AUGUSTA, Mont. – Locals call it “the Front,” a name that conjures up a battleline between armies. But for now, the fight is over between environmentalists who want to protect the wildlife that flourishes here, and oil and gas executives who want to drill for up to 3.6 trillion cubic-feet of natural gas that may […]
Forest Service acts to preserve ‘the Front’
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Dear friends
The Research Fund The real burden of the Research Fund falls on the “gang of five,” a tenacious crew that is sitting in our central area putting together the letters that will determine HCN’s fate over the next year. It’s an especially tough job because ours is an open office, and so they can’t listen […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Heard around the West
Imagination is a wonderful thing. Conjure up this scenario: It is a hot summer day at Yellowstone National Park, and hundreds of tourists await an eruption of the Old Faithful geyser. Everyone checks watches, wondering about a delay. What is Old Faithful if not relatively faithful? What no one knows is that beneath the heaving […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Greens, as usual, are easy to bait
Environmentalists, the criticism goes, are naive about economics. I think that’s generous. Most of us in the movement work for substandard wages because we believe in the cause. Even worse, we expect others to make similar sacrifices, preserving rivers, forests and wildlife regardless of the consequences to struggling families or communities. That’s one reason why […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
It’s time for the public to pay up
Throughout the West, the forests are alive with the sound of bellyaching. This time it’s not loggers or ranchers who are at war with federal land-management policies, but rather backpackers, birdwatchers and anglers. They want federal lands managed more for recreation and wildlife, but they aren’t willing to pay for it. Take, for example, the […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
No cheap thrills in the Grand Canyon
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. For years, rafters and kayakers have paid to float the muddy Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park. Typically, the trip cost private boating groups about $130. When the price jumped to around $1,500 per group for the trip last spring, boaters were shocked. […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
At Mount St. Helens fees go dangerously high
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. At Mount St. Helens National Monument in Washington state, the money problems began two years ago, when officials had to close the Silver Lake Visitors’ Center four days a week. The funds just weren’t there to keep the center open full time. Things got […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
The land is still public, but it’s no longer free
Skip Edwards sits at one end of a long table, looking like a criminal facing a parole board. He argues passionately before nine stern faces. “We are taking the soul out of the reason for public lands,” he says. “We are losing our freedom to roam our open spaces, for a pittance to balance the […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Glen Canyon Institute
Members of the Glen Canyon Institute aren’t wasting time about their call for the restoration of a free-flowing Colorado River. Meeting for their third annual conference at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City Oct. 8-9, they plan to present the start of a “Citizens’ Environmental Assessment” centering on the removal of Glen Canyon […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
National Recreation and Access Summit “97
Climbers, mountain bikers, river rafters and other outdoor enthusiasts will converge in Boulder, Colo., Nov. 7-8, for the National Recreation and Access Summit “97, sponsored by sports retailer REI. Summit hosts, including the Access Fund and American Whitewater, want ideas for promoting conservation while ensuring access to public lands, reducing user conflicts and building a […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Managing Colorado Watersheds for Riparian and Wetland Values
You can learn for yourself about the West’s most precious resource at the Colorado Riparian Association’s Oct. 14-16 conference in Montrose, Colo. Managing Colorado Watersheds for Riparian and Wetland Values features speakers from dozens of agencies and citizen groups; topics include wetland recovery, pollution clean-up, agriculture and the Glen Canyon flooding experiment. CRA spokesman Larry […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Western Colorado Congress
The consumer and environmental coalition, Western Colorado Congress, holds its 17th annual meeting in Grand Junction on Oct. 11, with historian Patricia Nelson Limerick, author of The Legacy of Conquest, starring in a provocative dramatization of “The Urban-Rural Divorce in the West.” This divorce hearing will explore the relationship between Western urban life and small-town […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Call to the Desert
Call to the Desert will cover “hot” topics at the Nevada Nuclear Test site, 60 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nev. The anti-nuclear group, Healing Global Wounds, hosts a gathering Oct. 10-13 that features prayers at sunrise, a workshop led by Margene Bullcreek, a Skull Valley Goshute member who opposes nuclear waste coming to her […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
The Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee
When land managers meet to talk about the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, they need a large table. The Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee is composed of the superintendents of Yellowstone and Grand Tetons national parks and the six supervisors from neighboring national forests. They’ll get together in Jackson, Wyo., Oct. 7 and 8, to discuss air quality, […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Just charge it
Only 50 or so electric cars are on Arizona’s roads, but the Tucson Electric Power Company has opened eight free charge-up stations in the city. General Motors says it chose Tucson, Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles as test markets because the cars perform better on flat terrain and in a warm climate. The EV-1, […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Keeping rural American rural
City sprawl has swallowed up rural communities; a revised edition of Saving America’s Countryside: A Guide to Rural Conservation shows how local action can stave off urbanization. Written by Samuel N. Stokes, A. Elizabeth Watson, and Shelley S. Mastran, the book offers everything from well-honed ideas for organizing residents to sample drafts of easements designed […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
It’s a big bird
Eleven California condors are cruising the skies over Grand Canyon all the way to Moab, Utah, after being released this year in northern Arizona. Biologists with the California Condor Recovery Project suggest bird-watchers travel Highway 89A north of the Grand Canyon between Lee’s Ferry and House Rock Valley Road to see the carrion-eaters. Pull-out parking […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Chemicals aren’t the only answer
Your french fries were probably soaked in chemicals, warns the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, since potatoes are some of the most treated crops in the Northwest. But there are ways to reduce chemical use, such as rotating crops, and that’s just one of the messages the coalition hopes to convey Oct. 11 in […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Just in time for the budget requests
Forest Service mismanagement is one thing many environmentalists, ranchers and loggers agree is a problem. Now the Government Accounting Office has chimed in with a July 31 report to Congress that says the Forest Service’s decision-making culture is one of “indifference toward accountability.” The agency’s inability to make timely decisions costs taxpayers millions of dollars […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Vandals didn’t silence the past
A recent vandal attack in central Oregon’s Warm Springs Indian reservation left the three tribes that make up the reservation at a loss for words. Literally. In early August, two 12-year-old boys broke into the trailer that houses the reservation’s heritage program and caused over $10,000 in damage. What hurt the most was the destruction […]