For a variety of reasons, I have been reading about the National Park Service – reports, histories, and bilious (but also far-seeing) polemics like Alston Chase’s Playing God in Yellowstone. They’re useful but tend to be lifeless. Now we have a restorative potion to go with the reports and histories: a book that breathes life […]
A lively memoir out of the National Park Service
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Activists join forces against mining law
NEAR DURANGO, Colo. – Some of us at this conference for mining activists are feeling as if we’ve just been sent to summer camp. The main building of the former silver mining camp, with its long wooden picnic tables, picture-window view of San Juan National Forest and cafeteria meals, is making people nostalgic. “Every time […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Locals stand behind an aging dam
For years, irrigators who benefit from the Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River in southern Oregon have resisted removal of the salmon-blocking structure. In the past, when the district’s board members agreed to removal, local voters removed those members. Now, irrigators have won another reprieve from federal and state pressure, thanks to a court […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Dear Friends
A “genius” in Arizona Composers, artists, writers and historians have all won those coveted John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “genius’ grants, but Bill McDonald, 46, is the first rancher to receive a hefty $285,000 for his efforts to preserve huge stretches of undeveloped land in southern Arizona. McDonald, along with other ranchers, such as […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
We wanted to democratize Western water
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Denise Fort, a faculty member at the University of New Mexico’s School of Law, chairs the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission. She is a former director of New Mexico’s Environmental Improvement Division and is a member of the National Research Council’s Water, Science […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
This report could destroy irrigated agriculture
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Patrick O’Toole raises cattle, sheep and hay near the Wyoming-Colorado border. He serves on the Wyoming Open Space Committee, the Colorado River Coordinating Council and is a director of the Family Farm Alliance. The lone agricultural member of the Western Water Policy Review Advisory […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Western water: Why it’s dirty and in short supply
Note: in two sidebar articles that accompany this feature story, rancher Patrick O’Toole and chair of the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission Denise Fort share their views in their own words. First, you notice the coyotes. Then shadows swirl near shore – a group of razorback suckers, an endangered species, moving in to spawn. […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Recreation: “as bad as clearcutting’
Dear HCN, I just received my April 27 issue of HCN and it’s without a doubt your best issue. I can’t thank you enough for Jon Margolis’ article on the coming threat of industrial recreation. Like Scott Silver, most of my personal life outside of work has been taken over by trying to get the […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Article didn’t cover the real immigration issues
Dear HCN, I have been an avid reader of High Country News for several years and have enjoyed its insightful take on the issues shaping the West as we head into the 21st century. I am, however, deeply disturbed by your recent coverage of the Sierra Club ballot question, “Give me your tired, your poor, […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Margolis is just envious
Dear HCN, “A treatise on columnist Alexander Cockburn,” (HCN, 5/11/98), seems to be Jon Margolis’ search for a journalistic Viagra. So envious is Margolis that he lashes out the gawky bewailment: “Cockburn has been abusing reality for decades …” That’s bad? I hope someone has, or will, say the same about me. Margolis’ gripes range […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
What’s better for Arizona
Dear HCN, For the past year I’ve been part of a group including ranchers, environmentalists and scientists exploring ways to find common ground over public-lands policy in Arizona and the West. Early on we found our mantra by paraphrasing James Carville: It’s land fragmentation, stupid! But no matter how much progress we make, we keep […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Lyons answers his critics
It’s difficult to respond to such off-issue, personal attacks and the chest-thumpings of Idaho nationalism as Peterson’s (HCN, 5/25/98) and Medberry’s (HCN, 4/13/98) – weak and flaccid as they are, full of red herrings and other beneath-the-belt cow droppings – but my point remains: Idaho doesn’t work for the poor, for persons of color, or […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Capulin Volcano National Monument
How should a “recent extinct volcano” greet visitors in the future? The National Park Service invites the public to help plan the management of Capulin Volcano National Monument in northeast New Mexico. To comment or to receive a newsletter, contact the National Park Service, Capulin Volcano National Monument, P.O. Box 40, Capulin, NM 88414 (505/278-2201 […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Montana Wilderness: More Than Just a Pretty Place
With maps and histories, the free 18-page Montana Wilderness: More Than Just A Pretty Place, by the Montana Wilderness Association, makes the case for protecting public wildlands, from semi-arid river breaks to alpine peaks. Contact the Montana Wilderness Association, P.O. Box 635, Helena, MT 59624 (406/443-7350) or e-mail MWA at mwa@desktop.org. This article appeared in […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
1998 Earle A. Chiles Award
The High Desert Museum gives its 1998 Earle A. Chiles Award to people who have enriched the cultural and natural wealth of the high desert. Past winners include photographer and writer Stephen Trimble and biologist Jack Ward Thomas, former chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Send nominations to the High Desert Museum, 59800 S. Highway […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
What’s more exciting for kids than seeing dinosaur bones? Digging them up, of course. The Wyoming Dinosaur Center, 120 miles southeast of Yellowstone National Park, offers kids 8-13 a chance to join scientists and technicians for two-day digs this summer. Already unearthed: sauropod remains (those long-necked veggie-eaters from Jurassic Park) and allosaur teeth and tracks. […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
The yearly number of hikers attempting a 14,000-ft. peak has tripled in 10 years, to 200,000, says the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. And that is why the coalition of five nonprofit groups seeks volunteers to restore heavily eroded trails. Those interested in high-altitude work on Huron Peak and Humboldt Peak can contact Kristen Sauer, Colorado Fourteeners […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Ecosystem Restoration: Turning the Tide
The Northwest chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration is sponsoring Ecosystem Restoration: Turning the Tide, Oct. 28-30, in Tacoma, Wash. The conference includes symposia on riparian restoration, exotic species control and agricultural land restoration. Call Washington State University for information at 800/942-4978. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Wild Rockies Rendezvous
Alliance for the Wild Rockies invites conservationists to celebrate its 10th anniversary at the Wild Rockies Rendezvous at the Teller Wildlife Refuge in Corvallis, Mont., Sept. 18-20. Speakers include Peter Kostmayer, executive director of Zero Population Growth, and Michael Frome, author of The Battle for the Wilderness. To register, contact Jamie Lennox, P.O. Box 8731, […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
9th Annual South Platte Forum
The 9th Annual South Platte Forum requests abstracts proposing posters for a conference examining the competition for water in the South Platte Basin of Colorado’s Front Range. Send abstracts by Aug. 1 to Laurie Schmidt, Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, 410N University Services Center, Fort Collins, CO 80523-2018 (970/226-0533). This article appeared in the print […]