Idaho Lt. Gov. Butch Otter can’t stay out of hot
water. The Environmental Protection Agency recently socked Otter
with an $80,000 fine for dredging 2.7 acres of wetlands and a
stream channel without a permit. It was his third EPA violation
since 1992. Otter told the Idaho Statesman he accepted
responsibility for failing to secure permits, but blamed state and
federal regulators for a “godforsaken” permit process. The
four-term lieutenant governor has announced he wants to succeed
retiring Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, who has promised not to
seek another term.
Hailey environmentalist Jon
Marvel beat out millionaire Mary Hewlett Jaffe, daughter of one of
the co-founders of Hewlett-Packard Co., for four parcels of state
grazing land. It is his first victory since this April, when the
Idaho Supreme Court restored his right to compete for state grazing
leases (HCN, 8/2/99). The bidding began at $200, Marvel countered
with $1,200, and the auction ended. Marvel predicted the Jaffe
ranch would appeal the loss within a 20-day period allowed by the
state Board of Land Commissioners, and it has. The board reviews
the appeal tomorrow, Oct. 12.
After U.S. Fish and
Wildlife spent hundreds of hours trying to catch wolves suspected
of killing ranch dogs, a foal, and two calves this spring, it
issued a permit Sept. 9 for a Wyoming ranch manager to kill two
wolves on the Diamond G ranch near Dubois. It is the first time the
agency has authorized a landowner to shoot a wolf not in the act of
killing stock (HCN, 4/13/98). Jon Catton, spokesman for the Greater
Yellowstone Coalition, called the permit a “blank check to destroy
a threatened species.”
Conservationists along
Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front found an unlikely ally in Mark
Alldredge. Earlier this month the Thermopolis, Wyo., man abandoned
104 mining claims he filed in 1996. His claims would have been
grandfathered in, even though Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck
closed 429,000 Front acres to hard-rock mining this February (HCN,
2/15/99). Alldredge told the Great Falls Tribune that the current
political climate in Montana influenced his
decision.
The Blue Ribbon Coalition launched a
campaign to open up wilderness. Calling the Wilderness Act
“antiquated” and “inflexible,” the Pocatello, Idaho-based group
says logging, mining and off-road vehicles should all be allowed in
wilderness areas. The coalition includes Plum Creek Timber, the
American Petroleum Association and the Montana Snowmobile
Association.
* Ali
Macalady,
Karen Mockler
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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