Has the Bush administration forgotten about the West?
No game plan for the public lands
Posted inFebruary 4, 2002: Last dance for the sage grouse?
A Great Old Broad
Celia Hunter, legendary wilderness advocate, died peacefully at home in her log cabin in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Dec. 1. She was 82. Though Celia’s work has been lauded by the nation’s major environmental groups, nothing speaks more about her life than how she lived her last days on earth. Last summer, Celia donned a drysuit […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2002: Last dance for the sage grouse?
Dear Friends
Spreading the News You may notice that the middle four pages of this issue look a bit different than usual. We’re using this special pull-out section to announce our Spreading the News fund-raising campaign, which is designed to support this organization’s evolution from a newspaper into a full-fledged multimedia organization. We’re already on our way. […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2002: Last dance for the sage grouse?
Last dance for the sage grouse?
GUNNISON, Colo. – The way to see sagebrush is not as most people do, through the windshield of a vehicle speeding toward someplace else. Slow down and get out of the car; walk in the midst of it. Then the sagebrush in the cold, dry Gunnison Valley can have a scraggly beauty. It rolls across […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
A new vision for the BLM
Two conservation groups have teamed up on a report intended to shift the Bureau of Land Management away from its long-term emphasis on natural-resource extraction and toward conservation of the public lands. This reasonable and readable 74-page report by the National Wildlife Federation and Natural Resources Defense Council sets out a vision for the BLM’s […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Gaining ground for the buffalo
The prophecy of the return of the American buffalo to the Great Plains has lingered like a whisper among Plains tribes since the emergence of the Ghost Dance in 1880. In the past few years, the Great Plains Restoration Council, a group whose aim is to repair vast tracts of prairie ecosystems for free-ranging buffalo, […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Artists paint a Pacific Northwest history
A book this smart makes you wonder why the undertaking hasn’t been done before: telling the story of a region through the paintings it has inspired. No matter, because Sasquatch Books has just released The Pacific Northwest Landscape: A Painted History, an excellently assembled book edited by Northwest Bookfest founder Kitty Harmon. It presents canvases […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Alternative development goes mainstream
A good hard rain in the Pacific Northwest’s urban areas can be bad news for the environment. Storm water draining off rooftops and through gutters can carry pollutants, damaging streams and wildlife habitat. Now, a group of planners may have a solution. Called low-impact development (LID), it focuses on innovative ways to manage storm water […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Montana story ignores antis’ ongoing attack
Dear HCN, Ray Ring’s cover story on the environmental movement in Montana is a fascinating and instructive history which all Western environmentalists should study. But I can’t help feeling Ray missed one of the most important factors in the decline of Montana’s progressive coalition and the environmental movement in the rural West generally. Ring accurately […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Ring misreads Montana
Dear HCN, I believe Ray Ring’s piece on Montana environmental politics lacks a broader contextual framework that would provide insight and result in different conclusions. The suggestion that Montana’s progressive environmental legislation passed in the early 1970s due to greater collaboration with rural industries misses a big historical point. Although briefly acknowledged by Ring, the […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Tango took rural reps, too
Dear HCN, As a longtime environmental activist living in Montana and involved in a number of collaborative efforts, I question Mr. Ring’s assumption that it is environmentalists alone who have failed to compromise or work towards shared solutions.After all, it takes two to tango. Looking at the environmental scorecard of Montana Conservation Voters, we see […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Active Green Party left out of Montana analysis
Dear HCN, I appreciated Ray Ring’s analysis of Montana’s political landscape. However, I was surprised that he neglected to mention the latest wave of progressive politics in Montana, the Green Party. Montana hosts a statewide Green Party and active groups in Missoula, Bozeman and Billings * that hotbed of radical environmentalism. The Green Party is […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Montana Greens need local roots
Dear HCN, Ray Ring got it mostly right with his dissertation on the relationship of Montana environmentalists with “other” Montanans (HCN, 12/17/01: Bad moon rising). He really nailed it when he got past the “easy” answers and into “rural-thinking, rooted to an immense landscape, and every once in a while rebelling against domination by external […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Wishful thinking about a corrupt institution
Dear HCN, I am writing in response to the letter from Courtney White (HCN, 12/3/01: Grazing story ignored radical center), wherein he chastised your paper’s failure to focus on the “radical center” in the public-lands grazing debate. He claimed, “There is a progressive ranching movement afoot, and there are plenty of good stories out there.” […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Time to broaden the earth-protecting coalition
Dear HCN, I’d like to jump into the ongoing debate over which viewpoints are legitimate for HCN to publish. I understand that this publication was founded with passion for environmental preservation. Very important still, but surely the time is ripe to welcome ranchers and timber companies as potential allies instead of designated villains. I was […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Shaking out some salt solutions
Dear HCN, Jim Downing’s article about the problem of salt in the San Joaquin Valley (HCN, 11/19/01: Will salt sink an agricultural empire?) suggests that, at the present time, the only solution is to complete the aqueduct to the delta. Considering the cost of what is happening now, perhaps one other solution, other than a […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Wheeling and dealing
UTAH Roads are again at the center of the long debate over Utah wilderness. Two environmental groups say they fear the Bureau of Land Management and the governor’s office have a secret deal in the works that would settle a dispute over Utah counties’ claims to thousands of dirt roads and trails on federal lands. […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Boy Scouts want new digs
COLORADO The Boy Scouts, with their image as resourceful, courteous, “leave no trace” outdoorsmen, seem an unlikely focal point for an environmental controversy over public land use. But that is where the Western Colorado Council of the Boy Scouts of America has found itself since proposing a new Boy Scout camp in the White River […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Greens bail on ‘bilers
WYOMING Last summer, a group of snowmobilers, wildlife advocates, cross-country skiers and business owners embarked on an ambitious adventure: to work out a collaborative plan for managing winter use in the Medicine Bow National Forest’s Snowy Range. By early September, two environmentalists had defected. Eric Bonds of Biodiversity Associates and the other green, University of […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Cat trouble dogs Flagstaff
ARIZONA Ever since the Arizona Game and Fish Department killed two mountain lions on the edge of Flagstaff last fall, residents have been grappling with the hard facts of life on the edge of the forest. Game and Fish contracted with the federal Wildlife Services agency to kill the two lions, one Sept. 16 and […]