Magazine
The last weird place

May 24, 1999

Eccentric desert rats and clean-cut park rangers sometimes meet in a culture clash over how to manage one of the hottest, driest and strangest places in North America - Death Valley National Park.

Feature

The last weird place
Eccentric desert rats and clean-cut park rangers sometimes meet in a culture clash over how to manage one of the hottest, driest and strangest places in North America - Death Valley National Park.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition

Sidebar

'The more protection we have, the better'
Death Valley environmental specialist Dick Anderson defends the Desert Protection Act as necessary to save wild lands.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
'Humans aren't that bad'
Local resident Jim Macey believes park status has actually harmed Death Valley.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Bureau of livestock, mining ... and parks?
The decision to put the BLM, rather than the Park Service, in charge of the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, is part of a trend toward blurring the lines among the roles of the federal land management agencies.
Christopher Smith May 24, 1999 From the print edition
'I'm really embarrassed'
Local resident Kathy Goss is disillusioned by the way environmentalists pushed the Desert Protection Act.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
'They're just too rigid'
Longtime park volunteer Reuben Scolnik says the park officials are good people but too rigid.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
'By and large, they're heroes'
Death Valley Park Superintendent Dick Martin says the park rangers are heroes.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
So much land, so little money
Park enemies in Congress reduced the budget for the new Mojave National Preserve to one dollar - an extreme example of the way Congress often creates parks and monuments but is reluctant to provide any money to support them.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
'It didn't need to be saved'
Longtime Death Valley resident Janice Allen believes the area is not helped by its designation as a national park.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
'We were created to serve all'
Chief ranger Scot McElveen says local people should not receive preference in a natural resource owned equally by all citizens.
Michelle Nijhuis May 24, 1999 From the print edition

Essays

Walking the path between light and dark
Physical anthropologist Christy Turner's controversial theories that the Anasazi practiced cannibalism leave the writer pondering the balance of good and evil that existed in the no-longer idealized past as well as in the present.
Art Goodtimes Essay May 24, 1999 From the print edition

Perspective

New twist in an old law has everyone screaming
Solicitor John Leshy of the Interior Dept., an expert on the 1872 Mining Law, has the industry screaming and politicians in turmoil over his decision to enforce a long-neglected provision of the law, which allows only a few acres per mining claim.
Jon Margolis May 24, 1999 From the print edition

Book Reviews

Not just sheepherders
Nancy Zubiri's book, "A Travel Guide to Basque America - families, feasts and festivals," is a passionate and well-researched guide to Basque culture in the Great Basin area.
John Rosapepe May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Star parties
From May through October the Hansen Planetarium will host monthly star parties and indoor slide presentations at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.
Tim Westby May 24, 1999 From the print edition
'Duck cops' ruffle feathers
Many law enforcement agents at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say their program is corrupt, understaffed and underfunded.
Juniper Davis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
All about salmon
The report "A Snapshot of Salmon in Oregon" explains the complexities of saving salmon.
Dustin Solberg May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Recreation doesn't cut it
A study of Clark County, Idaho, shows that tourism may not be enough to keep suffering rural economies afloat when timber and mining industries pull out of an area.
Juniper Davis May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Strategies in Western water law
University of Colorado's 20th annual summer conference on water law will be held June 9-11 in Boulder, Colo.
Staff May 24, 1999 From the print edition
San Juan Citizens Alliance
The Alliance will have a community involvement celebration June 19 in Durango, Colo.
Staff May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Sustainable Development Speakers Series
The Environmental Protection Agency hosts a free series in Denver, July 15, Sept. 16 and Nov. 11.
Staff May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Yellow Bay Writers' Workshop
The 12th annual writers' workshop will be held Aug. 8-14 near Montana's Flathead Lake.
Staff May 24, 1999 From the print edition

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West
Front Sight development in Nev. to have 13 firing ranges; sheepherder fired for unlicensed dog; condor visits airstrips; Fake fish mimics how fish cope with hydropower dams; dogs in pickup controversy in Jackson, Wyo.; bag lunches in Aspen ski resorts.
Betsy Marston May 24, 1999 From the print edition

Dear Friends

Dear Friends
30 issues for $30; 20,000 subscribers by Y2K; this and that; new intern Tim Westby.
Ed Marston May 24, 1999 From the print edition

News

Does a wilderness bill include a driveway?
Critics say that Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard's Spanish Peaks wilderness bill leaves a road unprotected - a "cherry stem" - that will benefit developer Tom Chapman, who owns a mining claim at the end of it.
Adam Burke And Greg Hanscom May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Greens not welcome in Escalante
Newcomers Patrick Diehl and Tori Woodward say they are being persecuted by some longtime Escalante, Utah, residents, because they are environmentalists who oppose construction of the New Wide Hollow Reservoir.
Brent Israelsen May 24, 1999 From the print edition
The Wayward West
BLM fines stray cows along San Pedro in Ariz.; stray bison near Yellowstone not protected by new wildlife plan; new bus system slated for Yosemite hits speed bump; voluntary June climbing ban at Devil's Tower; plans to buy Loomis forest in Wash.
Greg Hanscom May 24, 1999 From the print edition
The feds poke a hole in the 1872 Mining Law
Battle Mountain Gold's plans to mine Buckhorn Mountain in Washington's Okanogan Highlands hit a snag when the Interior Dept. realizes that the mine's "waste-rock" piles will sprawl over more land than the 1872 Mining Law allows.
Dustin Solberg May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Settlement reached in Tahoe takings case
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is ordered to pay Bernardine Suitum $600,000 for blocking her plans to build an A-frame house on her property by Lake Tahoe.
Tim Westby May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Road ban stops a timber project
Dixie National Forest officials cancel a controversial timber sale because it conflicts with the Forest Service's nationwide moratorium on road construction in roadless areas.
Lisa Church May 24, 1999 From the print edition

Letters

Think forests, think water
Ben W. Twight May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Land swap reporter comments
Lynne Bama May 24, 1999 From the print edition
Doom can't be soon enough
Susan Cockrell May 24, 1999 From the print edition
For the record - from Dave Foreman
Dave Foreman May 24, 1999 From the print edition
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