Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. A quick trip through the life cycle of a salmon, be it hatchery or wild, makes human development appear quite simple. In late summer or early fall, the female salmon deposits several thousand eggs in a shallow river bottom nest called a redd. In […]
The wild (and not-so-wild) sex life of salmon
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Exotic-killing herbicide is ousted from the range
BLM’s most promising tool for fighting cheatgrass backfires in Idaho
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
No magic bullet for wasting disease
Critics assail slaughter of elk, deer as strategy against CWD
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Permanent user fees in the pipeline
Agencies struggle toward a unified public-lands pass
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Dear Friends
Digging deep When Rebecca Clarren, fresh out of college and working as a maid in Alaska, decided to become a journalist five years ago, she never dreamed she’d soon be writing lengthy stories about federal water policy or the structure of Native American governments. How borrrrrring. She envisioned telling lively stories with fascinating personalities and […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Hatching reform
SEATTLE, Wash. – From 80 feet above downtown, the throngs of people wrapped in raincoats on the sidewalk below look like a spilled package of multicolored candies. The view is less colorful looking outward from the eighth floor window of the historic Cobb building, but no less busy; glass and steel high-rises thrust upward in […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Why did the salmon cross the road: The real story
Dear HCN, I happen to work in the watershed where the salmon picture was taken for Heard around the West (HCN, 4/29/02: Heard around the West). As a matter of clarification, the “car-dodging salmon” are not a “spring phenomenon” and they were not trying to “get back to the river.” This is a picture of […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Wyoming Game and Fish is a jacklit deer
Dear HCN, Karen Mockler’s recent report, “Are Wyoming’s elk feedgrounds a hotbed of disease?” (HCN, 4/29/02: Are Wyoming’s elk feedgrounds a hotbed of disease?), reminded me again of journalism’s greatest weaknesses: No matter how good the report is, there are never enough column inches to tell the whole story, and sometimes crucial facts fall through […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Leave mud slinging to experts
Dear HCN, This letter is to correct misinformation conveyed by Mark Williams in a letter regarding San Miguel County, Colo.’s proposed “high alpine zone” land-use code changes (HCN, 3/4/02: Allen Best flunks the snow test). It is too bad that Mr. Williams, in an otherwise informative letter, succumbed to the ever-popular mud-slinging at high-profile celebrities […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Feedgrounds are necessary
Dear HCN, The conservation groups of Wyoming would like to phase out the 23 Wyoming elk feedgrounds (HCN, 4/29/02: Are Wyoming’s feedgrounds a hotbed of disease?). Well, I was a member of several of the Wyoming conservation groups as you call them, and I was never asked to support the phaseout of the Wyoming feedgrounds. […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Fresh alternative to lawsuits
Dear HCN, It was refreshing and encouraging to read “A new world in the woods” (HCN, 4/1/02: A new world in the woods). While environmental groups promote divisiveness and confrontation through the courts at taxpayers’ expenses, people such as Headley and Wilcox make a difference on the ground without sensationalism or posturing. They directly help […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Woody leviathans
Robert Van Pelt, a forest ecology researcher at the University of Washington and Evergreen State College, has two lifelong obsessions: trees and curious facts. So it seems inevitable that he would hunt out the woody leviathans showcased in his book Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast. Measuring trees is a science, and Van Pelt takes […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Writing Naturally
“Words, your words, can make all the difference in the world,” renowned nature writer David Petersen asserts in his highly readable Writing Naturally: A Down to Earth Guide to Nature Writing. He wants to help you make that difference. Over the course of 16 short chapters, covering grammar, research, style, editing, and publishing, Petersen guides […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Spreading seeds of knowledge
When Greek scholar turned cattle rancher Claude A. Barr died in 1982, he left behind a lifetime of discoveries and observations about South Dakota flora. He was “a self-taught wizard of Great Plains native plants,” says Cindy Reed, a South Dakota native and protege of Barr’s. To preserve Barr’s legacy, Reed founded the Great Plains […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
New museum takes visitors beyond Yellowstone
Dr. Charles Preston wishes he had better understood the Yellowstone region during his first visit there as a teen-ager. Now, as curator of the new Draper Museum in Cody, Wyo., his job is to bolster the knowledge of a new generation of Yellowstone visitors. The Draper, part of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, links geological, […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
The garden of good and evil
Follow the simple steps listed on the back of any of the popular wildflower seed mixes for sale, and voila! A thick carpet of kaleidoscopic blooms will grace your garden. Problem is, you probably just broke the law. At least, that’s what researchers with the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture discovered when they […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Singing cowboys strike a bad chord
UTAH Cultural tourism may be a hot ticket in some parts of the West, but a troupe of singing cowboys is looking for a new home after their failed theater proposal divided a small northern Utah town. The Bar-K Wranglers, a six-man ensemble that performs a dinner theater show, wanted to build a permanent venue […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Hansen pops a wheelie
UTAH If Utah Rep. Jim Hansen has his way, northern Utah forests may become a Mecca for ATV riders. In April, the 11-term Republican and chairman of the House Resources Committee introduced a bill that would create the Shoshone National Recreation Trail along hundreds of miles of backcountry roads mostly in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Expatriate fish could return a hero
The cure for the exotic whirling disease, a fatal malady in trout, could – ironically – lie in a foreign fish. Researchers recently found that Hofer rainbow trout, the offspring of Pacific rainbow trout taken to Germany in 1880, are 10 to 100 times less susceptible to whirling disease than native U.S. rainbow trout, thanks […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Raptors won’t fry away
Since the 1970s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has monitored the electrocution of hawks and eagles, whose large wing spans can easily bridge the gap between live wires on power lines (HCN, 12/7/98: Power poles make deadly perches). Though the agency has the authority to prosecute electric companies under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act […]