A few months back I was heading along U.S. 30 east of Kemmerer. It was one of those amazing Wyoming spring evenings, a panorama of sky, sage and sun which encompassed me totally, so totally that it took me a few moments to realize I had pulled off the highway and was standing in a […]
True portentousness on a Wyoming highway
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Heard around the West
Greg Leichner of Placitas, N.M., spent 20 years trying to take himself seriously as an artist – a pursuit that bought him so much mental anguish he finally cracked and traded it in for two new aspirations: Starting a newsletter called Citizens For A Poodle-Free Montana and running for president of the United States. He […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
People respond to owning a piece of the earth’s crust
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Who owns these bones? Buying a personal dinosaur has never been easier. In the past few years, fossils have entered two new commercial arenas – the internet and the art auction. Web surfers can order fossils from several home pages including “Artifacts-R-Us: Your One-Stop Shop […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
I was a sheep rancher in western Wyoming
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Who owns these bones? “I was a sheep rancher in western Wyoming. One day a gun trader came riding by and I traded a bunch of fossils for a rifle.” – Rick Hebdon Rick Hebdon owns Warfield Fossil Quarries in Thayne, Wyo., and sends tourists […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Fossils are being destroyed by people who are loving them to death
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Who owns these bones? “Fossils are being destroyed by people who are loving them to death, people who are making a profit.” – Bruce Louthan Bruce Louthan is the district archaeologist for the Moab BLM. He relies on public education to stop fossil looting. “Amateur […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Dinosaur bones have really increased in price
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Who owns these bones? “Dinosaur bones have really increased in price. It wouldn’t matter to me if they were not worth anything. I’d sure love to go find more of them.” – Lin Ottinger Lin Ottinger has watched Moab turn into a tourist mecca and […]
Posted inMarch 4, 1996: Who owns these bones?
Who owns these bones?
Tucson, Ariz. – The television’s flickering light reveals salmon-colored femurs on card tables, mastodon skulls on a flowered bedcover, dinosaur eggs atop the TV. Japheth Boyce is on the phone, dealing. “Yes … $2,000 … I just can’t go any lower … Well, what can you trade me? … Room 169, Ramada Inn, tomorrow 7 […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
13th National Trails Symposium
Trails ranging from urban bikeways to wilderness hiking paths will be discussed at the 13th National Trails Symposium, March 9-12, in Washington, D.C. American Trails, public-lands agencies and the Federal Highway Administration are sponsoring the workshop, which also features special on-the-trail field trips in the D.C. area. Contact American Trails, Box 200787, Denver, CO 80220 […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Seventh North American Interdisciplinary Wilderness Conference
Western literature, politics and ecology will merge at the Seventh North American Interdisciplinary Wilderness Conference. The event is sponsored by the Center for Environmental Arts and Humanities at the University of Nevada, Reno, and will take place at the Nugget in Reno. The Feb. 29-March 2 workshop features T.H. Watkins, editor of Wilderness magazine, and […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
The Snake River, Balancing the Vision
Idaho Rivers United and dozens of private and government agencies are co-sponsoring the fourth bi-annual river symposium: “The Snake River: Balancing the Vision.” Former Gov. Cecil Andrus opens the program, scheduled for Feb. 29-March 2 at the Weston Plaza Hotel in Twin Falls, Idaho. Contact Idaho Rivers United, P.O. Box 633, Boise, ID (800/574-7481). This […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Environmental Action “96: Winning in November
L earn grassroots lobbying and election organizing at Environmental Action “96: Winning in November. The free Feb. 24-25 conference features a keynote address by Jim Baca, former director of the BLM, and an environmental forum with Colorado’s U.S. Senate candidates. Sponsors include CoPIRG, League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and Campus Greenvote. Contact the University […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Costly Yellowstone invasion
COSTLY YELLOWSTONE INVASION There’s little hope of ridding Yellowstone Lake of its invading lake trout, says a report by the National Park Service. The illegally introduced lake trout, discovered by anglers in 1994, could diminish the native cutthroat trout population by 70 percent or more within 100 years. And by disrupting the food chain, the […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Subterranean terror
SUBTERRANEAN TERROR “I thought if only I could get out, I’m going to get a whole new perspective on my life, because I’ve faced death square in the face.” * Dennis Workman, who was trapped in a mine for 56 hours This January, a young Utah man plunged 600 feet down a mine shaft on […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Dams be damned
DAMS BE DAMNED Activist Yvan Rochon wants to see two dams, built early in the century on Washington’s Elwha River, demolished (HCN, 9/18/95). “They went up as progress and we want to take them down in the name of progress,” says the 35-year-old medical researcher. Rochon and his group, the Elwha Dams Removal Fund, are […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Our living resources
OUR LIVING RESOURCES Consider a two-inch-thick tome produced by the federal government and your eyelids are likely to fall. If the volume is Our Living Resources, your reaction could be just the opposite. Anyone interested in ecological issues may find this report indispensable. To begin with, the 530-page document holds page after page of full-color […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Small town design
SMALL TOWN DESIGN Conservation and development can go head-to-head in rural America. A new publication describes a two-year project in which landscape architects worked with rural communities to combine the two. The National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service sponsored the arrangement, which placed a landscape architect […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
A call to uproot roads
After torrential rains in northern Idaho triggered widespread landslides in national forests last November, some Idaho Fish and Game officials are urging the Forest Service not to repair damaged roads. They want the roads either re-engineered or obliterated. “We want them to fix the problem, so those roads aren’t just time bombs waiting to go […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Disease threatens bighorn restoration
For decades, wildlife officials from Idaho, Washington and Oregon have worked hard to restore bighorn sheep to the Hells Canyon area. But in December, they feverishly tried to remove them after a deadly outbreak of pneumonia-like pasteurella. Hoping to contain the disease, officials netted 72 sick sheep and transported them by helicopters and trucks to […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
BuRec gets a new leader
The Bureau of Reclamation, slimmer now after former chief Dan Beard cut 1,500 from its workforce and $107 million from a $911 million budget, has a new boss. “I don’t have any agendas,” says Commissioner Eluid Martinez, who worked as New Mexico’s state engineer for four years. “I just want to do a good job […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 1996: Can a Colorado ski county say 'Enough is enough'?
Politics imperil Mexican wolf comeback
As public hearings on ranching issues go, the Socorro, N.M., session on the endangered Mexican wolf last fall was a rare breed. Hundreds of green-capped environmentalists easily outnumbered ranchers, who more often fill the crowd with a sea of black and white cowboy hats. Environmentalists came dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad […]