Once considered as endangered as the species itself, the proposal to restore Mexican gray wolves to the Southwest now appears to be back on track. After the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service released its final environmental analysis on the reintroduction of “el lobo” Dec. 27, biologists moved 10 of 149 captive Mexican wolves to New […]
El Lobo to return
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Andy Robinson’s tips for activists
Pick your fights. It pains me to say this, but you must develop an aversion to lost causes. If you can’t see your way to victory – even if that victory won’t occur for years or decades – pick another fight. To maintain your sanity and stamina, focus your energy where it will do the […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Mostly you need faith
Grassroots Grants: An Activist’s Guide to Proposal Writing belies its title by first listing all the reasons why nonprofits should not chase grants. That’s because only 12 percent of nonprofit funding comes from foundation or corporate grants, compared to 88 percent from individuals, writes Andy Robinson, who lives in Tucson, Ariz. To make matters worse, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
The West awakes to ‘weird’ weather
Christmas brought some of the strangest weather Westerners can remember. First came snow and ice in Idaho so heavy that power poles snapped like twigs and a gymnasium roof collapsed. Then the “pineapple express’ arrived, a blast of warm air from Hawaii that sent temperatures soaring into the 70s. That sent melting snow crashing into […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
This year, Congress slunk into Washington
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Even without the small complication bestriding the opening of the 105th Congress, the difference between it and its predecessor could be discerned by a quick look at the schedules. Two years ago, the ebullient Republican majority of the House of Representatives came to town with revolutionary zeal, determined to remake the government, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Horses, bikes push into petroglyph park
On a windswept mesa west of Albuquerque, N.M., bicyclists and horses soon may be pounding the turf where Indians say the spirits of the dead like to travel. The National Park Service is about to approve a new management plan that calls for the development of 11 to 16 miles of trails in the 7,000-acre […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
It will be noise as usual in Grand Canyon
You would never know it from the glowing news reports, but the Federal Aviation Administration has scuttled most of its plans for restricting aircraft overflights in Grand Canyon National Park. Three of the four new “flight-free zones’ the agency proposed in July (HCN, 9/16/96) have been effectively deleted in new rules released Dec. 31. Marble […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Heard around the West
Does everyone become slightly unhinged when one year lurches into another? We detect a certain recklessness in late 1996-early 1997 news reports. Some stories feature surliness and hostility, while others reveal a plucky determination to survive anything – even a flood in the middle of winter. We begin with the better news, although it features […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
When dead bees don’t make a case
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. If most beekeepers are the proverbial shy and retiring types, Tom Theobald isn’t one of them. From his beeyards in Niwot, just northeast of Boulder, Colo., he has pushed state and federal officials hard to address bee kills he believes have been caused by […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Dear friends
Join us in Socorro Do High Country News readers have as good taste in food as in newspapers? Come join us at the year’s first HCN potluck in Socorro, N.M., on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 6:30 p.m. to find out. Potlucks are held following meetings of the HCN board. This potluck will be at the […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Miles County
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Miles County lives near the town of Brush in northeastern Colorado. Last winter, he lost most of his bees and he suspects the cause was the insecticide Penncap-M. Miles County: “I think farmers started getting lazy in the 1950s and 1960s. There were so […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Leonard Felix
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Leonard Felix has been spraying chemicals on crops for 27 years. When he isn’t spraying Olathe’s famous sweet corn in western Colorado, he may be flying over a national forest dropping native seeds on a recent burn. Leonard Felix: “We work with beekeepers when […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Emerging from the shadows
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. TUBAC, Ariz. – Gary Nabhan squats down in the field of crooked-neck squash, reaches inside a large orange blossom and exclaims, “I got one.” “Don’t worry; this guy can’t sting,” Nabhan says, holding a tiny bee between his fingers. That’s because it’s not a […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
Bees under siege
The West’s unsung pollen ranchers struggle against mites, economics and an old killer from the sky
Posted inDecember 23, 1996: El Nuevo West
An 84-year-old postal veteran
The struggle by Red Lodge, Mont., that kept alive a downtown post office may be duplicated 150 miles away in Livingston, population 7,500. Recently, 1,500 Livingston residents signed a petition calling on Postal Service officials to forego a move to spacious new quarters and retain the 84-year-old post office in the heart of town. “It’s […]
Posted inDecember 23, 1996: El Nuevo West
Four reasons why environmentalists fail
FOUR REASONS WHY ENVIRONMENTALISTS FAIL Dear HCN, Jon Margolis’ column on voting trends in the West (HCN, 11/25/96) should be stapled to the forehead of every environmental activist in the Northern Rockies. The fact is, he’s right: People around here do tend to respond more positively to environmental issues than they do to the environmentalists […]
Posted inDecember 23, 1996: El Nuevo West
Profound noise reigns
Three decades ago, says musician Paul Winter, solitude was easy to find in and around Grand Canyon. Some of his award-winning recordings feature wind, ravens and other natural sounds from the national park. Not these days. When Winter and guide Fran Joseph of the Grand Canyon Trust went to a spot this fall where the […]
Posted inDecember 23, 1996: El Nuevo West
Judge kicks out cows
After nearly five years of haggling over how many cows should be allowed on the Diamond Bar grazing allotment in New Mexico, U.S. District Judge Howard Bratton ordered Dec. 4 that all 863 cows belonging to ranchers Kit and Sherry Laney must leave national forest land. The Laneys had sued last spring when Forest Service […]
Posted inDecember 23, 1996: El Nuevo West
Parks want “drug-free’ river guides
The job description for a professional river guide might read like this: Must possess John Wesley Powell’s fearlessness, Julia Child’s culinary skills and the patience of Job. Now, add another requirement: Must pass a drug test. Periodic drug testing began this past season for outfitters licensed in Grand Canyon National Park and may soon be […]
Posted inDecember 23, 1996: El Nuevo West
Glen Canyon team dismantled
The man who oversaw the research that led to the historic “man-made” flood in the Grand Canyon last spring has resigned. River ecologist Dave Wegner quit after Interior Department officials closed down his Glen Canyon Environmental Studies office and replaced it with a research center headed by a biologist with little experience in river management. […]