The state may pull its support for reintroduction
Arizona waffles on wolves
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Jeffords proves the West is part of the USA
The new score in the Senate throws policy decisions a-tumble
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Montana shock jock stokes the fires of fear
Environmentalists face ‘hate propaganda’
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Surprise! Boise votes for open space
Support for tax levy breaks an Idaho tradition
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Dear Friends
The board comes to Paonia Meetings of the board of the High Country Foundation are always interesting. But the June 3 meeting in Paonia was almost too interesting. It opened with longtime board member Andy Wiessner objecting to a column High Country News distributed through its Writers on the Range syndication service in early May. […]
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Transforming powers
Drought, salmon and the deregulated electricity market could end the Northwest’s love affair with public power
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Anatomy of the West
Dear HCN, Ah! Political correctness … and all its ironies. When I was younger, I’d get outraged at some of this nonsense. In my grandmother’s day, to have an outlaw or American Indian blood in the family was a shame and kept secret. But attitudes change, as well as word usage. Gay. Totally different word, […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
‘Squaw’ and mindless parroting of bad science
Dear HCN, I have been amused for the past 30 years each time someone takes umbrage at the use of the word squaw while making the assertion that it is a vulgar term invented by white man to demean Native American women. We did encourage and abet the destruction of the early inhabitants by means […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Fiery anthropocentrism
Dear HCN, Steve Pyne’s fine article on Ed Pulaski, and the Forest Service’s corporate culture about forest fires, is a great read (HCN, 4/23/01: The Big Blowup). But Steve, like so many others, fails to see the main point about humans vs. fires. Fires happen. It’s not our fault. The idea that finding “a Pulaski” […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Cooperation and other shibboleths
Dear HCN, I don’t know how many times I’ve read or heard that the solution to the differences between environmentalists and ranchers is “cooperation.” Lovely word, cooperation. Unfortunately, it seems to mean different things to different people. To the rancher, it’s “leave us alone to do our thing.” To most environmentalists, it means reducing the […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Erring on waste
Dear HCN, As a Christmas subscriber, I have both praise and criticism for three recent articles about nuclear waste in the West. In the Dec. 18, 2000, issue, Oakley Brooks authored a short but commendable piece called “Agency gets rebuked,” in which he unearthed a rather obscure report critical of the Department of Energy’s long-term […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Battling for the Bear River
When newspaper photographer Dan Miller covered a protest against a highway project near Logan, Utah, he saw a demonstrator brandishing a sign with the timeworn slogan “Think Globally, Act Locally.” The sentiment hit home. “I realized I needed to be thinking backyard, neighborhood, community,” he says. That meant turning his attention toward the Bear River […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
A sand-brown world
… and the tourists in the curio shop not knowing what to say for once in their lives, but feeling the ground rolling beneath them, experience something most of them won’t see in a lifetime, up on the shelf the kachina dolls, those little gods of beneficence who’ve stood there so long they’re mad about […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Intrepid explorer with a cause
Many recent college graduates shoulder their backpacks for a genteel trip to Europe. Not Soren Jespersen. The Northern Arizona University alum hoisted his for a five-month 2,200-mile solo trek around the Four Corners region to raise money for the Center for Humanitarian Outreach and Intercultural Exchange or CHOICE. The Utah-based group, directed by Soren’s dad, […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
A high country whodunit
When gasoline-inspired flames devoured the massive, splendid Two Elk restaurant atop Vail Mountain in October 1998, many people automatically blamed environmental activists. After all, a federal judge had just allowed the Vail ski area, already the nation’s largest and busiest, to expand into an area where evidence of the rare Canada lynx had been found […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Will the Grand Staircase suffer shrinkage?
UTAH After years of griping about national monuments, Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, wants to create one. The ranking member of the House Resources Committee is hoping to preserve 50 acres of Jurassic-era dinosaur tracks unearthed last year in St. George, Utah. The tracks show uniquely sharp detail of knuckles, tail drags and skin texture. But […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Lake Coeur d’Alene at stake
IDAHO Locked in a custody battle over the southern third of Lake Coeur d’Alene, the Coeur d’Alene tribe and the State of Idaho are arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court. Idaho says the entire lake falls under its aegis. The tribe, however, claims partial ownership under the 19th century treaty that established its reservation. “It’s […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Jackson Hole takes aim at helicopter tours
WYOMING There’s a fierce dogfight in progress over the airspace in Teton County, Wyo. Vortex Aviation Services, headed by Gary Kauffman, is gearing up to begin commercial helicopter tours over the county’s scenic areas this summer (HCN, 8/14/00: Whirlybirds will fly over Jackson). The plan has environmentalists and other concerned citizens declaring war. “We don’t […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
The Latest Bounce
Vermont Sen. James Jeffords’ defection from the Republican Party was costly for Western Republicans. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah lost his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico stepped down as budget chairman; and Sen. John McCain of Arizona lost his top seat on the Commerce Committee. Western Democrats now […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Dogs to sniff out grizzly numbers
WASHINGTON The mystery of how many grizzly bears inhabit Washington’s rugged North Cascade Mountains may soon be solved with some help from man’s best friend. David Wasser, a zoology professor at the University of Washington, is using four dogs to sniff out bear scat; Wasser says they can smell it from up to a half-mile […]