Jim Carrier wrote this column for the Denver Post after 14 firefighters died in a blowup in the Canyon Creek, Colorado, wildfire, July 6. The image that endures is that hillside, marked by charred trees and bristle-like brush stuck in rusty-blue, nearly rose soil, scarred in the center by a boot-scuffed line that became a […]
Why did 14 more have to die?
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
FBI was out to get freethinking DeVoto
Nearly 40 years after his death, Bernard DeVoto is remembered as a brilliant historian, pungent social critic and one of the West’s earliest and most outspoken conservationists. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, however, knew him differently. To the FBI, DeVoto was an “intellectual revolutionary,” “the son of a fallen away priest of the Roman Catholic […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
… and invoked for salmon, against grazing
In the battle to save the northern spotted owl, environmental groups have brandished the Endangered Species Act as a sword to halt logging. Now they are using the controversial law against grazing, for the sake of another threatened species – Snake River chinook salmon. In July, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Endangered Species Act dissed on street …
Protesters sporting bright yellow “Stop the War on the West” T-shirts swarmed the blistering streets of Ronan, Mont., July 23. Their target: the Endangered Species Act reauthorization bill introduced in Congress by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Baucus brought the only Western hearing on the bill to the isolated town, pop. 1,500, where an estimated 400 […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Eagles fly off the endangered species list
In a rare environmental success story, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Mollie Beattie says her agency will soon reclassify bald eagles from endangered status to threatened, in most of the lower 48 states. Beattie’s proposal, which becomes effective Sept. 28, marks only the 14th time that a species has been rescued from near-extinction under […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
City Slickers should leave wilderness rough
MOAB, Utah – A Hollywood production company has been slow to restore land damaged during the filming of a stampede scene in City Slickers II. Federal land manager Brad Palmer said the movie crews trampled about 30 percent more acreage than they were supposed to in an area above the Colorado River, just off the […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Forest Service dunked by its own ‘witch hunt’
HELENA, Mont. – A federal judge has sided with an ex-forest supervisor who was forced out of his job in 1993. Judge Joseph H. Hartman ruled July 15 that former Helena National Forest Supervisor Ernie Nunn should be offered reinstatement as a forest supervisor in Region One as well as back pay with interest amounting […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Dear friends
Ray Ring and company High Country News now has an Editor Emeritus, an Editor, an Associate Editor and, as of July 6, a Senior Editor. This last is Ray Ring, who has spent the past 10 years or so writing novels and free-lance newspaper and magazine articles in Tucson, Arizona. Altogether, Ray has lived and […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Santa Fe Mayor Debbie Jaramillo, fresh from the populist coup in March that swept her and a progressive city council into office, still has that I-just-won-the-lottery euphoria about her this morning. She’s waving hello to diners at a downtown restaurant, shaking hands (“We did it, didn’t we!”) and getting needled a bit by husband Mike. […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
A calm book on diet, health and the environment
A CALM BOOK ON DIET, HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT In the Impacts of Livestock Production, Peter R. Cheeke writes about the animal rights movement, antibiotics in livestock, competition between people and domestic animals for grains, and the environmental aspects of livestock production. He does it in a calm way, without demonizing those who criticize the […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Prairie potholes
Prairie potholes When the glaciers retreated from North America, huge chunks of ice left behind made permanent divots in the Northern Plains. These glacial potholes – now prairie wetlands – provide vital habitat for migrating geese. Strategies to protect the rapidly decreasing prairie potholes from increased development and agriculture will be the topic of a […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Big bad bear
Big bad bear An environmental-art group in Portland, Ore., is putting on a special birthday “roast” for Smokey Bear. On July 15, the creative group called Orlo began presenting Smoke Screen: Smokey Bear at 50, a multimedia exhibit featuring artwork and presentations by three dozen artists. The exhibit seeks to debunk 50 years of Forest […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
House of straw
House of Straw Straw-bale housing construction, known for its flimsy role in the children’s tale The Three Little Pigs, is making a comeback. After a brief period of popularity in the early 1900s, straw bale buildings lost favor in the 1940s. But tastes change, lumber is increasingly expensive and structures built of straw are springing […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
House of Garbage
HOUSE OF GARBAGE Call it the house that Goodwill built. A recently completed home in Missoula, Mont., carries the concept of second-hand construction materials to new levels. Built by the Center for Resourceful Building Technology, the 2,400-square-foot house showcases dozens of innovative products. Recycled newspaper went into its wall panels, shelving and insulation; light bulbs […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Strangelove Park
Strangelove park Tourists on South Dakota’s Interstate 90 may soon visit more than just Mount Rushmore, Prairie Dog Town and the world’s largest drugstore, Wall Drug. Some of the nation’s 1,000 Minuteman missile silos are ripe for historic preservation, says the National Park Service, which is looking at two launch sites adjacent to Badlands National […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Where wolves roamed
Where Wolves Roamed Under the government’s current wolf reintroduction program, wolf populations in the lower 48 states will reach only 5 percent of their historic numbers at best, says Matt Dietz. A graduate student at the University of Montana, Dietz worked with the Bozeman, Mont.-based Predator Project on a 46-page study of wolf reintroduction alternatives. […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Top-down control doesn’t work
Dear HCN, Being an urban dweller, I do not know much personally about grazing, but I do know something about consensus process due to my involvement with co-housing and the Green Party, both of which use consensus process. When it works, its power is inspiring; when it doesn’t, it leads to gridlock. It requires all […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Two fine public servants
Dear HCN, It is a sorry thing to read the denigration of men such as Dean Bibles and Ed Hastey, whose long-time public service has been dedicated to protecting public lands under the complicated and confusing rules governing their actions (HCN, 5/16/94). Dean Bibles should be enshrined in the Green Hall of Fame for his […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
You trashed a fine public servant
Dear HCN, I am amazed to read that you still are hanging on to the totally erroneous concept that you printed several years ago about the land exchanges Dean Bibles did in Arizona (HCN, 5/16/94). One would think that after many savings and loans went bankrupt due to their “paper” values and transactions involving the […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Doubts about Kennecott in Utah
Dear HCN, Thanks for highlighting the long-term, extremely costly damage that hardrock mining has caused to America’s West in “Can Mining Come Clean?” (HCN, 5/30/94). David Mullon, the Mineral Policy Center’s Southwest Circuit Rider at that time, worked together with the Salt Lake County Water Conservancy District to oppose Utah’s sweetheart settlement with Kennecott of […]