For the first time in its history, the U.S. Forest Service says a golf course will be built on agency land. The owners of the Snow Creek golf course in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., have a permit to turn 95 acres of sagebrush on the Inyo National Forest into a “back nine,” despite the opposition of […]
News
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Zoologist says listing process is endangered
Ronald Nowak, a national-level Fish and Wildlife Service zoologist, has resigned from his position in protest, claiming the agency has “fought tooth and nail to avoid doing its job” of protecting the Canada lynx and other sensitive species. Nowak calls the lynx – a cousin of the bobcat – -one of the most blatant examples […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
The Wayward West
Pilots of “personal watercraft” such as Wavejammers and WetJets may get reined in at Lake Powell. The National Park Service is considering making parts of the reservoir “Jet Ski free,” because of increasing complaints – many from houseboaters calling from cell phones. A federal rule is expected soon allowing all national park superintendents to restrict […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Red meat can be green
The “dolphin-friendly” label gave tuna an environmental face-lift in the 1980s; now, a “Wolf Country Beef” label may do the same for hamburger. The label is the brainchild of Jim Winder and Will Holder, ranchers who have teamed up with the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife. They’re developing the seal-of-approval so that beef coming from ranchers […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Ski resort plans ruffle feathers
The forested hump of Pelican Butte stands like an island in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Bounded by a wilderness area, a national park (Crater Lake), and a national wildlife refuge, the butte is known for its stands of old-growth Shasta red fir, nesting spotted owls and wintering bald eagles. A ski area proposal from Jeld Wen […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Road ban proposal eroded by exceptions
The Forest Service has overseen the addition of more than 380,000 miles of roads to national forests – a network more than twice the size of the national highway system. Now, the Clinton administration wants to call an 18-month halt to the construction of new roads in roadless areas. Forest Service spokesman Alan Polk says […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
A tiny tribe wins big on clean water
ISLETA, N.M. – A recent Supreme Court decision reaffirms a 2,500-member tribe’s right to tell the city of Albuquerque what it can and cannot dump into the Rio Grande River. The Isleta Pueblo sits six miles downstream from where Albuquerque dumps 55 million gallons of wastewater each day. Sewage from the city’s 450,000 residents makes […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Some cattle ranchers sell out to hunting
GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Cattle rancher John Bodner didn’t have to worry about monitoring hunters last fall on his spread in the foothills of the Little Belt Mountains in central Montana. He left that to an outfitter. “The outfitter is like a game warden,” said Bodner, who won’t say how large a ranch he runs. […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
The scandal culture reaches Bruce Babbitt
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a rational world, one would not have to wonder whether a special prosecutor might be appointed to investigate the doings of Bruce Babbitt, endangering his tenure as secretary of the Interior. In this world? Well, we’d better take a look. In the great scheme of things, it matters little whether Babbitt […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
The Wayward West
Tension over logging the Taylor Ranch in southern Colorado continues. Costilla County sheriff’s deputies and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation haven’t found who sabotaged seven electrical power poles on the property last month. Ranch manager Vic White says someone with a saw severed three poles and cut the others three-quarters through. White calls the action […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
Wolf wars enter next round
As the fallout settles from federal Judge William Downes’ decision ordering that nearly 200 introduced wolves be removed from Yellowstone and Idaho, members of the environmental community who have been at each other’s throats are putting aside their differences and preparing to appeal the decision (HCN, 12/22/97: Judge says wolf reintroduction was illegal). Immediately following […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
State fights nuclear waste shipments
In a measure environmental groups say will put 50 million Americans at risk of radiation exposure, Congress recently authorized storage of 50,000 tons of nuclear waste at the Nevada Test Site. Opponent Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., dubbed the bill “Mobile Chernobyl,” because it funds the transportation of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants in […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
Protester starts her sentence
On Jan. 5, a former teacher began serving a 30-day sentence for refusing to part from a 400-year-old Engelmann spruce she was trying to protect from loggers. Joni Clark’s sentence of 30 days is the stiffest penalty yet for a tree-sitter in Colorado. She was found guilty of violating the Forest Service’s Special Closure Order […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
A road to nowhere?
For more than two decades, the Utah Department of Transportation has planned to widen the two-lane road that winds through narrow Provo Canyon. Best known as the site of Sundance, a resort founded by actor Robert Redford, the canyon is one of the most spectacular in the Wasatch Mountains. One-third of the “road-improvement” project is […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
Haggling over the Grand Staircase-Escalante
Conoco has turned its back on an oil well in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In December, Conoco engineers “packed up their oil rig and they are out of there,” says Bureau of Land Management spokesman Don Banks. “The hole has been capped without a blade of monument grass or a dollar of taxpayer green […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
A ‘liberal’ court gets some breathing room
Western conservatives in the U.S. Senate tried to add language to a spending bill last fall to neutralize an old nemesis – the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the senators, facing heavy opposition in the House of Representatives, had to compromise: a commission will review the appeals court system and the San Francisco-based […]
Posted inDecember 22, 1997: Gold Rush: Mining seeks to tighten its grip on the 'last, best place'
A rural county says no to pork
GUNNISON, Colo. – On a brilliant fall day in central Colorado, Federal Highway Administration engineer Mark Taylor offered Gunnison County commissioners $38 million. The money would pay to reroute, widen and pave the road connecting the small town of Buena Vista, pop. 2,141, to the even smaller town of Almont, pop. 300. The 35-mile road […]
Posted inDecember 22, 1997: Gold Rush: Mining seeks to tighten its grip on the 'last, best place'
The Wayward West
For the first time in its history, the U.S. Forest Service admits it has lost money on national forest timber sales. Losses amounted to $14.7 million for fiscal year 1996. The agency says the shortfall comes mostly from rehabilitation projects such as forest thinning and stream restoration, while commercial logging operations continue to profit. Utah […]
Posted inDecember 22, 1997: Gold Rush: Mining seeks to tighten its grip on the 'last, best place'
Dicey future for Northwest casinos
When the Lummi tribe in Washington opened the Northwest’s first casino 13 years ago, gambling became a jackpot, bringing in almost $1 billion a year to the region’s tribes. Then last August the Lummi Casino closed its doors, blaming competition within the state as well as in Canada. Some say other closings will follow. Lummi […]
Posted inDecember 22, 1997: Gold Rush: Mining seeks to tighten its grip on the 'last, best place'
Judge says wolf reintroduction was illegal
Several years ago, the Department of Interior sold its program to reintroduce wolves into Yellowstone and central Idaho by assuring ranchers they could shoot wolves that got into their herds without fear of penalty under the Endangered Species Act. Now, with introduced wolves thriving in both areas, a federal judge has ruled that the agency […]