El Nino’s wrath hit sporadically around the West this winter, leaving more headlines than it did snow or rain. But where it hit, it hit hard, and punches are still being thrown. Last fall, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted El Nino would force the global jet streams north, causing warmer and drier weather […]
News
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
On April 25, Carlos Menendez posed in front of an audience of the press and the Sierra Club leadership and joined the club. The former executive director of EDGE, a now-defunct advocacy group for immigrants, had refused to become a member for years. But Sierra Club president Adam Werbach had just announced that members rejected […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Lingering stereotypes spoken here
“God gives the heavy loads to the big horses,” says Rick Swart. He should know – he’s got a heavy load. Today, at the age of 40, Richard W. Swart may be the most embattled journalist in Oregon. As editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain, a 114-year-old weekly that has been in his family for […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Jetboat race withdrawn
Two hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark’s wood and hide boats lacked speed, but floated the explorers safely along sections of the Yellowstone River. Had Bill Henderson of Big Sky Marine not withdrawn his application to host a Jet Boat Marathon this June, 20 personal watercraft would have raced up and back a 50-mile stretch […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
The Wayward West
Don’t expect to hear Utah environmentalists crying for 5.7 million acres of wilderness, says Kevin Walker of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (HCN, 8/4/97). SUWA and other groups are almost finished with a two-year “re-inventory” of the state’s wild lands. Since the first inventory, new trails, roads and mines have knocked some areas out of […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Nobody gives a damn about this dam
The Army has abandoned a small reservoir in Red Butte Canyon east of Salt Lake City, Utah, leaving federal, state and county agencies playing a game of political hot potato. Red Butte Reservoir is one of several refuges established in northern Utah to protect the June sucker – a fish native to Utah Lake, south […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Foreign forests keep mills alive
Even as the United States cuts fewer trees on its public lands and exports fewer raw logs, some mills stay as busy as ever. How? By milling imported logs. In Oregon, some mills are relying on imports of plantation-grown radiata pine from Chile and New Zealand to replace the dwindling supply of domestic trees. Cascade […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Hikes discover a road
The Snowbank Roadless Area near Cascade, Idaho, is no longer roadless. The Boise National Forest blames a mapping error for its approval of a road and a 315-acre logging operation in an area previously proposed for wilderness protection, but it’s too late now, the agency says. “We did not become aware of the mistake until […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Climbing ban upheld at Devils Tower
The National Park Service can continue to ask rock climbers to stay off Wyoming’s Devils Tower during June, the month when Native Americans hold religious ceremonies at the foot of the volcanic monolith. On April 2, U.S. District Court Judge William Downes dismissed the case brought by climbing guide Andy Petefish and the Bear Lodge […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Judge gives grave-robbers a green light
The Utah Court of Appeals has decided that state law does not protect Anasazi graves. In late February, the court upheld a state judge’s dismissal of felony charges against Jeanne and James Redd, a Blanding, Utah, couple who were accused of desecrating a Native American burial site while pot hunting. “I am appalled the judges […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Delay for the “Oregon way’
Oregon’s Gov. John Kitzhaber has been trying to protect salmon on state and private land – and keep the fish off the endangered species list. Now, he says, the National Marine Fisheries Service threatens to upset his attempt at “managing our resources the Oregon way.” Kitzhaber’s Oregon Plan would protect salmon through voluntary efforts by […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Predator control gets out of control
In 1993, without much fanfare, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management turned their predator problems over to the experts. The agencies signed an agreement allowing the federal Animal Damage Control agency, now known as Wildlife Services, to plan for the extermination of coyotes, mountain lions and other “problem” animals that kill livestock […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Montana’s deregulation dilemma
Helena, Mont. – A fly fisherman crouches in the streamside alders, watching intently as large trout rhythmically rise to sip tiny flies from the smooth surface of the river. Just upstream, the concrete hulk of a Montana Power Co. dam dominates the horizon. The vibration of powerful generators courses through the river’s bed. All seems […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Hollywood tarts up wildlife films
MISSOULA, Mont. – On a cloudy Saturday morning in mid-April, fantastic critters take over the streets of this college and timber town. Ladybugs assume human proportions and you can see a spotted loon as long as a Volkswagen bus float by. Not to worry. It’s only the Wildwalk, a prelude to the 21st International Wildlife […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
A road to ruins?
New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici is trying to pave the way for a six-lane highway through the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque (HCN, 1/20/97). In March, Domenici attached a rider to an emergency appropriations bill that allows the city to extend the Paseo del Norte road through the 8.5-acre midsection of the national monument […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
All is not quiet on the Rocky Mountain Front
Last October, conservationists won a surprise victory for Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front when Lewis and Clark National Forest Supervisor Gloria Flora banned new oil and gas leases for the next 10 to 15 years (HCN,10/13/97). But the story wasn’t over. On Feb. 5, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., introduced a bill to permanently ban new oil […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
Panel says fish gotta swim
After a two-year study, a group of scientists says half of the Snake River’s endangered salmon and steelhead should be allowed to migrate to the ocean naturally instead of being transported in barges and trucks. The report, issued by an independent science panel created by Congress, questions whether shipping salmon around dams can save fish […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
The Wayward West
Idaho has more wolves and one less wolf biologist. The Nez Perce tribe has fired Timm Kaminski, who led the tribe’s wolf reintroduction program for the last 18 months, AP reports (HCN, 3/3/97). At the end of last year, six breeding pairs were roaming central Idaho. The tribe isn’t saying why Kaminski was dismissed. Idaho […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
EPA to ASARCO: Time to pay
For the past two years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been investigating ASARCO Inc. for violations of federal environmental laws. Now the mining company is going to pay. On Jan. 23, the EPA announced that the company will pay $62 million in fines and cleanup costs for its projects around the nation, with the […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
Military wants to grow its Western empire
Imagine a giant spider – a creepy crawler 10 times bigger than King Kong – that could spin a web across the West’s great open spaces, linking every military training range in eight states. That’s how some citizens and environmentalists view a bevy of proposals by the U.S. Department of Defense to enhance combat readiness […]