Items by Mark Matthews
Ski resorts become a tool for real estate speculation and
development across the West.
Missoula, Mont., like many amenity-rich Western towns, is
becoming too expensive for its working-class population
The writer says there’s a passionate martyrdom in
the recent past of Butte, Montana
Mark Matthews finds rising property values in his town
leave him forever a renter
Timothy Treadwell was killed by an Alaskan grizzly because
the self-proclaimed bear expert treated wild animals without proper
respect, as if they were children
Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg, R, wants to yank
private lands out of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National
Monument, but some local ranchers fear his bill will just make it
harder for them to sell their property.
Mark Matthews points out that Alaska grizzlies deserve our
respect -- and our distance
Scientists have finally found a way to save the white pine
from blister rust – but finding space in the forest to plant
new trees is proving almost as difficult
In Idaho’s Panhandle region, the Potlatch Corp. is
negotiating conservation easements on as much as 600,000 acres of
forest, but not all conservationists are thrilled at the
prospect
Montana’s Clark Fork River Coalition is celebrating
the EPA’s call for the removal of Milltown Dam and its toxic
reservoir, a decision even conservative Gov. Judy Martz says
God’s will
Controversy is rising over a plan to transfer management
of Montana’s National Bison Range and several other wildlife
refuges to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
Mark Matthews says tribal management of a federal bison
refuge makes sense
Forests aren’t destroyed by wildfires; instead,
wildflowers are reborn
In Arizona, Peabody Western Coal is working with Navajo
and Hopi Indians to reclaim its coal mines using culturally
valuable native plants
The native-seeds business is thriving, as more Westerners
realize the value of a healthy rangeland, but the current
unfriendly political climate in Washington, D.C., may bring an
untimely frost
New management plans for 10 national grasslands in the
Dakotas, Wyoming and Nebraska are getting flak from every
direction.
In the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana, ranchers
and environmentalists are fighting plans to drill up to 65,000 new
coalbed methane wells
The Bush administration’s plan to privatize federal
jobs may be good for business, but bad for the environment and for
workers.
The Bush administration has ordered federal
land-management agencies to identify jobs that might be performed
more cheaply by the private sector.
Displaced federal employees may find it difficult to adapt
to work in the private sector.
In Montana, Initiative 145 would undo the deregulation of
power in the state, allowing citizens to take back control of
hydroelectric dams.
Firefighters are worried that a lawsuit filed against the
Forest Service, blaming the agency for the loss of homes near
Connor, Mont., may make it harder to use backfires to fight
wildfires.
New CEO Rich Lane of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is
directed to use corporate-style downsizing of the work force while
at the same time build a $22 million new headquarters for the
nonprofit.
Wyoming's fight with Montana over a new Montana stamp that
shows a cowboy on a bucking horse shows that the Postal Service has
fallen for Western myths that have nothing to do with the states'
real characters.
State and federal officials fight over how to clean up
Idaho's Silver Valley, where mining pollution has spread past the
Bunker Hill Superfund Site into Lake Coeur d'Alene and a huge swath
of northern Idaho.
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 Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes fight a plan
to four-lane Highway 93 through Montana's Flathead Reservation,
winning a new highway plan with tough protections for wildlife,
safety and cultural resources.
Some Forest Service firefighters say a rule requiring
firefighters to retire at age 55 cuts longtime seasonal workers out
of permanent jobs with health and retirement benefits.
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