Magazine
Mr. Babbitt's wild ride

February 12, 2001

In eight years as Interior Secretary, Bruce Babbitt has known some failures but more successes: reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone, halting the New World gold mine, and creating many national monuments, starting with the Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Feature

Interior view
In an interview with HCN's publisher, Bruce Babbitt looks back on eight challenging and productive years as Secretary of Interior.
Ed Marston Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition

Editor's Note

Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
In eight years as Interior Secretary, Bruce Babbitt has known some failures but more successes: reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone, halting the New World gold mine, and creating many national monuments, starting with the Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Paul Larmer Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition

Uncommon Westerners

Don Ewy is no timber beast
Environmentalist, logger and HCN reader Don Ewy wonders who vandalized the bulldozer he used to selectively log trees in the North Fork State Forest in Colorado.
Rebecca Clarren Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition

Essays

I am an Inuit warrior
It's not easy being a person who lives in a high mountain ski town but hates snow and winter weather.
Lou Bendrick Opinion Essay Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
No matter what they say, Westerners don't fit the stereotype
Post-election analysts are mistaken in their claims that the traditionally Republican West fits cultural stereotypes.
Ed Quillen Opinion Essay Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition

Book Reviews

Easement saves artifacts
A new kind of easement, put together by the Montezuma Land Conservancy and landowner Don Dove, will protect ruins and buried artifacts on archaeologically rich land near Cortez, Colorado.
Gail Binkly Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Out of the grave
A legendary Colorado journal, the "Mountain Gazette," is being resurrected in Breckenridge, Colo., after two decades of dormancy.
J T Thomas Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Men without women
"Speaking through the Aspens: Basque Tree Carvings in California and Nevada," by J. Mallea-Olaetxe, studies and celebrates the 'arborglyphs' left on tree trunks by lonesome Basque sheepherders over the last century.
Betsy Marston Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Sex-swappin' salmon
Salmon researchers are puzzled by their discovery that 84 percent of female salmon sampled tested positive for a male genetic marker, suggesting that these females began life as males.
Kirsten Bovee Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Assessing Sunbelt sprawl
A new report by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University, "Hits and Misses: Fast Growth in Metropolitan Phoenix," takes a hard look at the rapid growth of the sprawling Sunbelt metropolis.
Kirsten Bovee Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West
Arcata, Calif., "eco-house"; metal pink pig in Joseph, Ore., gets the boot; tidying up utility poles in Portland, Ore.; fancy fruit gift boxes; sagebrush seed rustlers caught in Hanford, Wash.; Reno comedians replaced by bingo.
Betsy Marston Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition

Dear Friends

Dear Friends
Winter kicks in; calling all lapsed subscribers; deaths of poet and conservationist Geoffrey Platts and photographer Sherm Spoelstra.
Rebecca Clarren Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition

News

New mining regs slip into rulebooks
Bruce Babbitt strengthens BLM mining regulations, requiring bonds to cover cleanup costs, enforcing air and water standards, and giving the agency discretion to deny mining proposals that threaten habitat or scenic beauty.
Ali Macalady Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Bush hits the brakes
Right after taking office, Pres. Bush put a freeze on Clinton's last new regulations -- the USFS's roadless plan, Mexican owl critical habitat, and other environmental rules -- giving the new administration time to review and maybe overturn them.
Matt Jenkins Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
The latest bounce
User-fee protester faces prosecution; Utah state Sen. Terry Spencer proposes four bills to stop nuclear waste storage on Goshute Reservation; Hopi tribe may be allowed to take eaglets; electric cars encouraged in California.
Rebecca Clarren Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Critics rail against expansion project
Indians, ranchers and conservationists are fighting a plan by Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad to construct almost 300 miles of new track to haul coal in South Dakota and Wyoming.
Joseph Kelty Bump Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Coyote killing continues
The Colorado Wildlife Commission has approved a nine-year coyote-killing experiment in western Colorado.
Allen Best Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Anglers fish for solutions
Anglers and biologists warn that cutthroat trout and bald eagles on the South Fork of the Snake River are threatened when the water is saved behind dams for summer irrigators.
Rob Thornberry Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Silence of the clams
Scientists counting clams on the Colorado River Delta say the region has lost 95 percent of its biological richness since Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s.
Mark Muro Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Bombs make way for 'burbs
Denver-area developers are eager to get their hands on the Front Range land preserved on the former Lowry Bombing Range.
Victoria Peglar Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Chinook tribe recognized
At long last, the Bureau of Indian Affairs recognizes the existence of the Chinook Tribe.
Karen Mockler Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Owl things considered
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated 4.6 billion acres in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah as critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl, but the Center for Biological Diversity says that is not enough and plans to sue.
Kirsten Bovee Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Legal woes for Legacy Parkway
A coalition of environmentalists and smart-growth advocates, including Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, has filed lawsuits to stop construction of the Legacy Parkway along Utah's Wasatch Front near the Great Salt Lake.
Tim Westby Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
Park photo contest comes with corporate baggage
Watchdog groups are worried that a Park Service photo contest, organized and sponsored by Kodak, sets a bad precedent of corporate entanglement with national parks.
Oakley Brooks Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
A new plan frames the Sierra Nevada
The Forest Service has released its final plan for 11 national forests in California's Sierra Nevada, but the timber industry is already planning to appeal the Sierra Framework.
Jane Braxton Little Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
The power of love, and its opposite
Activists should be worried because President George W. Bush is surrounded by people who scorn and disdain environmentalism.
Jon Margolis Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition

Letters

Unwise welcome?
John Walker Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
It's not that simple
Robert J. Davey Feb. 12, 2001 From the print edition
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