News

Montana’s coal severance tax may still be the highest in the nation at 30 percent, but a portion of that environmental insurance was chipped away during the 1985 Montana Legislature. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.9/download-entire-issue

The Forest Service district office in Boulder, Colo., has invited back one of its most productive summer employees: Julio, a five-year-old, chocolate brown llama. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.8/download-entire-issue

The ratification of the Snake River Water Agreement sets off an adjudication of water rights on the Snake River. It’s expected to take 10 years to determine how much unappropriated water remains to be diverted. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.7/download-entire-issue

Washington has sued the U.S. Department of Energy over the federal government’s proposed study of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation for siting of a high-level nuclear waste repository, adding to actions by Nevada and Texas against similar proposals for those states. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.6/download-entire-issue

The Department of Energy has run into stiff opposition to its plans for siting the nation’s first high-level nuclear waste dump at the Davis and Lavender Canyon sites a mile from Canyonlands National Park. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.5/download-entire-issue

A court decision could force the Forest Service to do comprehensive, cumulative studies on the effects of roads built into roadless areas. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.4/download-entire-issue

The frailness of Jackson Dam brings two sacred Western forces into conflict: agricultural water rights versus one of America’s most beautiful and popular national parks. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.2/download-entire-issue

An anonymous tipster calling himself Deep Root is tying up phone lines in newsrooms across the country with his message that there is a conspiracy within the Forest Service to build roads in all areas Congress has not designated as wilderness. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.1/download-entire-issue

By an overwhelming 62 percent margin, South Dakota voters passed an initiative that gives the people    the “exclusive right” to approve or reject the disposal of all nuclear wastes within the state. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.23/download-entire-issue

The coal-owning tribes of the West hope to finally escape the regulatory limbo they have been in since passage of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.23/download-entire-issue

Wyoming and Montana are apparently approaching gridlock as they try to work out the details of apportioning water from the Yellowstone River Basin under the Yellowstone Compact. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.22/download-entire-issue

To look at weed and pest control issues, the Institute of the Rockies arranged 17 forums in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.20/download-entire-issue

The Public Service Commission’s denial of Montana Power Company’s $92 million rate increase may be the least of the utility’s problems. Buried in the back of the commission’s harsh, accusing 120-page decision is a clear sign that the PSC may never let MPC sell Colstrip’s power to its customers. Download entire issue to view this […]

To some, the proposed Homestake II Water Diversion Project in Western Colorado is the technological answer to a problem of how to bring water to urban areas. To others, allowing the project would set a disastrous precedent because the water in question is in the Holy Cross wilderness area. Download entire issue to view this […]

Two Cheyenne, Wyo., bow-hunters committed several blunders when they shot a bull moose last December. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.17/download-entire-issue

Some 80 years after sponsoring an all-out program to destroy wolves, the Interior Department is seeking ways to rescue northern Rocky Mountain wolves from near extinction. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.17/download-entire-issue

Contractors in charge of safe-guarding the government’s nuclear waste long into the future devise ways to communicate the dangers of nuclear radiation to future civilizations. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.16/download-entire-issue

Montana’s rugged Rocky Mountain Front sees first attempts at major drilling. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.15/download-entire-issue

Fruit growers, cattle ranchers and energy and tourist industries have sued about transmountain diversion for a half century. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.15/download-entire-issue

At sites throughout the West, Department of Energy contractors are scurrying to remove uranium tailings from buildings and lots where they have been sitting for 20 years or more. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/16.15/download-entire-issue