Jim Thrash, 44, who died July 6 in the Glenwood Springs, Colo., fire, was a McCall, Idaho, conservationist. That is how I came to know him. Jim was an outfitter in the heart of Idaho – Salmon River country. For several years he chaired the wilderness committee of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association. He […]
Jim Thrash: A solid man
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Dear friends
Fires on the hillside The town of Paonia, where High Country News has its office, decided not to set off fireworks July 4th – nature was already providing a spectacular display. Lightning without rain had turned tinder-dry juniper hillsides above the town into fast-moving blazes, some spouting flames up to 80 feet tall. Although firefighters […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Utah kids benefit from state land reform
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, ‘Unranchers’ reach for West’s state lands. Inevitably, any disagreement over state-owned lands raises the spectre of schoolchildren in need. In Utah, where spending per pupil ranks lowest in the nation, that dismal statistic has spurred reform. State lands have never generated fat revenues for […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
‘Unranchers’ reach for West’s state lands
Well aware of the irony, conservationists in the West are gearing up for a land grab they can call their own. They’re reaching for what have been the most obscure public – or at least semipublic – lands of all. The definition itself is up for grabs. There are about 40 million such acres, or […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Sweet deal harms the Everglades
Dear HCN, Rabbit Babbitt’s reported comment relative to Florida’s Everglades (HCN, 5/16/94) that “when sugar companies blocked us in the Congress, we went to the state legislature in Tallahassee and last week we got a law there,” absurdly misleads anyone hearing it. The statute Babbitt brags about only assures our Everglades remain polluted by Big […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Life is change, pardner
Dear HCN, I would like to respond to Roger C. Brown’s comment in a recent issue (HCN, 5/30/94) that, “(Rural Westerners) may joke about (urban migrants’) lifestyles, but they do not threaten us. On the other hand we, in our condescending and sometimes ill-informed arrogance, have made very concerted efforts to destroy them in the […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
There’s another approach possible in Silver City, N.M.
Dear HCN, I was disappointed in a recent article about Silver City, N.M.: “A Struggle for the Last Grass’ by Tony Davis, May 2. Mr. Davis interviewed my husband and some of my friends. He asked questions which indicated he might be looking only for conflict, not for ways problems were being solved. I don’t […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Nothing yet beats leaving things alone
Dear HCN, As a not-so-recent graduate of Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources, I’ve known and respected Fred Wagner for years. His June 13 op ed on Yellowstone elk should be read by every environmentalist. However, a few points should be addressed. The Yellowstone Northern Range situation is not analogous to areas where livestock […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Land exchange helped wildlife
Dear HCN, Your recent article titled “Babbitt is Trying to Nationalize the BLM” (HCN, 5/16/94) provided many perceptive insights as to the possible future direction of that very important agency. I do encourage you to revisit the Indian School (Phoenix) Land Exchange brokered in the 1980s by then Arizona BLM State Director Dean Bibles, in […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
So much for badges
Between 1953 and 1967, workers at Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colo., were either incorrectly monitored for radiation or not monitored at all. Now, the Department of Energy is telephoning hundreds of current and former employees at the closed weapons plant to tell them they were exposed to more radiation than anyone knew. […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Debt for nature swap
In an odd twist on modern economics, conservationists want to use the savings and loan debacle to protect the largest privately owned old-growth redwood grove in the world. The 3,000-acre Headwaters Forest of northern California is owned by Pacific Lumber, which was a family business until it was taken over in 1985 by junk bond […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Fear of research
After getting hammered by protests from loggers on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, the Forest Service abruptly killed an old-growth research project it had backed for the last 18 months. University of Washington scientists wanted to erect a 300-foot crane to study one of the least known areas of old-growth forests – the canopy. The Olympic Peninsula […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Tourists and tailings in Utah
When the federal government suggested hauling 3 million cubic yards of low-level radioactive sand down the main street of Blanding, Utah, the mayor and city council agreed. That came as a shock to the Department of Energy’s project manager Don Leske, who expected to be urged to build a highway bypass. “When you go to […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Decision kills a dam
A recent Supreme Court decision on water quantity might help the Northwest’s beleaguered salmon. In a 7-2 ruling, the court said states can set minimum flow standards for waters downstream of hydroelectric plants. The case involved a dam that the city of Tacoma and a county utility wanted to build on the Dosewallips River near […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Cougars and caribou
Cougars have emerged as the leading cause of deaths among endangered mountain caribou in the Idaho Selkirk Mountains, reports the Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review. Ravaged by clearcuts and roads in their prime habitat, the caribou were listed as an endangered species in the late 1980s. At the end of the decade, 60 caribou were captured in […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Return of the rustlers
Cattle rustling appears to be on the rise in Wyoming and other Western states. Kelly Hamilton, a law enforcement supervisor for the Wyoming State Livestock Board, says over 50 rustling incidents have been reported in the state in 1994. The increase stems from high cattle prices, but a major problem, Hamilton says, is that pickup […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
In Wyoming, wildlife is public
Landowners can’t own exclusive rights to wild animals on their property, a judge has ruled in Wyoming. Texas millionaire Clayton Williams, owner of a 90,000-acre ranch in Carbon County, and three other Wyoming ranchers recently lost their challenge to a Wyoming law that says the state owns all wildlife as a trustee for its citizens […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Here come Rainbows
When some 15,000 members of the Rainbow Family meet within Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest later this month, things may be calm after all. In nearby Big Piney, population 454, townspeople are open-minded about the invasion of counterculture types from all over the country, says town clerk Susan Lison. In contrast to Pinedale, where residents are […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
BLM reversed on grazing permit transfer
The Oregon Natural Resources Council, with legal help from the National Wildlife Federation, has thrown 500,000 acres of public grazing land in south-central Oregon into legal limbo. The Department of Interior Board of Land Appeals overturned a decision by the Bureau of Land Management transferring grazing permits to the new owners of the MC Ranch, […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Lepidopterist poaching ring netted
-I plan on really cleaning house on Rocky Mountain butterflies next year. Am bringing 20,000 envelopes and I expect to fill them all up!” wrote one of three men indicted in a large butterfly poaching ring. All allegedly traded and poached butterflies between 1983 and 1992, from such places as Grand Canyon and Yosemite. An […]