Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. If it survives expected legal challenges, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument will in all likelihood stop the industrialization of the Kaiparowits Plateau. While the proclamation creating the monument did not take away Andalex’s right to mine its rich coal fields, federal land managers acknowledge that […]
Managing the monument: The devil is in the details
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
A daunting, beautiful place
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Covering an area larger than the state of Delaware, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument encompasses some of the wildest, most desolate land in the country. The expanse of canyons, bluffs, grasslands, cliffs is dotted with fossils and Native American archaeological sites. If you stand on […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
The mother of all land grabs
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah: “In all my 20 years in the U.S. Senate, I have never seen a clearer example of the arrogance of federal power. Indeed, this is the mother of all land grabs. And, the declaration by President Clinton is being made without […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
1996: Clinton takes a 1.7 million-acre stand in Utah
A Bold Stroke: Clinton takes a 1.7 million-acre stand in Utah
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Salt Lake has an Olympian traffic jam
On weekday afternoons, I-15 in Salt Lake City has traffic jams that rival those of Los Angeles. In response, Utah has taken a California approach: Build more lanes. Starting next spring, the city’s main thoroughfare will be reconstructed and doubled in size at a cost of over $1 billion, the largest public works project in […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Uranium poisons Navajo neighborliness
CROWNPOINT, N.M. – The water in this town on the eastern side of the Navajo Nation is so pure that people drive from as far as 80 miles to fill their barrels. But some fear it will be tainted if a proposed uranium mine gets approved next year. “All it will take is one accident […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Glacier Park finds itself inundated
Some Montanans had a rude awakening this summer when officials announced the end of business-as-usual in Glacier National Park. In July, park Superintendent David Mihalic released management proposals that included closing roads and campgrounds, removing park buildings, and limiting access to the much-loved Going-to-the-Sun Highway. These “preliminary alternatives,” the first steps in revising the 1977 […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Dear friends
Odds and ends Thanks to Boulder, Colo., reader Evan Cantor who sent us 10 years of back issues of High Country News. They’ve been snapped up by Paonia High School, which school secretary Judy Briscoe tells us has become much involved in interdisciplinary teaching. And thanks to Evergreen, Colo., writer Dyan Zaslowsky, who passed on […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
The bigger the mine, the better the deal
BOZEMAN, Mont. – The way things are going around here lately, we should change Montana’s nickname from the Big Sky Country to the Big Swap Country: Let’s make a deal! No doubt it’s a form of progress. So were the 1872 Mining Law and the railroad land grants in their day. But qualifiers need to […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Forget widgets, we sell wilderness
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 […]
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 […]