President Bush’s proposal to offer work visas to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has opened a window of opportunity, and many are rushing to take advantage of it (HCN, 2/2/04: Immigration reform from Washington, DC). The Border Patrol says that the number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border had declined over the last four years, […]
Departments
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Wolf foes get medieval
As feds prepare to take wolves off the endangered list, a rash of animal poisonings causes concerns
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
The Complete Gale Norton Interview
Full transcript of the HCN Interview with Gale Norton, along with Kit Kimball, communications officer with the Interior Department, and Matt Kales of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The concise interview is located at (HCN, 5/24/04: A champion of ‘cooperative conservation’: Interior Secretary Gale Norton) Editor’s Note: HCN is particularly interested in hearing from […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Dear Friends
New Interns Zach Smith arrived in Paonia just in time to escape the blistering summer heat of Santa Fe, N.M., where he wrote for the Santa Fe Reporter and volunteered for the Audubon Society, teaching elementary school kids the basics of geology and birding. A Denver native who has lived in six states and studied […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
New Mexico may change wolf policy
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Wolf foes get medieval.” A troubled wolf-recovery effort in the Southwest may have found an unlikely ally: The traditionally anti-wolf New Mexico Game Commission has asked the state Game and Fish Department to re-evaluate its management of […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Cougar hunt creates uproar
Following a sensational search, Arizonar esidents push for tougher protections for mountain lions
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Houston Principles of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “In Search of Solidarity.” Preamble On May 19, 1999, environmental and labor leaders confronted CEO Charles Hurwitz in Houston to demand that his Maxxam Corporation, which owns Kaiser Aluminum and Pacific Lumber Company, be held accountable for its impact on working people, communities and the […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Throwing out the dishwater
Once I lived in a one-room log cabin where I pumped my water from a well and heated it on a wood stove. When I was finished washing my dishes, I carried the dishpan outside and tossed the water on the nearby sagebrush. It seemed natural to me to return the water to the same […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Heard around the West
NORTH DAKOTA Give a cheer for cheeky Fargo, mocked as backward a mere decade ago in the movie Fargo, which featured locals spouting the stereotypical, “Yah, you betcha.” You can call the city “trendy” now, says the Los Angeles Times. Pricey condos have been built downtown, culture has arrived in the form of sushi bars […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
At Yucca Mountain, deadlines take precedence over science
Don’t ask questions when you don’t know the answers: That’s the rule of thumb for trial lawyers who don’t want courtroom surprises. The Bush administration has a different rule of thumb when it comes to the science of storing nuclear waste: Ask as few questions as possible, and ignore answers you don’t like. Until January, […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Laboring for the environment
I took a stroll through our lower pasture the other evening and discovered that April showers had turned it into a riotous weed patch. It wasn’t what my wife and I had planned three years ago, when we bought the badly overgrazed property. Back then, we took the advice of our local cooperative extension agent […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
In Search of Solidarity
Will hard times renew historic alliances between environmentalists and labor unions?
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Property-rights lawyers score one against wild salmon
Court rulings force re-evaluation of endangered fish and habitat in the Northwest
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
The Faces Behind the Lawsuits
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Shooting Spree.” Relentless Johanna Wald Natural Resources Defense Council, branch in San Francisco Bio Law degree from Yale University, 1967 Helped open the first NRDC office in California in 1972, and quickly became the leader in BLM issues, pioneering cases on grazing, coal mining […]
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
Seeing the forest for its dead trees
Until piñon pines began dying by the millions across the Southwest a few years ago — victims of drought and voracious bark beetles — few people gave much thought to the gnarled, scrubby trees or the delicate ecosystem that supported them. Even now, attention is focused on the piñons mainly as a wildfire hazard rather […]
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
Follow-up
Idaho’s Owyhee Initiative — a group of ranchers, environmentalists and off-road vehicle users — has unveiled a wilderness proposal for the Owyhee Canyonlands (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path). The plan would protect 511,000 acres, including 40,000 acres that would be cow-free. U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, hopes to introduce a bill in early June […]
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
Report unearths the high cost of mining
If you drive a car, wear jewelry, or use a cell phone, you use the products of mineral mining. But mining for aluminum, gold, and other metals exacts a steep toll in damage to ecosystems and human health. A recent report from Earthworks and Oxfam America, Dirty Metals: Mining, Communities and the Environment, details the […]
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
Calendar
The Colorado Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council is co-sponsoring the Teton Green Building Conference, June 2-4 in Grand Teton National Park. Developers, planners, builders and architects will learn from national experts about the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard and building science, methods and materials for colder climates.www.tetongreenbuilding.com 970-328-6449 The University […]
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
Filmmakers Filmmakers Dru Carr and Doug Hawes-Davis: Documenting the Evolving West
MISSOULA, MONTANA — Filmmaking isn’t about big budgets, explosions or special effects for Dru Carr and Doug Hawes-Davis, the only full-time employees at the Missoula, Mont.-based High Plains Films. Instead, it’s the tool they use to document — and, they hope, protect — the ever-evolving West. In the early ’90s, Carr and Hawes-Davis were students […]
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
The common beauty of a spring day
In the afternoon, they drove side by side, three abreast in the big Ford, and watched the land. When they came to a small rise on a gravel road between nowhere and nowhere, they slowed to a stop and lowered the windows. They sat there like they might be sitting their horses, or at a […]