I don’t hike often in Elk Meadow anymore, the county park near my home in Evergreen, Colo. I don’t hike often in Boulder’s open space parks, either. And I don’t hike any more in Rocky Mountain National Park. Everywhere I look our local and national wild places are crowded with ecology-minded recreationists, and I am […]
Choose not to go boldly outdoors
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Speak up for a quiet Grand Canyon
On my first visit to the Grand Canyon 45 years ago, I was overwhelmed by its magnificent silence, tranquility and timelessness. That serenity is hard to find today. It’s destroyed by the relentless drone of planes and helicopters. A thousand flights a day, 100 flights an hour rain noise down on the canyon. At best, […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Heard around the West
When we saw a copy of the Boobyprise out of Cody, Wyo., we thought: “That’s it! This endangered species stuff has gone too far.” For there was a photo of a flying dinosaur carrying off a human being. Worse than the photo was the headline – “Dinosaur reintroduction in Yellowstone Park has gone better than […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
For more information
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. The TRI is available in several formats. Many public libraries have the report. Individuals can access it using on-line computer databases or purchase it on CD-ROM or on computer diskettes. For data-use assistance, call 202/260-1531 or fax to 202/260-4659. EPA also maintains a national technical […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
The Toxic West
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. (Text adapted from a graphic available in the print version of this issue.) MONTANA Population 856,000 Total Facilities 24 National Rank for Air/Water/Land Releases 18 Transfers into State/Rank 16 Transfers out of State/Rank 42 Top Ten Facilities for Air/Water/Land Releases Facility County Total Releases/lbs. ASARCO […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
An off-the-books polluter
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. If the mining industry, which has produced at least 40 Superfund sites nationwide, becomes a part of TRI, it will make a lot of other polluters look like they were spitting in the ocean. “I don’t think there’s any ‘perhaps’ about it,” says Phelps Dodge […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Top 20 polluters
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. Rank | Company | Location | Air/Water/Land Total lbs. released 1 Magnesium Corp. of America Rowley, Utah 55.7 million 2 ASARCO Inc. East Helena, MT 43.6 million 3 Courtaulds Fibers Inc. Axis, AL 33.4 million 4 IMC-Agrico Co. Mulberry, FL 25.7 million 5 Lenzing Fibers […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
The filthy West
Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Not welcome
Dear HCN, Catron County Attorney James Catron may be correct when he asserts that “he and Catron County residents personify the frontier ethic portrayed by James Fenimore Cooper” (HCN, 6/24/96), but is he aware that Cooper despised frontiersmen and their “ethic’? In The Pioneers, the 18th century settlers’ only “ethic” is the myth of superabundance; […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
What drivel on llamas
Dear HCN, Those of us who regularly pack with llamas were dismayed by the condescending nature of Hal Walter’s essay (HCN, 8/19/96). This burro packer’s diatribe against llamas is fraught with misinformation. For example, Walter states that he has never seen a llama perform well when carrying over 40 pounds. I regularly put 80 pounds […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Catch-22
Dear HCN, In response to your article about benefits from releasing water from Glen Canyon Dam (HCN, 7/22/96), I called the Bureau of Reclamation in late April, and their best projection was that 104,000,000 kwh of hydro generation would be lost due to the release. It takes more than 60,000 tons of coal to generate […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
This dam will die
Dear HCN, Thanks for the story of the U.S. House of Representatives voting 221-200 to cut funding for the Animas-La Plata Project (HCN, 8/5/95). Since the Senate then voted to include funding, it will now go to a conference committee for some sort of compromise. But it is clear that the dam’s days are numbered. […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Where the wolves are
Though the media’s attention has focused on the wolf reintroduction effort in Yellowstone National Park, wolves in Idaho may reach the recovery goal of 10 breeding pairs first. Biologists received good news last spring when they confirmed that eight pairs of wolves in Idaho had denned. Three litters have been sighted so far. In 1995, […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Waste creeps toward Yucca Mountain
Nevada’s Yucca Mountain is one step closer to becoming a temporary nuclear waste dump. Republicans rushed a bill to the Senate floor before the August break that would clear the way for shipping nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain as early as 1998 (HCN, 4/1/96). It passed in late July despite an attempted filibuster by Democratic […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Devils Tower may get a second name
To Plains Indians, the name Devils Tower dishonors a sacred place. But to local Wyoming residents, the name stands for community identity and tourist dollars. When Devils Tower National Monument Superintendent Deborah Liggett revived the idea of renaming the feature, people spoke out in opposition. At an Aug. 15 meeting, says Liggett, “I was labeled […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Birds get eviction notice
When the Bureau of Reclamation floods the endangered southwestern willow flycatchers out of their nesting habitat near Phoenix, Ariz., will the birds simply move to the next best spot? The Bureau says they will. But conservationists fear the move will drive the local population of songbirds to extinction. The deluge comes next spring as a […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Babbitt takes the offensive on Utah wilderness
At a wilderness hearing last spring, Utah Rep. James Hansen challenged Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to find 5 million acres of BLM land in Utah that qualify for wilderness designation. Now that competing Utah wilderness bills are dormant in Congress, Babbitt has taken him up. The Interior boss has assembled “a small team of career […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Montana grizzlies move west
For a decade, Montanans have complained about the influx of Californians. The trend has reversed, at least for three grizzlies. A sow and her two 16-month-old cubs had run into trouble by repeatedly raiding garbage cans and cabins just outside Yellowstone National Park. Even after land managers relocated the family, the grizzlies returned to their […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Grassroots grit beat ‘the mine from Hell’
The campaign to stop the New World Gold Mine on Yellowstone National Park’s northern boundary could rank with the great environmental victories of the 20th century. It’s not so much what happened as how it happened. Mine opponents started with a textbook grassroots plan to stop the $600 million gold mine. They ended with a […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Heard around the West
In an attempt to keep a tragedy in perspective, one small-town editor is said to have written the following lead paragraph: “While 200 students studied quietly at their desks, Johnny Jones threw principal Bob Smith out of his fourth-floor office window.” A similar lead out of Steamboat Springs, Colo., in early August might have read: […]