Vail and most other ski resorts in Colorado have enjoyed deep snow and sunny days lately, and everything should be hunky-dory, right? Wrong. Vail and other destination ski areas are “desperate” because they lack lift operators, maids and other workers, reports the Steamboat Pilot. Part of the problem stems from pre-employment drug testing that screens […]
Heard around the West
Posted inMarch 31, 1997: Big Sky, big mess in Montana
Chet Huntley’s legacy includes suppression of a free press
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. BIG SKY, Mont. – When John Kircher, the most powerful person in this resort town, loaded a box of iced ocean lobster and some friends into a helicopter and flew into a national-forest wilderness for a picnic, newspapers around Montana reported the spectacular trespass. […]
Posted inMarch 31, 1997: Big Sky, big mess in Montana
Armies of skiers are coming to Yellowstone
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Among the many pressures on Yellowstone National Park’s ecosystem, downhill skiing is coming on strong. Seven ski resorts, including Big Sky, ring the park in a wide radius – and all the resorts plan major expansions. Here’s a partial list, in round numbers: * […]
Posted inMarch 31, 1997: Big Sky, big mess in Montana
Touring the future on Insta-Teller Road
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. This gate shows what the future might be like around the West. The gate is operated by a computerized keypad, something like an insta-teller. And it’s all about money. So call the 10-mile-long gravel road beyond the gate Insta-Teller Road. It’s a shortcut to […]
Posted inMarch 31, 1997: Big Sky, big mess in Montana
How Huntley sold Big Sky to Montana
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Chet Huntley did some horseback-riding and occasional cross-country skiing – but ironically not much downhill. He made his reputation as a television newsman on both urban coasts, including 14 years on the Huntley-Brinkley nightly news on NBC. But he had a rugged look and […]
Posted inMarch 31, 1997: Big Sky, big mess in Montana
Big Sky above, private land below
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. J.C. Knaub has lived in Big Sky since the ski mountain opened in 1973. He worked as a ski patrolman, got fired, sued for wrongful discharge, and in 1984 a jury ordered the resort to pay him more than a quarter million dollars. Knaub, […]
Posted inMarch 31, 1997: Big Sky, big mess in Montana
Big Sky, big mess in Montana
Note this story package includes five related stories: – Chet Huntley’s legacy includes suppression of a free press – Big Sky above, private land below – How Huntley sold Big Sky to Montana – Touring the future on Insta-Teller Road – Armies of skiers are coming to Yellowstone — BIG SKY, Mont. – Twenty-seven years […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Kudos for some hunters
Dear HCN, Lynne Bama’s “Bringing Back the Bighorn” (HCN, 2/3/97) raises important questions about the wildlife management that private money (hunters’ money) can buy – and threaten – on public lands. However, I’d like to add a positive comment. The Oregon Hunters Association, with 4,500 members, has been a leader in protecting habitat for Rocky […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
You can’t trust some greens
Dear HCN, Sam Hitt may describe the Christmas candlelight demonstration as a protest against the Endangered Species Act (Green Hate in the land of enchantment, HCN, 2/3/97), but we were protesting the abuse of the act. It was not a wise-use protest. Organizers of the protest were small, community-based logging and grazing organizations. Indo-Hispano members […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Beekeepers have the patience of Job
Dear HCN, First, on behalf of the beekeeping industry, I want to thank the High Country News for running what is probably the most comprehensive look at Penncap-M since it was introduced in 1974 (HCN, 1/20/97). I would like to clarify two points, however. The first is that, contrary to their claims, Colorado state pesticide […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition
Looking for a beautiful patch of land to defend on Earth Day? A desert gathering April 25-27 will protest a proposed low-level nuclear waste dump planned for Ward Valley, 20 miles west of Needles, Calif. (HCN, 3/3/97). Events include nonviolence workshops, ecology walks, tours of the proposed dump site and a Spirit Run hosted by […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Carbon Monoxide Forecasting for Colorado Springs: 1996-2020
Local planners in Colorado Springs have underestimated both population growth and carbon monoxide pollution so as not to hinder the city’s rapid growth, warns physicist Val Veirs. The director of environmental science at Colorado College, Veirs predicts the sprawling city will violate the federal Clean Air Act within 15 years. His detailed report, Carbon Monoxide […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
The Raven Chronicles
The Raven Chronicles, a magazine of cultural diversity published three times a year in Seattle, Wash., is seeking contributions for an upcoming summer issue on images and ideas of the West. It is open to a variety of styles and asks only that submissions be “specific, original, brilliant.” The deadline is May 1. Write The […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
National Conference on Habitat Conservation
Habitat Conservation Plans, agreements implementing the Endangered Species Act on non-federal land, are almost always described as “win-win” situations. But are they truly conserving habitat? How are the species themselves faring? Come find out at the National Wildlife Federation’s first-ever National Conference on Habitat Conservation Plans, May 17 and 18, at Washington, D.C.” s Georgetown […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Spotting lawless logging
Last year’s timber salvage rider made some people at the Alliance for the Wild Rockies see red. They channeled some of their anger into creating a map that pinpoints, with over 500 crimson spots, timber sales in the Northern Rockies. An accompanying eight-page report addresses the costs of such logging, its erosive effects on roads […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Uproar over Owyhee
It’s been 15 years since the Bureau of Land Management wrote a management plan for the 1.3 million-acre Owyhee Resource Area in southwest Idaho, and the agency’s attempt to revise it isn’t sitting well with ranchers and off-road vehicle enthusiasts. BLM officials were caught off guard in November when several hundred critics showed up at […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
The importance of prairie dogs
A report, Conserving Prairie Dog Ecosystems on the Northern Plains, defends one of nature’s best dinners. Published by the Predator Project in Bozeman, Mont., the 30-page booklet explains how prairie dogs create a unique environment that provides food and shelter to at least 158 other species, including the endangered black-footed ferret and the swift fox. […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Cut the fat out
Cut environmentally damaging subsidies and save $36 billion doing it, urges a report targeting 57 wasteful federal programs. The third annual Green Scissors describes how each program costs both taxpayers and the environment. Ending below-cost timber sales, the report says, could save $1 billion over five years. Twenty-five taxpayer and nonprofit groups contributed to the […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Copper mine rouses opposition
Flanked by massive cottonwoods and sycamores, Pinto Creek winds through the rugged mountains of central Arizona’s Tonto National Forest. Its narrow valley is a haven for an endangered hedgehog cactus, it contains scores of archaeological sites and it may soon become an open-pit copper mine. That prospect has roused local protest and national criticism, yet […]
Posted inMarch 17, 1997: Working the Watershed
Still no deal for New World Mine
With great ceremony last August, President Bill Clinton announced he had saved Yellowstone by blocking a proposed gold mine that bordered the park (HCN, 9/2/96). Once the applause died down, critics who worried that the the deal was a ploy for re-election warned that the deal was not done: Clinton still had to secure $65 […]