A prehistoric fish that once thrived throughout the Missouri and Mississippi rivers is teetering on the brink of extinction. Only 250 wild pallid sturgeons remain in the upper Missouri River of Montana and North Dakota, and they are growing old. Each of these fish is between 40 and 50 years old. “Most of those are […]
Back from the brink
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
On The Trail: Election 1998
Around the corner from the Cheyenne Club in downtown Cheyenne, Wyo., Democrats are throwing together a campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Jim Geringer. Their man is 48-year-old John Vinich, a 24-year veteran of the state legislature from the town of Hudson who filed for governor just five minutes before the deadline. In the Republican […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Salvo over salmon
McNary Dam on the Columbia River near Pendleton, Ore., is known for its state-of-the-art fish bypass technology, but that system didn’t prevent a recent fish kill of 145,000 young, palm-sized salmon. Most of the fish were Snake River fall chinook, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Most of the salmon died […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Proposed land trade riles Crested Butte
When developer Tom Chapman made millions on western Colorado land the Forest Service appraised at just $640,000, agency land exchange specialist Paul Zimmerman admitted, “We may well have missed on this one” (HCN, 1/23/95). Now, residents of Crested Butte, Colo., say the agency didn’t learn much from the experience. “It’s totally bass ackwards,” says Sandy […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Citizens tackle a mining company
Ann and Mike Tatum won one for the little guy when they convinced a Colorado judge that a coal mining company damaged their second home in Weston, Colo. Last December, Las Animas County District Court ordered Basin Resources to pay the Tatums $160,000 for cracks that appeared in their walls after the company tunneled nearby. […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
The Wayward West
The fastest bird in the world could fly off the endangered species list in the next year, according to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. The peregrine falcon nearly died out in the 1970s, after the pesticide DDT and other chemicals caused it to lay thin-shelled eggs. Today, there are 1,600 breeding pairs in the United States […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Headwaters deal gets tougher
A deal intended to protect the world’s largest stand of privately owned old-growth redwoods, the Northern California grove known as the Headwaters Forest, got a makeover in the California Legislature. On Aug. 31, the state Senate voted to require stricter environmental standards on Pacific Lumber’s surrounding private land. The Headwaters Forest has been at the […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Between an oil lease and a hard place
The Bureau of Land Management has a dilemma of its own making in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness of northwest New Mexico. First, the agency is writing a draft environmental impact statement for drilling 13 oil wells and building 5.5 miles of road in a federally protected wilderness. Second, nobody really wants to drill there. The problem […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Barry Lopez: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
In the United States in recent years, a kind of writing variously called “nature writing” or “landscape writing” has begun to receive critical attention, leading some to assume that this is a relatively new kind of work. In fact, writing that takes into account the impact nature and place have on culture is one of […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Heard around the West
For two years a buffalo dubbed Bart lived without incident at a Tucson, Ariz., guest ranch, apparently content in its confinement. But recently the 2,000-pound animal busted out of his pen and the puzzlement began. No one, it seemed, knew how to corral a truly wild beast, and every attempt to trap, harass, entice (“Come […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Forget the theories, and instead look at people’s faces
Charles Bowden knows exactly what we, and he, don’t want to see, and in Juarez: the Laboratory of our Future he makes it impossible to ignore. Here is the very worst of life after NAFTA, captured by a crew of street photographers who chase the violence of Ciudad Juarez and the border zone. The huge, […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Longtime foes practice ritual combat in an Idaho forest
Last fall, I traveled to a war in central Idaho. For six years, in the longest-standing Earth First! demonstration in the country, environmentalists have laid pipe, cement, trees and themselves in front of logging trucks at the Cove-Mallard timber sale, 80 miles southeast of Lewiston, Idaho, in the Nez Perce National Forest. And though this […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
A polygamist of place: The tradition of the Eastern Westerner
I begin with a confession. While it’s true I have only one wife and no hidden mistresses, I am a polygamist of place. The writers I’ve always admired most, from Thoreau to Colorado’s Reg Saner, have made it their habit to wedge into one place, to know that place well through long association with the […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Worn shoes, cattle and a spring
ENNIS, Mont. – It was late one afternoon some years back, when I drove from the Forest Service’s ranger station to the little grocery store at the end of Main Street. Among those milling about the aisles making last-minute purchases, I recognized the young wife and two school-aged children of the rancher with whom I’d […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Southwest cows have friends in high places
The Forest Service is once again pinned down in a shootout over grazing in the Southwest. If the agency moves one way, it dodges lawsuits from environmental groups that say cows imperil endangered fish and birds. If it steps the other way, it faces fire from the livestock industry and its powerful allies in Congress. […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Dreams of new industry go up in smoke
WILLISTON, N.D. – An empty warehouse, a crooked smokestack and a few tons of hazardous waste in a decayed industrial district on the edge of town are all that remain of a company that five years ago opened to fanfare. This isolated Missouri River town of 14,000 people on the northern prairie had welcomed Dakota […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
A community seeks to feed its own
ETHETE, Wyo. – A tribal elder on the Wind River Indian Reservation is relying on Arapaho traditions of generosity and prayer to fight hunger here. The elder is Laverne Brown, who has donated seven acres of river-bottom land for a community garden. Vegetables grown in the garden are made available free to families who need […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
In the flatter parts of Montana, some ranchers fence out subdivisions
GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Four years ago, Jerry Townsend and his family drove from their ranch in the shadow of the Highwood Mountains in the middle of Montana, bound for their children’s track meet a few hours to the west. They climbed the Continental Divide and descended into the famed Blackfoot River Valley on their […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
A county in Nevada assaults a river
County commissioners of Elko County, Nev., in the sparsely populated northeastern corner of the state, aren’t known for their goodwill toward the federal government. So when they decided to do a little road repair on Forest Service land this summer, they didn’t waste any time on paperwork. They wanted to reopen the flood-damaged South Canyon […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
Dear Friends
Visitors of late summer Chip Blake, managing editor of Orion magazine, stopped by after taking part in a floating reunion of river guides at Cataract Canyon in Canyonlands National Park. Chip, who has been with the Massachusetts-based quarterly for six years, shared his expertise about reaching potential new readers. In a nutshell, Chip says, anything […]