I am surprised to see so much one-sidedness on population and immigration packed in one issue, and I trust that the Writers on the Range column, and related letters, do not represent the mindset of your readership (HCN, 2/16/04: Why I’m running). Why would the people of the West, many of whom have migrated here […]
Departments
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
A new look at Yellowstone
“Wholly an unattractive country. There is nothing whatever in it, no object of interest to the tourist, and there is not one out of twenty who visits for purposes of observation this remote section.” So declared one congressman in the late 1800s, dismissing the valleys of Yellowstone. What a difference a century can make: Today, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
It’s time for action on immigration
Until fairly recently, the Sierra Club responsibly endorsed U.S. population stabilization by measured, sustainable immigration levels (HCN, 2/16/04: Why I’m running). Then came political correctness, mass immigration, a rumored $5 million buy-off to keep population matters off the club’s agenda, more corrupting millions in corporate money, and the club’s board took an abrupt about-face and […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Calendar
Head to San Francisco for the 15th Global Warming International Conference and Expo on April 20-22. Sessions will range from “Climate Change Mitigation” to “Extreme Events and Impacts Assessments” to “Agricultural and Forestry Resources Management.”http://globalwarming.net 630-910-1551 The Upper Green River Valley Coalition is sponsoring a conference in Pinedale, Wyo., on March 26-27. “Wells, Wildlife and […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Follow-up
Interior Department employees, check your in-boxes for a new message: In February, the nonprofit Campaign to Protect America’s Lands sent e-mails to almost 60,000 of the department’s 70,000 employees, asking them to call a confidential hotline — 1-866-LANDTIP — and report proposed anti-environmental regulations (HCN, 1/19/04: Coming Soon to a Wilderness Near You). Next November, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Abolish user fees
Recreationists hate fees for all the right reasons (HCN, 1/19/04: A moment of truth for user fees). Fees will inexorably lead down the slippery slope to privatization and commercialization of our public lands. Fees are undemocratic, exclusionary, a regressive double tax and flat-out wrong. The Forest Service fee program takes in approximately $37 million a […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Heroes for the wild
Know someone who’s worked tirelessly to protect the West’s wild places? Nominate him or her for a “Wilderness Hero” award. The program, which began last year, will honor two volunteers each month leading up to the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act this September. Award sponsors include The Campaign for America’s Wilderness, the Sierra Club, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
The de-icer that tames Western roads
Dumping magnesium chloride on winter roads keeps the traffic moving — but how safe is the stuff?
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Dear friends
Gunning for the big screen Adam Jackaway is a man who likes to make big statements with small tools. Last winter, with war looming in Iraq, he shouldered his snow shovel and tromped out into a Boulder, Colo., park. There, he sculpted a massive peace sign in a blank field, recruiting others to help, and […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Tribe defeated a dam and won back its water
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The New Water Czars.“ Unlike the Pima Indians of the Gila River Indian Community, the Yavapai were not traditionally farmers. Instead, they migrated up and down the Verde River, hunting, fishing and gathering. But in 1903, the government settled them on Fort McDowell, a […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
The great Central Arizona Project funding switcheroo
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The New Water Czars.“ Spend enough time in Phoenix, and it’s easy to forget the city sits in a sweltering desert valley that receives less than eight inches of rain a year. Cool misters spray shoppers on the sidewalks of Scottsdale, the ritzy enclave […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Persistence frees the Mokelumne: River advocate Pete Bell
California’s Mokelumne River flows from a high mountain lake in the Sierra Nevada, plunging down in a series of cascading waterfalls through a steep forest canyon in the foothills. Dams and diversions have reduced the once free-flowing river to a relative trickle. But that is changing, thanks in large part to the efforts of a […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Heard Around the West
IDAHO Wilderness areas were not created equal. In order to pacify locals and win votes in Congress, most include more than a few reminders of both the old and developed West. The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho, for example, grandfathered in outfitters’ cabins and backcountry plane access. Now, the Forest […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
President Bush should consider a “land grab” of his own
I flew into the sprawling city of Phoenix recently not expecting a nature experience or a political revelation. My colleague and I rented a car and, after an appointment in the city, fought through an hour of bumper-to-bumper afternoon traffic on our way north to Flagstaff. What a relief it was to finally see the […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
The charm of a dying place
I grew up in South Dakota, but spent my summers in Portland, Ore., with my mom. As an adolescent, I enjoyed how my city experience pushed me ahead of the curve when I got back home for school. I had my classmates beat by at least a year on the overalls-with-one-strap thing. It wasn’t all […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Ranching’s worst enemy? It’s not greens
Jury finds a meatpacker has taken ranchers to the cleaner
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
A tempered victory
For once, it seems that the West’s Indian tribes stand to win big. Armed with a century-old legal doctrine which holds that Indians’ water rights supersede those of practically everyone else, tribes are claiming their place at the top of the Western water rights hierarchy. In this issue’s feature story, Daniel Kraker writes about the […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
The New Water Czars
A historic water deal could give an impoverished Indian community a path back to its roots — and turn it into one of the West’s next big power brokers
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
Explore both Earth and space
I was very disappointed by Paul Larmer’s dismissive editorial regarding NASA’s plans to send humans to the moon and Mars (HCN, 2/2/04: A plan for Spaceship Earth). Larmer writes, “We’ll travel the galaxy later, when desperation and exploitation are no longer the driving forces.” If Larmer bothered to read more than media tidbits, then he […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
Say ‘no’ to Wal-Mart
Thank you, HCN and Stacy Mitchell, for shedding, at the least, a minute amount of light on a most deserving subject — one that most mainstream media sources avoid out of fear for their lives. Wal-Mart and other similar mega-corporations and multinationals have practiced this perversion of “free market” economics for years — and largely […]