In your story about the predicament facing the San Pedro River, Mark Anderson, whom the Bush administration has chosen as chief of the U.S. Geological Survey office responsible for San Pedro River studies, states that “pumping in the Sierra Vista area … is probably not yet imperiling the river” (HCN, 8/30/04: A Thirst for Growth). […]
Once again, science gets soaked
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
History repeats itself
Tony Davis’ article, “A Thirst for Growth,” once again reminds me that history does repeat itself if we don’t heed the warnings left by our predecessors (HCN, 8/30/04: A Thirst for Growth). I think back on family trips to Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon in the late 1960s. At the time, the big unanswered question, […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Racetrack
This election day, Arizonans will decide who can vote in future elections — and what they’ll have to bring with them to the polls. Proposition 200, or the Arizona Tax Payer and Citizen Protection Act initiative, would prevent noncitizens from voting, require all voters to present identification at the polls, and also require state and […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Trout wriggles into a sagebrush rebellion
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raised the stakes in a conflict between environmentalists and Elko County, Nev., in June, when it proposed critical habitat for the endangered bull trout along the Jarbidge River. The agency proposed designating 131 miles of streams in Idaho and Nevada as critical habitat — which sets aside land essential […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Wolf pack wiped out for ‘surplus killing’
During the night of June 29, the nine wolves in the Cook pack took part in what biologists call a “surplus killing” north of McCall. They killed 70 sheep, far more than they could eat. In all, the pack — Idaho’s largest — reportedly killed more than 190 sheep the past two summers. The U.S. […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Citizens wary of their nuclear neighbor
Rather than excavating a Cold War-era landfill just outside Albuquerque, Sandia National Laboratories wants to leave the nuclear waste in the ground and “monitor” it indefinitely — and the state of New Mexico has agreed that’s a good idea. From 1959 until 1988, Sandia used the site, now known as the Mixed Waste Landfill, to […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Wolves are welcome in one Western state
Oregon may soon be the first Western state to independently welcome back wolves following their near eradication and reintroduction in the Lower 48. In September, a citizen panel of ranchers, hunters, wildlife activists and others presented the state Fish and Wildlife Commission with a blueprint that would allow eight or more wolf packs to move […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Follow-up
Former workers at a nuclear bomb factory may soon get a cold shoulder from the U.S. Department of Energy. In 1993, Congress created the Former Worker Medical Screening Program to notify and test nuke workers who might be at risk for health problems (HCN, 11/24/03: Cold war workers seek compensation). But the screening program for […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Hunting: It’s not about the gun
I killed my first deer on an October morning, two days after my 14th birthday. I was hunting on my grandmother’s ranch in south-central Colorado, and I can still see that deer, ghost-gray in the dawn, its form more like smoke than animal. I remember how my chest was tight and my arms and legs […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
So much for sticking to the center
Return with us now to those thrilling days of not quite four years ago, when George W. Bush was taking office and almost every mainstream, establishment, veteran political observer — yea, even including your humble agent here — predicted that his presidency would not stray too far from the ideological center. So much for the […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
State judges get political
Special-interest money pours into hotly contested judge campaigns
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Biotech companies engineer a ‘superweed’
Genetically engineered golf course turf could creep to public lands
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Dams will stand, salmon be damned
The Bush administration’s new salmon plan offers a whole new spin on the Endangered Species Act
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Dear Friends
CONGRATULATIONS Betsy and Ed Marston, HCN’s longtime editor-publisher team, are grandparents. On Sept. 18, in New York City, the Marston’s daughter, Wendy, gave birth to a 7-pound, 9-ounce baby girl, Maude Rose Marston Lehmann. Maude is bound to be one above-average kid; Wendy is a freelance writer and editor, and her husband, Ben Lehmann, works […]
Posted inWotr
Bring on that old lanky dog (and be sure to eat the elk)
For my son’s last day of summer vacation, I took off from my veterinarian practice, and off we went to northern Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. We climbed around on some boulders, got rained on and we saw elk, lots of elk. I have seen my share of elk throughout the West, but this particular […]
Posted inWotr
The Hoopa’s fight for a river is a lesson for us all
The Hoopa Indians of Northern California are a tenacious people. In the mid-19th century, when the U.S. Army tried to drive them out of their villages along the Trinity River, the Hoopas waited them out, camping in the nearby hills until the soldiers gave up and left. One hundred years later the government started draining […]
Posted inWotr
Presidential candidates try to look svelte in blaze orange
Ernest Hemingway said every writer needs a “shockproof B.S.-detector.” My B.S.-detector has been getting a workout, as the presidential candidates have been hunting for votes this autumn. In particular, they are seeking the votes of the 47 million Americans who hunt and fish. In a race this tight, politicians see this as a bloc as […]
Posted inWotr
Automate this: personal interaction in a small town
The big news in my small town has been the new automated checkout line at the grocery store. You scan the purchases yourself, and then give the machine your credit card, with no need for any human interaction. At least that’s how I’m told it works — I haven’t used the thing myself. It’s a […]
Posted inWotr
What I Hate Most About You
Editor’s note: The author is said to live “on a 100-year-old ranch that once was miles from the nearest neighbor but now may be right next door to your new subdivision.” Dear new neighbors, I’ve never met any of you. If I did, I would be perfectly polite. Probably I’d even think you’re nice folks. […]
Posted inWotr
Red-baiters target greens in Oregon
A group in White City, Ore., has opened a broad attack on teaching environmental sustainability in our public schools and universities, calling it the kind of brainwashing Lenin and Hitler would do. The group, Operation Green Out, ran two full-page ads in The Oregonian, Oregon’s largest daily newspaper, earlier this year. They warned of a […]