While Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt considers greater protection for Oregon’s Steens Mountain, local ranchers and environmentalists argue over whether the land should become a cow-free national monument or a conservation area that would allow grazing.
Race card trumped
Dear HCN, In a recent essay (-All our backs are a bit wet,” HCN, 10/11/99), Jack McGarvey suggests that U.S. immigration and border enforcement policies are racially motivated and that U.S. immigration policies give preferential treatment to Canadians over Mexicans. When examined in the light of U.S. Census data, however, this race card is soundly…
All of us come from primitive cultures
Dear HCN, I read with interest James Bishop’s “Bones of Contention.” I was struck by the comment of Kurt Dongoske: “What he has demonstrated is that people were hacked apart, their bones dismembered. He presents no evidence of ingestion.” Mr. Dongoske is angered by Mr. Turner’s assertion that the Anasazi, particularly at Chaco Canyon, practiced…
Tree-sitters and timber company celebrate
Sarah Vekasi was prepared to spend the winter perched in an old Douglas fir tree near the town of Randle, Wash., in order to stop the trade of old-growth forest out of public ownership. Thanks to a recent reworking of a complicated land swap, it looks like she’ll stay warm, dry and on the ground.…
Nobody’s perfect
Dear HCN, After reading Craig Childs’ article, I no longer feel guilty concerning my choice of employment for the past 12 years. I’m currently employed by the world’s largest printer (lots of dead wood there), and before that, I was a boiler operator at a sawmill. I have always cared about my impact on our…
Hunters cry: too many predators
A booming wolf population around Yellowstone National Park has local sportsmen up in arms. More than 2,500 people have sent in a dollar to join the newly formed Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd, according to founder Robert Fanning. The group wants to take wolves off the endangered species list and give the state…
Dirty air in the deep of winter
Snowmobiles produce nearly all the air pollution in Yellowstone National Park, even though other vehicles outnumber them 16 to 1, says a new report by the National Park Service’s Air Resources Division. Air Quality Concerns Related to Snowmobile Usage found that one winter’s worth of emissions by snowmobiles amounts to 78 percent of all carbon…
The Wayward West
The first reported case of chronic wasting disease has hit Montana. The fatal disorder has been slowly spreading throughout the West’s elk and deer populations for the past 30 years (HCN, 9/27/99). Early this month, an autopsy report proved it killed a game farm elk on the Kesler ranch in Philipsburg. Josh Turner of the…
Grant program gives greens GIS
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology can turn hard data into colorful maps and geographic databases, but few nonprofit groups can afford the expensive computer tool. The Conservation Technology Support Program wants to solve this problem by offering GIS grants to environmental groups. In the year 2000, the program will give away more than $1 million…
Risks multiply for land managers
Beatings, bombings, death threats and other acts of violence against Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management employees are on the rise. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), agency workers or buildings were attacked or threatened nearly 100 times in 1998 alone. One Forest…
Nonstop service to the Mojave Desert?
A 6,500-acre swath of federally owned desert, 10 miles from California’s Mojave National Preserve, could become the site of a new Las Vegas airport. But environmentalists and the National Park Service say airport overflights will ruin the preserve visitor’s experience. “One of the really special things about Mojave is the opportunity for solace and quiet,”…
Nevada names
JARBIDGE (Elko). A Nevada post office, established March 5, 1910, and town (the most isolated mining camp in the state) … According to Jarbidge legend, the name … comes from a Shoshone Indian word Jahabich, meaning “devil,” or from Tswhawbitts, the name of a mythical crater-dwelling giant who roamed the Jarbidge Canyon for many years.…
BIA told to get organized
Allocate $10 million to $15 million for new bosses at the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the beleaguered agency might get itself back on track, says a new report from the National Academy of Public Administration. The BIA, which represents 1.2 million Indians from 558 tribes, has long been plagued by mismanagement (HCN 4/15/99). BIA…
Kartchner Caverns State Park
There’s a new world underground: Nov. 12 marked the grand opening of Kartchner Caverns State Park, 50 miles southeast of Tucson, and so far 30,000 people have reserved tours of the cave. Reservations are strongly recommended from 520/586-CAVE. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Kartchner Caverns State Park.
