Eagle watchers will convene in Klamath Falls, Ore., Feb. 18-20 during the largest gathering of bald eagles in the lower 48 states. They will also attend the 15th annual Klamath Basin Bald Eagle Conference, sponsored by the Klamath Basin Audubon Society and other non-profit groups and federal agencies, to look at the successes of bald […]
Join the eagles
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Idaho’s unsettling sediment
A new government study shows that Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene is one of the most contaminated bodies of water in the world. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 85 percent of the 50-square-mile lake bed is contaminated with 75 million metric tons of sediments containing silver, copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. The contamination […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Agriculture in the round
For the past three years, up to 400 people have gathered in Denver for Colorado Gov. Roy Romer’s Agricultural Outlook Forum. This year, on Feb. 18, Romer wants the gathering to focus on the ecology and economics of sustainable farming. Experts such as Marty Strange, who founded Nebraska’s Center for Rural Affairs, and Ralph Grossi, […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Slip sliding away
Preventing land from washing into streams, rivers and lakes may not be the sexiest topic around, but for 25 years the International Erosion Control Association has held an annual conference in an attempt to make it so. This year’s conference, scheduled for Feb. 15-18 in Reno, Nev., tackles “Sustaining Environmental Quality: The erosion control challenge,” […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Taking back Santa Fe
Hoping to rein in the runaway development that has transformed Santa Fe, N.M., into a mecca for tourists and the affluent, a new group is registering voters for the city elections March 1. Take Back Santa Fe has trained dozens of volunteers who are going door-to-door to register people to vote. Organizer Gloria Mendoza says […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Texan fights out-of-state wastes
In Sierra Blanca, Texas, someone burned Bill Addington’s family lumber yard to the ground last September. Addington says the arson was a message to him and others: Stop protesting the importation of sewage sludge and nuclear waste. Addington heads a citizens’ group of over 70 people which has resisted waste disposal from other states for […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Timber industry mounts an offense
The timber industry this winter launched a $1.5 million campaign in the Pacific Northwest to derail President Clinton’s Option 9 forest plan and lift court injunctions on timber sales. In addition to radio and television ads, the industry created three citizen committees in Washington, Oregon and northern California that have sent mailings to 1.5 million […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Babbitt takes a fall
At Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, Jan. 21, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt tripped on a rock and fell on his face, requiring several stitches on his head at a local hospital. Barely an hour later, he was back at the monument, telling the press that he was ready to negotiate with Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Baca at the barricades
A movement is under way within the Clinton administration to remove Jim Baca as director of the Bureau of Land Management. Baca has had a difficult year, butting heads with ranchers and miners over federal land reforms and with Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus over a proposed bombing range (HCN, 1/24/94). On Jan. 27, top officials […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Some dams self-destruct
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Northwest is asked to give up 18 dams. The Oregon Natural Resource Council’s 18-dam “hit list” is already growing shorter. An Oregon irrigation district voted Jan. 5 to remove the Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River. “This is not the decision […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Grazing: the shape of the future
Most combatants in the public-lands grazing battle are still in their bunkers, happily sending shells into opposing camps. Nevertheless, there hangs over this familiar and comfortable scene a small but dark cloud: the willingness among some former enemies to talk to each other. The possibility of negotiations is as unsettling in the West as it […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Grazing talks split both sides
Most environmentalists hate the idea that Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt would let a group of moderate ranchers and environmentalists from Colorado try to create a consensus plan on grazing reform. It’s like watering down a diluted version of a weak plan that was off to begin with, says Peter Angst, public-lands specialist with the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Damnable dams
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Northwest is asked to give up 18 dams. The Oregon Natural Resources Council makes the case for eliminating 13 finished, one unfinished and four proposed dams. Historically, questions about dams have been limited to where dams should be built, but now the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Recycling cans changes an industry
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Northwest is asked to give up 18 dams. Andy Kerr’s proposal to dismantle or not build 18 dams rests in part on the fact that Americans in 1992 recycled 67.9 percent of their aluminum cans. That recycling saved an immense amount of […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Northwest is asked to give up 18 dams
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has said he wants to blow up a dam. Andy Kerr of the Oregon Natural Resources Council aims higher: He wants 18 dams destroyed across Oregon, Idaho and Washington – a drastic measure intended to save salmon runs now teetering on the edge of extinction. “Many people believe dams are engineering […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: A chronology
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Can she save ecosystems? 1885: Congress creates the Section of Economic Ornithology within the U.S. Department of Agriculture and appoints prominent naturalist C. Hart Merriam to head it. Merriam begins an exhaustive survey of the geographic distribution of the nation’s birds and […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Agency ends cattle grazing at Idaho refuges
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Can she save ecosystems? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently revoked grazing privileges at two national wildlife refuges in eastern Idaho and is poised to do the same at two others in the state. Annual permits to run cattle in the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Why care about a snail the size of pinhead?
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Can she save ecosystems? MOLLIE BEATTIE: Even if not a single job were created, wildlife must be conserved. Why? Because we are linked to it, and it is in our immediate self-interest to care about it. When we see the snails and […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Judge tells wilderness outfitters to decamp the Frank
The Forest Service will no longer allow outfitter camps in Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness to feature propane refrigerators, wood cookstoves or piped water. These changes stem from rulings issued last fall by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan in response to a lawsuit filed by the environmental group, Wilderness Watch. […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
A battle for turf on a flat-top mountain
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The aspen and conifer forests that cover most of Grand Mesa just east of here look peaceful from a distance. But up on top of the world’s largest flat-top mountain, recreational vehicle drivers are engaged in a protracted war with other forest visitors. It’s feet vs. machines. Hikers, skiers, hunters and […]