad
history in Montana's national forests.
Activist Ray Wheeler sets an intense pace as he personally
lobbies in D.C. for wilderness preservation in Utah.
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