Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. When the Montana Legislature last met in 1995 (they meet every other year), the Republican majority weakened many environmental laws, including water quality regulations that protected the state’s clear streams and rivers. “They (the Republican legislature) angered every demographic group for one reason or another,” […]
A conservative legislature may move to the middle
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
A “down time” for Utah environmentalists
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. With the possible exception of Democrat Ross Anderson, Utah won’t field many surprises this November. The state’s lone Democrat, Rep. Bill Orton, is expected to hold on to his seat in the 3rd Congressional District, even though Democrats fare poorly in Utah. Polls show Orton’s […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Utah: A liberal wilderness lover may prevail
Until Enid Greene Waldholtz’s nationally televised five-hour cry-a-thon about her no-good husband Joe, Utah’s 2nd Congressional District race didn’t look to be the battleground it’s become. But when Republican Waldholtz dropped out of her re-election race because of the soap opera-like disintegration of her marriage, it opened the door for one of Utah’s most colorful […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Colorado: Environment wielded like a hammer in tight Senate race
To hear the candidates tell it, the U.S. Senate race in Colorado is between two guys named “Strickland-the-Lobbyist” and “Allard-Gingrich.” “Allard-Gingrich” votes with the Republican congressional leadership 92 percent of the time, generally to dehydrate rivers, clear-cut forests and sell public lands to private developers. “Strickland-the-Lobbyist” talks pretty green, but has been paid quite well […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Colorado’s status quo holds firm
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Other than the showdown between Strickland and Allard, most of Colorado’s congressional races are all but over, according to most analysts. The 1st Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Pat Schroeder will likely remain in the hands of a liberal Democrat and a woman […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
San Juan County, Utah
Note: this is a sidebar to another news article titled “Navajos win another battle in war for equality.” * 5.2 million acres; 1.2 million of that is reservation land * 6,800 Navajo residents, 76 percent of them living on the reservation * 54 percent of the county population is Navajo * 60 percent of the […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Navajos win another battle in war for equality
MONTEZUMA CREEK, Utah – In this hardscrabble corner of southeast Utah, where box-like government houses line the roads and Navajo hogans dot the dry dirt of the surrounding countryside, there’s little evidence of the changes creeping into San Juan County. That’s because the changes started out of sight, in courtrooms and county offices. Now the […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to adjudicate
It’s fall in the Pacific Northwest, and the winter rains have already begun. For the next seven months or so, storms will pummel the state of Washington, filling every rivulet and river in the state and chasing people to stores in search of umbrellas and galoshes. But while most people worry about coping with gray […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Dear friends
Thank you, Driggs Three times a year HCN holds board meetings and potlucks with subscribers around the region. Until recently, we tended to gather in places like Sun Valley or Boulder. Those are good places, but we realized we were neglecting less well-known towns. So last winter we met in Colorado Springs, famous as home […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Rustling up votes in Indian Country
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. In late summer, Russell LaFountaine and four friends drove his 30-foot motorhome emblazoned with “Native Vote 96” over 10,000 miles of the West’s highways. Pulling into reservations, casinos and even the Democratic and Republican conventions, they spread their message: If Native Americans want change, they […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Greens prune their message to win the West’s voters
The glow from his laptop computer turns the young man’s face pale green. On the screen is a labyrinthine database: street names, women’s ages, voting records. The bearded activist says that this technology could change the outcome of many of the West’s elections. “First we took the member lists for the environmental groups in the […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
How to talk Western
Would you like to add some colorful Westernisms to your vocabulary? Look no further than Thomas L. Clark’s new book, Western Lore and Language: A Dictionary for Enthusiasts of the American West: Biscuit shooter – The camp cook for ranch operations (1890s). Bizzing – Hanging on the rear of a moving vehicle on a snow-slick […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Overworked and under-appreciated
Durango, in southern Colorado, has become a mountain biking mecca and popular stop on the Southwest tourist loop. But can you make a living there? For both newcomers and old-timers working in the town’s restaurants, bars and shops, the answer is “barely,” according to a report by two nonprofit groups, Grassroots First and the San […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Not coal alone
-Today’s power industry has nearly all of its eggs in the fossil fuel basket,” says the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies (LAW), a policy group based in Boulder, Colo. Its 19-page report, How the West Can Win: A Blueprint for a Clean & Affordable Energy Future, imagines a different scenario: a lesser but […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Small is back
Is the small American farm a dying species? Not according to Jeff Rast, founder of the for-profit Center for Small Acreage Farming in Camas County, Idaho. After working on a large-scale farm for 10 years and serving as an extension agent for the University of Idaho, Rast says he has realized his dream of operating […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Literary natural history
Scientists are not well known as communicators but a memorable few have mastered both fields – Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson and E.O. Wilson, for example. The University of Nevada at Reno will pay tribute over the next seven months to similar contemporary scientists through a series of free public readings and discussions titled Literary Natural […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Unplug America: Give mother earth a rest day
Unplug America: Give mother earth a rest day asks people across the country to experience a voluntary blackout Oct.13 by turning off anything that consumes energy, including gas, coal and electric power. Native American environmental groups, including the Seventh Generation Fund, started the event in 1992 to raise awareness of our energy consumption and its […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Wilderness: The Foundation of Culture
To help people understand the ways different cultures look at land that has never been roaded or developed, the New Mexico Wilderness Coalition and the Santa Fe chapter of the Sierra Club are sponsoring an Oct. 5 workshop in Santa Fe, N.M., on Wilderness: The Foundation of Culture. Registration is free. For more information call […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
The Producer/Consumer Connection
Would you like to find a mentor who knows how to run a small farm? The Alternative Energy Resources Organization, a Montana group that links aspiring farmers with retiring ones, is holding its 22nd annual workshop, The Producer/Consumer Connection, Oct. 11-13 on Flathead Lake near Rollins, Mont. To register for the event, contact AERO at […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Colorado resort shelves ski expansion
After spending two and a half years and some $400,000, the Crested Butte ski resort in Colorado suddenly dropped plans to build new ski runs on a mountain adjacent to the existing resort. “It appears their attitude has changed and we look forward to working with them,” said a relieved Vicki Shaw of the local […]