In this special issue: city-dwellers’ usual support for the Endangered Species Act can be severely tested when an endangered species is found in or near their own backyards.
Second tram heads for Moab
The redrock desert around the tourist town of Moab, Utah, has been colonized by motels and mountain bikers for over a decade. Still, some locals never thought they’d have to worry about ski lifts. Now, less than six months after a controversial chairlift opened for business on the west side of Moab, the county planning…
Trappers set free in Big Sky state
After several months of debate, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioners recently voted on new trapping regulations. Most of the rules will remain the same. “The trapping community in Montana has done quite well,” says Kevin Feist, a Kalispell-area man who advocates more stringent rules. “They only have to do a couple…
Horses shy from competition
Connie Berto was walking her horse down a wide fire lane in Marin County, Calif., when a mountain biker, traveling at high speed, missed her by inches. It’s not an uncommon experience on the West’s public trails. Pressed by other trail users, horses and their riders are finding themselves less welcome on some trails. “Equestrians…
Grand Canyon development sparks debate
The Forest Service says a new 272-acre development near the south entrance of the Grand Canyon can control growth near the park. Critics, including some environmentalists, are not convinced. “They’re creating mass development … ext to one of our crown jewels,” says Sharon Galbreath of the Sierra Club’s southwest office. Canyon Forest Village, which got…
The Wayward West
A golf course planned for a national forest has landed in the rough. In 1998, the Sierra Club legally challenged a 1997 decision allowing Dempsey Construction to expand Snowcreek Golf Course onto 95 acres of national forest (HCN, 2/16/98). This month, Inyo National Forest Supervisor Jeff Bailey withdrew the permission. “We have determined that there…
Wilderness inholders are victims of genocide
Dear HCN, To set the record straight, Tom Chapman is not an owner in TDX nor has he ever been. The TDX real estate brochures advertise private property for sale from one private party to other private parties. The TDX proposed homes are no different from other homes being constructed near Vail. The homes offered…
Appraisals are the problem
Dear HCN, I read with interest and enjoyment your editorial about our former neighbor, Tom Chapman (HCN, 8/2/99). Of course, the problem is that when Congress created the wilderness lands in 1964, it chose to deal with inholdings sometime in the future. The value of those inholdings, like most real estate, has risen significantly since…
The real facts from FREE
Dear HCN, Jon Margolis’ piece on the taking project (HCN, 8/2/99) is factually incorrect and mischaracterizes FREE’s Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis seminars for federal judges. Margolis accepts verbatim the assertions put forth by Douglas Kendall of the Community Rights Counsel. Margolis never contacted FREE regarding his story. If he had, I would have told…
Go, Jon
Dear HCN, To Jon Marvel, anti-grazing campaigner: You just keep beatin” on “em, Jon, I love the sound of their squeal (HCN, 8/2/99). Fred Parkinson Oakland California This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Go, Jon.
Irresponsible journalism
Dear HCN, You owe Jon Marvel an apology (HCN, 8/2/99). It was irresponsible of you to have published an unattributed quotation comparing him to a war criminal. As an editor, I consider it a libelous statement. Jon Marvel is motivated by love of the West – the land and the people, including future generations –…
He’s no Milosevic
Dear HCN, I know Jon Marvel, and he’s no Slobodan Milosevic. While Steve Stuebner’s profile of anti-grazing activist Jon Marvel in the Aug. 2, 1999 issue of HCN revealed a man rightly deserving of the title maverick or gadfly, he certainly is no Slobodan Milosevic. In that article, editor Betsy Marston mistakenly cited an anonymous…
The lessons of Jon Marvel
Dear HCN, Jon Marvel did not adopt his attitude toward ranchers or his extraordinary tactics overnight. As you report, his attitude was formed over the course of 30 years as a neighbor of ranchers and 20-plus years as a resident of Idaho (HCN, 8/2/99). This pattern is repeating itself time after time across the West.…
Jon Marvel, elitist
Dear HCN, Despite Jon Marvel’s insistence that he is a lover of the land, his objective is not to improve the landscape in the West, but to play a game in which his unwillingness to entertain a holistic view of the issues endlessly entertains him. His agenda apparently dates back to the days he lived…
No billboards, please
Dear HCN, It does no good when environmentalists such as Jon Marvel use billboards. I quote from him: “I loved it … the open spaces, the beautiful mountain vistas …” (HCN, 8/2/99). He hates to see pristine creeks sullied by cattle. How about pristine views? Many make the argument the billboards are already there. My…
Ranchers, get off public land
Dear HCN, As a former resident of Boise, Idaho, and having hiked, camped and hunted extensively for many years in the arid areas that are targeted by the Idaho Watersheds Project, in particular, southeast Oregon, southwest Idaho and northern Nevada, I agree 100 percent with their agenda. Get those *#@??*&^ cows OFF the public land!…
