For 18 years, whenever the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had to decide whether a proposed development violated the Endangered Species Act, the agency applied a basic standard: Will it affect the survival of an endangered species? From now on, that’s not good enough, two federal courts have ruled. Instead, the Fish and Wildlife Service […]
For endangered species, survival no longer enough
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Follow-up
Shipping radioactive waste around the country is neither cheap nor easy: When the U.S. Department of Energy shipped the wrong type to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the New Mexico Environment Department slapped the Energy Department with a $2.4 million fine for violating the state’s hazardous waste laws (HCN, 8/2/04: Follow-up). Then, at the end […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Heard Around the West
IDAHO The director of the BlueRibbon Coalition,a Boise-based group that lobbies for more all-terrain access on public lands, recently had to take a leave without pay. Bill Dart was cited this August by a U.S. Forest Service enforcement agent for illegally taking people on motorcycle tours through the backcountry. Dart neglected to get an outfitter’s […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
When yesterday’s garbage becomes today’s collectible
To get to Glass Beach, you turn toward the ocean at the Denny’s on the outskirts of Fort Bragg, Calif., and drive down the lane to park. Signage is minimal. This is not Big Sur. The day we go, two local guys drive up and park next to us in a Volvo that has seen […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Utah’s wilderness warriors reply
We’d like to thank High Country News for highlighting Utah’s redrock wilderness and recognizing the value of protecting this uncommon landscape. However, we disagree with some of HCN Associate Editor Matt Jenkins’ essay which criticizes Utah wilderness advocates based on an erroneous perception that there is a stalemate on Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
A timber town learns to care for the forest
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Life After Old Growth.” LAKEVIEW, OREGON — Perched on the easternmost edge of Oregon timber country, where scattered mountain ranges fade into the high desert, the hamlet of Lakeview is an apparition. All indications suggest that it should be dead and gone, a casualty […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Bucking the trends: Black Hills crusader Marvin Kammerer
RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA — An old pickup rattles to the top of a grassy ridge. The Black Hills stretch across the western horizon, and in the valley below, the family ranch of Marvin Kammerer is only a dot in the fields of grass. Kammerer stops the truck, gets out and looks down on his […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Utah’s favorite sons battle for governor
Can the Democrats capture the conservative state’s chief office?
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
In a warming West, expect more fire
Overall wildfire size likely to double by 2100, new study concludes
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Tribes ‘buy in’ to restore their river
Warm Springs Indians become dam owners in an effort to bring back salmon
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Energy companies rush the West
Wyoming applies the brakes, but the leasing spree continues
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Dear friends
End of summer swarms During the tail end of August, as the last cobs of sweet corn were cut and sold, and local farmers began transforming their fields from verdant rows of uniform green to mazes for kids to run through, visitors flocked to High Country News. Colorado subscribers included Bobbie and Roy Wright from […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Look who’s in the conflict business now
As I read through the usual glut of e-mail press releases from environmental groups the other day, I came across one announcing a lawsuit against an Idaho logging project that is being offered by the Bureau of Land Management. Nothing unusual there: Though logging has diminished in the West over the last decade, the projects […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 2004: Life After Old Growth
Life After Old Growth
The battle over the Northwest’s ancient forests has again taken center stage, but behind the scenes, some locals are pushing for peace
Posted inWotr
Lewis and Clark and the short view of Western history
If American history west of the Mississippi begins with Lewis and Clark, then the history of the United States seems pretty simple: “Indians owned the West, and then they lost it.” History is never so simple. That some of the people Lewis and Clark met had “never seen a white man” did not mean they […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 2004: When a Boom is a Bust
Wamsutter Profiles
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “When a Boom is a Bust.” The preacher Mike Smith has put in nine and a half years as pastor of Wamsutter Baptist Church, the town’s only surviving church (four others have closed in recent memory). He used to mine uranium in Jeffrey City, […]
Posted inWotr
When yesterday’s garbage becomes today’s collectibles
To get to Glass Beach, you turn towards the ocean at the Denny’s on the outskirts of Ft. Bragg, Calif., and drive down the lane to park. Signage is minimal. This is not Big Sur. The day we go, two local guys drive up and park next to us in a Volvo that has seen […]
Posted inWotr
Let the states broker roadless lands — it’s the democratic way
This July, the U.S. Forest Service proposed a new administrative rule dealing with the controversial issue of roadless areas in national forests. Environmental groups reacted as you might expect. For example, a “personal” spam I received from John Adams at the Natural Resources Defense Council warned that the Bush administration “is lining up massive timber […]
Posted inWotr
This is no time to step back from the Roadless Rule
While researching a new book last spring, I had the opportunity and pleasure of interviewing Dale Bosworth, chief of the Forest Service. I found him to be an honest, straightforward, forthcoming, and, at times, courageous man. So when I read that he had agreed to the repeal of the Clinton-era Roadless Rule on our national […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 2004: When a Boom is a Bust
Occupying less
This excerpt from Solace by Mary Sojourner has been removed from High Country News Web Archives as the request of Scribner, the publisher. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this creates for our readers. If you need access to this essay, hard-copy back issues of High Country News are sometimes available. Email circulation@hcn.org to […]