Montana roadless lands have been under siege for nearly two decades. Although Montana congressmen brought forth 15 wilderness bills, they were more accurately commodity bills that strongly favored timber and mining. All failed. In June 1993, Rep. Pat Williams (D-Mont.) tried again. Although #16 is better in some respects than its predecessors, it is no […]
We need a regional wilderness law
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Home on the Range: A Culinary History of the AmericanWest
To Catch Wild Ducks,Geese or Birds AliveSoak wheat in strong alcohol.Scatter where they are in the habit of feeding.Take them while they are drunk. * Early recipe book titled Cookbook private collection, ca. 1880 Coon Cake Take what flour you have, mix with water, shorten with coon oil and fry in coon fat. Army Coffee […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Montana wolves can’t find safe habitat
Two members of a pioneering wolf pack on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front were recently moved to Glacier National Park after they were blamed for killing four calves this spring. Two adults and two yearlings were allowed to remain, at least for now. But because of a political stalemate between state and federal wildlife officials, the […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Cities fight to keep water out of the Platte
Standing on the banks of the Platte River in central Nebraska, surrounded by cottonwood trees and dense brush, it’s hard to imagine how different the river looked 100 years ago. It’s “an enormous change in habitat over the last century,” says Ken Strom, manager of the National Audubon Society’s Rowe Wildlife Refuge near Kearney, Neb. […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Sleuth says wolves are usually innocent
When it comes to killing livestock, the wolves recolonizing Montana have a reputation larger than their appetite. Carter Niemeyer has investigated more than 100 livestock carcasses where wolves were the prime suspects. He can count the number of confirmed wolf kills on one hand: five. The rest? “Nothing led us to believe further that wolves […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Lawsuit is launched against grazing in Montana
A legal attack against public-lands ranching is under way in Montana. The National Wildlife Federation and its Montana affiliate filed suit March 30 against the Forest Service, Beaverhead National Forest Supervisor Bert Kulesza and Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas in federal District Court in Butte, Mont. Tom France, National Wildlife Federation attorney in Missoula, […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Jicarilla Indians expand their reservation
DULCE, N.M. – Maybe it was the dance of history coming full circle. Most likely, though, it was just common sense. “They don’t make land no more,” reasons Jicarilla Apache Tribal President Leonard Atole, a thin smile on his face. “So while it’s there you should get some for the people.” The Jicarilla Apaches, oft-forgotten […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Court rains on title to Colorado land grant
The “little cloud” on the title of the Taylor Ranch in Colorado’s San Luis Valley remains, thanks to a landmark Colorado Supreme Court ruling in favor of Costilla County residents. On May 2, the court said there should be a trial to determine whether the constitutional rights of residents were violated in 1960, when landowner […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
National Park Service is put on a starvation diet
During the week of May 22, America is to celebrate “National Parks Week,” ” a creation of new Park Service Director Roger Kennedy. But some Park Service employees may not be in the mood to join the celebration. The new director is driving the agency headlong into a sweeping reorganization that may include job cuts […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Dear friends
Back from Buzzworm Lisa Jones recently moved her base of operations from one side of Paonia’s Grand Avenue to the other to start work as a researcher and writer on High Country News’ land grant university project. A staff writer at HCN in 1990 and 1991, Lisa has spent most of the last three years […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
New job for an owl lawyer
The architect of the legal strategy to protect the Northern spotted owl and its habitat in the Pacific Northwest is the new president of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. On March 7, Victor Sher, 39, became the sixth president of the public-interest environmental law firm that represents several hundred non-profit clients, including the Sierra […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Oregon dam is in limbo
The future of partially completed Elk Creek Dam in southern Oregon remains murky. Federal judge James Burns recently decided that the Army Corps of Engineers has not adequately considered new studies which show the dam significantly impairing salmon runs. But instead of ordering the dam razed, or lifting an injunction against completing work, the judge […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Judge chastises forest plan defendant
The Clinton administration’s Northwest forest plan received a blow March 21 when a federal judge ruled the plan was prepared in violation of a federal open-meetings law. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the administration failed to include public comment and took information from a limited circle of […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Legal fight is costly
The Oregon Natural Resources Council hopes to raise $100,000 to defend itself against a lawsuit concerning its activities in the Klamath Basin in south-central Oregon and northern California. The group, with an annual budget of $650,000, has already spent $25,000 on defense. Farmer Marion Palmer charges that ONRC and others have interfered with his water […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Rancher fined for vandalism
A retired Escalante, Utah, rancher pleaded guilty to “enhancing” 21 Anasazi petroglyphs at the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area with a pocket knife. Rancher McKay Bailey agreed to pay restoration costs and forfeit his 1990 Ford pickup for violating the 1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act. In exchange for his guilty plea, the government recommended a […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
BuRec downsizes
Seven years after the Bureau of Reclamation promised to transform itself from dam builder to environmental water manager, the agency announced its first self-imposed overhaul. Under an order signed by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the Bureau will move its headquarters from Denver back to Washington, D.C., streamline its management structure and cut 550 jobs, mostly […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Rainbows over Wyoming
Counter-culture types will be dropping out somewhere in Wyoming this July when the 22nd Rainbow Gathering convenes. From 10,000 to 25,000 people are expected to come from across the country to one of Wyoming’s five national forests. Rolling Stone magazine reports that last year’s gathering drew about 10,000 people to a national forest in Alabama. […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Justice for owls, and for communities
A recent newspaper story on the revised Clinton forest plan was illustrated with a picture of Larry Mason standing by his abandoned lumber mill in Forks, Wash. I met Larry when I went to talk with Peter Yu, the administration official responsible for the jobs portion of the Clinton plan. Yu, by mistake, or perhaps […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Lycra is as ‘authentic’ as denim
It has become commonplace to attack and ridicule the socio-economic changes that are taking place in the Rocky Mountain West. With disgust and caustic humor residents lash out at the new “cappuccino cowboys,” the brightly colored, lycra-clad mountain bikers, the 20-acre ranchettes, the trophy homes of newcomers, and the network surfers on the information highway. […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Utah utility takes aim at Colorado air
The U.S. Forest Service determined last summer that air pollution was reducing visibility and increasing degradation from acid rain in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area in northern Colorado’s Routt National Forest. It should come as no surprise, then, that Colorado forest officials, environmentalists and air-quality managers – not to mention the Environmental Protection Agency and […]