A pocket-sized bird takes on Sunbelt subdivisions
Note: two sidebar articles accompany this feature story: “A tiny owl with a big name” and “An ESA cheat sheet.” MARANA, Ariz. – An eerie calm hangs over Dove Mountain, a mega-development spilling out of the saguaro-lined canyons about 30 miles northwest of Tucson. Here in the foothills of the Tortolita Mountains, developers have spent…
An ESA cheat sheet
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Endangered – Any species in danger of extinction throughout all or most of its range and “listed” as such under the Endangered Species Act. Now, 357 animals and 568 plant species in the U.S. are listed as endangered. Threatened – Any species…
The king of fish
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. The hefty chinook salmon, also known as the king salmon, often exceeds 30 pounds. In 1949, a 126-pound chinook salmon was caught near Petersburg, Alaska. It remains the largest chinook on record. In the past 25 years, the number of chinook caught…
Salmon and suburbs struggle over a Washington river
Note: two sidebar articles accompany this feature: “The king of fish” and “The secretary speaks.” CEDAR FALLS, Wash. – In this valley at the foot of the Washington Cascades, 40 minutes’ drive southeast of Seattle when traffic is light, the Cedar River runs clear and cold. Slipping over its bed of cobble and gravel as…
The secretary speaks
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Since taking office in 1993, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has been an ardent supporter of habitat conservation plans. In a recent telephone interview, he elaborated on his position. Bruce Babbitt: “I got involved (in urban habitat conservation plans) early on in Southern…
Slow and steady
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Desert tortoises don’t have an easy childhood. Since the softer shells of baby tortoises make them easy prey for ravens and coyotes, less than 5 percent survive to adulthood. Tortoises who make it to maturity typically live long lives – they’ve been…
A desert boomtown comes to terms with its quiet neighbors
Note: a sidebar article accompanies this feature story: “Slow and steady.” Hirschi feared the consequences as much as anyone. He had started hearing about tortoise troubles when he was a field representative for Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah. In 1989, he was elected a Washington County commissioner. He’d seen a disaster unfold in the Las Vegas…
The city mouse
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Preble’s meadow jumping mice deserve their name: By using their strong hind legs and (relatively) big feet, the three-inch mice can jump more than a foot and a half into the air and can leap three feet horizontally. Their long tails are…
Heard around the West
Professional vegetarians really know how to hurt a guy. A proposed billboard campaign throughout the West from PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, features a busty babe wearing a bikini and a big grin, while a string of bologna cascades over one shoulder. But the billboard says there’s a problem: “Eating meat can…
In the new West, we’re all tourists
In Wyoming, they say, “We don’t want to become like Jackson.” In Colorado, “We don’t want to become like Aspen.” In Utah, more fervently, “We don’t want to become another Moab.” Yet these same people never say, “I don’t want to be a Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt.” Hal K. Rothman, who is a history…
Can the Preble’s mouse trap growth on Colorado’s Front Range?
Note: a sidebar article, “The city mouse,” accompanies this feature story. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – On the 13th floor of the tallest building in town, Steve Sharkey, vice president of Picolan Inc., pulls out his plans for the Northgate development. It’s a 1,200-acre residential and commercial development at the edge of town, and it’s been…
Who’s stopping sprawl?
Note: this front-page essay introduces this issue’s feature stories. The northern spotted owl created an enormous controversy in the timber towns of the Pacific Northwest. But at least it never had to tangle with the PTA. Less than 80 cactus ferruginous pygmy-owls are thought to survive in southern Arizona, and many of them live in…
Dear Friends
Colorful gathering of journalists Assistant editor Greg Hanscom headed to Seattle last month for the Unity Conference, a gathering of 6,000 Black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian American journalists. Power-suited journalists packed the Seattle convention center for four days to hear panel discussions, prize-winning authors and four presidential candidates expound on the importance of media…
Montana tribes bid their leader farewell
Michael T. “Mickey” Pablo, leader of Montana’s Indian nations, died at his ranch Aug. 5, at the age of 51. Postoperative complications from surgery on a knee he twisted while fishing have been reported as the likely cause of death. This humble man was highly respected for his wisdom and much loved for his kind…
A tiny owl with a big name
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. The cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl, described as “fist-sized” and “no bigger than a muffin,” measures seven inches from beak to tail, and is the second smallest owl in North America. Only the elf owl, also native to southern Arizona, is smaller. Pygmy-owls spend…