Items by Peter Chilson

In Large and Sunlit Land
Peter Chilson ponders the parallel fates of two lovely and ravaged lands: The Southwest desert in America and the West Coast of Africa.
Surrounded by dogs, bikers, developers
Rifle, Colo., rancher Jim Snyder has seen statistics become visible on his own land as the area grows and the economy changes.
An era ends: old industries face reality
Rifle, Colo., offers an example of how Western communities formerly dependent on extractive industries must find a way to adapt to changing socio-economics as the old industries decline.
The Wayward West
Santa Fe Mayor Debbie Jaramillo loses to Larry Delgado; Wilma Mankiller honored; Babbitt under investigation; Sierra Club voting on immigration; lawsuit over Arizona flash flood; People for the West now for the USA.
Lawmakers struggle to rewrite the Endangered Species Act
None of the current bills in Congress to rewrite the Endangered Species Act are pleasing to all environmentalists, developers or the politicians debating them.
The Wayward West
Canada lynx listed; Wayne Taylor Jr. ew Hopi chairman; John Mumma stays with Colo. Div. of Wildlife; Yellowstone's top law officer, Dan Sholly, transferred; judge rejects landfill next to Joshua Tree Nat. Park, Calif.; cows barred from Utah's Comb Wash.
Into the canyon: Fear and heat on foot
A long, hot hike into - and back out of - the Grand Canyon takes the writer into the heart of a park that is beautiful, much visited, and still very dangerous.
A Nevada power plant earns itself a lawsuit
The Mohave Generating Plant in southern Nevada is blamed for much of the air pollution that shrouds Grand Canyon, but the plant's owners say cleaning it up will force the plant to close and lay off Navajo workers.
The Grand Canyon struggles with reality
Developers, residents and conservationists battle over the rapid growth outside the park.
The Wayward West
Western senators flunk conservation report card; Joshua Tree landfill rejected; Yucca Mtn. ot ready for waste; Hart Mtn., Ore., coyotes safe from guns, but Yellowstone bison are not; BLM looking at Utah's Lockhart Basin.
The Wayward West
Taylor Ranch troubles continue; Tortolita, Ariz., under attack; Clinton administration's "no surprise' policy on endangered species suspended; non-residential property owners may vote near Telluride, Colo.; Utah's legal marriage age may rise to 16.
A 'liberal' court gets some breathing room
Western conservatives in U.S. Senate, trying to destroy 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because of its "liberalism,' compromise on creating a commission to study the appeals court system.
The Wayward West
Forest Service admits losing money on timber; Utah plans to block nuclear waste shipment; Clinton nixes mineral rights transfer to Montana; Maine's Edwards Dam to be removed for salmon; Ted Turner sees bucks in bison.
The Wayward West
Quincy Library Group bill; Navajos reject gambling; no money from Clinton for Mt. Graham telescope; Rep. Peter DeFazio seeks mining royalties instead of user fees; truce on logging in Rio Arriba County, N.M.; Romer approves "A-LP Lite.'
The Wayward West
Babbitt on gambling; Charles Wilkinson's pro-logging; Headwaters protesters; Portland's bikes stolen; Animas La-Plata update; winter in Yellowstone; China Left timber sale; oil/gas industry appeal Mont. ban; Dinosaur Nat'l Mon.; BLM's Mike Austin.
Germany targets U.S. airspace
A proposed bombing range for the German Air Force in New Mexico raises the ire of local ranchers and environmentalists.
Barbara Sutteer: Fees draw fire from two public-land users
National Park Service staffer Barbara Sutteer, in her own words, discusses Indian feelings about user fees on public lands.
Guy Clark: Fees draw fire from two public-land users
Colorado hunter Guy Clark, in his own words, discusses his opposition to user fees on the West's public lands.
At Mount St. Helens fees go dangerously high
Some say increased user fees at Washington's Mount St. Helens National Monument could lead to increased accidents as climbers hurry to save on fees.
The land is still public, but it's no longer free
The federal government's new Recreational Fee Demonstration Program - which requires recreationists to "pay to play" in national parks, forests, BLM and Fish and Wildlife areas nationwide - receives both condemnation and kudos in its early trials.
Farmland wins a round
The Oregon Supreme Court upholds the state's right to enforce strict rules against the non-agricultural development of high-value farmland.
Floods hammer Southwest
Severe thunderstorms have caused flash floods in Arizona, killing people near Douglas and in Antelope Canyon, derailing a train and leading to the evacuation of residents and tourists from a Havasupai Indian village just outside Grand Canyon.
Comment on the Idaho Statesman's editorial series
Peter Chilson editorializes on the Idaho Statesman's editorials.
A small victory for logging protesters
In Oregon, five protesters win in court over trespassing charges stemming from the Warner Creek fire sale in Willamette National Forest.
A cheatgrass antidote - maybe
The BLM's desire to use DuPont's pesticide Oust to kill a weed called cheatgrass provokes controversy.
Prairie dogs beat the bullet
The Colorado Wildlife Commission restricts "contest shoots" of small game, including prairie dogs and coyotes.
A Colorado reality check: lions roam and kill
In separate attacks by mountain lions, a boy in Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park is wounded, and another boy, in Rocky Mountain National Park, is killed.
In Oregon, tension over coho and trees
In Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest, environmentalists protest the China Left timber sale, saying logging will harm endangered coho salmon.
Did ranchers fire a university president?
The firing of New Mexico State University President J. Michael Orenduff may have been at the behest of ranching interests.
Timber mill dreams of museum
Hull-Oakes Lumber Company wants to make a museum of a 90-year-old mill near Monroe, Ore., but environmentalists believe the company's stipulating that it get subsidized timber at the mill won't wash.
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