Yellowstone, Grand Teton could be snowmobile-free by 2002-03
News
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Forest chief steers agency down a rocky road
Forest supervisor warns that Dombeck’s policy will spark civil disobedience
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A dam good speech
OREGON In a rousing speech before the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society in February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber became the first major political figure in the Pacific Northwest to back the breaching of four federal dams to recover dwindling salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia River basin (HCN, 12/20/99: Unleashing the Snake). […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
The Wayward West
A partially built farm for 859,000 hogs on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota has tribal members upset (HCN, 11/8/99: Can a hog farm bring home the bacon?). “We wish the production facility and the whole project would go away,” says Mike Blatz, a business representative for the tribe. But a federal judge ruled […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Round two for Steens Mountain development
OREGON — In southeastern Oregon, a couple has come up with a new approach for developing the 160 acres they own on Steens Mountain, the massif that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is eyeing for federal protection as a national monument (HCN, 11/22/99: Go tell it on the mountain). This time, John and Cindy Witzel, who […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Hunter orange is a long shot
IDAHO Five Idaho hunters died accidentally during last year’s hunting season, the highest number of fatalities for the sport since 1982, says a report from the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Since the fall accidents, a member of one victim’s hunting party has vowed to see Idaho implement a law that would require hunters to […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A scarce bird tests the new rule
The Gunnison sage grouse thrives in open country
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Loggers tap new forests
THE SOUTH In the Pacific Northwest, the federal government can get tough with lumber companies because the forests are publicly owned. Not so in the South, where 85 percent of all timber grows on private lands. After the federal government drastically slowed logging in the Northwest in the 1990s, Boise-Cascade and other big forest-products companies […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
EPA sets sights on snowmobiles
WYOMING, MONTANA Banning snowmobiles is the only way to clean up the winter air in Yellowstone National Park, says the federal Environmental Protection Agency, at least until the industry comes up with cleaner machines. The Park Service disagrees. Its preferred alternative in a new winter-use plan would plow the road between West Yellowstone and Old […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Neighborly mining negotiations sour
MONTANA Environmental groups and a Montana mining company failed to see eye to eye over a “good neighbor” agreement after eight months of talking, and negotiations have stopped. Stillwater Mining Co. and three citizens’ groups agreed that the platinum and palladium mine, located on public and private lands in the Beartooth Mountains, would be around […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A new town hits the skids
Residents say no to development
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Poison traps kill unintended victims
A rash of dog deaths puts the federal Wildlife Services agency in the hot seat
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Goose got your gander?
Pooping plagues people in urban settings
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Endangered species must learn to wait
Conservationists worry wildlife will be stuck in bureaucratic limbo
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
BLM signs snatched
UTAH San Juan County officials recently removed federal “road closed” signs on three dirt roads they claim in the Grand Gulch area of southeastern Utah. The action could provoke a lawsuit to test who owns these roads – San Juan County or the Bureau of Land Management (HCN, 10/28/96: Utah counties bulldoze the BLM, Park […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Dog doesn’t get its day
NATION Ranchers, farmers and land developers can breathe a sigh of relief; the black-tailed prairie dog won’t be listed as an endangered species – at least not yet. Citing a lack of money and staff and a long list of species in greater need, the Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that protection for the black-tailed […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Tern terror
OREGON Near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, The Birds, has come to life. Over 10,000 pairs of Caspian terns nest on Rice Island, and while the birds aren’t attacking people, they are eating millions of young salmon (HCN, 10/26/98: Are birds to blame for vanishing salmon?). A biological assessment […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Tom Bell quotes
“While I am a believer in the multiple-use principle, the concept of conservation, and an ecological approach to resource use, I find myself reacting to those who disregard any or all of these. And so I strike back. To the public, it would appear I am completely and diametrically opposed to all progress, to all […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
The Wayward West
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has a new name for his proposed protected areas: National Landscape Monuments (HCN, 12/20/99: The Wayward West). Landscape monuments run by the Bureau of Land Management would lack the tourist amenities of national monuments, and mining would be prohibited. But not everyone is convinced that the BLM is the right agency […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Tribe calls dam a trout trap
MONTANA The Blackfeet Tribe’s Fish and Game Department wants to remove a 95-year-old dam on its reservation that backs water up three miles into Glacier National Park. Getting rid of aging Sherburne Dam, says Blackfeet biologist Ira New Breast, would eliminate the biggest threat to the St. Mary River’s bull trout, a population recently added […]