Dear HCN, I have a great deal of respect for Susan Zakin as a writer and, for the most part, I was quite interested in her article, “Shake-up: Greens inside the Beltway” (HCN, 11/11/96). However, I was concerned by her disparaging comments about William Cronon, and the way she frames his book, Uncommon Ground, as […]
Zakin skewered historian
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Predators also have rights
Dear HCN, As a Colorado urban dweller for 21 years and a Colorado resident again in my future, I feel more than qualified to respond to Ellen Miller’s essay, “Should city slickers dictate to trappers?” (HCN, 10/28/96). I was born and raised in the hellhole of the Midwest, Muscatine, Iowa, population 23,000, but apparently I […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Locals learn the value of a good view
STANLEY, Idaho – A proposal for two subdivisions on private land within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, one of the nation’s scenic treasures, has stirred up long-held resentments between landowners and the Forest Service. A local outfitter’s plan to build 10 homes on a five-acre parcel has prompted a cease-and-desist order from the Forest Service. […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Whiskey Peak: Great air, deteriorating ground
WHISKEY PEAK, Wyo. – Two hang-glider pilots ran into the air off the top of Whiskey Peak one day last summer and began circling over treetops. Just 20 minutes later they were soaring at 16,000 feet. “You just catch a thermal and blow downwind,” said Kevin Christopherson, who set two world distance records from the […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Forest Service building is torched by night raiders
A Forest Service ranger station in Oregon has become the latest target in the wave of violence directed at federal installations around the West. The Oakridge Ranger Station, about an hour’s drive southeast of Eugene, burst into flames early on the morning of Oct. 30. By the time firefighters had arrived, the 25,000-square-foot building had […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Agency ordered to study trout – again
The beleaguered bull trout has been given another chance to make the endangered species list. U.S. District Judge Robert Jones ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review its 1994 decision that the fish doesn’t warrant immediate protection because other species have more pressing needs. Jones called parts of the Fish and Wildlife Service […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Dear friends
Let the waters flow As the days grow shorter and darkness comes earlier, we look for signs that winter isn’t really closing in. Octogenarian David Brower helped us out the other day with a cheery phone call at dusk from California. He had surprising news: The club’s board had just voted unanimously to support emptying […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Stripmining history and culture for dollars
Who owns Crazy Horse? Were the great Oglala warrior still alive, there would be no question: Crazy Horse, who helped Sitting Bull orchestrate Custer’s last stand, was not the owning kind. But 120 years after his death, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed a New York brewery’s right to market “Original Crazy Horse Malt […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Heard around the West
Did you think intellectual activity at the Forest Service is strangled with red tape? Then you’ve never heard them on the subject of wilderness golf. Forest Service employee Wendy Keeler recently sent an e-mail about her encounter with a group of families in the midst of a friendly golf tournament in the middle of a […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Trying to think the good thoughts about ATVs
An elk hunter dislikes ORVs despite their convenience because they make the country too small.
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
A little bug causes a big stink in Utah
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. CORAL PINK SAND DUNES STATE PARK, Utah – -This might be a little rough,” says Rob Quist with a grin, as he guns the engine of his four-wheel drive truck. Suddenly, we are lurching toward a 50-foot-tall sand dune, wheels spinning in the soft […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Can Madison Avenue tread lightly in the West?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Two men bludgeon a parked Land Rover with sledgehammers. They’re swinging as hard as they can, yet they barely make a dent. This is what Kirk Kirssin of Tread Lightly! considers a responsible television ad. Land Rover didn’t have to show a truck blazing […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
…while ‘Rambo Cat’ obliterates them
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Forest Service’s Alan Vandiver is boss of some 800 miles of roads in the Hebgen Lake District in Montana, just outside Yellowstone National Park. That’s a lot of road, but it’s 130 miles less than it used to be, thanks to a road-ripping […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
This machine makes trails …
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Parked in the back lot of the Forest Service office in Delta, Colo., is a skinny little bulldozer that looks almost like a toy. Designed to build trails, the Swepco 450 is tricky to maneuver since 8,000 pounds of steel balance on tracks only […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
If off-road vehicle enthusiasts ever build a museum, a statue of former Idaho Gov. John Evans should stand out front, a scowl on his face, and his now-famous saying – “You’re politically insignificant” – on the statue’s pedestal. Evans made that remark in 1984 to Clark Collins, an electrician and avid dirt biker who wanted […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
Reservoir unleashes more than water
Biologists braved a morass of mud and fish carcasses in early October while investigating a section of the Poudre River near Fort Collins, Colo. More than 4,000 fish were killed when an irrigation company drained its reservoir to check water gates at the bottom of the dam. Mike Cola, a dam-safety engineer for the Colorado […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
Some big birds come back
It didn’t take long for wildlife biologists to swoop down after a court decision cleared the way for bringing California condors back to the Colorado Plateau. A federal judge ruled Oct. 16 that officials from San Juan County in Utah could not stop reintroduction efforts since they could not prove harm from the birds. Less […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
Clean air for a price
Owners of the Centralia Coal Plant in Washington want as much as $80 million in state tax breaks to stop polluting the air over Mount Rainier National Park and Mount Saint Helens National Monument. Although the Clean Air Act requires the coal plant to install state-of-the-art scrubbers worth $300 million, officials at PacifiCorp, the primary […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
Ted Turner makes a deal
Thanks to a land swap, Montana commoners will no longer be able to hunt, fish or hike on state lands nestled deep within the private kingdom of media mogul Ted Turner and his wife, Jane Fonda. Turner didn’t like uninvited guests invading the Flying D Ranch southwest of Bozeman, Mont., so he offered the state […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
The “tough love’ trial is over
After Arizona teenager Aaron Bacon died of perforated ulcers on a wilderness program for wayward teens two years ago, eight North Star employees were charged with felony neglect and abuse of a disabled child (HCN, 6/10/96). Now their trials are over, and only Bacon’s field instructor, 22-year-old Craig Fisher, is guilty as charged. Although Fisher […]