The Forest Service ditches a collaborative forest plan in favor of getting out the cut
News
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
Arizona land swap dogged by questions
Yavapai Ranch Land Exchange called a bad deal for public, spur for sprawl
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Owens River will finally get its water back
CALIFORNIA A 33-year legal saga that has delayed one of the most ambitious river restorations ever attempted in California is over, thanks to a last-minute lawsuit by the state’s attorney general. Inyo County’s Lower Owens River has been dry since 1913, when it was diverted to supply water to Los Angeles, 250 miles to the […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Salmon get a break from pesticides
WEST COAST Protection for the Northwest’s salmon just took a major leap forward. In a landmark ruling, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour banned the use of 38 pesticides near streams that host threatened and endangered runs of salmon and steelhead in Washington, Oregon and California. The ruling follows a July 2002 decision, in which Judge […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Rollbacks on the range
NATION To help public-lands ranchers and “preserve open space,” the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to revise its nine-year-old grazing regulations. Some say those changes will let cattlemen ride roughshod over public lands. In 1995, President Clinton’s Interior secretary, Bruce Babbitt, overhauled the rules that control ranching on public lands (HCN, 04/17/95: Back to […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
No place for pesky nuclear waste
NEW MEXICO If an energy company and a Republican senator get their way, southern New Mexico will get even hotter than its habañeros. The European-owned company LES plans to build a facility near Eunice to produce nuclear reactor fuel, but it still doesn’t have anywhere to store the highly toxic, radioactive byproduct (HCN, 10/13/03: New […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Follow-up
President Bush is ready to “meet the environmental challenges of the future”: If approved by Congress, his $2.4 trillion proposed budget will cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 7.2 percent. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which administers the National Marine Fisheries Service, will receive $300 million less than it did in 2004. The […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Mining may no longer be king of the mountain
Court ruling gives land managers power to say ‘no’ to mining companies
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Ethanol takes off in the West
But is it a wonder fuel — or an energy-losing proposition?
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Park Service wilderness in disarray
Departing wilderness boss blasts the agency
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Follow-up
The Forest Service is selling its final management plan for California’s Giant Sequoia National Monument as a compromise, but not all environmentalists are buying it (HCN, 6/9/03: Giant sequoias could get the ax). The plan would allow logging on 10,000 of the monument’s 327,000 acres in order to control future wildfires. Chad Hanson of the […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Immigration reform from Washington, DC
Bush’s reform policy would give employers willing workers — and workers a temporary stay in the U.S.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Uranium mill or dump?
Locals hope to stop a Utah mill from finding new work
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Phelps Dodge looks to revive mining in the Copper State
Would the mine be a boon to southern Arizona, or a taxpayer rip-off?
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Follow-up
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is not all wet, after all: After outraged public comment from environmentalists and sportsmen alike, the Bush administration has backed off plans to remove “isolated” wetlands — those that are dry for more than six months out of the year — from protection under the Clean Water Act. Proposed changes […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Yellowstone snowmobilers suffer whiplash
Judge says Interior Department is to blame for last-minute reinstatement of snowmobile ban
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
A moment of truth for user fees
Critics say fees take the ‘public’ out of the public lands
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Can skiers and snowmobilers coexist?
With conflict on the rise, “quiet” recreationists want segregation in the backcountry
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Clean water changes could sully Western streambeds
Western rivers might be left high and dry — and polluted — if Bush administration officials push through a rule change to the Clean Water Act. In November, a senior government official leaked a draft of the proposed change to the Los Angeles Times. Under the new rule, the Clean Water Act would apply only […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Mormons win Martin’s Cove
Culminating a five-year effort, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has gained control of Martin’s Cove — 940 acres of federal land — where several dozen Mormon immigrants died in a blizzard in 1856. The church considers the site, southwest of Casper, Wyo., sacred and sought to buy it (HCN, 9/30/02: This land […]