Note: this article in one of several feature stories in a special issue about the West’s land grant universities and their extension programs. Reno, Nev. – The hall of the University of Nevada’s College of Agriculture is lined with dusty black-and-white photographs of former professors, peering knowingly from below their cowboy hats. Hudson Glimp seems […]
Talking ranching through its bleakest hour
Posted inMarch 18, 1996: What does the West need to know?
Playing politics or helping the range?
Note: this article in one of several feature stories in a special issue about the West’s land grant universities and their extension programs. Back in 1978, ranchers around the West felt the first tremors of grazing reform. Under legal pressure from environmentalists, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management found much of its rangeland in bad […]
Posted inMarch 18, 1996: What does the West need to know?
What is cooperative extension?
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, What does the West need to know?, in a special issue about the West’s land grant universities and their extension programs. The West’s extension agents cover some ground: They counsel Colorado wheat farmers whose crops are being nibbled by antelope, broadcast advice […]
Posted inMarch 18, 1996: What does the West need to know?
What does the West need to know?
Note: this article in one of several feature stories in a special issue about the West’s land grant universities and their extension programs. In a burst of energy early this century, land-grant universities sent extension agents to America’s rural counties. Their mission: to modernize and civilize those counties by teaching the latest in breeding cows, […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
A wet winter misses the Southwest
Refreshed by last year’s drought-ending weather, most Westerners will wallow in water again this spring. Except in parts of the Southwest, where the fire season has already started, it should be a wet spring. Federal weather forecasters say reservoirs are full across most of the West and snowpacks are extremely high in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Then the barber left
Dear HCN, I am writing to express my appreciation for your excellent article, “Lack of Enchantment,” Feb. 5. I lived in Santa Fe for about five years between 1987 and 1992 and spent a year and a half as Santa Fe county attorney. I saw the decline of the middle class and the forced emigration […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Don’t blame the birds
Dear HCN, William deBuys makes some good points concerning various groups coming to loggerheads in New Mexico, but it should be pointed out that when the Forest Service shut down all tree-cutting in the Southwest it was never appropriate biologically (HCN, 2/5/96). The angry firewood cutters needed piûon-juniper, but this is not an area frequented […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Forests on the edge
Dear HCN, In the William deBuys essay about controversy surrounding northern New Mexico’s forests, he says “We need to create more small forest edges in order to promote species diversity” (HCN, 2/5/96). I am no expert on this matter, but it caught my eye because of research that’s been done in Eastern forests. It shows […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Wrong cactus and not funny
Dear HCN, I was really depressed by the art work done by Greg Siple and cleared by your editors which accompanied the cover article on Santa Fe (HCN, 2/5/96). Even this dumb non-Westerner knows saguaros don’t grow naturally in New Mexico. Maybe it was done for a laugh? OK, ha, ha. I am awfully tired […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Fergus fires back
Dear HCN, The letter from Scott McIntyre Feb. 19 in response to my essay “Hunting: Get Used to It” (HCN, 1/22/96) displays all the prejudice that makes a rational dialogue between hunters and antihunters so difficult. Although McIntyre claims that he is “not for … or against” hunting, his implication that he’s too mature to […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Nuclear waste deal challenged
Idaho’s Republican Governor Phil Batt abused his executive power when he signed a nuclear waste deal with the federal government last October, according to Democratic state Sen. Clint Stennett of Ketchum. In January, Stennett introduced legislation to nullify the deal that will allow over 1,000 shipments of nuclear waste into the state over the next […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
DIA’s skies aren’t friendly
It’s not easy to talk with John Henderson at his Elbert County home. Though he lives 30 miles from the Denver International Airport, he counts 150 jets passing over his home on most days. “It’s like standing next to a vacuum cleaner,” Henderson says, when a 747 thunders just 3,000 feet over his house after […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Flooding: Whose fault?
It’s been a tough winter in the Pacific Northwest. After enduring widespread flooding and landslides in November (HCN, 1/22/96), the region was slammed even harder in early February by a combination of heavy rains and melting snow. The recent landslides were the worst in three decades, say experts; repair costs could exceed $40 million. While […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Sportsmen sue to remove prison
Two western Colorado sportsmen have notified the state of Colorado that they will bring a lawsuit against it for illegally building a prison in a state wildife area. Tom Huerkamp and Bob Morris say state prison officials built a 300-bed facility in the Escalante Wildlife Area, outside Delta, Colo., even though the land was purchased […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Tooele loses support
A plan to incinerate chemical weapons at the Tooele Army Depot in western Utah just lost a longtime champion: the Tooele County Commission. Although the county’s economy depends heavily on the military, commissioners revoked earlier approval of the project, saying adequate safety measures weren’t yet in place. Some 50 residents and county officials expressed similar […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
A lie this big
It’s hard to believe, but the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was caught fishing without a license. Last June a game warden stopped for a routine license check at a stream near Rawlins, Wyo., and found director John Talbott didn’t have a $9 license with him. Talbott told the warden his license […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Permits not part of Rainbow values
Every July some 15,000 people converge on Forest Service land in a wave of buses, outdoor kitchens and non-stop music for a month-long gathering. Now, members of the Rainbow Family say a new permit requirement by the Forest Service threatens their annual get-together. “We are faced with overzealous bureaucrats who don’t know how to let […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Leaving room for cows and horses
Welcome to our small town, stranger, but don’t try to change our rural way of life. Now, sign on the dotted line. Thanks to a “right to farm provision,” adopted as part of a Utah town’s development code last March, officials can now make new property owners sign such agreements. “It’s a stipulation that this […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Did the Forest Service burn New Mexico enviros?
Did the Forest Service burn New Mexico enviros? On the day President Clinton signed what’s become known as the “logging without laws’ rider last July, a nearly 10,000 foot-high peak in southwest New Mexico burst into flames. Now federal plans for salvage logging of this area – Eagle Peak near Reserve, N.M. – have led […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
One less voice
One less voice The Utah Wilderness Association will go into hibernation March 29 after 17 years of fighting for wilderness preservation. Staff departures and money woes led to the decision by the group’s board of directors. One of UWA’s founders, Dick Carter, says his resignation, plus those of George Nickas and Gary Macfarlane over the […]