Their mesa became home to the Manhattan Project
News
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Parks rev up to ban snowmobiles
Yellowstone, Grand Teton could be snowmobile-free by 2002-03
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 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
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
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 […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
A test case on access
MONTANA A federal judge says a family living inside Montana’s Glacier National Park can no longer use a snowmobile to access their property. Former Denver residents Jack and Stephanie McFarland sued Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in Missoula’s U.S. District Court on Feb. 2. The McFarlands said park officials had acted improperly when they refused to […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Roadkill keeps the peace
WASHINGTON In January, hunters from eastern Washington’s Methow Valley delivered 300 pounds of roadkilled deer to six western Washington tribes. The delivery signaled the start of a groundbreaking agreement, in which the tribes agree to stop hunting in the valley in exchange for the meat. Tribal hunters have lost much of their traditional hunting ground […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
What to do about “Frankenfoods’?
NATION The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may say bioengineered foods are safe, but two natural-food chains say they don’t trust the agency’s word. Boulder, Colo.-based Wild Oats Markets and Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market are banning genetically engineered foods from their private product lines. “There are significant unanswered health and environmental concerns,” says a […]