Ship recycler promises jobs, but coastal community decides costs outweigh benefits
News
Posted inFebruary 20, 2006: High Noon for Habitat
Colorado River states reach landmark agreement
In severe drought, farms could become cities’ life support systems
Posted inFebruary 20, 2006: High Noon for Habitat
Tribe brings on the tourists
Hualapai Nation plans ambitious development at Grand Canyon
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
The Latest Bounce
Pete McCloskey, the 78-year-old former Republican Congressman who helped write the 1974 Endangered Species Act, does not take kindly to having his handiwork messed with. So he’s rented a house in the district of Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and is planning to run — as a Republican — against the anti-environmental crusader this November (HCN, […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Congressional group plans for oil’s decline
Within the next 20 years, worldwide oil production will likely peak and no longer meet demand (HCN, 12/12/05: Final Energy Frontier). Now, some members of Congress are saying we need to prepare for life after that point. “We are going to peak, and we should be planning for it, and we’re not,” says Rep. Tom […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
First fatal wolf attack recorded in North America?
Conservationists have long assuaged the public’s fear of wolves by saying that there have been no documented instances of a healthy wild wolf killing a human being in North America. Until now, that is. On Nov. 8, a search party found the partially consumed body of 22-year-old Kenton Joel Carnegie in the woods of northern […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Judge orders litigating enviros to pony up
A federal judge is forcing environmentalists to back their challenge of a logging project with cold, hard cash. In November, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ordered a halt to logging on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, outside of Butte, after three environmental groups appealed the judge’s earlier decision to allow the 2,600-acre timber harvest. Then, on […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Lawmakers chop up renewable-energy fund
As the demand for renewable energy becomes palpable across the West, lawmakers have taken a bold step: They’ve slashed the U.S. Department of Energy’s budget for renewable energy programs and directed funding toward such projects in their own districts. In mid-November, Congress cut about $160 million from the Energy Department’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Study questions value of post-fire logging
Scientists find that salvage logging may slow forest recovery
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Tiny stream invaders may harm Western trout
Researchers tackle a problem likely to be spread by hatcheries and anglers
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Trouble in the Delta
A water peace effort in California falls apart at the worst possible moment
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Bear killing increases but protection decreases
“We call these vandal killings,” says Chris Servheen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator, “people who just kill things and let them lay.” He’s talking about the 11 grizzly bears that were killed illegally last year in northwestern Montana; one was poisoned and the rest were shot or otherwise killed. In 2004, […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Renewable law leaves the gate
When Colorado voters approved Amendment 37 in 2004, most had no idea how long it would take for the state’s renewable standards to go into effect. More than a year later, the state’s Public Utilities Commission finally released the rules implementing the law, which requires the state’s largest utilities to generate 10 percent of their […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Forest Service shuts down ‘three old geezers’
Eighty-year-old retiree Stewart Brandborg wouldn’t appear threatening to most people in his hometown, Hamilton. Brandborg’s father, Guy, ran the Bitterroot National Forest, headquartered in the town, from 1935 to 1955. Brandborg’s own career included stints with the Forest Service and national conservation groups. But when Brandborg tried to attend a forest press conference in Hamilton […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Colorado River gets a recreation plan
The National Park Service’s new plan for the Grand Canyon river corridor may torpedo wilderness advocates, who are already swimming against a tide of motorboats and helicopters. Ten years ago, the Grand Canyon Management Plan required park managers to devise a new recreation strategy for the Colorado River that would address motorized usage, tourism’s impacts […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
The Latest Bounce
In late December, crews moved five boulders with numerous prehistoric petroglyphs out of the path of a controversial road being built on the edge of Albuquerque (HCN, 6/27/05: Suburbia blasts through a national monument). The road, which cuts through Petroglyph National Monument, was touted as a way to alleviate traffic congestion on the city’s fast-growing […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
An ecosystem wanting for wolves
Predators could bring Rocky Mountain National Park back into balance
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
The end of an era on the Colorado Plateau
As the Mohave power plant closes its doors, two Arizona tribes wonder what’s next
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
The Latest Bounce
So just who was it that helped the National Park Service rewrite its management policies? The agency has repeatedly said that “more than 100 key (Park Service) career professional staff” contributed to a controversial rewording of park guidelines in October to emphasize recreation over preservation (HCN, 11/14/05: Business booster still guides national park rules). But […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Bipartisan uprising sinks public-lands selloff
A proposal to sell public lands landed in the trash can on Dec. 13, thanks to objections from Western senators — both Democrat and Republican. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., had tried to overturn an 11-year moratorium on selling federal land to mining companies by attaching a proposal to House budget […]