On the day he was not nominated to the Supreme Court, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt stepped up his campaign for reform of public-land laws in the West. Brandishing an oversized symbolic check, Babbitt bashed the “outdated” 1872 Mining Law that forced him to hand over more than $10 billion in gold to a Canada-based company […]
Babbitt attacks mining’s gold heists
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Utah’s wildlife division is gutshot
The phone to Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources can sometimes ring three dozen times before it’s picked up. Some of the offices are now empty, and the biologists who worked in them are gone. “We’re all walking around here paranoid, wondering who’s next,” mutters a biologist well into his second decade on the job. “Everybody’s […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Irrigation pumps kill salmon
More than half the screens protecting Columbia River salmon from being sucked into irrigation pumps in Washington and Oregon are missing or don’t work, according to a recent survey conducted by the two states. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently inspected 80 screens at irrigation and hydroelectric facilities, and discovered half were either […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Dams spill water, salmon in Northwest
Faced with the lowest return of Snake River spring-summer chinook salmon in history, the National Marine Fisheries Service ordered water and salmon spilled over eight Columbia and Snake river dams May 10. The emergency measure, which was implemented immediately and will continue through June 20, drew praise from salmon advocates and criticism from industry groups […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Dear friends
Good news Congratulations to former HCN intern Zaz Hollander, who was hired recently by the Daily Astorian. Zaz will cover environmental issues on the Oregon coast. Congratulations as well to HCN’s Great Basin editor, Jon Christensen. His lead story in the Aug. 9, 1993, issue of HCN on the Diamond Springs Ranch in Nevada headlined, […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A one-man Sagebrush Rebellion
A Nevada rancher refuses to pay more than $25,000 in fines to the BLM.
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Searching for the sacred
Dear HCN, My reaction to Rob White’s “Sacred Places’ (HCN, 3/7/94) was a bit different from Hannah Hinchman’s (HCN, 4/18/94). I felt White’s essay to be one of the most insightful I’ve ever read in HCN. Judging by Hinchman’s many fine points, I would guess that if she read “Sacred Places’ without prejudice she might […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
How do we justify the slaughter?
Dear HCN, Michael Milstein’s article on coyote control really hit home with me (HCN, 4/18/94). During March of 1992 and 1993, aerial gunners, hired by the Prescott National Forest in Arizona, flew past my home and took down the coyote population in the surrounding hills by some 200 animals each year. The nightly caroling abruptly […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Don’t forget Friends of the Earth
Dear HCN, As the former Colorado Plateau regional representative over a 10-year period (1974-1984) of Friends of the Earth, I applaud the efforts of the Grand Canyon Trust to involve local residents in resolving the region’s environmental issues (HCN, 4/4/94). Not every regional controversy, of course, such as the once-proposed massive coal strip mine to […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Handperson
Dear HCN, In Ed Marston’s review of Rangeland Health (HCN, 4/9/94), the term “handmaiden” pejoratively described the relationship between range science and the livestock industry. Why this female gendered word? Why not use “servant” or “lackey” or “busboy’? Are most range scientists female? I think not. Jane Crosby Boise, Idaho This article appeared in the […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Years of consensus failed in Utah
Dear HCN, In the Grand Canyon Trust, HCN has finally found an environmental group on the Colorado Plateau that champions the idea that we need to win over local communities if we hope to win over the land (HCN, 4/4/94). Contrary to writer Jim Bishop’s assertions, the Grand Canyon Trust’s approach to resolving environmental conflict […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Don’t blame the BLM
Dear HCN, High Country News couldn’t resist the urge to engage in BLM bashing in Florence Williams’ story on the El Pinacate reserve (HCN, 3/21/94). The front page states, “Directly to the north are public lands, U.S.-style: a military bombing range, cow-beaten BLM allotments, …” In fact there are no BLM-managed lands directly to the […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
BLM OKs drilling near cave, sort of
The Bureau of Land Management will allow a New Mexico company to drill for gas on federal land near Lechuguilla Cave, the deepest cave in the United States and part of Carlsbad Caverns National Park (HCN, 2/22/93). But Yates Petroleum says the strict criteria the agency established for the leases make it economically infeasible to […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A bright idea
When the lights start to dim or the TV won’t turn on, some Navajos in Arizona know it’s time to drive to a gas station and recharge the car battery. For the 10,000 people who live out of range of the tribal utility’s powerlines, car batteries provide a quick, though inconvenient, source of energy. But […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A spinning door
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Dan Beard isn’t happy with former agency colleague Joe Hall. Eight months after resigning as the number two official at the bureau, Hall was hired as a $95-per-hour consultant by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, reports The Denver Post. According to federal ethics law, former top officials must abstain from […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Woodlot owners at risk
-I know I’ll have to sue him,” says Ken Hopkins of Greenbluff, Wash., who is unhappy with a private logger who harvested trees on Hopkins’ woodlot. The dispute centers around the price for trees and environmental damages from improper logging, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review. State officials in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Utah say […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
At last, a California desert bill
After winning overwhelming approval in the U.S. Senate, the California Desert Protection Act is only one vote away from becoming law. The voluminous bill, which was held up for eight years by Republican opponents and commercial interests, would create 74 new wilderness areas, three new national parks, and protect a total of 6.3 million acres […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
It ain’t Antioch
Male grizzly bears basically have two courting styles: find a female and guard her from other males; or, find one that is mating, chase the male away and take over. Those are the conclusions of “Do Big Mean Studs Get All the Action?” and “Why Are Deadbeat Dads Often Abusive?” two chapter titles Lance Craighead […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A forest supervisor says ‘thank you’
I received a provocative and compelling book the other day called Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry, published by Sierra Club (HCN, 4/4/94). If you prefer looking backward instead of forward, the impact of the images and ideas in this book can only be described as deeply disturbing. The images have an emotional power, and […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Endless pressure, endlessly applied
Never have a president and secretary of the Interior so disappointed conservationists as have Bill Clinton and Bruce Babbitt. The firing of Jim Baca as Bureau of Land Management director is simply the icing on a multi-layered cake of betrayal. We shouldn’t be surprised, though. Between nomination and taking office as secretary of the Interior, […]