Michelle Burkhart points out that staff shortages in the national forests mean that citizens often step in to pick up the slack (HCN, 12/26/05: Where have all the rangers gone?). This is certainly true on Colorado’s Roosevelt National Forest (“co-managed” as one unit with the Arapaho National Forest and the Pawnee National Grassland, thus spreading […]
Forest Service needs more budget, not just volunteers
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Why are all the rangers deskbound?
Regarding the article “Where have all the rangers gone?” (HCN, 12/26/05: Where have all the rangers gone?): During my nearly 30-year career with the U.S. Forest Service, it was very disturbing to observe many dedicated professional wildland managers being forced to change from a situation where nearly all were in the field, managing the forest […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Lawmakers chop up renewable-energy fund
As the demand for renewable energy becomes palpable across the West, lawmakers have taken a bold step: They’ve slashed the U.S. Department of Energy’s budget for renewable energy programs and directed funding toward such projects in their own districts. In mid-November, Congress cut about $160 million from the Energy Department’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Judge orders litigating enviros to pony up
A federal judge is forcing environmentalists to back their challenge of a logging project with cold, hard cash. In November, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ordered a halt to logging on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, outside of Butte, after three environmental groups appealed the judge’s earlier decision to allow the 2,600-acre timber harvest. Then, on […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
First fatal wolf attack recorded in North America?
Conservationists have long assuaged the public’s fear of wolves by saying that there have been no documented instances of a healthy wild wolf killing a human being in North America. Until now, that is. On Nov. 8, a search party found the partially consumed body of 22-year-old Kenton Joel Carnegie in the woods of northern […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Congressional group plans for oil’s decline
Within the next 20 years, worldwide oil production will likely peak and no longer meet demand (HCN, 12/12/05: Final Energy Frontier). Now, some members of Congress are saying we need to prepare for life after that point. “We are going to peak, and we should be planning for it, and we’re not,” says Rep. Tom […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
The Latest Bounce
Pete McCloskey, the 78-year-old former Republican Congressman who helped write the 1974 Endangered Species Act, does not take kindly to having his handiwork messed with. So he’s rented a house in the district of Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and is planning to run — as a Republican — against the anti-environmental crusader this November (HCN, […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Heard around the West
NEW MEXICO A mouse living in the house of 81-year-old Luciano Mares of Fort Sumner did not take kindly to being set on fire. Mares said that after he caught the intruder, he threw it outside onto a pile of burning leaves. The burning rodent, however, got its revenge by running back to the house […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Living with the ghosts of the Indian Wars
I live in enemy territory. The problem is, I am the enemy. Montana’s Department of Commerce calls it “Custer Country”: the southeastern region of the state, a million or so acres of sage-dotted grassland, juniper draws and hillside stands of ponderosa pine, stretching east from Billings to the Dakota border. My husband and I raise […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
The unbearable triteness of skiing
Q: Why did Utah choose the slogan “The Greatest Snow on Earth” when it so closely resembled the Ringling Brothers’ slogan “The Greatest Show on Earth?” A: Both enterprises attract a lot of bozos. It’s OK to own an automobile without a ski rack. You don’t need to keep your Web browser bookmarked to all […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Public-lands freedom fighter
NAME Stephen Maurer AGE 68 HOME BASE Albuquerque, New Mexico KNOWN FOR Fighting the Soviet-backed regime in Hungary, his native country; working to protect public lands in his adopted country. HE SAYS “Don’t use (the phrase) ‘federal lands.’ They are ‘public lands.’ If it’s the government’s land, it belongs to them, and it’s not ours.” […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Trouble in the Delta
A water peace effort in California falls apart at the worst possible moment
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Tiny stream invaders may harm Western trout
Researchers tackle a problem likely to be spread by hatcheries and anglers
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Study questions value of post-fire logging
Scientists find that salvage logging may slow forest recovery
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Dear friends
WELCOME, JANIEC! Janiec (rhymes with “Denise”) Gutierrez is the newest addition to our marketing department and is responsible for advertising sales. Janiec, a native of Southern California, moved to town last May after becoming engaged to a Paonian she met in Germany, where they were both working in the outdoor industry. She enjoys the pink […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Time for a little outrage
Outrage is a risky emotion. It tends to carry people over the cliff of acceptable behavior, sometimes into acts of destructive extremism. Yet some of our best conservation writers, like John Muir and Rachel Carson, have tapped their heartfelt outrage over the abuse of nature and created literature that inspires the rest of us to […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields
A buffalo hunt turns into a slaughter on the border of Yellowstone National Park. But could this be the key to setting the animals free?
Posted inWotr
A teacher looks back at racism
In 1961, when I came to Browning, Mont., to teach, I emerged from my little rental — all dressed up — to investigate the town. A path headed towards the main street across a weedy empty lot. A tall Indian in a wide-brimmed hat started towards me. Was I going to have to walk into […]
Posted inWotr
Portland and Seattle steal all the rain
My wife was just climbing into bed, and I was already heavy with sleep after a coastal trip the other night, when something began tearing at the screen outside our small bedroom window. This something was eager to come inside. In the few seconds it took for us to yell and wave our arms madly […]
Posted inWotr
What peak oil means to every American
In 1970, oil production within the United States peaked — reached its maximum production rate — at not much more than 10 million barrels of oil per day. That means since 1970, oil production in this country has been declining, and we now import 58 percent of the oil we use. The sheer scale of […]