I like to work alone, far from other people, in the deserts and mountains of southeastern Idaho. These are the forgotten lands, rarely seen by the public and only occasionally by agency personnel. On one job I will always remember, I am in the Black Pine Range, working as an independent biologist for the Black […]
In the lion’s eye
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Heard around the West
It is rare that reading a press release leaves us feeling a sense of amazement, if not downright wonder. The one that follows, from Yellowstone National Park, was sent to the news media by staffer Olivia McCombs under the ho-hum headline: “Bear Incident in Yellowstone National Park.” But here’s the story that followed: “Abigail Thomas, […]
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Restoring the West, goat by goat
In the early 1990s, Leslie Barclay bought a ranch a half-hour south of Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was from back East, and like many newcomers to the West with some money and energy, she was romantic about the region and the land. She understood that it wasn’t in great shape, but she thought it […]
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
2,997 … 2,998 … 2,999
Note: This is a sidebar to a feature story about the killer-bee invasion of the West, headlined: The Buzz Business. Counting killer bee stings is a tedious chore. Usually the total is estimated, but one person gets exact counts – Justin Schmidt, a research entomologist who’s spent 22 years at the Carl Hayden Bee Research […]
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Can green-certified lumber make it?
Some foresters say environmental management doesn’t reap extra profit
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Mount Hood recreation may go big time
Will a destination resort push out pear orchards?
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Earth First!er Judi Bari avenged at last
Federal court finds FBI and police violated activists’ free speech
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Dear Friends
Conflagration Troubles of the modern West continue to break out around the home of High Country News. A month ago in this space, we talked about coalbed-methane developers beginning to target the mesa slopes near our office in Paonia. Now the trouble is wildfire in areas where people have chosen to live. Even though the […]
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
The buzz business
Some people try to make a killing on killer bees
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Take a look at California’s dairies
Dear HCN, Thanks to author Stephen Stuebner for the excellent article on dairy problems in the Magic Valley (HCN, 4/15/02: Raising a stink). I was raised on an irrigated dairy farm (70 head of Holsteins) in the Orchard Valley area south of Wendell, Idaho, and still have family there. During visits over the last 10 […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Margolis blows it again
Dear HCN, For someone like myself, writing to HCN has about the same benefits as a Kurd appealing to Saddam, but here goes nothing, anyway. Jon Margolis’ monument (HCN, 5/13/02: New monuments: Planning by numbers) analysis was linked to me and I had to surf it up – and as usual, Jon blows it. The […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Kind words are more than coronets
Dear HCN, Your last issues are so readable and well-written, I can’t believe it’s the same paper I struggled to understand five years ago in order to better politically advocate for the environment. The way it’s being written now, I have found that high school and even junior high students can educate themselves from it. […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Yellowstone rangers bound and gagged
Dear HCN, Living in Yellowstone National Park, I wanted to get a first-hand opinion on the snowmobile debate. I’d read reports from the EPA, the snowmobile industry, experts on flora and fauna and everything else, but I hadn’t heard the voice that I felt knew the most: the park rangers. So I asked some park […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Interior’s conflicting interests
Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles is in a pickle. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency effectively delayed the drilling of 39,000 coalbed-methane wells in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin – a major energy project Griles and the Bush administration had hoped to expedite (HCN, 11/5/01: Wyoming’s powder keg ). The EPA rated Interior’s environmental […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Duwamish? Duwamish who?
WASHINGTON The Duwamish, a Northwest tribe, doesn’t exist, according to Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Since 1978, the tribe has been seeking federal recognition that would grant them control over their government and lands, make them eligible for federal funds for education, health care and social programs, and allow casino operations. The 560 members of the […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
The Latest Bounce
Boise, Idaho’s efforts to protect open space are gaining ground (HCN, 6/18/01: Surprise! Boise votes for open space). Almost a year after voters approved a $10 million tax to buy open space in the city’s foothills, the city announced its first purchase: a 42-acre parcel in Hulls Gulch originally slated for subdivision development. The city […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
In the throat of a black hole
I am standing over this crevice of Antelope Canyon, a thin fissure in the bedrock of far northern Arizona, a tourist attraction on the Navajo Reservation. It is dark down there, as if I am looking through the cracked roof of a mosque into an unlit interior. A metal ladder leads down and I follow […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Heard around the West
The heck with drought! In some suburbs outside of Denver, it’s grass that counts, and heaven help you if you let it yellow and wither. Some residents of the covenant-controlled developments at Highlands Ranch and in the town of Westminster found that out recently when they tried to be good citizens and save water. Notices […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
The name might be green, but not the group
When it comes to environmental, wildlife or habitat issues, it’s smart to be wary of names and titles. I was reminded of that recently when a group called the Nebraska Habitat Conservation Coalition gathered to consider strategies for halting habitat protection for wildlife along the Platte River. That’s right. The Habitat Conservation Coalition opposes habitat […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Tribes blur the line between wild and hatchery fish
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. For a glimpse of how far hatchery reform can go, state and federal agencies need only look at what tribes like the Nez Perce, Umatilla and Yakama are doing with their hatcheries. With money from the Northwest Power Planning Council, a congressionally appointed committee […]