Liberals have had their runs at dominating the federal court system, now it’s the Republicans’ turn. It’s not a sport, but it has some spectacular gyrations: Call it judicial flip-flopping. Most recently, it’s played by federal judges in Wyoming and Washington, D.C. — one ordering the National Park Service to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park, […]
Judges tie themselves in knots when it comes to the West
Posted inWotr
You can’t hurry love in the rural West
An intriguing piece of mail showed up in my post office box. It was a newsletter from the alumni association of my graduate school inviting me to a Denver-area event called “speed dating.” For 30 bucks, “singles get to meet several age-matched counterparts for timed (and discreetly chaperoned) encounters” among graduates from a select group […]
Posted inWotr
Stopping by a truck on a snowy road
It seems to me that the rural West has two types of people: those who believe internal combustion engines are the answer to everything, and those who don’t. Few dirt bikers ride mountain bikes, and seldom do you find cross-country skiers hopping on snowmobiles. We’re usually in one camp or the other. Or you could […]
Posted inWotr
Can grizzly bears and homeowners get along
Houses march to the Wyoming skyline like fat clouds stacked in a troubled sky. There’s open space, too, long sweeps of it, mostly irrigated, mostly covered with cows or alfalfa. The ranches are keeping this country open but every year a new ranch is “ranchetted,” chunked up like cheese, sold, fenced, housed. This is the […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Can’t we all just get along
“Mud wrestling” might be the best term for what happens when we try to hash out messy environmental issues, says a recent report from the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado-Boulder. But the West is full of talented scientists who can help pull us out of the ring if we’d just […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Heroes for the wild
Know someone who’s worked tirelessly to protect the West’s wild places? Nominate him or her for a “Wilderness Hero” award. The program, which began last year, will honor two volunteers each month leading up to the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act this September. Award sponsors include The Campaign for America’s Wilderness, the Sierra Club, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Calendar
Head to San Francisco for the 15th Global Warming International Conference and Expo on April 20-22. Sessions will range from “Climate Change Mitigation” to “Extreme Events and Impacts Assessments” to “Agricultural and Forestry Resources Management.”http://globalwarming.net 630-910-1551 The Upper Green River Valley Coalition is sponsoring a conference in Pinedale, Wyo., on March 26-27. “Wells, Wildlife and […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
A new look at Yellowstone
“Wholly an unattractive country. There is nothing whatever in it, no object of interest to the tourist, and there is not one out of twenty who visits for purposes of observation this remote section.” So declared one congressman in the late 1800s, dismissing the valleys of Yellowstone. What a difference a century can make: Today, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
User fees help land managers
Recently, High Country News published an article critical of the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program (HCN, 1/19/04). The article overlooks program benefits and neglects key improvements that address problems that surfaced in the early years of the program. Since 1985, recreation demand has increased approximately 65 percent on BLM lands and 80 percent at national wildlife […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Abolish user fees
Recreationists hate fees for all the right reasons (HCN, 1/19/04: A moment of truth for user fees). Fees will inexorably lead down the slippery slope to privatization and commercialization of our public lands. Fees are undemocratic, exclusionary, a regressive double tax and flat-out wrong. The Forest Service fee program takes in approximately $37 million a […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
It’s time for action on immigration
Until fairly recently, the Sierra Club responsibly endorsed U.S. population stabilization by measured, sustainable immigration levels (HCN, 2/16/04: Why I’m running). Then came political correctness, mass immigration, a rumored $5 million buy-off to keep population matters off the club’s agenda, more corrupting millions in corporate money, and the club’s board took an abrupt about-face and […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
We can’t isolate the West
I am surprised to see so much one-sidedness on population and immigration packed in one issue, and I trust that the Writers on the Range column, and related letters, do not represent the mindset of your readership (HCN, 2/16/04: Why I’m running). Why would the people of the West, many of whom have migrated here […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Consumption is the issue, not immigration
The disproportionate use of global natural resources by the citizens of the United States is the number-one environmental issue, contrary to the opinion of ex-Gov. Lamm (HCN, 2/16/04: Why I’m running). Until the citizens of this country and our government curb their gluttonous use of global resources, we have absolutely no right to deny hard-working […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
More lynx, less habitat
COLORADO A U.S. Forest Service proposal for managing the threatened Canada lynx could pull the rug out from under a $2 million effort to restore the reclusive feline to its native Colorado habitat. The lynx was considered extinct in Colorado until the state Division of Wildlife released 129 into the wild, beginning in 1999. So […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Should the Forest Service be blamed for a snowmobile wreck
MONTANA About 10 o’clock one February night in 1996, Michigan tourist Brian Musselman was snowmobiling on a groomed trail in Gallatin National Forest near West Yellowstone, when another snowmobiler “blasted over a 17-foot jump” and slammed into him, according to the Great Falls Tribune. The wreck left Musselman with severe brain injuries, and it raised […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Gas well slated for state park
COLORADO/NEW MEXICO That loud sucking noise you hear from the San Juan Basin comes from 20,000 gas wells. Now, industry is targeting a state park for one more well pad. Navajo State Park, home to Navajo Lake — “Colorado’s answer to Lake Powell” — is owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, which built Navajo Dam […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Defense company turns from rockets to real estate
CALIFORNIA Aerospace and defense company GenCorp has big plans for a former rocket-testing site east of Sacramento: Turn part of it into a subdivision. The company wants to build offices, stores, and 3,800 houses and apartments in the 1,400-acre Easton development. The new development will cover more than a tenth of a 13,000-acre site where […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Follow-up
Interior Department employees, check your in-boxes for a new message: In February, the nonprofit Campaign to Protect America’s Lands sent e-mails to almost 60,000 of the department’s 70,000 employees, asking them to call a confidential hotline — 1-866-LANDTIP — and report proposed anti-environmental regulations (HCN, 1/19/04: Coming Soon to a Wilderness Near You). Next November, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Heard Around the West
IDAHO Wilderness areas were not created equal. In order to pacify locals and win votes in Congress, most include more than a few reminders of both the old and developed West. The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho, for example, grandfathered in outfitters’ cabins and backcountry plane access. Now, the Forest […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
The charm of a dying place
I grew up in South Dakota, but spent my summers in Portland, Ore., with my mom. As an adolescent, I enjoyed how my city experience pushed me ahead of the curve when I got back home for school. I had my classmates beat by at least a year on the overalls-with-one-strap thing. It wasn’t all […]