A recreation explosion forces some action in Utah’s deadlocked wilderness debate
News
Posted inMay 22, 2000: Save Our Sagebrush
Another compromise plan falls flat
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article,”Stirrings in the San Rafael Swell.” In Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt’s State of the State address in January, the two-term Republican announced what he called an “unprecedented opportunity.” The opportunity was a huge land swap of state and […]
Posted inMay 22, 2000: Save Our Sagebrush
Hikers stumble into an old dispute
Land-grant heirs say until their land is returned, the Continental Divide Trail won’t go through
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Crater doesn’t come cheap
ARIZONA Conservationists are close to protecting a volcanic crater and wetland near Flagstaff, Ariz. All they have to do is raise $3 million. In March, the Flagstaff-based Grand Canyon Trust signed a land-swap deal with developers, in which the trust bought the 247-acre caldera known as Dry Lake. Developer Jim Mehen, who had first proposed […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Will bears get a break?
MONTANA With all-terrain vehicle and snowmobile use skyrocketing in the backcountry, environmentalists fear the machines could spell disaster for grizzly bears. Several groups recently sued the Forest Service to force the agency to study the way ATV and snowmobile use affects endangered grizzlies in Montana’s Gallatin National Forest. “It’s time for them to step up […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The Clark Fork unplugged
MONTANA On Montana’s Clark Fork River, pressure is mounting to demolish a dam. The Milltown dam sits seven miles upstream from Missoula, where the Blackfoot River and the Clark Fork meet. For years, it has acted as a plug, holding back 6.5 million cubic yards of sediment contaminated with arsenic and heavy metals washed away […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The Wayward West
President Bill Clinton designated another national monument (HCN, 4/10/00: Beyond the Revolution). Now 355,000 acres are preserved in California’s Sequoia National Forest, and that means existing logging rights will be phased out over the next three and a half years. While environmentalists celebrated the latest link in Clinton’s land-legacy chain, locals were upset. “We who […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Corps catches criticism
NATION A national storm is swirling around the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and some say it could rattle two of the agency’s most controversial projects in the Northwest: dredging the Columbia River and continuing operation of the Snake River dams. In February, The Washington Post reported that the agency rigged a $50 million economic […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Former uranium town wants its waste back
Town folk say radioactive waste will boost business
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Wanted: experienced firefighters
The Forest Service discovers it’s hard to find good help
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Western weather waffles
The Northwest looks at a soggy summer, while the Southwest may just burn
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The burning season begins again
Is a California army depot poisoning its neighbors?
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Baca Ranch buy-out has strings attached
Bill could put millions of acres of public land on the auction block
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Shaky truce on the Rio Grande
Amid a political dust storm, an agreement keeps endangered fish alive
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Grass roots keeps town tiny
WASHINGTON Nestled in a narrow valley at the remote north end of Lake Chelan, Wash., there’s a tiny town that can only be reached by boat, float plane, or a hike over the North Cascade mountains. Now it will stay that way. For nearly seven years, a developer threatened to boom Stehekin’s size by almost […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Pump failure pummels salmon
OREGON A southern Oregon hatchery’s salmon stock was devastated when a pump failure killed nearly 1.4 million baby chinook. But no one is pointing fingers. When the Army Corps of Engineers shut off power to do some routine maintenance at the Cole M. Rivers Hatchery on the Rogue River, it was business as usual. “They […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Fish find friends in farmers
WASHINGTON Protecting threatened salmon in the Northwest has become everybody’s business, with Washington’s farmers the newest group to enter the fray. Now, farmers are under the gun: In the next 18 months, they must make sure their standards are compatible with habitat conservation guidelines published by federal agencies overseeing salmon recovery. If farmers are not […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
The Wayward West
Two packs of Mexican wolves are getting a second chance in the wild. Several months ago, the packs were recaptured after conflicts with people and livestock in Arizona’s Apache National Forest (HCN, 1/31/00: Yellowstone wolves are here to stay). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that the remote Gila Wilderness in New Mexico would […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Dust settles in Owens Valley
Los Angeles vows to return some water to a parched lakebed
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
One dam, two rallies
A protest draws demonstrators who want to drain Lake Powell, and those who love it