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, […]
Condors ready for takeoff
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
All about river guides
ALL ABOUT RIVER GUIDES Members of Grand Canyon River Guides will gather in Fredonia, Ariz., Oct. 28-29, to share music, food and perspectives on their trade and the future of the Grand Canyon. Their publication, boatman’s quarterly review, chronicles the feisty group’s concerns, including opposition to the Park Service’s proposed requirement that guides wear plastic […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Clamping down on trapping
When Judy Goss of Aspen, Colo., recently found her neighbor’s missing dog, Pooh, caught but unhurt in a wire snare trap in the White River National Forest, she got angry. Now she and Pooh’s owner, Cody Lacy, have joined others in a fight to clamp down on sport trapping of wildlife such as badgers, bobcats, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
When regulations are lax, s— happens
In the once-pristine valleys of eastern Idaho, ooze from malfunctioning septic systems in older subdivisions has seeped into groundwater used for drinking. Health officials in Island Park recently found fecal coliform contamination and shigella – a bacterium that causes severe diarrhea and cramping – at several homes and one resort. At a subdivision near Salmon, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Sheep vs. sheep in Hells Canyon
To protect bighorn sheep, the Forest Service has decided to kick the domestic variety out of Hells Canyon National Recreation Area – again. The agency decided in 1994 to shut down three grazing allotments that straddle the Oregon-Idaho border. It feared that bighorn sheep reintroduced into the area were succumbing to a deadly bacteria, Pasteurella, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Triage for trees attacked
Triage for trees attacked Environmentalists in southern Oregon say the Forest Service wants to “kill the patient” in an effort to protect a rare tree species from a fatal root fungus. The Port Orford cedar, native to the southern Oregon and northern California coast, has succumbed throughout its range to the fungus, which spreads through […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Civil disobedience heats up in Oregon
Frustrated by their inability to appeal two old-growth logging sales, environmentalists in Oregon have taken to the woods. More than 30 people have been arrested since Sept. 11 in protests against the Sugarloaf logging operation in southern Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest (HCN, 9/19/94). Farther north, in the Willamette National Forest, 20 to 30 people have […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Move over, Catron County
Not to be outdone by other angry rural counties in the West, Lake County, Ore., wants to buy the 1 million acres of Forest Service land within its boundaries. Officials of the county in south-central Oregon say they’re frustrated by a federal bureaucracy that has slowed timber harvesting and hurt the local economy. To make […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Bill comes back from the dead
Undaunted by a defeat in the House, Utah Rep. Jim Hansen advanced a park-closing bill by hooking it to other legislation. On Sept. 19, the House voted 231-180 against creating an independent park commission that would recommend parks for elimination. Ten hours later, Hansen tacked the bill on as a rider to the House Budget […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Is another senator backpedaling?
New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, R, reluctantly conceded last month that his bill on public-land grazing needed at least clarification. Hunters and other recreational users of the public lands apparently made their opposition clear: They cannot live with legislation that puts ranchers above everyone else (HCN, 8/21/95). Now another Western Republican, Sen. Craig Thomas of […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Babbitt protests a $1 billion giveaway
-How can a public official give away $1 billion without going to jail?” asked Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt as he signed over 110 acres of public land in Clark County, Idaho, worth $1 billion, to a Danish mining company for $275. To drive home the need for reform, Babbitt signed the deed with an ink-dip […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Jealousy, passion, rage: It all takes place in Yellowstone National Park
MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyo. – Marsha Karle was right. Hang around long enough, Yellowstone National Park’s official spokeswoman warned me once, and you’ll get chased by an elk. Last week, it happened. Leaving a mind-numbing press conference in the Mammoth Hotel inside Yellowstone National Park, I stepped outside to see the sun low in the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Congress fights to restore a filthy past
What follows sounds like a nightmare. But it’s not. It’s true. If you have a weak stomach, don’t read it. I grew up in an area of Kansas City, Kan., called Armourdale, which was bordered on the east by two meat-packing companies, on the west by two soap factories, on the north by the Santa […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
BPA scapegoats fish to protect fat cats
The Bonneville Power Administration says it can’t afford to save Columbia River salmon anymore. The eight senators in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana agree. They have asked governors in their states to help write a new law effectively capping the BPA’s fish costs. Not that the BPA’s fish programs have worked. Numerous runs have gone […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Grazing reform: Here’s the answer
We are veterans of America’s longest war: the war over the public lands of the West. For the past quarter century – in a conflict that dates back to the Civil War – we have written and spoken about livestock grazing on federal lands and fought over how those lands should be governed. We have, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
We need to avoid riparian hysteria
At a recent workshop on riparian ecosystems sponsored by the Tonto National Forest and Arizona Game and Fish Department, biologists dutifully presented their litanies on the inhabitants, histories and importance of steamside environments. Although the theme of this symposium was understanding and not preservation, several speakers offered up the statistic du jour: 95 percent of […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Inside the glitter
In the past, photographers wanting to document Nevada’s workers headed for the mines, forests, ranches and irrigated farmlands. But no more, according to photojournalist Kit Miller. Today’s workforce can be found in the state’s casinos. Miller, a Nevada native, says she took on the project of interviewing and photographing this new Nevada workforce to confront […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Is the ESA being gutted in order to save it?
Like navigators of a sinking hot air balloon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hastily casting off heavy parts of the Endangered Species Act – perhaps before a reform-minded Congress grounds the law altogether. The latest changes surfaced in late July when the Interior Department announced new streamlined, “user-friendly” consultation procedures for federal land […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
DIA jets roar over a Colorado wilderness
BOULDER, Colo. – Some environmentalists have started firing political flak at noisy commercial jets flying over a wilderness area west of here. The local Sierra Club mailed a letter this summer to federal and Denver International Airport officials complaining about the wilderness overflights. So far, the letter has been largely ignored. The problem took off […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Fund raising in parks takes a collection box, and a lawyer
When it comes to First Amendment rights, national parks operate a lot like airports. Park officials cannot discriminate against the speaker or the message, but they do have some discretion over how, where and when the delivery is made. While most decisions are left up to the park superintendent, there are some agency-wide rules, such […]