SALMON, Idaho – Linda Borton of Tucson, Ariz., was furious when she heard that one of the Canadian wolves released in central Idaho had been shot, and that Lemhi County Sheriff Brett Barsalou said he didn’t “give a damn who shot it.” That same night she fired off a letter to Barsalou. “I’m very much […]
Wolf lovers give Idaho sheriff a piece of their mind
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Midnight subdividing creates unsanitary messes
DOäA ANA COUNTY, N.M. – Felix Ledesma stares out at the border shantytown where his family now lives and he shakes his head: “We moved here because New Mexico is the land of opportunity.” But Ledesma’s children play nearby in muddy pools, and around them rise an odd assortment of homes – cinder block shacks, […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Forest Service scrambles to obey law it long ignored
It’s a case of a bureaucratic train wreck creating a congressional train wreck. After refusing for decades to apply the National Environmental Policy Act, the U.S. Forest Service is now applying the law so fiercely that it’s put a host of other programs on the back burner. The Forest Service is delaying timber sales, archaeological […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Dear friends
Stacked deck? When Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young decided to leave the Beltway to hear opinions on changing the Endangered Species Act, he set no House (Natural) Resource Committee hearings in what we think of as The West: Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, or South Dakota. Young selected mainly small […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Heard around the West
The Montana legislature is determined to take that state’s clean water. It passed two bills that allow degradation of Montana’s streams and lakes. The bills were pushed by mining, ranching, logging and real estate. Developers succeeded in loosening septic tank standards for new homes. That could spell death for the purity of Montana’s immense Flathead […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
It’s deja vu yet again, says Bruce Babbitt
Washington, D.C. – On Dec. 24, 1992, while most Americans were eating Christmas Eve dinner, the four Marstons were listening to All Things Considered on National Public Radio. The occasion was Bill Clinton’s nomination of Bruce Babbitt to be secretary of Interior. To be honest, the occasion was NPR reporter John Nielson’s taped interview of […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Montana State University to local environmentalists: Get lost!
In an editorial in their monthly newsletter, which I’ll call the Big Sky Cow Pie, the Montana Stockgrowers Association branded me the “Ralph Nader of the West.” It was not meant as a compliment. I’m not exactly sure what set them off. Perhaps it was something I’d said while president of the National Wolf Growers […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
If rain doesn’t fall, the money will
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Drought returned to the West last summer, with a little help from the federal government. Ranchers from Oregon to New Mexico – their herds grown too abundant as a result of a well-intentioned drought relief program – let grass-starved cows and sheep strip parched rangelands bare. The emergency feed program, run […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
An in-your-face range scientist
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue on the West’s land grant universities. LAS CRUCES, N.M. – In the wake of a drought that left the Southwestern range parched and degraded, scientists at New Mexico State University are busy: They’re figuring out which cattle breeds do the best in the […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
The Memo War: 1989-1993
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Starting a war at Ohio State. It is difficult to understand this article in this text rendition of the print original. Scanned copies of the original can be obtained from HCN. THE MEMO WAR 1989-1993 The Memo War started when Kamyar Enshayan wrote […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Starting a war at Ohio State
An untenured academic challenged his colleagues, farmers and students to think deeply about the land-grant mission
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
The gospel according to Wes Jackson
He believes we can grow food without chemicals, plows or erosion
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Land-grant professor offers Navajo herds a helping hand
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Trying to save two of the parts. It’s a daunting proposition: Take 100,000 Navajo sheep producers, 25,000 native weavers, 24,000 square miles of high desert rangeland and 300,000 sheep and goats, and figure out how to improve life for all of them. But […]
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Trying to save two of the parts
Utah State University’s Lyle McNeal has spent 20 years reviving Churro sheep and Navajo agriculture
Posted inMay 1, 1995: Land grants under the microscope
Land grants under the microscope
Scrutinized from all sides, they defend their turf and look for new ideas
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
Tom Bell
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, HCN’s founder fights his last fight, yet again. Tom Bell: “The issue of the proposed Altamont natural gas pipeline being constructed through historic South Pass in Wyoming should be a case study in how government should not work. Thanks to rogue agencies and rogues […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
The people problem
THE PEOPLE PROBLEM Is bigger better? The effects of population growth on the people of Utah and the state’s environment will be discussed at a conference in Salt Lake City, April 29. Keynote speaker Judith Jacobsen, a consultant to the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, will talk about the international conference on population held in […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Land grant says wilderness hurts
Land grant says Wilderness hurts A new study by Utah State University, a land-grant institution, concludes that federally designated wilderness could harm rural economies. The study, which features a picture of a paved road running through southern Utah on its cover, drew immediate praise from anti-wilderness groups. “This study validates what the counties in Utah […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Blueprint for salmon survival
Blueprint for SALMON survival The new recovery plan to bring back endangered Columbia and Snake river salmon hits all “four H’s’ – hydropower dams, habitat degradation, hatcheries and harvest by fishing – but critics charge it’s still too soft on dams. The 500-page federal plan, required by the Endangered Species Act and announced by the […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Restoring the Truckee River
Restoring the Truckee River The Truckee River has been unraveling from its headwaters at Lake Tahoe to its terminus in Pyramid Lake. But now people along its course through California and Nevada are trying to figure out ways to braid the river back to health. A Truckee River Conference, April 27-29 in Reno, will bring […]