A bronze likeness of the Mexican wolf stands in front of the University of New Mexico’s gymnasium in Albuquerque – the lobo is the mascot for the school’s sports teams. About the only other place to see the endangered predator today is in the zoo. But now, after a decade of environmentalist-rancher-government wrangling over Mexican […]
Wolf revival spreads to Southwest
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Rural monster homes may not fly
ASPEN, Colo. – To 72-year-old Betty LaMont, her 40-acre piece of land in remote Pitkin County, Colo., is her bank account. The land LaMont’s family homesteaded in the late 1880s lies at 8,000 feet in a grove of aspen, three miles from Thomasville, population 25, and 50 miles from the county seat, Aspen. LaMont says […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Dear friends
Snowplows in June Summer in this 6,000-foot mountain valley unofficially arrived July 5; up until then snow fell and dusted the West Elk Mountains overnight, and something called rain dripped every other day. The air felt more like October. Finally, 90-degree heat moved in – this was more like it! – though we could still […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Mount Graham time line
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Making a mountain into a starbase. About 9000 BC As continental glaciers retreat, conifer forests of the Pinalenos – where 10,720-foot Mount Graham is the highest peak – become isolated from those of the Mogollon Rim and other mountain islands in what is now […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Sound-bite slogans distort a complicated reality
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Making a mountain into a starbase. In the acrimonious conflict over Mount Graham, middle ground is harder to find than red squirrels. Some opponents like to say the telescopes will drive the squirrel extinct. According to the best scientific knowledge, that’s not exactly true. […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
The university aimed for the stars and hit Mount Graham
The sins of land-grant universities are usually those of inertia. The land-grants are old-fashioned. They’re politically cautious. They’re financially dependent upon the powers-that-be in their states. Young faculty with new ideas often hold their tongues rather than speak their minds. There’s a culture of countrified politeness among land-grant faculties that can be stultifying. Watching for […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
The straight arrow
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Making a mountain into a starbase. “The university has no choice except to tilt the rewards system toward faculty and departments that can generate the most money. And that’s bad.” Frank Gregg, head of the BLM under President Jimmy Carter, was a U of […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
The petitioning ecologist
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Making a mountain into a starbase. “My objection to the project is based on … the lack of vision about what’s important to preserve in the Southwest.” Mark Fishbein is a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Arizona’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology; […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
The biogladiator
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Making a mountain into a starbase. “Biologists who don’t speak out on biological issues become the passive accepters of the loss of biodiversity …” Peter Warshall, an adjunct scientist at the University of Arizona, directed research for an environmental impact statement on Mount Graham […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
The diplomat ecologist
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Making a mountain into a starbase. “I came off the mountain saying probably the best way to save this place is to build an observatory …” Conrad Istock is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the U of A’s College of Arts […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
The Apache activist
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Making a mountain into a starbase. “The university, I’d say, is like a tin man. No heart. They don’t have no feeling.” Ola Cassadore Davis grew up on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, about 30 miles from Mount Graham. Her father was a medicine […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
The administrator
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Making a mountain into a starbase. “The reality of this project is that it was never a threat to the red squirrel.” Michael Cusanovich, vice president for research and graduate studies at the U of A, oversees a $220 million annual research budget. He’s […]
Posted inJuly 24, 1995: Making a mountain into a starbase
Making a mountain into a starbase
The long, bitter battle over Mount Graham
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Dan Beard resigns
With the surprise resignation June 12 of Dan Beard as director of the Bureau of Reclamation, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has lost one of his most effective lieutenants (HCN, 3/20/95). Although Western water has long been a contentious issue, his reign has been quiet, especially when compared with grazing and logging. In announcing his departure, […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Mining reform might sneak back
While other environmental debates rage in Congress, negotiations over reform of the 1872 Mining Law are quietly proceeding behind closed doors in the Senate. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is at the center of the give-and-take. In March, Campbell and Sen. Bennett Johnston, D-La., introduced a bill, S. 639, that they said is almost identical […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
When Tuttle walks, will they listen?
Larry Tuttle, director of the nonprofit Center for Environmental Equity, left his Oregon home on May 10 to go for a walk – an 1,872 mile walk. The mileage represents Tuttle’s impetus for taking to the West’s highways – to support reform of the 1872 General Mining Law. “Pending congressional mining reform is a sham, […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
L-P’s problems mount
Officials at Lousiana-Pacific expected the worst and they got it. On July 16 the company and two former managers of its Olathe, Colo., waferboard plant were indicted on 56 counts including conspiracy, fraud and violation of environmental laws. Federal prosecutors and EPA criminal investigators charge that plant managers tampered with an emissions monitor in Olathe, […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Summitville mine boss indicted
The former environmental manager of Colorado’s bankrupt Summitville mine, one of the worst and most expensive environmental disasters in Colorado history, was indicted June l6 on 35 charges of conspiracy, felony violations of the Clean Water Act, and two counts of falsifying records. EPA investigators charge that in l990 mid-level manager Tom Chisholm knowingly discharged […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Wolves bring Yellowstone to vivid life
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – Dawn … low clouds … swollen river. Like a field of dark toadstools the herds of resting bison take shape across the water. Above them on the grassy benches elk begin to move – cows and calves, a few of the very young ones still hobbling. Geese fly down the […]
Posted inJune 26, 1995: Colorado's prison slayer
Heard Around the West
The Missoulian, a Montana daily, ran an intriguing Help Wanted: “Sheepherder with miniumum of 30 days’ experience. Attends sheep grazing on open range, herds sheep using trained dogs. Guards flocks from predators and from eating poisonous plants … Food, housing, tools, supplies and equipment provided. Hours variable, on call 24 hours, 7 days … One […]