KELLY, Wyo. – The robins arrive first, though some years it’s mountain bluebirds, with snow still on the ground at the end of March and more to come. Much more. They remind me of how we all announce ourselves as creatures of home. This is true, at least, of the creatures with whom I share […]
Moving in, as the snow moves on
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Heard around the West
Reader Frazier Nichol in John Day, Ore., had a deep thought the other day, maybe the same day he opened his fortune cookie and found a contemporary bit of wisdom: “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” We know that’s the way the cookie crumbled, because he […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Feds learn that a man’s ranch is his castle
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A few years ago, so the story goes, the Forest Service folks who deal with endangered species were taking aerial photographs to locate prairie dogs, and thereby the black-footed ferrets which prey on them. Which was fine – as long as the planes were flying over public land. When they started flying […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Flood bill awash with anti-environmental riders
As Congress rushes to pass a flood-relief bill, lawmakers are tossing controversial pieces of legislation into the mix in hopes of floating them through unnoticed. The bill itself would provide $5.6 billion in relief money to flood victims and ranchers who lost livestock to bitter winter weather. But the worst of its riders could send […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Judge settles Telluride wetlands dispute
The Environmental Protection Agency has won a seven-year dispute with the Telluride Ski and Golf Co. (Telski) over the resort’s destruction of protected wetlands that feed the San Miguel River, one of two undammed rivers left in Colorado. U.S. District Court Judge John Kane accepted a $3.8 million settlement against the company last month, requiring […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Some fear the Colorado is getting nuked
As the Colorado River crests in early June, activists will gather on its banks at a bend near Moab, Utah, where the river opens up into marshes, 30 miles upstream of Canyonlands National Monument. This is where Atlas Minerals’ 10 million tons of uranium tailings are piled – and where the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Dear friends
Feedback We heard from 80-year-old Nancy Coy of Perry, N.Y., recently, who said our “green Christian” story April 28 made her hopeful, as both an environmentalist and agnostic, about the world again. “Since I have insomnia,” she writes, “I listen to late-night talk radio and have to choose between the Rush Limbaugh sort of rhetoric […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
How do you define sacred?
Note: this essay appeared in this issue alongside the feature story. When it comes to sacred sites, what land managers need is a centralized, disciplined Native American counterpart who could cut a deal, sell it to his or her fellow tribal members and enforce it. In other words, the Park Service needs the Vatican, or […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Mutual respect costs us little and gains us much
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. When Devils Tower National Monument Superintendent Deborah Liggett first started holding meetings with climbers and Plains Indians to discuss a new climbing plan, consensus seemed possible. But one commercial climbing outfitter sued, and now the matter is in court. Liggett is a 17-year veteran […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
‘There’s a notion that Indians practicing their religionsare less than religious’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Charlotte Black Elk, 45, is a spiritual and cultural leader of the Lakota Sioux tribe. She lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation, 190 miles to the east of Devils Tower, where she began leading a Sun Dance in 1985. Charlotte Black Elk: “I grew […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
The sacred and profane collide in the West
RAINBOW BRIDGE, Utah – Western writer Zane Grey once described the graceful sandstone bridge spanning a side canyon off the Colorado River as the only place he’d ever been that didn’t disappoint him. It’s easy to see why. Often dubbed “the seventh wonder of the world,” Rainbow Bridge, at 290 feet tall and 275 feet […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Getting off the road to ruin
Can you imagine a world without traffic jams, potholes or auto accidents? Activists can at the Arcata, Calif.-based Alliance for a Paving Moratorium. Since 1990, the group has been urging people to get out of their air-polluting vehicles and find their feet again. The alliance’s 40-page, newsprint quarterly, Auto-Free Times, keeps the public up to […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
It’s back
For the fourth time, the U.S. Air Force has released its draft environmental impact statement for a new electronic combat and bombing range in the Owyhee Canyonlands of southern Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. The Air Force currently makes 7,500 sonic and subsonic annual flights over the Owyhee Canyonlands. The Air Force says the […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Following the salmon
The Northwest salmon crisis has spawned a $150-a-year journal devoted, says its editor, to “the most significant environmental restoration effort ever undertaken in the United States.” Bill Crampton, a fourth-generation Oregonian and former newspaper editor, started the Northwest Salmon Recovery Report in February to provide an independent voice on regional salmon issues. Crampton, who publishes […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Beauty prized above all
It may come as a surprise to developers, but the Grand Canyon region’s lower-income residents favor protecting the environment over promoting economic growth. So says a recent survey, Grand Canyon Reflections: A Report on the Environmental Values, Attitudes and Beliefs of the Residents of the Grand Canyon Region, by Northern Arizona University’s social research laboratory. […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Intimidation is on the rise
-Our goal is to destroy, to eradicate the environmental movement,” said Ron Arnold, of Seattle, Wash., one of the leaders of the wise-use movement, in 1991. “We’re mad as hell.” It’s one thing to talk about anger and destruction; another to act out those feelings. Since 1989, there have been over 100 incidents of harassment […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Cry Wolf
With The Great American Wolf, wildlife biologist Bruce Hampton has written a book almost as compelling as the fiercely intelligent predator itself. Hampton, who lives in Lander, Wyo., first tells us how white hunters in the West sought to wipe out wolves, which were viewed as competitors in the taking of “helpless’ buffalo, deer and […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Wild Idaho!
Help celebrate 25 years of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area at the annual Wild Idaho! conference May 16-18, at Redfish Lake Lodge near Stanley. The weekend features lively auctions, field trips, music and a slide show on the Boulder-White Clouds mountains; speakers include Rep. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Bill LeVere, the feisty supervisor of the Sawtooth […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Arizona Grazing Clearinghouse
How can you tell if public land is healthy? The Arizona Grazing Clearinghouse, which includes the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, Prescott National Forest Friends, the Society for Conservation Biologists, and others concerned about grazing practices, will host a workshop exploring this question at Northern Arizona State University in Flagstaff, Ariz., June 14-15. Supervisors of […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Guess who’s dining together
Dear HCN, Thank goodness for Ted Williams – -Hunters Close Ranks, and Minds’ – he’s a national treasure (HCN, 3/3/97). I would like to point out to your readers that Orion-The Hunters Institute has recently initiated a project called “Winsor Dinners,” named after a Colorado hunter who first held a potluck at his home for […]