Endangered act on tour Members of the House Committee on (Natural) Resources, chaired by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, will be in Vancouver, Wash., April 24 to discuss the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act. Panels organized by Republicans will feature working people who have had their livelihoods affected by the law, says staffer Steve Hansen, […]
Endangered act on tour
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Wild again
After several days of milling around their newly opened pens, all 14 Yellowstone Park wolves are wild once more. Most of the wolves remain in packs, but two young wolves are traveling solo, according to park spokeswoman Marsha Karle. The wolves have killed a buffalo and possibly an elk inside the park, which Karle says […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
A modest proposal
Utah county commissioners passed wilderness recommendations on to Gov. Mike Leavitt March 31, and, as expected, they didn’t ask for much. The counties recommended about 1 million acres of Bureau of Land Management wilderness – about half what the BLM itself recommended and one-sixth of that urged by the Utah Wilderness Coalition. The counties left […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
A grim Wyoming hearing for BLM and greens
WORLAND, Wyo. – Colored balloons decorating the Elks Club here April 3 did little to lighten the hostile atmosphere of a public hearing on the BLM’s new plan for managing a million acres in northwest Wyoming. The area is called Grass Creek, and it takes in roughly a third of the Bighorn Basin, ranging from […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Back to grazing reform … maybe
With little fanfare, the Bureau of Land Management released “final” livestock grazing regulations Feb. 17. The new regulations look much like those forwarded in a draft last spring, with the glaring exception of grazing fees, which Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt dropped from his Rangeland Reform package shortly before Christmas (HCN, 1/23/95). Environmentalists say […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Big groups drop appeal
Big groups drop appeal Eleven environmental groups, including the Wilderness Society and National Audubon Society, have decided not to appeal a recent federal court decision upholding President Clinton’s Pacific Northwest forest plan, known as Option Nine. While the groups agree the plan fails to protect and restore the heavily logged ecosystem, they say they’ll focus […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Forest Service bombed in Nevada
A bomb blew out windows and ripped a hole in the wall of a Toiyabe Forest Service office in Carson City, Nev., in the early evening of March 30. No one was injured in the explosion, which scattered debris and damaged computer equipment in the office of District Ranger Guy Pence in downtown Carson City. […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Forest Service lops off timber task force
Agents of the Forest Service’s elite Timber Theft Task Force received two form letters at an April 6 meeting with Forest Service law enforcement director Manuel Martinez. The first letter thanked them for their service; the second said their unit was immediately dissolved. “It defies understanding that you’d take the most successful agents in the […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Congress helps ranchers, too
Congress isn’t just looking out for the timber industry. In an uncontested voice vote, the Senate approved an amendment to its budget recision bill requiring the Forest Service to reissue grazing permits to ranchers “notwithstanding any other law …” Such legal “sufficiency” language would prevent citizens from challenging permits, even where land has been degraded […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Forest supervisor cries crocodile tears
Dear HCN, Even crocodiles cry, and Steve Mealey’s tears, lamenting the post-Foothills Fire dearth of biodiversity on the Boise National Forest, fall like acid rain. This is the same myopic, good-old-boy “Barber of the Boise” who rammed through the huge Foothills timber-salvage fire sale on previously heavily logged national forest land. Fred Neuman Monument, Oregon […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Fire was not catastrophic
Dear HCN, The March 6, 1995 edition of HCN contained several articles on fire, and most were well-balanced and informative. Unfortunately, one article, “After the fire comes the real devastation,” contained significant inaccuracies that may have misled some of your readers. Much of the focus of the article was on an erosional event that occurred […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Utah counties aren’t wilderness-friendly
Dear HCN, Your headline, “Counties May Shrink Utah Wilderness’ (HCN, 3/20/95), sounds downright cheerful. A more accurate headline would have read, “Counties Will Obliterate Wilderness.” Here in Iron County, Commissioner R.L. Gardner told the press before the first hearing, that “I personally feel that there is no need to set aside more land.” He was […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Salvage logging bill spits in our eye
Dear HCN: The emergency timber salvage sale amendment tacked on to the budget package in the House and the Senate spits in the eye of the public and does nothing to improve the health of our national forests (HCN, 4/3/95). Now, we must urge President Clinton to veto this attack on our forests and our […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Is it politics, or is it revolution?
With Republicans firmly in power after the November landslide, a kind of insurrection is brewing in nearly every Western state. In legislative halls throughout the West, it’s popular to assert states’ rights under the 10th Amendment, streamline or gut environmental regulations and push private property “takings’ legislation. Some states, including Arizona, Utah and Idaho, have […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
‘Marvel’ous auction in Idaho
A ranch manager coughed up the money to defeat conservationist Jon Marvel at a state-land grazing auction in Idaho Falls March 7. For the first time, Marvel and his 350-member Idaho Watersheds Project lost a bid, although every time he has won in the past the Idaho Land Board overturned his victory – handing the […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
How Western senators voted on the Murray amendment
Note: this is a sidebar to the news article “Salvage logging squeaks by Senate“ FOR suspending environmental laws to expedite salvage logging (against Murray): Republicans Bennett (Utah) Hatch (Utah) Brown (Colo.) Campbell (Colo.) Craig (Idaho) Burns (Mont.) Thomas (Wyo) Kyl (Ariz.) Simpson (Wyo) Gorton (Wash.) Hatfield (Ore.) Packwood (Ore.) Domenici (N.M.) McCain (Ariz.), and Kempthorne […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Salvage logging squeaks by Senate
By a razor-thin margin, the Senate agreed March 30 to suspend environmental laws in order to expedite salvage logging in national forests. An attempt by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to replace the amendment of her fellow Washington senator, Slade Gorton, R, with a milder one failed 46-48. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., cast the lone Democratic […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Dear friends
Good-bye and welcome Congratulations to former HCN employee Amy Conley and spouse Robert Hayutin on the birth of their daughter Sabina. Amy was a person of all trades in the office, specializing in direct mail and circulation, until Sabina demanded her attention. We will miss Amy, who remained cheerful even when confronted with thousands of […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Seeking power, a few ski workers go union
(This is a sidebar to an HCN magazine cover story on the New West’s servant economy.) It was a gritty interruption of ski business: At the base of the main lift of the Red Lodge ski area in Montana, on a busy January Saturday, 15 lift operators staged a sit-down strike. Their starting pay was […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
He came to ski and stayed to help
(This is a sidebar to an HCN magazine cover story on the New West’s servant economy.) Roman Catholic Archbishop J. Francis Stafford sprinkled holy water around an apartment complex in the resort town of Silverthorne, Colo., last June. He was blessing the apartments, which the church had helped establish, and he blessed the poverty-stricken families […]