Anti-grazing groups are trying to convince Congress to buy
out ranchers' grazing allotments on public land, but resistance on
the part of permit holders may stop the effort.
Items by Stephen Stuebner
When the dairy industry invades rural Idaho, communities
face the dilemma of what to do with the waste cows produce. The
huge dairy operations are contaminating local air and
water.
Martha Hahn is forced out of her job as Idaho state
director of the BLM, largely because she backed grazing cutbacks in
the Owyhee Mountains.
Foreign competition, low prices and increasing labor costs
have sent the U.S. sheep industry into a decline that is felt
especially in Idaho.
Idaho's new Office of Species Conservation is supposed to
oversee endangered species recovery in the state, but some fear the
office and its first director, Jim Caswell, will be more concerned
about industry's needs than wildlife.
A list gives some of the resources environmental educators
can find on the Internet.
Jeff Mitchell in Philomath, Ore., and Clinton Kennedy in
McCall, Idaho, are two teachers who have found creative ways to
teach environmental studies in the conservative West.
Some critics say that Project Learning Tree, one of the
most popular environmental education programs, is too biased toward
the timber industry which helps to underwrite it.
In the West's public schools, corporations and
conservationists quietly compete to control what students will
learn in the largely unregulated field of environmental
education.
The late Paul Fritz is remembered as a conservationist
whose years in the Park Service reflect a man who was independent
and outspoken.
In Idaho, a judge rules that three fishing lodges along
the Wild and Scenic Salmon River must be removed.
C.L. "Butch" Otter, who is running for the U.S. House seat
that Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R, is leaving, has gained points in
conservative Idaho by fighting the EPA over destroying part of a
wetland.
Washington state Democrat Maria Cantwell, who is running
against longtime Republican Sen. Slade Gorton, is backed by tribes
and environmentalists.
An unprecedented, informal coalition of angry Indian
tribes, environmentalists and Democrats are going after Washington
Republican Sen. Slade Gorton's seat in November, and Gorton's
opponent - Democrat Maria Cantwell - may have a chance for
victory.
Two backcountry huts used by cross-country skiers in Sun
Valley, Idaho, were destroyed by arson, and some suspect the
arsonists might have been snowmobilers irate over ORV restrictions
in national forests.
In his own words, ranch manager Stacy Davies says that
multiple use is best for Steens Mountain.
In his own words, rancher Fred Otley defends ranchers'
stewardship on Steens Mountain.
In his own words, Bill Marlett of the Oregon Natural
Desert Association says that Steens Mountain needs all the
protection it can get.
In her own words, Sierra Club volunteer Jill Workman says
that grazing need not be banned on Steens Mountain.
In his own words, environmentalist lawyer Andy Kerr argues
for an end to grazing on Steens Mountain.
While Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt considers greater
protection for Oregon's Steens Mountain, local ranchers and
environmentalists argue over whether the land should become a
cow-free national monument or a conservation area that would allow
grazing.
In his own words, retired Air Force pilot and
environmentalist Herb Meyr discusses working with ranchers
one-to-one vs. Jon Marvel's combative tactics.
Land and Water Fund lawyer Laird Lucas defends Jon
Marvel's work against public-lands ranching.
Emmett, Idaho, rancher Brad Little says that environmental
activist Jon Marvel is abusing the system in his attempt to end all
ranching, not just public-lands ranching.
Jon Marvel, Hailey, Idaho, architect, founded the Idaho
Watersheds Project to target public-lands grazing, but his
notoriously in-your-face, confrontational style has roused a lot of
controversy along the way.
Pilots object to a proposed wilderness management plan
that would require user fees and permits on flights to airstrips in
Idaho's Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
Dallas lawyer Thomas A. Fry III is appointed acting
director of BLM.
The Idaho Conservation League is furious because a
pro-timber industry group has set up a Web site with a very similar
name and an opposing message.
FMC Corp.'s phosphorous plant near Pocatello, Idaho, is
fined $11.8 million for environmental violations that include a
fire that sent poisonous gas wafting onto Shoshone-Bannock tribal
land.
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