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. […]
Forest Service bombed in Nevada
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 […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
It always comes down to finding a place to live
(This is a sidebar to an HCN magazine cover story on the New West’s servant economy.) Summit County, Colo., the top ski destination in the nation, did more business last season than all the ski areas in Utah. The county’s resorts hosted more than 3 million skier visits. Neighboring Eagle County hosted another 2 million […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Pedro Lopez, entrepreneur
(This is a sidebar to an HCN magazine cover story on the New West’s servant economy.) Avon, Colorado Pedro Lopez, from Aguascalientes in central Mexico, says he’s lived for three years in esta trailer. It’s a sheet-metal shack roughly next door to the chic Beaver Creek ski resort. Duct tape holds his cracked windows together. […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Ski bums wrapped in concrete
(This is a sidebar to an HCN magazine cover story on the New West’s servant economy.) Vail, Colorado Jeremy Bernier finished his ski season, working his day job and going home each night to sleep like a troll under a bridge. Instead of postcard scenery, when he woke up each morning he saw a grey […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
The Leadville-Indy 500
(This is a sidebar to an HCN magazine cover story on the New West’s servant economy.) Leadville, Colorado Dead of winter in the highest town in the nation (elevation 10,152 feet), and it’s the kind of morning that requires willpower – at 5:30 a.m., still dark and so cold that the snow squeaks under boots. […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Working 24 hours straight
(This is a sidebar to an HCN magazine cover story on the New West’s servant economy.) Copper Mountain Ski Resort, Colorado Greg Smith was a 23-year-old ski bum when he drifted into Summit County in 1983 or so. “Now it’s just the opposite,” he says. “I work a lot and don’t get much chance to […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
The New West’s servant economy
(This HCN magazine cover story is accompanied by seven sidebars listed at the end.) Silverthorne, Colorado Struggling with a language that would not be his first or even his second choice, Dabo Pobot tried to explain how he and other Africans have been imported to serve ski country, USA. If I wrote it the way […]