In May 1989, Gene Nodine, head of the BLM’s Moab, Utah, office, told Arizona law professor Joe Feller: “You don’t know enough about this (public-land grazing) to question what we’re doing.” In retrospect, that was a rash statement. For in December 1993, John Rampton, an administrative law judge for the Department of Interior, ruled that […]
A stark victory in Utah
BLM union comes to Moab
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Turmoil on the range. MOAB, Utah – Citing frustration with their agency’s treatment of natural resources and employees, Bureau of Land Management staffers in two agency offices here voted to unionize. In response, Moab District BLM managers filed an objection to the […]
Cows are evicted from Utah
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A federal judge has kicked cattle out of the canyons of southeastern Utah’s Comb Wash. Both environmentalists and ranchers say the decision could lead to sweeping changes in grazing on public lands. Department of Interior Administrative Law Judge John Rampton’s Dec. 20 decision in the three-year-long Comb Wash case found […]
Reform was killed by “100 peacocks in heat”
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Turmoil on the range. Brant Calkin, who until a few months ago was head of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, one of the region’s most aggressive environmental groups, thinks he knows why the Rangeland Reform ’94 initiative crashed and burned. He says […]
Draft plan foresees a freer-flowing Colorado River
If a draft plan for managing the massive Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona gains final approval, the Colorado River could run through the Grand Canyon much as it did before dam-builders arrived there in 1963. The Glen Canyon draft EIS, released by the Bureau of Reclamation Jan. 6, would protect the canyon from the […]
Judge bumps snail off endangered species list
The tiny Bruneau hot springs snail is having a large impact in Idaho – and perhaps the entire country. On Dec. 14, U.S. District Judge Frank Ryan removed the 4-millimeter animal from the endangered species list. It was the first successful challenge of an animal or plant listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. Ryan’s […]
Idaho governor fights for a bombing range
Gov. Cecil D. Andrus, protector of endangered salmon and enemy of nuclear waste, has embarked on a quixotic crusade for a military bombing range in southwest Idaho. Andrus, serving the last year of his fourth term, says he must secure a new bombing range for the Air Force, or Mountain Home Air Force Base will […]
Tiny reporter at a small paper writes a big story
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In July 1987, newly hired Albuquerque Tribune reporter Eileen Welsome was thumbing through declassified government documents on radioactive waste dumps at the local Air Force base when a footnote caught her eye. It was about plutonium experiments on humans. Stunned, she went to her city editor with the story idea. As Welsome […]
Dear friends
How Gifford Pinchot got to be chief In his autobiography, Breaking New Ground, Pinchot writes on page 136 (Island Press edition, 1987) of his decision to accept the position of chief: “But the position of chief of the Forestry Division was under the classified civil service. Before I could hold it, I had to pass […]
Turmoil on the range
Ranchers’ clout drives grazing reform in new directions
Montana town puts out unwelcome mat
BOZEMAN, Mont. – This quiet, mountain-ringed college town just north of Yellowstone National Park has now been discovered by everyone from movie stars to footloose entrepreneurs and just plain folks. But to the people who live here the influx is more invasion than discovery. This is how a local artist feels about newcomers: “If I […]
The Virgin River is the target
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Virgin River is the target.
Sonoran stewardship
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Sonoran stewardship.
Real western women
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Real western women.
No driving in Zion?
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline No driving in Zion?.
Nevada mine wants to grow
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Nevada mine wants to grow.
Little support for public-land ranchers
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Little support for public-land ranchers.
Wildlife refuge needs money
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Wildlife refuge needs money.
How military secrecy zones out Nevada
A reporter chronicles the strange happenings (that we shouldn’t know about) at the top-secret Nevada Test Site. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline How military secrecy zones out Nevada.
Poacher gets light sentence
A hunter pleads guilty to poaching elk in Yellowstone National Park. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Poacher gets light sentence.
