The wolf wasn’t guilty The wolf shot in late January in central Idaho did not kill the calf it was feeding on, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In a letter to Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R, acting regional director Thomas Dwyer said veterinary pathologists who examined the calf concluded that the animal died […]
The wolf wasn’t guilty
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Unranchers get competitive
Unranchers get competitive When Forest Guardians leased four parcels of New Mexico state land in February, it became the first environmental group to win permits always granted to ranchers. The permits, encompassing 2,078 acres north of Santa Fe, were non-controversial because they have not been leased by ranchers for seven years, says Forest Guardian Director […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Blow-up over nuclear dump
Blow-up over nuclear dump Nevadans have tried for years to convince the rest of the country that Yucca Mountain, 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is a poor choice for the nation’s only permanent nuclear-waste dump. Now they have some powerful allies. Federal scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently disclosed an internal debate about […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Utah escapes missiles
Utah escapes missiles The U.S. Army has decided not to proceed with a plan to launch ballistic missiles from Green River, Utah, and shoot them down over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The decision, announced March 21, “is great news for southern Utah,” says Scott Groene, an attorney with the Southern Utah […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Back to the past: House resets pollution laws
This is not a good time to be an environmentalist in Washington. With House Republicans scrambling to meet their self-imposed deadline of voting in the party’s Contract With America by the Easter recess, some of the most anti-environmental bills in the history of environmental legislation have blasted through the House of Representatives. This is also […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Congress pushes unfettered salvage logging
A measure that forces the Forest Service to nearly double the timber harvest on national forests over the next two years is buzzing through Congress. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the controversial amendment to the appropriations recision bill 275-150. Now it heads to the Senate where environmentalists hope to extricate the so-called Taylor-Dicks […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Timber theft detectives feel a chill
In 1993, investigations by the Forest Service’s elite Timber Theft Task Force led to eight felony convictions and $3.5 million in fines, including the largest timber prosecution in U.S. history against an Oregon-based timber-scaling company (HCN, 8/23/93). The following year, the task force failed to produce a single prosecution, despite abundant evidence that people were […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Pack ’em in, Park Service suggests
After four years of studying how to limit the impact of tourists at Grand Canyon National Park, the National Park Service is suddenly in a rush to support more tourists. In the park’s long-awaited general management plan and environmental impact statement, released March 10 for quick public comment, the Park Service proposes developments such as […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Dear friends
A special issue Longtime readers will notice that this edition of the paper is fatter than usual by 12 pages and written primarily by one person, Jon Christensen, who covers the vast Great Basin as our regional editor. This special issue has been many months in the making, and Jon joined staff in Paonia for […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Unlikely reformer: Can sinful Las Vegas help change the West?
The way people gamble, it’s no wonder casino owners in Las Vegas build thousands of new hotel rooms a year. Take the man next to me at the roulette wheel in a run-down casino whose three-story marquee announced, “Where the locals play.” He was betting his Social Security check on a system based on his […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
At home in the wasteland
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. The Great Basin can be seen as the geography of hopelessness. Wallace Stegner might roll over in his grave at this turn of phrase. But at the twilight of the 20th century, the Great Basin is still a social, […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Surprises of Sovereignty
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. The Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Reservation, 30 miles northeast of Reno, seems a perfect setting for a resort. The turquoise lake shimmers amid desert mountains at the end of the Truckee River. Earlier in this century, tourists and sports […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
No final solutions for farmers
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. “IRRIGATED HOMESTEAD LANDS. Now Open to Entry. THE LAND is FREE. Water Rights furnished by the U.S. Reclamation Service. Water Supply under the Great Lahontan Reservoir is permanent and assured.” Many families and businesses in the town of Fallon […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
A tale of two ranches
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. For Tony and Jerrie Tipton, a couple in their 40s who live in a trailer and run cattle on public land in the Toiyabe Mountains of central Nevada, it is the best of times. For their neighbor Paul Inchauspe, […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
After the gold rush
Miners have many ways of turning rock into metal – brute force, corrosive chemicals, high heat and extreme pressure. Likewise, environmentalists are discovering there is more than one way to transform the West’s most refractory industry. Mining has fiercely resisted change since it was first given free license to pillage the mineral riches of a […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Elko is halfway home
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Learning from Las Vegas, in a special issue about the Great Basin. With the help of its annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering, which brings up to 10,000 visitors here each January, Elko clings to its image as the last cowtown even as a gold […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Salt Lake City: Is this still the place?
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Learning from Las Vegas, in a special issue about the Great Basin. “This is the place,” Brigham Young proclaimed when he first saw the Salt Lake Valley. To the Mormon leader it seemed a divinely inspired refuge for his persecuted Latter-day Saints. These […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Learning from Las Vegas
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. Time magazine ran a cover story last year hailing Las Vegas as “The New All-American city.” The benediction signaled transformation for what, after all, had been considered Sin City only a few decades ago. In 1994, Las Vegas also […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Activist seeks a green, just Nevada
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, The Great Basin: America’s wasteland seeks a new identity. Bob Fulkerson is a fifth-generation Nevadan and environmental activist who should be on top of the world. He could be coasting on victories he helped bring about, including the end of underground nuclear […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Folk hero has a pure white vision
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, The Great Basin: America’s wasteland seeks a new identity. The fight against the MX missile was a turning point in the Great Basin, the first time the region said a resounding “no” to a major federal pork-barrel project. The Great Basin MX […]