-We must elect more women – yes. But we must transform those structures to which we elect women to accomplish our goals, because present institutions will not do … In my heart I believe that women will change the nature of power rather than power change the nature of women.” * Bella Abzug, quoted in […]
Women pioneers
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Land Trusts
The last decade has been a good one for the West’s land trusts. A census conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Land Trust Alliance reveals that the number of land trusts that serve the Rocky Mountain states has risen from 20 to 52, and the Southwest shows similar growth. Nationwide, these private nonprofits, whose primary purpose […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Squawking gets squawfish renamed
The squawfish is about to be rechristened. The Names of Fishes Committee of the American Fisheries Society has recommended that all squawfish be renamed pikeminnows. Although the committee is reluctant to change common names for fear of causing confusion, it made an exception this time because “names should not violate the tenets of good taste.” […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Adopt a stream
Driving the West’s highways, you can’t help but notice the blue “Adopt a Highway” signs announcing who’s agreed to pick up trash beside the road. Now, the Colorado Water Conservation Board has started a similar program to help monitor stream flows. The agency is responsible for maintaining adequate water levels in 1,300 of the most […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Crystal Mountain plans to grow
Ski resort collector Boyne USA is laying the groundwork for a massive makeover of Crystal Mountain in Washington’s Cascade Mountains. Boyne, also the owner of Big Sky in Montana (HCN, 3/31/97), plans to pump $40 million into the resort to keep Seattle-area skiers from fleeing the state to visit other resorts. Improvements include 10 new […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Grand Staircase-Escalante in the spotlight
When President Clinton created the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah two years ago, environmentalists broke out the champagne, while many locals moped (HCN, 4/14/97). A proposed management plan for the monument has the two groups in each others’ shoes. “I thought the people doing the plan really did a good job,” Kane County […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Loggers told to stop cutting
In an unprecedented action against a major timber company, California suspended Pacific Lumber’s operating license this November. The Humboldt County company, locked in confrontation with environmentalists over the giant coastal redwoods of the Headwaters Forest, was cited for numerous violations, including cutting trees too close to streams and driving heavy equipment in spotted-owl habitat. Paul […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Top gun seeks more of the high desert
Two years ago, a remarkable coalition formed in rural central Nevada to halt the spread of Navy war games on public lands. Low-flying jets and the military’s hunger for land withdrawals spurred the Sierra Club, the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, People for the USA, and almost every level of government – from local land-use boards to […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Keep the backcountry free
Backpackers who frequent Grand Teton National Park scored a partial victory in their fight to keep the backcountry experience almost free. When Park Superintendent Jack Neckels unveiled an extensive backcountry fee program at a recent meeting organized by the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, the audience of over 200 people vehemently protested. Many Jackson residents told […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Women want the railroad to back off
Kathy Beisner and her family used to take vacation trips in their camper. Though her husband Ron worked long hours for the Union Pacific railroad, making the run between Omaha and their hometown of North Platte, Neb., there was always time off to take the kids camping. No more. Since a 1996 merger with Southern […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
A road could go there
Forest Service officials in central Montana are finding themselves in a tight spot over a proposed land exchange. The agency has been trying for five years to acquire about 4,000 privately owned acres surrounded by the Lewis and Clark National Forest. Acquiring these islands of private land “will enable us to manage in a more […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
The Wayward West
The revolving door to the Bureau of Land Management director’s office took a spin in November. On the way out was Salt Lake City attorney Pat Shea, who headed the agency for just over a year. Shea has been promoted to acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, where he will help create […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Scientists get a free ride
-We’re not very receptive to charges that the park is “wimping out,” “””says Rocky Mountain National Park spokesman Doug Caldwell. But critics say the park did just that – by permitting a crew of soil scientists to take a helicopter ride in a wilderness study area. Last summer, the park in northeastern Colorado sent a […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Bears flocked to Aspen
ASPEN, Colo. – Celebrity sightings are old news in the place known as “Glitter Gulch.” New this summer and fall were black bear sightings. “The number of nuisance bear calls was the highest it’s been since I moved here 20 years ago,” says Randy Cote, Colorado Department of Wildlife’s Aspen-area district manager, who received more […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Terrorist tactics always undermine progress
“We’re always a little afraid.” That’s what a staunch environmentalist told me shortly after I retired from the Idaho Legislature and left a big-firm law practice to work for the Idaho Conservation League. “Afraid of what?” I asked him. So he patiently explained certain realities of being an environmentalist in an Idaho Panhandle timber town. […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Heard around the West
Northern spotted owls are supposed to be shy and almost invisible in what’s left of our ancient Northwest forests. This was not the case of a “dispersing juvenile” who chose to hang around Everett, Wash., a city of 70,000 close to the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. After spending a day roosting unobtrusively in a tree, […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
A paradise resettled and a community lost
In 1974, when Peter and Deedee Decker bought a rundown, 600-acre ranch six miles from the small, doomed, also rundown town of Ridgway, Colo. (the Bureau of Reclamation planned to bury it under a reservoir, but later relented), it was nowheresville. Despite the San Juan Mountains, which loom up almost as abruptly and beautifully as […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Utah builds a dream trail
Late one afternoon, a trim, bearded University of Utah administrator climbs from a car in a foothill cul-de-sac 10 minutes from the busiest intersection in Salt Lake City. Rick Reese brims with energy as he strides off down a mountain path toward a perch with an astonishing view of the Salt Lake Valley. He stands […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Power poles make deadly perches
To most people, utility poles and power lines are just another part of the Western landscape. Not to Montana falconer Kirk Hohenberger; he sees power lines as death traps for hawks, eagles and falcons. “I’ve seen four of my own falcons electrocuted,” says Hohenberger. “I reported the poles to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Using tools of destruction to restore redwoods
ARCATA, Calif. – In a dense forest of second-growth redwoods next to a logging road, Bill Weaver bounces on a culvert pipe so rusted it’s ready to collapse. A stagnant pool of water is the only sign of the torrent that will gush through the pipe when autumn rains start. “If this culvert hasn’t already […]