But will ranchers and Congress buy in?
Grazing foes float a buyout
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Dear Friends
It’s gut check time for a conservative Western Colorado county The county that has been home to High Country News for the last 19 years has reached a decisive moment. For the last few decades, residents of 1,149-square-mile Delta County have chosen a live-and-let-live approach to land use. Outside of the towns, we have no […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Wolf at the door
Now that the West’s top predator has reached civilization’s back porch, managers face some agonizing decisions
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Condors and bullets
Dear HCN, Four things that I wish you had covered in your story on lead in condors (HCN, 2/18/02: Condor program laden with lead): 1) The problem is with deer gut piles left by legal hunting, probably not with wounded and lost game. Gut piles from legally taken game number in the hundreds during the […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Charter forests not an answer
Dear HCN, Finding ways to make the Forest Service more accountable is an admirable task. Excluding the public from Forest Service decisions will make things worse. The Charter Forest idea will exclude the public from decision-making processes. Charter forest projects will likely cost the taxpayers more and provide environmentally harmful results. The vast majority of […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
It takes one to know one
Dear HCN, Regarding the article about habitat protection taking a hit under the Bush administration (HCN, 4/15/02: Habitat protection takes a critical hit), may I say about the Sierra Club’s Bill Arthur quote: It takes one to know one. It was the Clinton administration that waited for environmentalists to file lawsuits and then settled the […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
USFWS creating enemies through empire building
Dear HCN, Re: your recent article, “Habitat protection takes a critical hit” (HCN, 4/15/02: Habitat protection takes a critical hit). What has happened here is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service performed a very poor and cursory economic analysis in establishing critical habitat for the southern willow flycatcher in New Mexico, and they got […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
‘Commercial message’ prompts questions
Dear HCN, As any HCN reader knows, there’s a whole lot to environmentally responsible red-meat ranching: including, but not limited to, conscientious stocking and grazing rotation, scrupulous protection of riparian areas, big-hearted attitudes about the presence of large canid predators as vital, rightful, native members of the ecosystems into which exotic, domestic, grazing animals are […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Kudos for Quillen
Dear HCN, I do not want to tell you that Ed Quillen’s article about Mel Coleman (HCN, 4/1/02: The ‘Niche West’ reconnects us to the land) was worth the price of this year’s subscription, but it’s some of the best work he or you has done. You can remind me of that next time I […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Infuriating selfishness
Dear HCN, In your last two issues you featured articles on the snowmobiles in West Yellowstone (HCN, 4/1/02: Move over!) and the dairy farms in Idaho’s Magic Valley (HCN, 4/15/02: Raising a stink). There is a common and infuriating thread: The producers of pollution, be it noise or bad odors, noxious fumes or foul wastes, […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
West Yellowstone a cosmic comedy
Dear HCN, You can imagine how “silly” I felt when I read Glen Loomis’ comments about the snowmobile curfew (“it would be one more of the freedoms in our country whittled away”) (HCN, 4/1/02: Move over!). I felt “silly” as I realized that I must have been too preoccupied with my head being up my […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Four ways to oppose snowmobiles
Dear HCN, Your excellent story on snowmobiles and West Yellowstone (HCN, 4/1/02: Move over!) demonstrates one among several points: After a new, destructive practice has gained a foothold in the local economy, it can be virtually impossible to control, much less dislodge. People who valued tranquility, clean water, kayaking, wildlife and traditional island values decided […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
New hope for abandoned mines
Touch polluted water and it’s yours forever – or at least the liability is. All across the West, well-meaning citizens have shied away from cleaning up abandoned hardrock mines and their polluted streams for fear they could be held responsible under the Clean Water Act. Now, U.S. Reps. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Bob Schaffer, R-Colo., […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Bush takes a swing at community forestry
When George W. Bush campaigned for president, he stumped in the Northwest as a friend of forgotten rural residents. Now, proposed cuts in Bush’s fiscal year 2003 budget may pull the rug out from under some of those people. Over the last several years, Pacific Northwest timber communities and workers have retooled to perform more […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
The Latest Bounce
Mounting criticism of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ creative cost-benefit analysis has prompted the agency to put 150 projects, such as harbor deepening and beach restoration, on hold. The soundness of the Corps’ criteria for evaluating projects has been questioned by the General Accounting Office and in a recent series in The Oregonian (see […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Bison under the gun – again
MONTANA It was a hard winter for the bison of Yellowstone National Park. Increased herd size and harsh weather prompted many animals to head beyond the park for better feeding grounds in Montana. There, federal and state officials have so far killed 170 bison in an attempt to prevent the spread of brucellosis to cattle […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Dredging up debate
OREGON Keeping the Port of Portland competitive means dredging the Columbia River so bigger ships can float through, at least according to Port officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who want to deepen the river from 40 to 43 feet. They say the extra depth would save the Port from sinking into obscurity, […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Spilling salt into rivers
COLORADO The Southern Ute tribe has turned a spotlight on a plan to dump water from coalbed-methane wells into a southern Colorado river. Tribal leaders recently scolded state officials for failing to consult with them before issuing a permit that will allow two coalbed-methane wells to spill water into the Florida River. Usually, the poor […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Property rights reined in
Urban planning and environmental protection got a shot in the arm on April 23, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that property owners at Lake Tahoe are not entitled to government compensation for a moratorium that prevented them from building on their land (HCN, 2/18/02). Following a series of Supreme Court decisions that bolstered […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Does desert cross cross the line?
CALIFORNIA A white cross cemented atop a rock outcropping in Mojave National Preserve has become the center of a fight over religious freedom on public land. The six-foot cross, made of metal pipes, was erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and has served as a local gathering point for Easter sunrise services. […]