By late July, Washington state could have the most far-reaching “takings” law in the nation – one so dramatic that even zoning might require landowner compensation. The Washington Legislature’s recent approval of Initiative 164 has elated its backers. “It is a crushing blow for big-government advocates, over-zealous state and federal bureaucrats, and cash-laden, well-heeled environmental […]
Legislature votes to hamstring Washington state
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Flip-flop on storing nuclear waste shakes up tribe
MESCALERO, N.M. – On a wind-whipped spring afternoon, tears streamed down the face of anti-nuclear activist Rufina Laws as she stood in the tribal parking lot. Leda Bob, a former tribal secretary, had just hurled a bagful of campaign literature at Laws and cursed her. The scene symbolized the nastiness that overtook this southern New […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Huge snowmelt may lift salmon past killer dams
Just when everything looked dim for endangered salmon in 1995, the snow gods came through. They hurled tons of snow at the central mountains of Idaho, which, combined with heavy spring rain, should mean big runoff in the creeks and rivers in the weeks ahead. By the beginning of May, the floodwaters were already beginning […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Wyoming tribes get support to keep a river wet
As the Wind River slices through the 2.2 million-acre Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, home to some 8,000 Shoshone and Arapaho tribal members, it becomes the “most abused water system in the Western United States,” says Tom Dougherty of the National Wildlife Federation. But Indians aren’t the abusers. Dougherty says the culprits are non-Indian […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Ranchers charge tourists for a dose of reality
SALINA, Utah – Jeff Powell and Susan Rottman are schooling about 60 ranchers in the vocabulary of the New West: Family farms are destination vacations, chores are recreational activities and cattle drives are adventure tourism. This is a crash course in “recreation ranching,” a fledgling industry in the mountain states and, some say, the economic […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
The pendulum swings from dry to wet
Westerners who have been praying for an end to a decade of drought may have prayed a little too hard. The West is wet once again, and in some places downright soggy. Many states have been so loaded with snow this winter that residents are keeping their fingers crossed as rivers surge to the flooding […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Dear Friends
Ramon in Paonia We’re a little upset with Ramon – an activist against logging clearcuts whose 20 acres of private land is the staging ground for the continuing fight against fragmenting the Cove/Mallard area in central Idaho (HCN, 3/6/95). If we had known the exact day of Ramon’s visit, we would have organized a public […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
The result of groundwater pumping is obvious in Nevada, too
Dear HCN, We read with great interest and a sense of déja` vu Steve Stuebner’s article on the Big Lost River being dewatered due to groundwater pumping (HCN, 2/20/95). Déja` vu because here in Nevada we are dealing with the imminent collapse of a desert lake ecosystem, and groundwater pumping for agriculture is playing an […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Salvage bill sells out democracy
SALVAGE BILL SELLS OUT DEMOCRACY Dear HCN, This is an open letter to Colorado Sens. Brown and Campbell, who recently voted for the salvage logging bill: I am writing to express my outrage at your vote to exempt the logging industry from environmental laws. There can be no justification for allowing a particular industry to […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Inciting to violence is not acceptable
INCITING TO VIOLENCE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE Dear HCN, At a recent news conference, a reporter asked House Speaker Newt Gingrich if he felt that the anti-government rhetoric of the new Congress might be partly responsible for encouraging actions like the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Gingrich replied that it was a “grotesque and […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
A superb issue
A SUPERB ISSUE Dear HCN, As a longtime reader of HCN, I am writing to commend your paper on the superb April 17 issue, and particularly on your lead story, “The New West’s servant economy.” The environmental movement has been criticized – sometimes justly – for ignoring the human condition, as if humanity is not […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Shrinking salmon
Not only are salmon runs diminishing in the Pacific Northwest, the fish themselves are also shrinking, according to several recent studies. A study conducted at five Washington hatcheries revealed size decreases from 11 percent to 27 percent over a 12-year period, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. That means some salmon that used to average 6 pounds […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
A question of logging
Jon Roush, president of the Wilderness Society, found himself in an embarrassing position last month. The Nation magazine lambasted him for selling timber worth $140,000 from his western Montana ranch. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair questioned why a man paid $125,000 a year to protect wilderness would log private land adjacent to a national […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Overstaying their welcome?
Overstaying their welcome? A hot springs near a town of 200 in southwestern New Mexico was a popular picnicking and swimming area for locals before a horde of unwelcome guests arrived. Now, campers, vans and tents colonize the area near Glenwood for weeks at a time and many of the town’s residents call it an […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Politics and threats keep cows on public land
Facing political pressure and rumblings of violence, the Forest Service retreated in late April from a plan to cut cows from 650 down to 100 on the 227-square-mile Diamond Bar grazing allotment in New Mexico’s Gila and Aldo Leopold wildernesses. Instead, it reduced Kit and Sherry Laney’s herd to 450 through Feb. 28, 1996. Forage […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Critics attack a snow job in Utah
Even though Salt Lake City is nearing the end of a four-year, privately financed, $7 million quest to host the Winter Olympic Games for 2002, the subject has barely surfaced in Utah. Yet a decision is imminent: On June 16 the International Olympic Committee will select from four cities, and Salt Lake and Quebec appear […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Wolves born outside the park
After an international journey, nine weeks in a chain-link pen, a trek over Montana’s Beartooth Mountains and the loss of her mate, a female wolf brought to Yellowstone National Park in January delivered pups near Red Lodge, Mont. “All of a sudden I heard a whimper, kind of a squeal, and there they were,” ” […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Dear friends
Semi-special Since several recent issues have been labeled “special” because of their long planning time and extra pages, we were loath to call this edition on the Endangered Species Act a special issue too. But as the publication date approached, pages filled with yet more dimensions of the story. So we compromised: no extra pages […]
Posted inMay 15, 1995: Dog and pony show about salmon and owls
Heard Around the West
The terms of the engagement are clearly expressed in the West’s local papers, especially in the Casper Star-Tribune. This small but extraordinary daily, which tries to cover all 97,000 square miles of Wyoming, gives enormous space to local news, and at times, fills two or three broadsheet pages with letters to the editor. If the […]