Note: this article appears in the print edition as a sidebar to another news article, “Changing times force agency to swim upstream.” The Bonneville Power Administration was born out of the Depression. Talk of taming the wild Columbia River and its tributaries began in the 1920s, but Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt didn’t authorize the […]
BPA: Making amends for a destructive past
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
Changing times force agency to swim upstream
Three lobbyists in suits strode down the marbled halls of the Senate office building one day last fall. Their mission: to convince the Northwest’s congressional delegation to fight a bill requested by the Bonneville Power Administration. The bill would exempt three runs of imperiled Snake River salmon from federal protection. The men turned into a […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
Hobbled federal wolf program attracts friends and money
With a little help from their friends, another batch of Canadian wolves will be released in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho this winter, despite congressional budget action designed to halt the project in its tracks. Environmental groups have pledged $40,000 so far, enough money to find and identify about 30 appropriate wolves in British […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
Move to repeal logging rider gathers speed
Since it became law four months ago, the salvage logging rider has proved a mixed blessing for the timber industry, an embarrassment to the administration and a rallying point for environmentalists. Often called the worst environmental legislation to emerge from the 104th Congress, the salvage law could soon become a litmus test for President Clinton […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
Dear Friends
Utah in the news Staff is still exhausted thinking about the trials of Utah Republican Rep. Enid Waldholtz. Her tears flowed copiously for almost five hours two weeks ago while she told the nation she was financially deceived by her husband. Retiring Democrat Rep. Pat Schroeder of Colorado minced no words in giving Waldholtz advice: […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
Heard Around the West
Small towns once complained that children were their biggest export. “You can’t keep them home once they’ve seen bright lights,” residents would lament as their towns shrank. People in small towns still complain – it’s their nature. But today they complain because not only their kids, but everyone else’s kids, are moving to their dimly […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
A monumental clash of values over Utah
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Congress weighs the fate of Utah’s wild lands. Utah’s proposed BLM wilderness areas feature heart-stopping scenery: big rivers booming in sheer-walled canyons thousands of feet deep; labyrinthine canyon systems etched into colorful sedimentary rock formations; forested plateaus ringed by 1,000-foot high cliff walls; […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
A few modest principles to help us manage Utah’s public lands
It wasn’t every day that I got to speak at a chamber of commerce meeting, so I tried to be careful. But I must have shown a bit too much green or too many urban mannerisms, and one member of the audience came rushing over almost before I’d stopped talking. In seconds we were going […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
How to influence Congress on just dollars a day
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Congress weighs the fate of Utah’s wild lands. Ray Wheeler, who has a history of determination that includes hiking nearly all the way across Utah, climbed on a jet in Salt Lake City last July 12, bound for the nation’s halls of power. […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
To comment on the Utah Wilderness bills
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Congress weighs the fate of Utah’s wild lands. To comment on the Utah Wilderness bills, write or phone your congressional representative, senators and President Clinton. Mail to Senate offices can be addressed to: U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510. You can reach your representative […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
Congress weighs the fate of Utah’s wild lands
(Note: this article accompanies another feature story in this issue, Utah hearings misfire.) When Utah’s congressional delegation announced almost a year ago that it would introduce a bill designating BLM wilderness, environmentalists in the state were shocked. They knew they faced a potentially disastrous alignment of political planets: Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
The delegation’s bill gets shellacked
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Utah hearings misfire. In a Christmas gift to Utah environmentalists, Rep. James V. Hansen, R-Utah, unceremoniously yanked the Utah delegation’s wilderness bill off the House floor Dec. 14. Hansen said he pulled the bill because there wasn’t enough time to properly debate it. […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
A 4 million acre difference
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Utah hearings misfire. 1. The Book Cliffs: BLM and adjoining state and Indian reservation lands comprise a natural area of over 1 million acres spanning the Tavaputs Plateau and mile-deep Desolation and Gray canyons. It is one of the largest blocks of unprotected […]
Posted inDecember 25, 1995: Utah hearings misfire
Utah hearings misfire
Unidentified speaker: What I would like to do is have a political (poll) … and just let everybody express what they can’t express because of time limits; so until that red light goes off, (inaudible) make noise and … The crowd, chanting: 5.7, 5.7, 5.7, 5.7, 5.7, – Official transcript, Salt Lake City Wilderness Hearing, […]
Posted inDecember 11, 1995: Hunting: Its place in the West comes under attack
Revving up rural schools
Without the drama of guns and gangs, the popular media usually leave rural education in a time warp of little red schoolhouses and outdated textbooks. But rural schools, which house one-quarter of the nation’s students and teachers, turned decades ago to interdisciplinary studies, multi-grade classrooms and community- based learning – all “innovations’ being introduced in […]
Posted inDecember 11, 1995: Hunting: Its place in the West comes under attack
How rivers really run
Ever wonder how rivers shape mountains? How to classify stream erosion? Wildland Hydrology Consultants, a firm based in Pagosa Springs, Colo., offers courses from spring through fall in Applied Fluvial Geomorphology, Stream Classification and Applications and River Assessment and Monitoring. The five-day courses for hydrologists, fisheries biologists, and other riparian ecosystem specialists cover urban, agricultural […]
Posted inDecember 11, 1995: Hunting: Its place in the West comes under attack
The plumber’s guide to the Colorado Basin
When John Wesley Powell rafted down the Colorado River, he was probably not thinking of plumbing. But that’s the metaphor the Dinosaur Nature Association brings to life in a poster of the dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts that have transformed the rivers of the Colorado Basin. Based on Lester Doré’s illustration from HCN’s book, Western Water […]
Posted inDecember 11, 1995: Hunting: Its place in the West comes under attack
Western Images
The University of Southern Colorado is now accepting papers for a March 21-23 conference in Colorado Springs, Colo., The Image of the American West in Literature, the Media, and Society. Topics may include anything from rodeos to tourism, immigration to heroism. One-page abstracts are due Jan. 5. For more information, contact Professor Steven Kaplan, 719/549-2764, […]
Posted inDecember 11, 1995: Hunting: Its place in the West comes under attack
Southwestern writers hit the airwaves
-Every writer has one thing they want, need to work out desperately in their writing … I seem to be dealing with transformation, a way to make sense of, to rectify, a terrible, beautiful history.” * Joy Harjo Joy Harjo, a Creek poet, screenwriter, and saxophonist, is one of 13 Southwestern authors featured in Writing […]
Posted inDecember 11, 1995: Hunting: Its place in the West comes under attack
Green fellows
Environmental journalists with at least three years’ experience are invited to apply for a fellowship year at Harvard University. The two selected Nieman fellows – one U.S. and one international – will take undergraduate and graduate classes. They will also meet with distinguished figures from journalism, business, education, the arts and public service. The fellowships […]