Petroglyph: Why one staffer quit
Dear HCN, Cathy Robbins’ article on the hideous situation at Petroglyph is right on target (HCN, 10/25/99). As a former NPS staffer there (I was chief of Interpretation and Cultural Resources from 1994-1998) who fled in terror under Judith Cordova’s reign, I can elaborate on several points in the article. Ms. Cordova did indeed make…
Tailings and mine waste
Colorado State University is hosting a conference on tailings and mine waste Jan. 23-26, 2000, for members of the mining community and other interest groups concerned with mine waste management. Mining, tailings management, geohydrology, geochemistry and other related topics will be covered in focused sessions. For information, contact Linda Hinshaw, Department of Civil Engineering, Colorado…
A public apology and the publisher replies
Dear HCN, On behalf of the National Parks and Conservation Association, I want to publicly apologize both to Petroglyph Superintendent Judith Cordova and to your readers for the personal remarks made by NPCA Southwest Regional Director Dave Simon that appeared in a sidebar to your Oct. 25 “Monumental chaos’ feature. His comments were inappropriate and…
Great Salt Lake Issues Forum
The third Great Salt Lake Issues Forum will spotlight selected watershed programs within the state and around the country, including Idaho’s Salmon/Lemhi Resource Area. The goal is to use these examples to devise a collaborative restoration and protection program for Great Salt Lake. The Feb. 25-26 forum is presented by Friends of Great Salt Lake.…
Developers don’t have to rule
Dear HCN, Many thanks to Cathy Robbins for writing about the abuse of the Petroglyph National Monument just outside of Albuquerque, N.M. (HCN, 10/25/99). I am not ashamed to admit the article brought tears to my eyes. While the plight of the petroglyphs is of grave concern, the article brought out the larger issue of…
Cartoons from Elmer Sprunger
In Montana, the nonprofit Friends of the Wild Swan is ringing in the new year with a calendar of favorite cartoons from Elmer Sprunger (see page 6), the man who can make bears talk. It’s $10 from Friends of the Wild Swan, P.O. Box 5103, Swan Lake, MT 59911. This article appeared in the print…
Park Service is working to protect Petroglyph
Dear HCN, Your recent article on Petroglyph National Monument left out a great deal of information about actions the park is taking to deal with some of the issues raised by your coverage (HCN, 10/25/99). Cultural and natural resource protection in the park has greatly increased since it became a unit of the National Park…
What about dogs?
There you go again, raising the non-issue of cell phones in the backcountry (-Heard around the West,” 10/25/99). As a frequent backcountry traveler, I simply haven’t encountered the problem. In any event, it seems the phones could easily be avoided by those who are offended. Perhaps you should report instead on the increasingly unavoidable backcountry…
Another view of La Migra
Dear HCN, Having lived and worked with illegal Mexican laborers for over 20 years from the Mexican border to South Dakota, I disagree with Jack McGarvey’s essay and description of the U.S. Border Patrol as irritating and oppressive (HCN, 10/11/99). From this same perspective I laugh at his reference to the “affectionate” employers who employ…
In Washington, the emperor is on Babbitt’s side
Washington, D.C. – In the combat arena to which your nation’s government has degenerated, belligerents armed with rhetorical excess and bilious discourtesy hurl their weapons at each other hoping to inflict humiliation, if not political death. In the center ring of this civic (but uncivil) Forum, the big-name gladiators fight over the federal budget and…
Dear Friends
Hail to a hiker Congratulations to an indomitable woman named Gudy Gaskill, who decided 25 years ago that volunteers could – and would – build a 470-mile trail around Colorado’s mountaintops. There was help from then-Gov. Richard Lamm and the Forest Service, but what really drew people from ages 14 to 80 was Gudy herself…
Nevadans drive out forest supervisor
RENO, Nev. – After enduring a year and a half of what she calls Nevada’s “fed bashing,” Gloria Flora couldn’t take it anymore. The supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, the largest national forest in the lower 48 states, submitted her resignation Nov. 8. But Flora didn’t go quietly. Instead, she used her resignation to…
Heard around the West
After a Taiwanese pop star filmed a four-minute video in a Grandview, Wash., cherry orchard, the demand for cherries in Asia boomed, crows cherry promoter Eric Melton. Cherry growers paid $100,000 for the MTV-style video, but the value was “about $3 million,” reports Capital Press. The gain came through higher prices, so that while Asian…
Go tell it on the mountain
