Four years after President Bush launched his Healthy Forests Initiative, the Western woods are abuzz.
Also in this issue: “Nevada style” wilderness bill comes to Utah and Citizens unite against gas field chaos.
Small-town pipe dreams
M. John Fayhee struck a chord with me in his article “Town Shopping” (HCN, 3/20/06: Town Shopping). It has always been my dream to move to a small town in the desert and enjoy the ambience and peace. After reading the article, I have to admit this is a pipe dream. Even if I found an…
Salmon face many threats
Salvation for salmon will not come through reading Brett Wilkison’s completely decontexualized piece on salmon and dams (HCN, 3/06/06: Fishermen blamed for salmon troubles). The threats to the well-being of salmon are very complex. Yes, for certain runs of salmon, dams have had huge detrimental effects. But the evidence shows these salmon runs have continued to…
Critical habitat lives
In your story “Spotted owl or red herring?” you state that critical habitat for the northern spotted owl was never implemented (HCN, 3/20/06: Spotted owl or red herring?). While it is true that there is no critical habitat for the spotted owl on private or state lands, it does exist on federal lands. Although the Fish…
The Latest Bounce
To fund rural schools and services, President Bush’s 2007 budget proposes putting thousands of public acres on the auction block (HCN, 3/6/06: Public acres for sale). But two Democratic senators have a better idea: Close a legal loophole that lets some government contractors skip out on taxes. Montana’s Max Baucus and Oregon’s Ron Wyden proposed a bill…
A law born from the ashes
California’s devastating fires of 2003 gave rise to the Healthy Forests Restoration Act — the business end of the Bush administration’s Healthy Forests Initiative, itself introduced in Oregon after the 2002 fire season. George W. Bush’s Healthy Forests, by Jacqueline Vaughn and Hanna J. Cortner, is the story of a legislative moment in time —…
On the wing again
As California condors disappeared, a new world emerged. From observation posts in Southern California’s Transverse Ranges in the 1960s, hazy vistas of L.A. subdivisions, office buildings and jet airplanes gradually replaced sightings of the largest bird in North America. “This is not a species that’s grown old and feeble,” NPR science reporter John Nielsen writes…
Legend of the Eagleman
Legend of the Eagleman Wayne Parrish 364 pages, softcover: $18.95. Morro Press, 2006. Based on an Indian legend warning against gambling and greed, this suspenseful and engaging novel blends tribal history, water disputes, illegal land swaps, and political corruption. Matt Dillon, Indian sculptor and special agent for the Arizona Gaming Commission, goes undercover to investigate…
Communities and Forests: Where People Meet theLand
Communities and Forests: Where People Meet the Land ed. Robert G. Lee and Donald R. Field 320 pages, softcover: $29.95. Oregon State University Press, 2005. This collection of essays suggests that traditional forest management is shifting, from being solely science-based to accounting for societal and cultural values. Lee and Field present four major types of…
Valle Vidal Coalition gathers momentum
Even as new drill rigs tickle the boundaries of the Valle Vidal, the coalition opposing energy exploration in New Mexico’s Yellowstone gains strength. In January, the Bureau of Land Management gave Houston-based El Paso Energy the go-ahead to drill 25 new coalbed methane wells on the Vermejo Park Ranch, private land adjacent to the Valle…
Norton eases road claims
In a parting gesture last month, outgoing Interior Secretary Gale Norton opened the door for counties and states to claim control of roads crossing federal lands managed by her department. Revised Statute 2477, enacted in 1866, allowed states and counties to construct highways across public land (HCN, 12/20/04: The road to nowhere). Although the act was…
Mass wolf kill rests on shaky science
Idaho’s Fish and Game Department wants to boost the Lolo management zone’s dwindling elk herd by killing up to three-quarters of the area’s estimated 58 wolves and maintaining low wolf numbers for the next five years. But some biologists and conservation groups question the science behind the plan — the department’s first attempt to manage…
Is everyone a journalist?
I was one who applauded HCN’s graphics changes as they were being introduced, but you do seem to have overdone it with the March 20 issue, and not just in terms of graphics: Color the articles by John Fayhee “yellow.” According to Fayhee, Realtors are nothing but ex-bartenders and/or day-laborers who got licensed online with…
Harness the change
John Fayhee’s piece (HCN, 3/20/06: Town Shopping) raises a lot of the usual questions, but one he avoided is this: Are those of us who bemoan the gentrification of the West guilty of romanticizing poverty? An acquaintance in Santa Fe once commented that the area around Taos was “Cabrini Green with better scenery” — that is,…
The War on Wildfire
To wage war on wildfire, President Bush convinced Congress to help him change the rules of forest management. Are we better off now?
Dear friends
LOCAL GRASSROOTS ACTION WSERC (“wuh-serk”), this valley’s local environmental group, has been called many things, including, of course, berserk. For a small group started around a kitchen table, the Western Slope Environmental Resource Council has accomplished a lot in its 29 years: It stopped a major powerline through the valley, convinced local coal companies to…
Enviros wary of ‘Nevada-style’ wilderness bill
Utah proposal includes public-lands sale, utility corridors
Eco-terrorism and the Trial of the Century
In case you hadn’t noticed, 12 young people (average age 33) have been charged with arson and conspiracy to commit arson in several Western states. The 83-page indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury in Oregon, and it must be important because the story made the front page of the Western edition of…
Dam removal considered for Klamath
As salmon suffer, truce settles on river
Citizens unite against gas field chaos
Group meets company halfway to deal with natural gas impacts
City makes desperate bid for watershed
Note: this article is a sidebar to a news article, “Citizens unite against gas field chaos.” “This is your first time, isn’t it?” whispered a kindly Bureau of Land Management matron to an apprehensive Greg Trainor at a recent oil and gas lease auction in Denver, Colo. Trainor, who manages the water supply for Grand…
Mute, riven, blessed
All over the West, white roadside crosses and spontaneous, humble shrines mark the holy sites where the souls of human beings have left this world.
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA What a surprise for two off-roaders in the California Desert, who ventured farther off-road than was good for them. Driving a Suzuki Samurai in a restricted area managed by the Bureau of Land Management, they blasted over a ridge and plunged 30 feet straight down an abandoned mineshaft. “I can still hear that scraping…
Pete McCloskey rides again
In February, a new vendor appeared at the weekly farmers’ market in this southern Bay Area town. Pete McCloskey, a soft-spoken 78-year-old farmer with a thatch of unruly gray hair, stood before a folding table flanked by bags of organic oranges. But McCloskey wasn’t pushing fresh fruit; he was hawking his homegrown politics. Former Rep.…
Slim margins
Loggers say forest restoration work doesn’t put much food on the table
National Fire Plan vs. the Healthy Forests rule changes
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The War on Wildfire.” THE NATIONAL FIRE PLAN What is it? A 10-year strategy, launched in 2000 by Western governors, to attack overgrown forests and to increase fire protection for communities Key players Former Govs. John Kitzhaber, D-Ore., and Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho Rule changes…