Interior Secretary Gale Norton has announced that 70 percent of full-time National Park Service jobs may be farmed out to the private sector — up from the 10 percent predicted last year (HCN, 12/9/02: The push is on to privatize federal jobs). The Interior Department paid CH2MHill, a private company, $5 million to design a […]
The Latest Bounce
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Timber proposal undercuts Quincy Library plan
A plan the Forest Service is touting as “a measurable, science-based assessment” of logging’s impact on California spotted owls and other forest species is raising hackles in California. The proposal, released in December, calls for cutting up to 600 million board-feet of timber — enough to build 60,000 houses — and bulldozing 160 miles of […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Loggers got scant help as industry toppled
Loggers and their communities were left out in the cold during the collapse of timber cutting on federal lands in the late 1990s. This is the conclusion of a recent study of the Northwest Economic Initiative, launched in tandem with President Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan in 1994. The study, produced by a nonprofit California think […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Spotted owl back under microscope
The timber industry is celebrating a court decision which forces the federal government to take another look at the most controversial of old-growth forest dwellers: the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet. Timber industry groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to reassess the population and habitat of the birds, as […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
On the road with Cactus Ed
One day early in the 1970s, Ed Abbey and I were cruising along a southern Utah highway in a forest-green Chevy that had rolled off the assembly line some 20 years before. Ed had given a friend $100 for it in the spring and we were both pleased that it was still running now, early […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Heard Around The West
President George Bush, reputed to create pet names for just about everybody, has one for environmentalists: They are “green, green lima beans,” according to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. If you’re one of those green beans, you might think twice about getting a divorce. A new study in the journal Nature says splitting the […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Excerpts from Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s inaugural speech Jan. 6, as he took office
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Wyoming at a crossroads.” “For too many decades, we have dreamed of a day when the government of these United States would transfer the ownership of its lands to state or private hands. While this dream may occupy our hearts, it cannot be the […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
The life of an energy colony
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Wyoming at a crossroads.” 1869: Wyoming is formed as an official territory for one purpose only: advancing the cause of the Union Pacific Railroad. The railroad wants access to southwest Wyoming’s coal fields on its transcontinental journey to the West Coast. Gov. John Campbell […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
It’s time for a new law of the river
On New Year’s Eve, the normally placid pumping station of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California at Lake Havasu felt tense. Armed security guards on the scene since 9/11 seemed grim, and tourists seeking bird-watching information were turned away. It recalled those old black-and-white pictures from when Owens Valley farmers blew up the original […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Conservation pays off in a desert town
A plan to purchase state land could save open space — and make money for schools
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Villagers rebel against sprawl
Farmers and environmentalists team up along the Rio Grande
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Dear Friends
The defrost cycle First, a little follow-up to Jeffrey Lockwood’s cover story in the last issue, (HCN, 2/3/03: The death of the Super Hopper). Locusts aren’t the only things being disgorged by glaciers as global warming takes its toll on the West’s alpine ice. The Los Angeles Times reported in January that scientists are scouring […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Wyoming at a crossroads
Can a new governor bust the Cowboy State out of its stagnant economic corral?
Posted inWotr
Why the growth apologists are wrong
There are two arguments defending sprawl in the West that never seem to end, and I hope I can convince you that both are flawed. The first argument is that current residents must not try to “shut the door” on growth because they have no right to deny others what they enjoy. Forget for a […]
Posted inWotr
Talking trash in a national monument
The December afternoon was dry and warm as I eased my car along a remote, rock-studded road on Canyons of the Ancients National Monument near Cortez, Colo. I hadn’t seen another soul, so it was a surprise when I came around a curve at 5 mph and spied a Ford pickup parked facing me in […]
Posted inWotr
There are perils in cowboy diplomacy
If there is one thing President George Bush has figured out, it’s the importance of a 10-gallon hat to the American electorate. We adore the cowboy politician, no matter if it’s a pose. No one cares that he was educated at Phillips and Yale, is the grandson of a patrician senator from Connecticut, and summered […]
Posted inWotr
Come in, Krispy Kreme
Idaho may have gained the dubious distinction of leading the West in regressive economic innovations. In the small town of Blackfoot, local police will soon show off the first of their three new police cruisers, all free to the taxpayer. Well, not exactly free. The patrol cars will cost a buck, and there is a […]
Posted inWotr
Dreams for sale in Leadville, Colorado
The latest team of economic-development consultants to visit Leadville, Colo., recently presented its cure for this former mining town’s chronic economic ills. According to these experts, Leadville could create jobs, attract new businesses and people and rebuild its tax base by constructing an industrial park and expanding its local airport to handle 737-type jets. My […]
Posted inWotr
Reporters need to play a better numbers game
For nearly a decade, proposals to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have been at the heart of a political debate that touches on a wide range of potent issues: the moral and military implications of America’s dependence on foreign energy supplies, the proper balance between stewardship and exploitation of natural resources, […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Dummy up and deal
(Card) dealers are reminded many times … that they are on the bottom of the food chain, where they have to feel fortunate to gather up the crumbs that fall off the table. On the other hand, where else can a person without a high school diploma earn forty to a hundred thousand a year […]