Only a few months ago, ranchers who graze their animals on federal lands were bracing themselves for significant fee increases proposed by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. But intense pressure from the livestock industry forced Babbitt to jettison the attempt (HCN, 1/23/95). Now, under the federal formula, fees will decline this year by 19 percent, from […]
Grazing fees drop
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Why bother to save the West?
Ed Marston’s call to save the West (HCN, 12/26/94) was a well-intentioned plea for protecting the population and communities here from the larger forces at work upon them. Sadly, it lacks a historical context and appears to invoke the same type of preservationist mentality that is often damned when it is wielded by environmentalists. Implicit […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Tips for surviving in the New West
I am intrigued by Ed Marston’s statement (HCN, 12/26/94) that “There have been a bunch of studies of this new economy by environmental groups and their economists; almost all welcome it.” The economy of the New West is not necessarily better – just different. It brings with it new opportunities but also new problems. Our […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Bare land at Bear Lake
People who live near drought-plagued Bear Lake, along the Idaho-Utah border, don’t want to see water levels drop another four feet. Yet dredging by Utah Power & Light, which aims to dig a 2,000-foot channel to a pumping station at the north end of the lake, would do just that. The company needs the water […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Want to sponsor a wolf?
The nonprofit Wolf Education and Research Center, in Ketchum, Idaho, has begun a new program encouraging people to contribute directly to the annual costs of returning wolves to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. It supports logistical expenses, estimated at over $500,000, which include radio collars and tracking equipment as well as field operations. The […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Trimming pork the green way
Hoping to force the Republican Congress to keep its word and cut the budget, environmentalists and liberal Democrats have targeted dozens of federally subsidized programs. The 40-page Green Scissors Report, written by Friends of the Earth and the National Taxpayers Union, aims to trim $33 billion in federal pork. Colorado’s long-delayed and controversial Animas-LaPlata dam […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Wheel Your Way through Winter
WHEEL YOUR WAY THROUGH WINTER There is more to winter driving than turning on the heater full blast, buckling up and stepping on the gas. According to a 15-minute instructional video out of Wyoming, the most important winter driving factor is your choice of tires. People from warm climates often come to the inland West […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Enjoyment enough to kill
My first view of the High Sierra, first view looking down into Yosemite, the death song of Yosemite Creek, and its flight over the vast cliff, each one of these is of itself enough for a great life-long landscape fortune – a most memorable of days – enjoyment enough to kill if that were possible […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Grass-roots strategy for salmon
Hoping to sway the outcome of a pending federal recovery plan for Snake River salmon, 45 environmental and fishing groups have come up with a plan of their own. The groups, all members of the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, recently presented their 45-page recommendation, Wild Salmon Forever, to the National Marine Fisheries Service. It […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Utah wilderness bill under way
Utah’s congressional delegation has once again promised a Utah BLM wilderness bill, and this time – to the dismay of environmentalists – it may be able to deliver. Gov. Mike Leavitt, representatives Enid Greene Waldholtz, Jim Hansen, and Bill Orton (the lone Democrat), and senators Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch are all working on a […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Salmon plan attacked
The federal government is shopping around its latest plan for saving endangered Snake River salmon, and environmentalists aren’t buying it. Like its predecessors, the 1995 draft biological opinion for the operation of the federal hydropower dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers relies heavily on flushing juvenile salmon downstream with water from upstream reservoirs in […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Was cleanup a “taking’?
It’s a case with bizarre implications: A Boulder, Colo., company that owns land on which the disastrous Summitville Mine was built is suing the state for allowing the disaster to happen and the federal government for spending millions to clean it up. Filed in Rio Grande County District Court, the landowners’ suit claims the state […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Holy water
Most people know that the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Less known is that it may guarantee freedom to irrigate. Bill Nelson, a part-time farmer in drought-stricken northeast Oregon, says his new Church of the Holy Water has one central tenet: Its 25 members must have unlimited water use. He hopes […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Jackson voters say yes to planning
At a time when the nation’s electorate has turned decidedly anti-government, Jackson, Wyo., voters said yes to an extensive set of new zoning and land-use regulations. The new laws, which curb commercial, lodging and residential growth in town, won with 55 percent of the ballots in a Jan. 31 special election. Eight hundred and fifty […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Called on the carpet
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt was called before the House Resources Committee Jan. 26 to defend the government’s $6.7 million wolf restoration program. Republicans, who now dominate the committee, charged that state and individual rights have been subordinated to the federally protected wolves. “I strongly believe, Mr. Secretary, that not only have your wolves […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Trumpeter swans play through
Trumpeter swans have set up housekeeping in Utah for the first time in recorded history, with three of the swans settling in at a golf course near St. George. State wildlife officials discovered the swans after golfers complained that the birds, which can grow to six feet from tail to beak, interfered with their game. […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Sue stays put
Two years ago, 28 FBI agents and National Guardsmen raided the Black Hills Geological Institute in South Dakota, seized a dinosaur named Sue, and carted her off to a basement in Rapid City (HCN, 9/21/92). Last October, the Supreme Court let stand an appeals court decision that ruled the agents had acted correctly in confiscating […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Governor overrules voters
Voters in Arizona may have trounced a takings initiative last election but Republican Gov. Fife Symington isn’t listening. In his state-of-the-state address, Symington promised to issue an executive order ensuring compensation for any property owner whose land use becomes limited by government regulations. “Every executive agency in state government will be ordered to respect private-property […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Waaaaaaaaaaaahh! The West refuses to be weaned
RESERVE, N.M. – Ah, the West, where the spaces are wide open and the skies are big, where they know when to hold “em and when to fold “em, where the handclasp is a little stronger and the smile dwells a little longer and where, above all, men are men. Not really. In fact, the […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
1995: Cecil Andrus knew how to take a stand
Cecil Andrus tells the story about how, as a young logger in Orofino, Idaho, he would skid logs down streambeds because it was the easiest way to move them. Skidding, for those who don’t know the rough-and-ready truths about logging, rips up the land and streams. “Those of us in logging in those good old […]