COLORADO Voters thread through the ballot Voters faced a list of complex initiatives and referenda in Colorado. Amendment 13 asked them to amend the constitution to protect the burgeoning hog industry on the state’s eastern plains from strict environmental rules. Voters defeated it, 553,000 to 348,000, then voted for Amendment 14, which revises state law […]
Voters thread through the ballot
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Courting the green vote
ARIZONA Courting the green vote At first glance, it looked like a travel folder touting Arizona, so thick was the carpet of yellow flowers at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, and so perfectly red were the rock spires of Monument Valley. But the eight-page, glossy brochure was a campaign ad for a state […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Mining takes another hit
MONTANA Mining takes another hit In a small second-floor office in downtown Helena, Mont., a dozen people held a sort of vigil on this chilly election night. They’d brought a television and rigged it with rabbit ears earlier in the day, and tuned the radio to the local public radio station. There, in the Montana […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
The Wayward West
Forest Service officials in Driggs, Idaho, found a homemade fertilizer bomb on their office doorstep Oct. 19. Targhee National Forest Supervisor Jerry Reese thinks the bomb, which was quickly defused by a sheriff’s deputy, might have been planted by someone upset with road closures meant to protect grizzly bear habitat. Off-road vehicle users and others […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Bounty on wolf killers
Government agents and environmental groups are offering $25,000 to anyone who turns in those responsible for killing Mexican gray wolves. The reward followed an announcement by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigators that a wolf found dead near the Arizona-New Mexico border in early November had died of a gunshot wound. It was the fourth […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
It’s a good day to be indigenous
From this moment on kindly refer to my family as “indigenous.” Or, if you prefer, “First Peoples.” With the discovery of what could be my long-lost European relative – Kennewick Man – it’s time to respect my elders. Kennewick Man, found in 1996 on the banks of the Columbia River near the town of the […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Heard Around the West
A two-headed deer? A wildlife biologist for Montana said he’d never heard of it before. But it was true. One deer head was alive and attached to its body, while the other had been severed from its torso, most probably after a macho duel that involved the two bucks butting heads and then locking antlers. […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Amateur essayists walk a changing forest
HART’S COVE, Ore. – In the Siuslaw National Forest, the contrast in viewpoints among those on the trail is as stark as night and day. “They’re amazing,” says Mary Collins, shaking her head in wonder as she stares through the rain at the gray-barked, old-growth trees that rise like pillars. Sitka spruce trees – some […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
The West of the ’90s is the South of the ’60s
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Well, so much for the Revolution. It was decimated on the Pacific Coast, demolished in the Northeast, even damaged in the South. And it never amounted to much in the Midwest. So after four short years, it has been expunged, this much-discussed political sea change, often called the Gingrich Revolution, gone and […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Wildlife crossings cut down on roadkill
MISSOULA, Mont. – A radio-collared Canada lynx cautiously approaches the Trans-Canada Highway in Alberta’s Bow River Valley. A large recreation vehicle rumbles into view. The cat hesitates, then nervously skitters back into the brush. About 50 yards from the roadside, it lies down for about a half hour before rising to make another attempt to […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Dear Friends
First snow It was like getting hit in the face with a cream pie: A wet snow dumped on much of western Colorado early this month. Trees, still laden with leaves, bent low, some breaking, some perilously stretching power lines, and until the mist cleared, all seemed heavy and ominous. Then the sun chased the […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Ecosystem management hits ‘Ice Bump’ in the road
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Other regions, such as the Sierra Nevada and the interior Columbia Basin, have attempted to develop ecosystem management plans. In the interior Columbia Basin, the attempt is not going well. The Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (the initials ICBEMP inevitably became “Ice-bump’) is […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
A patchwork peace unravels
Renewed controversy threatens the truce of Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Three cheers for the arsonists at Vail
Dear HCN, In its single-minded pursuit of ever-increasing profits and greater market share, it seems Vail has finally stirred some resistance from folks not overly concerned with such niceties as the legality of their actions, and who exhibit a downright healthy disdain for the property of large corporations. Well, God bless the Earth Liberation Front! […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Bull Trout Workshop
The mysteries of the bull trout, recently listed as threatened on the Blackfoot River, will be revealed Nov. 16-17 at a Bull Trout Workshop hosted by the American Fisheries Society’s North Pacific-International Chapter. To be held in Nelson, B.C., a three-hour drive due north from Spokane, Wash., the symposium will explore recovery and management techniques. […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Renewable Energy Policy Project
The Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Energy Policy Project’s August Research Report suggests a way to boost the small market for water heaters powered by the sun. Instead of relying on public subsidies to stimulate sales, the report says, manufacturers could borrow techniques from the insurance industry, giving salespeople a commission on every heater they sell. The […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
From Watersheds to Watertaps
Community activists from the Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas are invited to attend From Watersheds to Watertaps, a workshop Jan. 9 in Denver on the new Safe Drinking Water Act. The workshop will combine strategies for protecting both watersheds and safe drinking water. Contact Carmi McLean at 303/839-9866 or denvercwa@cleanwtsaer.org. This article appeared in […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
9th Headwaters Conference, “Relationships Between Learning and Locality’
The collision between rural society and academia is the subject of the 9th Headwaters Conference, “Relationships Between Learning and Locality,” at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., Nov. 13-14. Presentations include a one-man docudrama about philosopher John Dewey and a role-playing exercise about “fractious mountain valleys.” For information contact George Sibley, Western State College, Gunnison, […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Big Sky or Big Sprawl?
As cities swallow countyside, two upcoming conferences will consider ways to protect open and agricultural land from urban growth. Montanans meet in Helena Nov. 20-21 for Big Sky or Big Sprawl? Montana at the Crossroads: Montana’s First Statewide Summit on Growth. Call or write AERO, 25 S. Ewing, Suite 214, Helena, MT 59601 (406/443-7272), or […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Endangered Mexico
Living in Mexico City – a place that has already suffered a kind of ecological collapse – has convinced me that the most crucial environmental struggle in the coming decades will be providing water, food and clean air, and ensuring basic human health in a world where resources are more and more limited. The most […]