Floating past cottonwood trees and tamarisk just before dusk, Skip Edwards deftly keeps his raft within earshot of ours so he can pummel us with facts about the 1964 Wilderness Act. But around the next bend, the former Bureau of Land Management river ranger falls silent and points to a massive red and orange sandstone […]
To save a Utah canyon, a BLM ranger quits and turns activist
Posted inOctober 16, 1995: In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one
South Dakota pulls plug on Missouri River meetings
Blaming a bureaucratic process that has dragged on for too long without progress, South Dakota officials have withdrawn their state from the Missouri River Basin Association. Nettie Myers, secretary of the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said, “It seems like we have the same meetings over and over, and nothing is accomplished.” The […]
Posted inOctober 16, 1995: In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one
How the West was won, and won, and …
When did the following take place? A conservative wave sweeps the nation, and Republicans take control of the government. Western ranchers, furious about a proposed increase in the grazing fee on public lands, complain about the bloated federal bureaucracy. Members of Congress from the 12 Western states decide they have had enough of Eastern domination […]
Posted inOctober 16, 1995: In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one
Congress is reworking 100 years of federal policy
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Right-wing conservatives, who have long argued that the nation would be best served if public lands and resources were in private hands, believed that their hour had come. On Sept. 19, a bill reached the floor of House of Representatives to create a commission recommending the sale of selected lands now managed […]
Posted inOctober 16, 1995: In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one
Who knows best: grassroots or foundations?
The symbolism and coincidences were heavy. The day after Labor Day, the National Audubon Society fired the staff of the Endangered Species Coalition – the group created by the environmental movement to protect the Endangered Species Act from Congress. And as if it were waiting for the firings, three days after former Indiana Congressman Jim […]
Posted inOctober 16, 1995: In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one
Cut to the past: logging wars resume
Less than three years after the Clinton administration devised a plan to protect most of the remaining ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest, the big trees have started to fall again. Taking advantage of an obscure provision in a salvage logging bill recently signed by the president, loggers have begun cutting healthy old-growth forests west […]
Posted inOctober 16, 1995: In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one
Dear friends
Pear wars We’re not sure how to describe the $5 “Pear Insurance Contract” High Country News just signed. But two Paonia High School students assured us that after the “time of combat,” which in the past has meant teenagers gathering at night to hurl fruit at each other, “all you need to do is let […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Cowboys are socialists
Dear HCN, For some reason I am just unable to relate to the long tale of woe of “good” BLM rancher Barbara Cosimati (HCN, 7/24/95). Were it not for socialistic, below-market federal grazing fee subsidies to the West’s Forest Service and BLM ranchers, few of these welfare cowboys could ever compete with our nation’s free-market, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Thoughtless analogy
Dear HCN, In your Sept. 4 issue, writer Peter Heller was quoted as labeling some of my thinking “the drug dealer defense.” His comment didn’t really make sense, but it had a connotation. With due respect to Peter, I have to say it was a thoughtless analogy. People cannot make sound decisions without good information. […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Hikers aren’t a herd
Dear HCN, “Fiddling while Rome burns’ should have been the subtitle of Christopher Smith’s stories concerning guidebooks and wilderness usage (HCN, 9/4/95). It’s sad to see wilderness advocates decrying people visiting the Colorado Plateau while the Utah congressional delegation legislates Utah wilderness out of existence. Hiking in the Swell with Steve Allen persuaded me to […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Out of respect
Dear HCN, Thank you for your insightful issue on the ethics of revealing sensitive wilderness locations (HCN, 9/4/95). I have a favorite place in the wilderness: a high mountain lake, right up at the Continental Divide, always half-frozen. The water sparkles there like a million diamonds. The silence is broken only by the sound of […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Where credit is due
Dear HCN, Your essay “How to get rural people to stand proud and tall” perpetuates the myth that the Mono Lake Committee “saved” Mono Lake (HCN, 9/4/95). The record clearly shows that the increased flows into Mono Lake of the past several years – thanks to decreased diversions out of the Mono Basin by the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
The San Pedro River: A Long View
Dear HCN, The article on competing water usages for Sierra Vista, Fort Huachuca, and the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area opens the door for more general consideration of the dramatic geologic and ecologic changes that have affected the San Pedro River over the past century (HCN, 6/12/95). The paired “before” and “after” pictures (pages […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
The Politics of Sustainable Agriculture
Ponder the future of farming, free trade and technology with Wes Jackson and other researchers and writers at a University of Oregon conference, The Politics of Sustainable Agriculture, Oct. 7-8. For details, contact the Department of Political Science, 1284 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1284 (503/346-4868). This article appeared in the print edition of the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
The West … Pioneering Technology into the 21st Century
Do Western states really want to take possession of Bureau of Land Management Lands? Elected officials will talk about Utah Representative James Hansen’s bill and other proposals that would catapult a host of federal programs over to the states at the 48th meeting of the Western Legislative Conference, Oct. 7-10, in Salt Lake City, Utah. […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Growth in the Intermountain West: Impacts on the GreenLine
How do you plan for growth and protect riparian areas? Look for some answers Oct. 11-13 at Growth in the Intermountain West: Impacts on the GreenLine, the 7th annual conference of the Colorado Riparian Association in Frisco, Colo. Topics include land-use planning and regulation, land trusts and riparian restoration. Contact Alan Carpenter, 303/444-2985. This article […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Too many pesticides
TOO MANY PESTICIDES Dams aren’t the only threat to Pacific coho salmon. A report, Toxic Water, by the Oregon-based Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, reveals that pesticide residues in the waters of the Northwest may have built up to harmful concentrations. Since Western states have no reporting requirements for users of pesticides, few records […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Greed makes cents
GREED MAKES CENTS The Forest Service would do well to emulate state and county timber-sales practices, according to a report released by the Political Economy Research Center, a think tank advocating free-market responses to environmental problems. Turning a Profit on Public Forests compares the economic and environmental performance of national forests and state and county […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Inventing the Southwest
INVENTING THE SOUTHWEST Few people realize that a restaurant and hotel chain played a key role in marketing Indian art as early as the 1880s. An exhibit to run through April 1997, at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz., explores how the Fred Harvey Company influenced the art of the Southwest’s Indians and shaped tourism […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Condors ready for takeoff
CONDORS READY FOR TAKEOFF California condors, giant vultures that can fly over 100 miles in a day, met with limited success when they were released by federal biologists in California three years ago. The endangered birds seemed inexorably drawn to human activities: Four birds died in collisions with power lines, another from drinking anti-freeze. Now, […]