For years, the Hells Canyon dams in Idaho have been the subject of intense debate: Should we breach them and restore the Snake River, or keep the dams and save the local economy? Now, two reports have come out, representing both sides of the issue. After more than 10 years of research, Idaho Power, which […]
Does dam breaching make cents?
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Revisiting Alcatraz
In November 1969, a small group of Native American students and “urban Indians” landed on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and occupied the former prison for more than 19 months. The “invasion” was a protest of the U.S. government’s Indian policies and programs, and some say it kicked off the fiery “Red Power” movement […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Yellowstone goes retro
Yellowstone is not only our first national park; in 1922, it was also the nation’s second-largest bus company (right behind Greyhound), operating a fleet of 400 yellow convertible buses for visitors who traveled to the park by rail. But by the 1960s, as automobiles became the preferred transportation to the park, the yellow buses were […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Judges rule gas leases are illegal
The Bush administration’s rush to develop hundreds of thousands of coalbed methane wells in five Western states hit a roadblock Oct. 15. Two judges on the Department of Interior Board of Land Appeals ruled that the federal Bureau of Land Management has illegally leased methane rights without evaluating impacts. The BLM’s method of granting leases […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Nuclear dump may be supersized
NEVADA It will be at least 8 years before a nuclear dump opens in Yucca Mountain, but every inch of space in it has already been claimed. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that new estimates released by the Department of Energy show that, once the existing commercial nuclear waste is moved into Yucca Mountain, there […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
The Latest Bounce
Taking its duty to expedite energy exploration on public lands very seriously, the Bureau of Land Management has given a hearty thumbs-up to a plan for seismic exploration for natural gas in Uintah County, Utah. In early October, the agency issued a “finding of no significant impact” for the tests, which would spread across more […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Small-town determination at 25 percent off
POWELL, Wyo. – To people just passing through this town of 5,500 people, the department store on the main street, near the post office and True Value Hardware, must seem painfully ordinary. Inside, customers browse displays of clothing, shoes and jewelry, picking out what they want to buy. But there’s a lot more to Powell […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Heard Around the West
Judy Powell says she didn’t think twice about walking onto the plane at Los Angeles International Airport with a doll that she’d bought in Las Vegas for her grandson. Toenail clippers may get taken away and destroyed, she assumed, but never a child’s toy some 12 inches high. Wrong assumption. The doll was GI Joe, […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
The message of 30,000 dead salmon
Call me a radical, but I think fish need water. I’d hazard a guess that most Americans would agree, since it’s just plain common sense. But when it comes to the over-promised waters of the Klamath Basin in southern Oregon and Northern California, common sense often seems to fly out the window. As a scientist, […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Rural residents bring fierce friends
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Even beyond the suburbs, crows dog their human benefactors. In the old-growth forests of the Olympic Peninsula, just across the Puget Sound from Seattle, University of Washington graduate student Erik Neatherlin has found that crows are taking full advantage of the leftovers at crowded […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Bush’s war on terrorism comes West
A small Montana town could become a center for bioterrorism research
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Jet Ski riders circle the wagons
Starting Nov. 6, watercraft will be banned from Lake Powell
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Forests could lose environmental review
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Bush undermines bedrock environmental law.” While the Bush administration has focused its efforts to “streamline” environmental reviews on energy and transportation projects, the next big showdown will take place in the national forests. Tweaking the National Environmental […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Bush undermines bedrock environmental law
After 33 years, the National Environmental Policy Act may be ‘streamlined’
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Deer, elk disease doesn’t scare hunters
Tests show chronic wasting disease is more widespread than once thought
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Popular historian passes on
Historian Stephen Ambrose died Oct. 13 at age 66. Although Ambrose was best-known for his popular histories of World War II, he also wrote about the West. Undaunted Courage, the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and Nothing Like it in the World, about the building of the transcontinental railroad, were both national best-sellers. […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Farewell, Blazin’ Ben
On July 11, 1932, “Blazin’ Ben” Eastman appeared on the cover of Time. A few weeks later, the holder of eight world track records (a medley of quarter- and half-mile distances) got more publicity when he won a silver Olympic medal in the 400-meter event at Los Angeles. He got a bit more publicity when […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Asking hard questions
The cool, crystal-blue autumn days have brought a flurry of visitors to High Country News headquarters. Most recently, a posse from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., stopped by, midway through a new environmental studies field program. The “Whitman College Semester in the West” is the brainchild of professor Phil Brick, who won a Mellon […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Shadow creatures
SEATTLE, Wash. – It doesn’t seem too difficult to trap a crow. Especially if you’re armed with a remote-controlled, rifle-powered, 25-foot-square net and a heap of stale white bread. Especially if you’ve seen the crow in question almost every day for the past six years. Especially if it lives just a couple of wingflaps from […]
Posted inWotr
Peace of mind is a social contract
When it came time for me to buy a house, I purposely chose the Old Town neighborhood in Pocatello, Idaho, where I live and work. The neighborhood can be described as low-to-moderate income housing with many homes built as long as a century ago. I love the eclectic atmosphere of lived-in houses, each one individually […]