Thirty thousand birds called common murres stand in penguin-like suits atop a single sea rock, crammed as tightly together as commuters on a bus. All drone tones as low and somber as monks: arg-arg-arg-arg-arg-arg-arg-arg. With a spotting scope, I watch the murres raise their chocolate heads, puff out their white breasts and point their bills […]
Sea coasts rough sailing for breeding birds
Posted inWotr
If it’s good for Florida, it’s good for Montana and the West, too
If Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were governor of Montana, would the Rocky Mountain Front get highest-level protection from future oil and gas development? You bet it would. This May President Bush announced that he intended to buy back more than $200 million worth of oil and gas leases off the Florida coast and in the […]
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Can’t we all just give a little out on the trail?
“Can’t we all just get along?” With those words Rodney King became the world’s most unlikely idealist. Prior to that famous videotape of his beating at the hands of LA’s finest, Rodney was not only misbehaving, he was out of control. The man whose violent behavior led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots wondered aloud […]
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From a Democrat’s perspective: Let’s fight fire where it counts and stop pointing fingers
This year was among the worst in a string of terrible fire seasons. So far we have lost 6.5 million acres to wildfire “- more than twice the annual average. In my home state of New Mexico where we’ve have had a rough season, many residents are still smarting two years after fire destroyed hundreds […]
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From a Republican’s perspective:Let’s cut through environmental red tape and cut trees to stop fires
On Aug. 22, President Bush went to Central Point, Ore., to view the devastation caused by catastrophic wildfires and announce his Healthy Forest Initiative. In one simple statement he summed up what Westerners have known for years and what nearsighted environmentalists don’t want to accept: “If you let kindling build up, and there’s a lightning […]
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A railroad through Wyoming and South Dakota grasslands is a stab to the heart
If the legal appeals don’t work, two of the nation’s three largest grasslands will become home to the biggest railroad project since Abraham Lincoln was president. Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad plans to build a 260-mile line through Buffalo Gap National Grassland in South Dakota and Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming. The line would […]
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Of mice and me, or how I paid a fee and built a better mousetrap
I never planned to improve upon any kind of mousetrap but for some reason it appears I’ve done exactly that. This is how it happened: Every year my wife and I spend a few days avoiding the summer heat of western Colorado by camping high up in the White River National Forest. For the past […]
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You pay your money, you get your recreation
Earlier this month, I told staffers of a U.S. Senate committee about my annual ritual where a woman in a Park Service uniform passes me a map of Yellowstone, brochures on bison safety and my National Parks Pass. I turn over $50 to her, and for the next year I have access to everything from […]
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Fee demo on our public lands is a rip-off
If there’s a basic flaw in the government’s Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, or “fee demo,” it’s that it represents a form of regressive taxes, or double taxation. We, the people, already pay taxes for the management of public lands, and now, under fee demo, we are required to pay again for their use. That strikes […]
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Guess what’s the most dangerous government job
Think of all the dangerous beats assigned to federal law enforcement officers: tracking illegal arms sales, intercepting drug smugglers, guarding the nation’s borders against foreign terrorists, apprehending kidnappers and fugitives, protecting the lives of potential assassination targets. Now, guess which branch of federal law enforcement is the most dangerous, in terms of the rate at […]
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Democrats need to pick up their guns
For the past 25 years or so, Democrats have been the party of protection for public lands, while Republicans have generally supported more mining, drilling, logging and grazing. It hasn’t always been this way. The protection of public lands was a mainstay of Republican policy for generations. Democrats, acting on behalf of their constituencies – […]
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Freedom of the press is eroding before our eyes
On Sept. 1, the Idaho Statesman ran a fascinating exposé of local CEO salaries. The amounts of money, stock options and the all-encompassing “bonuses” lavished on these public company executives were staggering and obscene. Not to mention, according to Statesman reporter Julie Howard, “generous severance, salary, pension and retirement packages.” Many of the companies the […]
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We care for our public lands more than we know
Hear the debate rage. As someone once said, academics get so angry at each other because the stakes are so small. “The author does not seem to understand, and thus misrepresents, many of the concepts he wants scrutinized,” asserts one scientist. “I focus on what appears to be the source of his snappishness,” says another. […]
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There’s nothing like watching a grizzly bear in the wild
We heard them long before we saw them. My husband and I were watching a grizzly feeding on the slope across the drainage from us when weird howls drifted through the valley. The bear heard the strange sounds, too, and eased into the brush at the base of a berry patch. The noises came again, […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
California isn’t profligate!
Dear HCN, Allow me to correct some statements made by Susan Zakin in her article about the central California river delta (HCN, 9/3/02: Delta Blues). California is said to employ “profligate use of water.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Southern Californians consume considerably less water, per capita, than people in nearby states (and a […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
More stories to tell at Martin’s Cove
Dear HCN, I think you missed the point when you spoke of only one side of the Martin’s Cove story being told on a Mormon-owned site (HCN, 9/30/02: This land holds a story the church won’t tell). The issue of a “holier-than-thou” attitude that led to movement from New York to Ohio to Missouri to […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Mayor, not minnow, is to blame
Dear HCN, Following the lead of our Illustrious and Infallible Leader, Emperor Bush the Second, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez has declared war on the endangered silvery minnow. Chavez has promised to appeal the decision of Judge James Parker, Chief Justice of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court (HCN, 10/14/02: Albuquerque is dragged into Rio Grande fight). […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Cove should stay with BLM
Dear HCN, I am writing to express the Public Lands Foundation’s (PLF) opposition to the transfer of 1,640 acres of public land to the LDS Church (HCN, 9/30/02). The Public Lands Foundation is a nonprofit national conservation organization whose members are from the general public and retired BLM employees, all who are interested in the […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Martin’s Cove essay was distorted
Dear HCN, I am writing this letter to let you know how disappointed I was to read the article, “This land holds a story the church won’t tell” (HCN, 9/30/02: This land holds a story the church won’t tell). I might expect such a poorly written article to be found in a scam paper, such […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
An activist who never let up
Norma Smith’s biography, Jeannette Rankin: America’s Conscience, records the inspiring courage, integrity and optimism of the first woman elected to Congress, dramatically recounting Rankin’s struggles and successes as an activist. Smith, a personal friend of Rankin, writes that as a congresswoman, Rankin’s interests shifted from suffrage to pacifism. She often said, “The first vote of […]