They set out on a bold hike that was meant to build character. Their hike will end as a case number in some climate-controlled courtroom, with lawyers arguing technicalities and trying to cross-examine the dead. Survivors and the two women widowed by the expedition through Kolob canyon, Utah, have inventoried the hell they went through, […]
Whose fault? A Utah canyon turns deadly
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Talk about pejoratives
Dear HCN, A recent letter criticized Ed Marston’s review of Rangeland Health (HCN, 4/4/94) in which he described range science as “a handmaiden of the livestock industry.” Marston stands accused of political incorrectness for pejoratively using a female gendered word. At least he was civil. Agriculture faculty in the West’s land-grant universities are often accused […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
The problem and the solution
Dear HCN, Yellowstone National Park faces a terrific dilemma. Enhancement for recreational visitors or management as a diverse ecosystem? What ecosystem? The pre-Columbian system or the modern system which is a result of endless human tinkering? Of course, this kind of dilemma faces not only Yellowstone, but every place. The overriding goal, which researcher Fred […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Outward Bound and Canyonlands
Dear HCN, The reasons the Colorado Outward Bound School is opposed to the Canyonlands Backcountry Management Plan are far greater than group size limits as implied in Florence Williams’ article, “Outdoor Groups Fight Camping Limits’ (HCN, 6/27/94). In fact, the plan proposes to eliminate permits for commercial and educational backpacking groups altogether, thus denying public […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Give Smokey Bear a vacation
Dear HCN, Here in my driveway on Carrizo Valley Ranch, I’m sitting on the tailgate of my pickup watching the most vicious forest fire I have ever seen. The entire Patos mountain range is ablaze, producing smoke thermal clouds that can probably be seen from 150 miles away. Flames are visible through the smoke leaping […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Real summertime
When southern Arizonans travel during the warmer months of the year, they get looks of sympathy when they reveal their homeplace. “Isn’t it hot down there?” “Isn’t it hard to live without seasons?” But Sonoran Desert dwellers know they have one up on the questioners, with two distinct seasons during what the rest of the […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Ferrets to find new homes
The endangered black-footed ferret may be hunting down prairie dogs in South Dakota as soon as September. The National Park Service recently approved release of at least 38 ferrets onto 42,000 acres of wilderness area in Badlands National Park. But there may be a hitch. Joe Zarki, public information officer for the park, says similar […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Eating the scenery
Communities throughout the rural West worry about their futures, as wealthy urbanites buy property for vacation homes and speculation. Will congestion, pollution and increased property values destroy the very qualities that make these areas attractive? A report by CHEC, an Oregon economics consulting firm, says that it doesn’t have to be this way. Rural communities […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Pesticides linger in Northwest
A report commissioned by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides found major groundwater contamination in five Northwest states. Neva Hasanein, the author of Uncovering the Legacy of Pesticide Use: What We Know About Ground Water Contamination in the Northwest, gathered information from researchers and government agencies in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and northern California. […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Colorado water map
To help end the chronic battling over water in Colorado, a group has formed to provide impartial information on water issues. The nonprofit Colorado Water Education Forum is made up of 33 volunteers representing virtually every water interest in the state, ranging from farmers and dam builders to environmentalists and wildlife agency staffers. The group’s […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Idaho wilderness bill fails
Idaho Rep. Larry LaRocco, D, abandoned his attempt to push an Idaho wilderness bill through Congress this year. LaRocco struggled for 18 months to formulate a bill, but shelved it this July. “Once you get into the summer months and closer to November … the people who like to kill things become active,” said LaRocco […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Agency cuts timber cut
Timber cuts in the heavily logged Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota will plummet 25 percent under a revised forest plan released last month. Forest staff studied eight alternatives and recommended setting the allowable timber harvest at 86.7 million board-feet per year for the next decade, almost 30 mmbf less than the current plan […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Restoring the Rio Grande
Water levels on the Rio Grande River dropped so low in 1988, says rafting guide Steve Harris, that his business almost came to a screeching halt. He and another El Prado, N.M., outfitter then began asking each client to contribute $1 each for conservation programs, and in two years they raised more than $30,000. Other […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Wetlands program wasn’t
Although designed to prevent the loss of Oregon’s wetlands, mitigation projects in the state destroyed more wetlands than they created, according to a state study. While Oregon has some of the strongest wetland protection laws in the nation, it still allows wetlands to be drained and developed if their destruction is offset by creating, restoring […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Teaming up
Because more than 20 state, tribal and federal agencies share control of the 2 million-acre Henry’s Fork Basin in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming, planning has been fragmented. There have been jurisdictional battles between the two states and not much concerted environmental protection. To end the divisiveness, two former adversaries – the Henry’s Fork Foundation […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Tourists welcome, sort of
Some Native Americans fear one of the dark sides of tourism – that this economic mainstay threatens the values of Indian life. In late spring, 150 people from 15 tribes gathered at the Yavapai Reservation near Prescott, Ariz., to discuss strategies for dealing with southwestern vacationers. Resort owner Gene Keluche said tourism needs a spiritual […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
A Northwest watersheds expo
Everyone from farmers to fishers and scientists to students will gather under one roof to talk about Watersheds “94 in Bellevue,Wash., Sept. 28-30. The conference seeks to create links between people, politics and science in order to create on-the-ground improvements in the Northwest. Speakers include John Bellamy Foster, author of The Vulnerable Planet: A Short […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Children need the wild
In one of the eight essays that make up The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places, Gary Paul Nabhan relates an amusing but poignant scene he witnessed about 10 years ago when he was asked to arrange a meeting between a noted Native American educator in Arizona and a Phoenix television news team. […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
The list no Idaho stream wants to be on
Prodded by court order, the EPA has increased its official list of polluted streams and lakes in Idaho from 36 to 800. The agency had been relying on information compiled by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, but the Idaho Conservation League and Idaho Sportsmen’s Coalition sued, claiming that hundreds of polluted waterways had been […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Life after Barbee
Fresh from a stint as superintendent of Yosemite National Park in California, Michael Finley will take over the helm at Yellowstone in early fall. When Finley, 47, replaces Robert Barbee, who has been in charge for 11 years, he will inherit a wide range of management controversies including the proposed Noranda gold mine adjacent to […]