Items by April Reese
A fledgling effort in New Mexico's 'Yellowstone of the South.'
Attorney Lance Astrella represents landowners coping with oil and gas development on their doorsteps.
While federal public-land agencies dither, some Western states are cracking down on off-road vehicle problems.
A lack of participation could scuttle voluntary conservation agreements designed to protect species like New Mexico’s lesser prairie chickens and sand dune lizards.
There are efforts to reclaim oil and gas drilling sites, but many fear it’s too little, too late.
Conservationists can file formal protests when the BLM
wants to auction off public land to energy companies, but the
differences between regional management plans and styles make the
protest game little more than a crapshoot.
In Santa Fe, N.M., April Reese wrestles with the question of whether owning a new house is worth being responsible for the bulldozing of pinon and juniper trees.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., does an about-face and moves
to protect New Mexico’s Valle Vidal from oil and gas
drilling
Western states debate the best way to look after their
roadless areas even as logging, drilling and mining move in on
formerly protected lands
Yates Petroleum Co. plans to drill two gas wells in New
Mexico’s Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge
With the federal government dragging its feet, Western
states are beginning to take action to deal with greenhouse gas
emissions and global warming
John Morgart works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
overseeing the recovery of Mexican wolves in the Blue Range of New
Mexico and Arizona
The Bush administration says its revision of the Roadless
Area Conservation Rule rule will increase local control over
national forests, but as Western governors read the fine print,
they begin to have doubts
On the Upper Deschutes area of Oregon, the Bureau of Land
Management is working to move cows off the public land
Tough economics, drought, and increasing clashes with
other public-lands users are leading some ranchers to consider
taking the "golden saddle" – a check from conservationists in
exchange for their grazing permits
Sister Joan Brown of Albuquerque, a Franciscan, believes
Christianity needs to go beyond the doors of the church and into
the natural world
Cloudcroft, N.M., creates its own conservation plan to
protect the rare Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly without
waiting for an endangered species listing
Ted Turner's Northern New Mexican Vermejo Park Ranch is a
showcase for "responsible" gas development, but critics fear the
neighboring Valle Vidal won’t get the same five-star
treatment.
GeoProducts wants to build a geothermal plant in New
Mexico’s Valles Caldera National Preserve and sell power to
Los Alamos National Laboratory, but some say the whole plan is a
scam to get money from the Forest Service
A 10-year-old plan to build a controversial expressway
through Petroglyph National Monument hits a "stop" sign, when
Albuquerque voters refuse to pay for it
From Conquest to Conservation: Our Public Lands Legacy by
Michael P. Dombeck, Christopher A. Wood and Jack E. Williams takes
a hopeful view of the ecological future of the nation’s
public lands
Even as the Rosebud Sioux Reservation works on building
and marketing "wind power," the pressure is on to exploit
traditional energy sources in Indian Country
Under a new law, California's three investor-owned
utilities must buy 20 percent of their power from alternative
energy sources such as wind and solar.