FRENCHGLEN, Ore. – Atop 9,600-foot Steens Mountain, a brisk northwest wind races up the spectacular U-shaped canyon of Little Blitzen Creek at dawn. Howling over the top of golden aspen trees in the canyon below, the wind rips up-canyon to a steep alpine bowl at the top of the draw, and – poof! – like…
One proposal nearly runs aground
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Last spring, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt got to have some fun. He took a raft trip on Montana’s Missouri River Breaks accompanied by author and filmmaker Dayton Duncan and historian Stephen Ambrose, author of Undaunted Courage, a recent and highly popular telling of the…
Western environmentalists go global
SEATTLE, Wash. – When the five-day World Trade Organization conference begins here on Nov. 30, as many as 50,000 protesters are expected to hit the streets with marches and street theater, demanding environmental, labor, safety and human-rights protections in global trade rules. The activists, including local and national union activists and representatives from many Western…
Babbitt looks for support on his home turf
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Shivwits Plateau wasn’t on environmentalists’ radar screen a year ago. Better known as the Arizona Strip, the Shivwits lies in the extreme northwestern corner of Arizona. Cut off from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, it…
‘Environmentalists will win’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Andy Kerr is a veteran Oregon environmentalist who represents The Wilderness Society on the Steens issue. He is pushing for an end to livestock grazing on Steens Mountain. “The (Southeast Oregon Resource Advisory Council) is the wrong entity to cut a deal. It has…
A tired stream gains new steam
STRAWBERRY, Ariz. – Below Arizona’s Mogollon Rim, Fossil Springs bubbles from the ground to water a dry land. From the springs, Fossil Creek used to flow almost 15 miles through scrubby mesquite and pinon trees before it emptied into the Verde River. But for almost a century, a dam built a quarter-mile from the springs…
‘I see lawsuits as a last resort’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Jill Workman is a Portland-based volunteer for the Sierra Club. She believes that livestock grazing should continue on Steens Mountain. “I see lawsuits as a last resort. I’d rather try to work with people. I personally don’t think you can rule those people out.…
Figuring out FERC
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “A tired stream gains new steam.” Relicensing of a hydroelectric project begins at least two years before the old license expires. After an application is filed, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gives public notice, and any member…
‘The more protection … the better’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Bill Marlett is the executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association. He has filed a number of appeals and a lawsuit against the BLM, all asserting his group’s opposition to grazing on Steens Mountain. “I told (Babbitt) point-blank that we want a date-certain…
‘I don’t want to run a different business’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Fred Otley is a fourth-generation rancher on Steens Mountain in the Kiger Creek and Kiger Gorge area. He is the coordinator of Friends of Steens Mountain, a group of local citizens and ranchers, and is a “private landowner liaison” to the Resource Advisory Council.…
‘Multiple use is still the best concept’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Stacy Davies is the ranch manager of the Roaring Springs Ranch in the Catlow Valley, on the west side of Steens Mountain. Owned by the Bob Sanders family for the last seven years, it is the largest ranch on Steens Mountain, with 146,000 acres…
The secretary’s must-do list for Western lands
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s Western road tour didn’t finish at Steens Mountain; in fact, no one seems quite sure where it will end. In addition to the Arizona Strip and the Missouri River Breaks, several other Bureau of Land Management sites could gain greater…
Is the Grand Staircase-Escalante a model monument?
Note: a sidebar article, “Ninety years of the Antiquities Act,” accompanies this feature story. Three years ago, Jerry Meredith was pretty sure he had landed one of the toughest jobs in the federal government. The 51-year-old middle manager for the Bureau of Land Management had just been tagged to oversee the brand-new Grand Staircase-Escalante National…
Ninety years of the Antiquities Act
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. June 1906 Congress passes the Antiquities Act. It gives the president power to “declare by public proclamation … objects of historic and scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the government of the United States to be…