The Yellowstone River is the longest undammed river in the
West, but Montana's rapid growth is affecting it, as property
owners afraid of floods lay huge amounts of riprap along its
banks.
Magazine
March 27, 2000
The Yellowstone River is the longest undammed river in the West, but Montana's rapid growth is affecting it, as property owners afraid of floods lay huge amounts of riprap along its banks.
Feature
Sidebar
Andrew Dana, who went to the Army Corps of Engineers for a
permit to stabilize the Yellowstone River's banks on his land,
describes the permitting process as "a bad dream."
The unregulated development of private property along the
banks of the Yellowstone River is the greatest threat to the
river.
Landowner opposition helped shoot down President Clinton's
Heritage Rivers Initiative, which Yellowstone River activists
believe could have helped the river greatly.
The 670 miles of the Yellowstone River cross a varied
landscape and face an equal variety of problems along the
way.
Essays
In the early 1970s, Tom Bell's "High Country News" tackled
the killing of eagles by Wyoming sheep ranchers, and when the
paper's environmental stand caused subscriptions to drop, loyal
readers sent in money to keep it going.
Book Reviews
A new documentary, "Subdivide and Conquer: The New West,"
takes a sobering look at the rapid development and sprawling
subdivisions in the West.
The Equality State Policy Center, a nonprofit
public-policy group, says taxes are an overlooked source of revenue
and offers suggestions in its report, "Putting Together the
Pieces... Wyoming's Budget Crisis."
The National Park Service wants to preserve the wagon
ruts, campsites, graves and scenery along 13,000 miles of historic
trails in the West.
The Department of Agriculture has released its new,
proposed national organic standards for food in the U.S.
A national conference will discuss off-road vehicle use
and its threat to public lands, April 7-11, in Washington,
D.C.
Unplanned growth and its consequences for North American
biodiversity are the focus of the American Museum of Natural
History in New York's April 13-14 symposium.
Colorado's office of the Bureau of Land Management is
seeking nominations for positions on its Resource Advisory
Councils.
A free Western Small Acreage Expo is offered to farmers,
livestock owners and fruit growers, April 29, in Grand Junction,
Colo.
Sign up for a biweekly e-mail newsletter to keep abreast
of developments in energy-efficient agriculture.
A 104-page report discusses history, policy and laws
surrounding land exchanges.
A conference on Missouri River Natural Resources is set
for May 21-24 in Bismarck, N.D.
Perspective
In an early "High Country News" editorial, reprinted here,
Tom Bell took on then-Governor of Wyoming Stanley K.
Hathaway.
Heard Around the West
Old West shoot-out in Las Vegas; saying howdy with a
staplegun; killed wolf becomes Idaho high school mascot;
Franken-fish in New Zealand; ideas on refrigerators and houses made
from airplanes; Las Vegas plans its own Grand Canyon; Telluride dog
trouble.
News
Over 50 years after the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos
National Laboratory were built on land owned by Hispanic farmers,
descendents of those farmers have sued the Dept. of Energy, saying
they were illegally evicted.
Judge upholds drilling ban on Rocky Mtn. Front; Rep. Tom
Udall is for breaching Snake River dams; GAO says Baca Ranch, N.M.,
is overpriced; Louisiana-Pacific fined for toxic dumping;
Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca supports Mexican wolves in Gila
Wilderness.
The Park Service says that snowmobiles will likely be
banned from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks by
2002-2003.
Tension is high in the Forest Service over Chief Mike
Dombeck's plan to decommission unnecessary and unauthorized roads
in the national forests.
The Park Service has ended consensus efforts among private
boaters, environmentalists and commercial rafting companies over
access to the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, saying the talks had
become polarized and contentious.
Colorado Wild, an environmental group, is appealing the
Forest Service's decision to let Arapahoe Basin Ski Area divert
water from the North Fork of the Snake River for use in
snowmaking.
The BLM is told it can turn down mines that harm
environmental or cultural resources after critics say Glamis
Imperial Corp.'s planned open-pit gold mine in southeastern
California will hurt Quechan Indian sacred sites and the threatened
desert tortoise.
Sen. Larry Craig's proposed Outfitters Policy Act would
standardize outfitter operations on the public lands, but private
users and other critics say the law would tie up the resource for
commercial benefit.
Whirling disease has been found among trout in three state
fish hatcheries in New Mexico.
Opinion
In a special April Fool's edition, "Sly Country News"
features imaginative maps, a bovine poet, earplugs for animals and
other ideas, and - scariest of all - the paper's plan for launching
its Media Empire.
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