Dear HCN, Thanks for Jon Margolis’ piece exposing the West’s new menace (HCN, 4/27/98); for far too long, the recreation/tourism industry has been treated with kid gloves, wrongly presumed environmentally benign. Yet, while I applaud questioning the motives of the American Recreation Coalition, there is hidden in Margolis’ analysis a seriously flawed and potentially destructive […]
The same beast stalks the West
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
How tamarisk tripped a senator
Dear HCN, Only a couple of years ago Utah Sen. Bob Bennett appeared at a town meeting and, in response to some agitated inquiries, produced a magnificent color photograph of a green canyon in southern Utah. This was his proof that the area was even greener now than it was in another photograph of the […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Holy hyperbole!
Dear HCN, As a fan of fire (and past pulaski-wielding partisan of that subgenus “flamebo heroicus’), I read the article about early fires in the West by Mark Matthews with great interest (HCN, 5/25/98). The various signs and symptoms he surveyed were familiar: “I’ve never seen things burn this well, this early in the year.” […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Pat Tucker and Bruce Waide respond
Dear HCN, A complete review of the situation is the subject of a book, not an article, but in response to Mr. Macfarlane’s more salient complaints: 1) There was no reliable documentation of wolves breeding in central Idaho, despite the efforts of trained, professional biologists to find them. If wolves had, as Mr. Macfarlane claims, […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Wolves deserve protection
Dear HCN, Pat Tucker and Bruce Weide’s article on wolves contains many errors (HCN, 4/13/98). Wolves were not “occasional loners’ in central Idaho’s wilds, prior to the recent release, as their article asserts. There is ample evidence that wolves did inhabit the Greater Salmon-Selway Ecosystem, dating back to the first confirmed sightings from the late […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Entrenched agency culture is hard to change
Dear HCN, Is there any hope that change will come from within either the Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service? My naive answer as a former federal public-lands agency employee used to be “yes,” if enough conservationists and a few good leaders entered the ranks. Now, after 20 years, my answer is a feeble […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Mike Dombeck – as seen from the ground
Dear HCN, I just read your April 27 story about Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck. As a member of a Forest Service family that has been stuck in Idaho for almost seven years, I’d like to add a field perspective to opinions about Mr. Dombeck. The direction that keeps coming down from Washington, D.C., is […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
In search of Mount Rainier’s power
What is it like to become obsessed with a mountain? In The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier, Bruce Barcott describes how he circled the mountain on foot and interviewed mountaineers, climbing guides, priests, historians and scientists before he and his father attempted to scale the country’s highest volcano. Barcott, a […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Leeches and cod liver oil
Ever wonder if you could have survived the measles epidemics and the streets that ran with sewage in the West’s early days? An exhibit of over 200 artifacts from the 1880s to World War II at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Ore., might test your imagination. The exhibit features an “aroma interactive” of Native […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Victory for the bull trout
Compelled by continuing litigation from environmentalists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed two populations of bull trout as threatened – one in Oregon’s Klamath River Basin and the other in the huge Columbia River Basin, reaching into Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. The legal battle was waged by three nonprofit groups – Alliance for […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Community Strategic Training Initiative
The eighth annual Community Strategic Training Initiative will be held July 30-Aug. 2 at Reed College in Portland, Ore., with over 50 workshops offered on community organizing. Workshops include Confronting the Anti-Indian Movement and Initiative Campaigns that Win. Registration deadline is July 10. Contact the Western States Center, P.O. Box 40305, Portland, Oregon 97240 (503/228-8866); […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Alaska Wildlife Alliance
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance, an Anchorage-based nonprofit, is alert to wildlife protection issues throughout its enormous state. Since its start 20 years ago as part of Greenpeace Alaska, the alliance has voiced the opinions of the state’s non-hunters in its quarterly, The Spirit. “Protecting wildlife and their habitat is the bottom line for us. We […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Aspen Center for Environmental Studies
The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies hosts a summer of naturalist-guided programs for kids and adults. Participants can choose from activities such as exploring beaver ponds at sunset or riding a gondola to the summit of Aspen mountain. Call 970/925-5756 or visit the Web site at http://www.aspen.com/aces. This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Wisdom of the West: Designing our Future Together
The Wisdom of the West: Designing our Future Together, a conference in Wenatchee, Wash., sponsored by the Planning Association of Washington and others, and to be held July 29-31, invites those interested in Western planning to participate in dozens of programs such as “Ethics for the everyday planner & commissioner” and “Stream corridor management – […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
Winter recreation is a hot topic at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks as well as at the five-mile John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway that connects them. To involve the public in an upcoming environmental impact statement, open houses have begun in Idaho, with more meetings set for Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota and Washington, […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Utah Wilderness Coalition
The Utah Wilderness Coalition of 155 conservation groups is taking its show on the road. Open houses explaining its re-inventory of potential wilderness on Bureau of Land Management lands will be held in Ogden, July 1, and Salt Lake City, July 8, both at 7 p.m. Later meetings are scheduled for San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Motorizing Montana’s trails
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service give motorized trail projects the go-ahead without scrutiny, according to The Montana State Trails Program: Motorizing Montana’s National Forest Trails, a 13-page report by the Predator Project in Bozeman. Widening trails significantly damages habitat, but agencies dismiss it as “repair and maintenance,” […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
But trouble the Mountaineers
Mount Rainier National Park bypassed public discussion and sprang a surprise fee on backcountry visitors recently, drawing a protest letter from the Mountaineers, the Seattle-based conservation group. The Mountaineers says the new hierarchy of fees is too steep, especially for short visits. Two visitors might pay $10 to enter the park, $20 to camp in […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Fees please visitors
Land-management agencies call new user fees an “unqualified success’ and they’re asking Congress to make them permanent. During its first season on more than 200 sites around the country, the fee program raised $53.5 million. Before the trial fees got under way, public correspondence ran about 2-to-1 against, saying they discouraged low-income and local users […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Lonely Art
In a crumbling, long-abandoned building in the desert of eastern Utah, anonymous artists have created one of the world’s loneliest art exhibits. “Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not steal,” is scrawled ominously above a gutted upholstered chair inside a small building called the White Buffalo Bar. Cowboy boots, stuck upside down on […]