Over 22,000 communities nationwide may be at risk from summer wildfires, especially those with neighborhoods where houses and forests meet, warns the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center (HCN, 5/7/01: Back into the woods). All the communities are seeking a portion of the $240 million Congress set aside last year for fire management and fuels reduction. […]
The Latest Bounce
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Mud-boggers get mud in their eye
WYOMING A U.S. magistrate dealt fines to 20 Sheridan, Wyo., four-wheelers for destroying national forest land last June. The incident happened during an annual “Spring Run” across the Bighorn National Forest, says Tongue District Ranger Craig Yancey. “Normally they do it on gravel roads, so it’s not a problem,” says Yancey, “but for some reason […]
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
County tax collectors visit public lands
COLORADO For the second time in six years, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that counties can tax ski areas, park concessionaires and others who use public lands for profit. In a 4-3 decision issued Feb. 21, the court found that a 1996 law granting property-tax exemptions to entities with “possessory interests” in public lands […]
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
The sublime delight of backtracking
It’s a Saturday midnight in late September, and David Bertelsen drives his battered car to the northern edge of Tucson, where the newest pseudo-adobes push hard against the Santa Catalina Mountains. He parks off the road, then begins walking up Finger Rock Canyon toward the summit of Mount Kimball. While many hikers try to avoid […]
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Heard around the West
Our hearts go out to that beloved icon of the Forest Service, Smokey Bear. Anxiously, perhaps, the big bear awaits his new makeover. Sure, he’ll still be pot-bellied, furry and sport a forest ranger hat. But it’s a safe bet he will no longer deliver the message: “Only you can prevent forest fires.” The spokesbear […]
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Will the Met wring the desert dry?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. With California’s Colorado River binge nearing an end, the state is looking for new ways to bring water to its desert cities. The Metropolitan Water District (the Met) has its eye on the sun-scoured Mojave Desert, where a series of underground aquifers lie waiting […]
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Living off a leaky canal
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. MEXICALI VALLEY, Baja California, Mexico – Just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the All-American Canal courses west from the Colorado River to the farms of California’s Imperial Valley. Most of the clear, fresh water rushes toward the perfect rows of alfalfa, lettuce and carrots […]
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Bush administration blinks on roadless rule
Attack on forest protection may backfire
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Plutonium in your potatoes?
Idaho discovers traces of radioactive pollution in the Snake River Aquifer
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Idaho reaches for control of the ESA
New office seeks to keep species management closer to home
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Dear Friends
A-potlucking we go The far-flung board of directors of High Country News will soon gather in Paonia, Colo., for its second meeting of the year. Following an all-day session with staff on Saturday, June 2, the board will host an evening potluck in Paonia’s shady town park on Fourth Street and North Fork Avenue. All […]
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Quenching the big thirst
Will a plan to curb California’s use of the Colorado River hold water?
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Don’t buy SITLA’s promises
Dear HCN, Moab residents have good reason to be concerned about development of lands managed by Utah’s State Institutional and Trust Lands Administration (SITLA). “Luxury looms over Moab” (HCN, 3/26/01: Luxury looms over Moab). According to SITLA’s Ric McBrier, “this will be a quality project.” Before buying that promise, Moab residents should view the eyesore […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Water from agriculture to flush what?
Dear HCN, A quotation on page 8 of the March 12 issue of HCN is a beautiful example of a doctrine of priorities that needs to be re-examined. An officer of the El Paso Water Utilities is quoted as saying that “Agriculture (which uses water from the Rio Grande) brings in only $60 million a […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Biology and botany needed in schools
Dear HCN, Before the debate over corporate vs. conservation-sponsored environmental education is presented in “Teach the children well” (HCN, 3/26/01: Teach the children well), a more fundamental problem should be addressed. Environmental education is science-based (regardless of who designs the curriculum), and the driving discipline is biology. Herein lies the problem: a strong biological curriculum […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Bias doesn’t belong in environmental education
Dear HCN, I read with great interest the cover article titled “Teach the children well” in the March 26 issue of High Country News. This subject is near and dear to me, as for many years I directed the water education program for the Utah Division of Water Resources. I was troubled, though, by what […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Reform for dumpster-diving bears
COLORADO In Pitkin County, Colo., trash is now safe from prying paws. Last month, a “bear ordinance” went into effect in all the county’s rural areas. The law, which had been in the works for more than two years, says that every trash can that hits the curb in unincorporated Pitkin County must be “wildlife-proof.” […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Kayakers seek water rights
COLORADO The city of Golden is known as the home of both the Colorado School of Mines and Coors beer. But that image is changing. The city’s kayak course on Clear Creek has put Golden on the map of recreational boaters from around the country. There’s one small problem with the course: Golden has no […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
County unveils pioneering protection plan
ARIZONA After two years of biological studies, the Tucson, Ariz., area has the first draft of its pioneering plan to protect from development hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin desert, and 56 vulnerable species, including the endangered pygmy owl. The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan would also allow 400,000 newcomers to build on less environmentally […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Shoring up wetlands protection
Wetlands protection received a boost on April 16, when the Bush administration announced it will stand by the “Tulloch Rule,” a last-minute Clinton regulation that had been delayed 60 days for review (HCN, 2/12/01). Now, the use of mechanized earth-moving equipment for excavation in wetlands must receive a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, […]