During the feverish development of water projects throughout the West, most Native American tribes were left out. But under federal law, Indian reservations have senior rights to vast amounts of water – more than Western states could spare even if they wanted to. Thus it is no surprise that today almost every state and reservation […]
Indians and water
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Silent swans in Yellowstone
For the first time in recorded history, Yellowstone National Park trumpeter swans added no young to their flock last summer. The decline in cygnets parallels a decrease in the adult population from almost 500 last year to 277 this year. Ruth Shea, of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, believes a major cause is competition […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
An alleged massacre comes under fire
As the story goes, Shoshone-Bannock warriors scalped and murdered nearly 300 men, women and children near Almo, Idaho, in 1861. Now, several historians call the massacre mere campfire folklore. Brigham Madsen, a retired University of Utah professor who recently researched the killing, says no newspapers or U.S. military records in 1861 mention the massacre, and […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Jackalopes in Japan
Two antlered rabbits recently made their way to Osaka, Japan, from the world capital of the jackalope, Douglas, Wyo. Japanese customs officials found the man-made novelties while searching the luggage of Douglas, Wyo., trade delegate, John Blair. Unable to understand the animals’ identity, officials began to look for jackalope on a list of endangered species. […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Scratching for a living
Dan Popkey, a columnist with the Idaho Statesman, noted irony in the Idaho State Land Board’s decision to overturn a grazing lease won at an auction by an environmental group. The board returned the lease to the Ingrams, a ranching family from Challis, Idaho, after hearing the ranchers’ emotional plea to protect family agriculture in […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Movable metaphor for the West now a video
The three Pinedale, Wyo., artists who transformed cows into ambulatory art last year now have a video commemorating the event. Thanks to a $4,000 federal grant, Duane Brandt, an art teacher at Pinedale High, along with his wife, Pip, and Sue Thornton, painted the words of a Wyoming pioneer on the backs of 74 pregnant […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Old power poles electrocute eagles
Last March, Clent Bailey found an electrocuted golden eagle beneath a power pole near Roswell, N.M. Bailey, who works as a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, then uncovered an electrocuted hawk under the eagle, a victim of the same “problem pole.” The experience launched Bailey’s campaign to retrofit poles and strengthen regulations. […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Salmon fishing banned
For the first time ever, salmon fishing in the Pacific Ocean has been banned. The prohibition, imposed by a federal panel, applies to waters off Washington, Oregon and California, though not to Alaska or British Columbia. “The combination of effects has created a natural disaster,” says Robert Turner, director of fisheries for the state of […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Saving trees to save bears
In what one official calls a “directional shift” in agency policy, the Forest Service has proposed some of the country’s most stringent guidelines for protecting grizzly bear habitat in a portion of Idaho’s Targhee National Forest. Under the plan, the Forest Service would suspend new road construction and timber harvests for at least 11 years […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Court strikes at Endangered Species Act
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cannot require private landowners to protect the habitat of endangered species, according to a recent court decision. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., stems from a lawsuit challenging federal regulations restricting timber harvesting near spotted owl nests in Oregon and […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
She’s against grazing abuses
Dear HCN, My friend Jeff St. Clair listed me as a “grazing abolitionist” in an op-ed piece published in the 3/21/94 issue of HCN. As a candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands in New Mexico, I feel I need to clarify my position on this subject. I am not opposed to public-land grazing, provided it […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Reformers needed, not abolitionists
Dear HCN, Jeffrey St. Clair complained in the last issue that no “abolitionists’ were included in the Colorado grazing reform working group. Of course they were excluded! That decision was deliberate. The sharing of goals is a necessary preliminary to any successful resolution of conflict, and the abolitionists declare outright that they don’t share the […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
An open letter to Andy Kerr in rural Oregon
ENTERPRISE, Ore. – I don’t know you, Andy, although we’ve met a couple of times. You came into my bookstore 12 or 15 years ago, then we met again the evening of Allan Savory’s grazing talk. I’ve heard your voice on TV and seen your face in the newspapers over the years. I remember one […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Clifton, Arizona: A town no one knows
CLIFTON, Ariz. – We must have stuck out as an exotic bunch of dudes driving through this remote mining town of a couple of thousand people in southeastern Arizona: One student from South Korea, one from Japan and one from Germany. It was Christmas break at Arizona State University, and we had ventured out to […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Radiation experiments raise ethical questions
SEATTLE, Wash. – The Clinton administration and major universities are apologizing for Cold War radiation experiments on humans, but the man behind the largest such experiment in Washington state maintains he did nothing wrong. Dr. C. Alvin Paulsen used X-rays on the testicles of 64 prisoners at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla during […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
How federal agencies and range scientists wasted a century
Rangeland Health: New Methods to Classify, Inventory, and Monitor Rangelands The Committee on Rangeland Classification, Board of Agriculture, National Research Council; National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. 1994. Paper, 180 pages. Order from: The Society for Range Management, 1839 York St., Denver, CO 80206; 303/355-7070; $22. Review by Ed Marston What have those guys been doing […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
New policy pits seasonals against parks
ZION NATIONAL PARK, Utah – Michael Parshall wondered how much longer he’d be able to build trails for the National Park Service. His problem wasn’t with his job at Zion National Park, but with an advanced and crippling case of colitis. “I knew that I was getting sick in 1989, but I didn’t go to […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Grazing reform: A plan to chew on
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt launched his second attempt at grazing reform last month, issuing a giant 224-page draft plan to revamp grazing practices on 170 million acres of Bureau of Land Management rangeland. Like his initial proposal last summer, the revised plan would double grazing fees and tighten environmental regulations. But, in a major departure, […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Dear friends
We want advice If all goes well, subscribers should soon receive the annual High Country News survey. The paper’s surveys don’t ask what kind of car you drive, or your annual income, or where you vacation. But we do ask questions to guide us in putting out the newspaper. And if you haven’t responded to […]
Posted inApril 4, 1994: Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau?
Fly-by tourism may be throttled at Grand Canyon
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Who speaks for the Colorado Plateau? Although Congress passed legislation in 1987 limiting where tourist-toting planes and helicopters could go over Grand Canyon National Park, the number of flights has nearly doubled. The National Park Service says noise pervades almost every nook and cranny […]