Italian ski racer Alberto Tomba signed a megabucks deal last winter with Vail Associates, the company that operates the Vail ski area. Tomba has a reputation best understood in the United States when compared to Michael Jordan and Madonna. Both admired and scorned, he’s never ignored – exactly the person that Vail Associates wanted to […]
Forget widgets, we sell wilderness
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Heard around the West
Vail Resorts Inc. should be on top of the world. The already enormous ski area is about to swallow the Breckenridge and Keystone ski areas, making it gargantuan. And Vail president Adam Aron is not just a formidable businessman but also something of a wizard with words. The former cruise-line president recently “mused aloud” to […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
How the New West will vote is anyone’s guess
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. They moved to Boise to kayak the Payette River’s world-class rapids. They came to Salt Lake City for Wasatch powder snow, the lightest on earth. They came to Seattle for Starbucks Coffee, Mount Rainier and the cutting-edge music scene. Since the early 1990s, thousands of […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Compare the candidates
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Walter Minnick Gun Control: The Brady Bill is a good idea, along with immediate checks for criminal records of gun buyers. “I own seven guns, so I’m not against guns.” Term Limits: Elected officials should be limited to 12 years of elective and appointive office. […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Craig: Betting on Idaho’s enduring conservatism
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. For Sen. Larry Craig, who has been in politics since 1974, the recipe for success is simple: Be a Republican. After all, Idaho has boasted the most conservative state legislature in the country four years running. “He’s not popular like (Wyoming Sen.) Alan Simpson was. […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Can this man break the right’s grip on Idaho?
NAMPA, Idaho – Wearing a pressed plaid shirt and glossy cowboy boots, Walt Minnick is doing his best to fit in with the crowd at the Snake River Stampede, an annual rodeo here, 15 miles down Interstate 84 from Boise. It’s not working. “Walt Minnick, I’m running for the Senate,” the neatly groomed 54-year-old says […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
A summer of smoke and ashes
Marines and Army soldiers joined the tens of thousands of firefighters at work in Western states this summer. On Aug. 16, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise declared a maximum Level 5 Emergency, which authorizes the use of military personnel. The additional firefighters were needed to combat the most intense fire season since 1969. […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Utahns roar over lion hunt
A decision allowing hunters in Utah to kill 630 mountain lions this year has created an uproar. A hunt approved by the Utah Wildlife Board Aug. 26 allows for the killing of 150 more lions than the state allowed last year, or about one-third of Utah’s estimated lion population of 2,000. “This decision was not […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Do cows become the Prescott?
Arizona’s Prescott National Forest is not the place for cows and sheep, according to a lawsuit filed in August by The Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club. But the suit goes beyond the usual grazing vs. o-grazing debate. The lawsuit charges that the Forest Service violated federal law by issuing grazing permits without considering whether […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
What goes around, comes around
It’s been a bad legal year for the county movement. First came the March ruling in Nevada that struck down a Nye County ordinance claiming the county owned federal lands. Now, two public employees in New Mexico seem to have prevailed in their case against county-movement leader Dick Manning. “(Due to a court-imposed gag order) […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Bear of the Land, Bull of the River: Protecting Ecosystem Indicator Species
The Missoula-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies will hold its 11th annual rendezvous, Sept. 27-29, at the Teller Wildlife Refuge in Corvallis, Mont. The theme is Bear of the Land, Bull of the River: Protecting Ecosystem Indicator Species. In addition to discussions about grizzlies and bull trout, the schedule includes workshops and updates on regional […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Conservation and Conservatism: Reflections on clean water
The Montana Environmental Information Center’s annual rendezvous, Conservation and Conservatism: Reflections on clean water, will focus on water, pollution and politics Sept. 21 in Three Forks, Mont. The keynote speaker is Gordon Durnil, author of The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist; the rendezvous also features a flyover of the Golden Sunlight Mine and music by […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Getting Beneath the Surface of Public Lands Issues
The Foundation for American Communications is conducting a conference for journalists, Getting Beneath the Surface of Public Lands Issues, Oct. 4-6, in Englewood, Colo. Speakers include journalists, professors and HCN publisher Ed Marston. Call 213/851-7372, or e-mail at facs@facsnet.org. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Getting Beneath the […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Recycling gets rapped
Is recycling really a stupid idea driven by people too willing to believe that their minute actions can change a culture built on conspicuous consumption? Writing in the New York Times Magazine June 30, John Tierney answers “yes.” In fact, he says, “Recycling is garbage.” Citing studies by conservative think tanks such as the Cato […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Low cost legal aid
The Department of Defense oversees 25 million acres of public lands and 15,897 contaminated sites. This gives the agency the dubious honor of being the nation’s leading polluter, says the Project for Participatory Democracy, an initiative of the San Francisco-based Tides Center. Citing the government’s poor record on clean-up, the group has produced a legal […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Bear with us
If you’re a hiker or angler in black bear or grizzly territory, a modest little handbook, Bear Aware: Hiking and Camping in Bear Country, could save your life. It concisely explains the bear essentials of coexistence, such as staying alert in the outback, venturing out only with a large group, sticking to the trail and […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Two reports set the stage for Sierra Nevada’s future
The Sierra Nevada is a patchwork of dwindling old growth, imperiled species and degraded lakes, streams and rivers. But the seedbeds of its salvation are still intact, according to two reports released this summer, one by a group of scientists, the other by a regional business council. Both conclude there are many reasons for hope […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Tourism summit
Are herds of tourists just the latest scourge on public lands? Heads of the tourism industry and public-lands managers will converge on Lake Tahoe, Calif., Sept. 24-26 to talk about consensus on such contentious issues as national park overflights, access restrictions and recreation fees. Seeking Common Ground is sponsored by the Western States Tourism Policy […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Don’t listen to bad advice
Dear HCN, Although poetic license and the First Amendment no doubt allow Chris Ransick the right to perpetuate a myth if s/he wants to, still I have to comment on the mean-spirited “Advice for Visitors to Rock Springs’ (HCN, 8/19/96). If people who so freely criticize Rock Springs ever left I-80’s truck stops they might […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Bashing tourism doesn’t cut it
Dear HCN, Ed Quillen’s article on the Disappearing railroad blues shows the West is changing (HCN, 8/5/96), but I must disagree with his inference that tourism brings only minimum wage jobs. Tourists bringing in their $1,800 bikes on $30,000 vehicles are also going to spend millions on motels, quality restaurants, bike and vehicle mechanics, outfitters, […]