The Jackson Hole Alliance for Responsible Planning and the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative will host a conference on preserving biological diversity surrounding Jackson Hole June 3-5. “Sharing the land: Preserving Jackson Whole,” at Snow King Resort, features field trips, lectures, roundtable discussions and workshops offered by writers and educators. Speakers include wildlife researchers Tim Clark […]
Sharing the land
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Changing the law of the river
The Bureau of Rec-lamation has released a draft plan to change the way the Colorado River is managed within Nevada, Arizona and California (HCN, 2/21/94). “The lower Colorado River needs to meet the water needs of more people,” says commissioner Dan Beard. “In the past, we have managed the river primarily to serve agricultural and […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Our West
Perhaps the best way to understand the West is to live it. That’s the guiding philosophy behind the “Our West: Loving the Land” conference hosted by Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, June 19-25. Conference participants will live on a ranch and explore the Wind River Mountains with local environmentalists. There will also be […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Wind in the West
New wind turbines that produce electricity almost as cheaply as new coal- or natural gas-fired plants have spurred four wind power projects in the West. San Francisco-based Kenetech, the nation’s largest developer of wind energy, proposes three projects featuring turbines that adjust to wind speeds while still creating energy at a uniform rate. Two of […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
ADC must go
In the summer of 1992, Ruth Shea, an Idaho Fish and Game Department employee, was riding in the Caribou National Forest when she looked down and saw steel-jawed traps buried in the trail. Then she came upon the trapped and decayed bodies of two coyotes and a badger. “These traps appeared to have been set […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Colorado Central
Those who can’t get enough of writer Ed Quillen in his Denver Post columns and occasional articles in High Country News (Ed most recently wrote about landfills in the March 7, 1994, HCN) can now subscribe to his Colorado Central, a monthly, very non-slick magazine. The paper’s beat is the central Rocky Mountain towns between […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Learn the limits
The University of Colorado will host a three-day conference on “Regulatory Takings and Resources: What Are the Constitutional Limits?,” June 13-15. The get-together features Larry MacDonnell of the Natural Resources Law Center; Lois Schiffer from the Department of Justice; Mark Squillace, law professor at the University of Wyoming, and John Echeverria, attorney with the National […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Environmental group reaches out
The Colorado Environmental Coalition, a Denver-based non-profit group, recently opened a new office on the Continental Divide’s Western Slope. Norm Mullen, the group’s public-lands coordinator and manager of the new Grand Junction office, will work on wilderness, oil and gas development, wild and scenic rivers, and serve as a link between environmental groups on both […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Going to pot
Farmers in Maricopa County, Ariz., may harvest an unexpected crop this summer. Thanks to an unknown culprit who dumped more than a ton of freshly harvested marijuana into an irrigation canal, millions of seeds could find their way onto cotton farms. Steve Werner of the county sheriff’s office said 1,500 pounds of pot were retrieved […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
A savage SLAPP suit
A “conspiracy” exists to destroy the Savage Rapids Dam in Oregon, say Oregon residents who are suing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the Oregon governor, 15 state and federal agencies and 10 environmental groups. “If the preservationists win here, they’ll want to go after all the dams in the state,” said John DeZell, attorney and founder […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
International park draws fire
Supporters of an international park said, “Nature knows no borders,” but protesters at a recent Seattle conference didn’t agree. Two hundred park demonstrators marched and chanted, “What do we want? No park!” while United States and Canadian park representatives talked about joining recreation areas and parks in the 11 million-acre North Cascades ecosystem. Protesters fear […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Recycling attracts Utah tribe
In a move to create jobs and build a stronger economic base, the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe in Utah has joined forces with two environmental engineering firms to form a company called EnviroSolutions. “The largest markets in the 1990s and beyond are going to be in the environment,” says tribal attorney Danny Quintana. EnviroSolutions recently […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Mushrooming business is curbed
The Forest Service has developed new rules to get a handle on the Northwest’s booming mushroom industry. During the last three years agency officials in Oregon and Washington have seen violent conflicts break out among pickers, as well as damage to forest lands (HCN, 6/28/93). Mike Rassbach, special forest products coordinator for the region, says […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Power plant disappears
Was it a hoax? Nine months after residents of Show Low, Ariz., fervently debated a proposal to build a 900-megawatt nuclear power plant in the nearby White Mountains, the proposal is dead. “It all just went away,” Show Low City Manager Patrick Sherman told the Arizona Republic. Last June, Phil Downing, then executive director of […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Suit halts coyote killings
Suit halts coyote killings When the federal government refused to shoot coyotes from the air last year, ranchers in Idaho appealed to the state Department of Agriculture for help. The agency responded by issuing seven aerial permits to gunners, who killed 193 coyotes. This year was different: Idaho’s attorney general recently shut down the state’s […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Why one advocacy group steers clear of consensus efforts
The Southern Utah Wilderness Association often receives invitations from government entities or other groups to participate on various types of advisory committees. It is usually our policy to decline these offers. The rationale behind this policy goes like this: 1. Advisory committees include interests which benefit from the status quo, and therefore have little or […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Scientist says Yellowstone Park is being destroyed
The Yellowstone northern elk herd, allowed to persist at high densities by the national park’s “natural-regulation” policy, is destroying the biodiversity and ecological integrity of the northern-range ecosystem. Park publicity denies this and misleads the public by proclaiming that all is well in Yellowstone. There are only two possible interpretations of this behavior. One is […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
The labyrinthine nature of mine waste regulations
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Can a copper firm restore a blasted ecosystem? While Kennecott grapples with a real mess of contamination on the ground and in the water around Bingham Canyon, it also finds itself entangled in a long-running debate about regulating mine wastes. The mining industry has successfully […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Can a copper firm restore a blasted ecosystem?
Introductory editor’s note: Wherever we look in the developed West, we see evidence of misuse: eroding streams, stripped forests, species such as the grizzly hanging on by their claws. Many believe it is not enough to simply stop the damage. We must also put the West back together. But many in the West are in […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Rural area beats back water diversion plan
An eight-year controversy ended May 9 when the Colorado Supreme Court ruled against a company seeking to pump vast amounts of groundwater from beneath Colorado’s San Luis Valley. In 1986, American Water Development Inc., filed for the rights to siphon 65 billion gallons of groundwater a year from the sprawling San Luis Valley. Investors in […]