Jim Jontz, feisty director of the Western Ancient Forest Campaign, showed up at the seventh American Forest Congress in Washington, D.C., planning to stomp out in protest. Scores of other environmental activists, all passionately opposed to the “logging without laws’ timber salvage rider, planned to join Jontz’s demonstration at a conference its organizers called the […]
Consensus even came to Washington, D.C.
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
Idaho learns to share two rivers
Note: this article is one of several feature stories in a special issue about collaboration in the West. ASHTON, Idaho – In a potato-farm warehouse, about 50 members of the Henry’s Fork Watershed Council sit in a circle of folding chairs. They stare quietly at the floor or close their eyes in silence. “I hate […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
Some not-so-easy steps to successful collaboration
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Howdy, neighbor!, about collaboration efforts in the West. Can citizen collaboration solve every environmental conflict? Nope. “This isn’t a magic bullet,” says Gerald Mueller of Missoula, Mont., who has been a mediator since 1988. It is successful under limited circumstances, he says, […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
The skeptic: Collaboration has its limits
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Howdy, neighbor!, about collaboration efforts in the West. Editor’s Note: Michael McCloskey, chairman of the Sierra Club, distributed this memo to the club’s board of directors last November. McCloskey wrote it to spur discussion; it does not represent an official position of […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
Farm bill helps the land – sort of
For more than 60 years, farmers stopped by their local farm services agency each spring and signed their names to join the farm program. It felt like insurance: If the market prices for certain crops fell below a floor, the government would pay the difference. But security came at a price. The government told producers […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
A faint ray of hope for Northwest salmon
For centuries, Snake River salmon have followed the force of raging rivers on their 750-mile journey from Idaho’s mountains to the sea. Yet their migration hasn’t been natural since the mid-1970s, when the Snake and Columbia rivers were converted into a hydroelectric factory and a 350-mile-long navigation canal. Now the fish have a technical alternative, […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
The Northwest gets theatrical
Democratic candidates in the rural Northwest who want to moderate logging, mining and ranching usually don’t get too far. But recent miscues by some of their opponents could change the usual dynamic. Take, for example, Rep. Wes Cooley, R-Ore., who is best known for his bill to allow jet boats to blast through Hells Canyon, […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
Mt. Graham telescope rides through Congress
The setting was as apocalyptic as a Gothic novel: While President Clinton was signing the bill April 26 approving the University of Arizona’s construction of a third telescope on Mount Graham, fire raced through the Coronado National Forest, up the base of the mountain, into red squirrel habitat and toward the two telescopes already pointed […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
Dear Friends
Going with the flow Locally, things are hopping. A cold snap wiped out up to half the fruit crop, and police say a “little old lady” mistook where the reverse gear was and plowed into the Paonia Post Office, demolishing three newspaper stands and a concrete wall. Both events were not novel. Fruitgrowers have always […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
Howdy, neighbor!
As a last resort, Westerners start talking to each other
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
The West’s new prospectors seek microbes
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, A park boss goes to bat for the land. Karl O. Stetter and his team ignore the fresh tracks of a grizzly on their way to hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. Once there, an electronic monitor reveals the pH of the soil is […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Talking Gourds Retreat
Poets and performing artists are invited to join author Dolores LaChapelle for the 1996 Talking Gourds Retreat, an artists’ workshop on “deep ecology,” hosted by the Telluride Writer’s Guild and the Ah Haa School for the Arts. The gathering, held June 28-30 at the Faraway Ranch near Telluride, Colo., includes performances and drumming. Call Judy […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
MountainFilm Festival
Telluride, Colo., hosts the 18th annual MountainFilm Festival May 24-27, featuring over 40 films plus seminars and discussions with the film makers. Speakers include Dick Durrance, captain of the first U.S. Olympic skiing team in 1936, and Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. For more information and tickets, contact MountainFilm at 970/728-4123. […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Wildlife and Trail Recreation
Can mountain bikers and wildlife coexist? Find out at a conference on Wildlife and Trail Recreation: Integrating Demands in the Wild/Urban Interface, hosted by the San Juan National Forest Association, May 10-11 in Durango, Colo. John Mumma, director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, will give the keynote address. To register, call the San Juan […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Pennies on the Railroad
The annual Wild Idaho! conference at Redfish Lake on May 17-19 is called Pennies On The Railroad, in reference to the flattened condition of Idaho environmentalism this year. Panel discussion will focus on the dysfunctional management of the Endangered Species Act and the effects of salvage logging on streams and wildlife. Louisa Willcox of the […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Hands across the water
More than 30 Japanese volunteers who built a boardwalk and overlook at Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park are coming back this summer to revegetate trampled meadows. While Japan is not known for environmentalism, these teachers, engineers, nurses and other professionals have formed a Tokyo-based group, Japan Volunteers in Parks Association. They responded to a letter […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Healing a dirty town
Chip Ward, an environmental activist from Grantsville, Utah, started the West Desert Healthy Environment Alliance (HEAL) because citizens noticed abnormally high rates of illness in town. But when the group approached the state Bureau of Epidemiology for information, the agency said that though cancer rates were high, its research showed no discernible pattern among the […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Wild Rockies Online
If you’re hungry for more environmental resources on the Internet, there’s a new World Wide Web site that’s sure to keep you connected – in more ways than one. The Wild Rockies Slate, launched into cyberspace last December, features up-to-date information on the issues, organizations and ecology of the northern Rocky Mountains. A project of […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Burning down the house
Under a new federal policy, fire managers will be allowed to put protection of natural resources ahead of property when they battle blazes on public lands. That policy is the major contribution of a new report issued jointly by the departments of Interior and Agriculture. “In the past people expected their homes to take priority,” […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Yard Sale
The Uintah Mountain Club in Vernal, Utah, is a small but active group, and it produces one of the best newsletters we get to see. The April issue annouces that members Denise and Jon Hughes will have a “yard sale, literally,” on May 5 at 2554 South 500 East. Bring a shovel and $2 per […]