In the forested highlands of central Arizona, copper mining has been a mainstay of the local economy for nearly a century. But the area’s paychecks come with a hidden price: The groundwater and soil are now contaminated with acidic metals, and a plume of toxics threatens the Phoenix water supply. Last year, the state of […]
Mines must clean up their mess
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
A tie that binds: county income and timber
Peg Reagan wasn’t a typical Western county commissioner. For starters, she’s an environmentalist. “I was in the minority on any land-use issue,” she says of her four-year term on the Curry County Commission in southwestern Oregon. After leaving office in 1995, she decided it was time for the minority to get organized. She founded the […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
On The Trail
Washington state voters are sure to elect a woman to the U.S. Senate Nov. 3. The question is, which woman – Democratic incumbent Patty Murray or Republican Linda Smith. Only nine seats in the U.S. Senate are now held by women. Smith jumped into the Senate race after serving two terms in the U.S. House […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
The Wayward West
The Forest Service won’t give Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young information about connections between agency staffers and environmental groups. In July, Young asked Southwest Regional Forester Eleanor Towns for a list of employees who are members of groups like the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity and Forest Guardians (HCN, 9/14/98). In a Sept. 21 letter, […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Roadless, for now
Colorado environmentalists stopped two roadless-area timber sales last month. A federal judge agreed with a Colorado Environmental Coalition lawsuit when he told the Forest Service that the agency didn’t properly account for the protection of two sensitive species, the northern goshawk and the boreal owl, in preparing the Trout Mountain timber sale on the Rio […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
A water baron takes on the establishment
One-word descriptions of rancher Gary Boyce are easy to find in the high, wide and impoverished San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado. “Greedy” comes up often, as does “opportunist,” along with terms unprintable even by Starr Report standards. But “flamboyant” also fits. Boyce is generous with expensive cigars and wears knee-high hand-tooled stove-pipe cowboy boots […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
‘Mr. Dominy, are you a hero or a villain?’
Floyd E. Dominy doesn’t seem to hear the question from a college student right away. “Floyd Elgin Dominy, larger than life,” as Marc Reisner called him in Cadillac Desert. Maybe the former commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is listening instead to the hum of the nearby turbines. Maybe the shine of his eyes […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Heard around the West
Bats R Us is the name of Heidi Harris’ free service, just outside Salt Lake City, Utah. Got scores of bats flying around your high school, sending teenagers and teachers shrieking out the doors? She’ll remove – not kill – them, just as she has extricated hundreds of bats from apartment houses and businesses in […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Building a $100 million paradise in Montana’s Paradise Valley
EMIGRANT, Mont. – In the early 1900s, when Yellowstone Park Superintendent Horace Albright looked upon Paradise Valley, his neighbor to the north, he proclaimed: “If that area were in any other state, it would have been a national park.” Framed by mountains and split down the middle by the Yellowstone River, Paradise Valley has always […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Citizens tame growth – their way
LIVINGSTON, Mont. – Paradise is a place with a population of one, says Charles Rahn. A rancher whose family has owned a 3,300-acre operation southeast of town for 50 years, Rahn says, “It’s only paradise for the first person who shows up.” So last year, Rahn led a successful petition drive to form a 66,000-acre […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Are birds to blame for vanishing salmon?
ASTORIA, Ore. – In late May, when young salmon and steelhead ride the spring freshet down to the mouth of the Columbia River, Rice Island is a scene of wildlife bedlam. The island, a stretch of windswept sand 21 miles from the river mouth, hosts the world’s largest nesting colony of Caspian terns – as […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Dear Friends
Bright eyes When photographer Paul Bousquet of Boulder, Colo., told us he’d be spending time in our valley taking pictures of organic vegetable farms for an upcoming book, we decided to snag him for a lunchtime seminar. Gathered in our production room, we picked his brain about taking better photos of new interns and other […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Are the West’s governors turning over a new (green)leaf?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. This summer, the governors of 17 Western states quietly changed their tune. Led by Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon, D, and Gov. Michael Leavitt of Utah, R, the mostly anti-federal-government members of the Western Governors’ Association unanimously agreed to a “shared environmental doctrine,” giving […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
Oregon statistics
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Annual per capita income in urban areas: $24,697 … in rural areas: $19,381 Percentage of Oregon adults with a high school degree: 91 Number of one-teacher schools in Oregon: 8 Estimated daily number of visitors to the 43,000-square-foot Powell’s Books in Portland: 6,000 Unemployment […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
A tale of two – or three – Oregons
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Oregon thrives on a stereotype. Many outsiders imagine the state to be full of flannel-shirted outdoor enthusiasts, slogging through damp evergreen forests with a cup of coffee in one hand and a fishing rod in another. Images of ancient Douglas-firs and healthy, progressive citizens […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
He fought Oregon’s developers
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In the summer of 1944, on leave after flying some 30 missions over Germany and occupied Europe, Air Force bombardier Ted Hallock sat down in a New York City café with writer Brendan Gill and talked at some length about his first quarter-century. Gill […]
Posted inOctober 26, 1998: The Oregon way
The Oregon way
Governor John Kitzhaber casts for consensus in the Northwest’s troubled waters
Posted inOctober 12, 1998: A river becomes a raw nerve
Solar power is booming
After lagging for decades, solar power is booming; its growth rate of 16 percent per year from 1990-1997 ranks it as the world’s second fastest-growing energy source after wind power. Worldwatch Institute attributes the boom to declining manufacturing costs and subsidies. Japan, Europe and the United States, for example, have instituted programs to encourage use […]
Posted inOctober 12, 1998: A river becomes a raw nerve
Trails and the American Spirit
Tucson, Ariz., plays host to this year’s National Trails Symposium, Nov. 13-17. “Trails and the American Spirit,” sponsored by American Trails, features keynote speakers Royal Robbins, the adventurer and outdoor clothing baron, and Tom Whittaker, the first disabled person to summit Everest. Contact American Trails at 520/632-1140 or visit www.outdoorlink.com/amtrails. This article appeared in the […]
Posted inOctober 12, 1998: A river becomes a raw nerve
World Oil Forum
The World Oil Forum in Denver, Oct. 30, considers the future of the world supply of petroleum. Experts from advocacy groups, industry and government will discuss the timing and consequences of oil production’s impending decline. Contact the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, P.O. Box 9707, Aspen, CO 81612 (970/544-9808). This article appeared in the print […]