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 […]
County unveils pioneering protection plan
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, […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
The latest bounce
The Bush administration has nominated Neal McCaleb to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs. McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, is a former Oklahoma secretary of Transportation. Trained as a civil engineer, he served as a state congressman for eight years, during which time he supported a state effort to tax Indian businesses on […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Tribes scale salmon harvest
NORTHWEST Although treaties guarantee the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes the right to harvest salmon, contentious negotiations over just how many fish will come out of the river often end up in front of a judge (HCN, 12/20/99: Tribes cast for tradition, catch controversy). That’s about to change. In February, tribes and […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
The year it rained money
In early September last year, I threw my lower back out. I drove to my job in Salmon, Idaho, but by noon I could hardly stand. I scooted myself to the office lobby on a wheeled chair, then hobbled as far as the sidewalk before my legs buckled. I lay panting on the cool concrete, […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Heard around the West
Somewhat of a ham when it comes to boosting Idaho’s agriculture or timber industry, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has obligingly posed for photos standing next to a large person peering out from a bulging potato costume. But his Web site, www.senate.gov/~craig/frontpage.htm, recently featured the beaming Republican senator showing off his perky six-month-old West Highland terrier. […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
A modest chief moved the Forest Service miles down the road
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In March, Mike Dombeck resigned as chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Dombeck grew up on Wisconsin’s Chequamegon National Forest and spent years working for the Bureau of Land Management before leading the Forest Service for four years under President Clinton. While the Forest […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Making forests safe again won’t be a walk in the park
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Mark Shiery works quickly but methodically with a chainsaw in the ponderosa pine forest on the northwest edge of Flagstaff. He revs his saw to fell small trees and bucks them into two-foot sections. Then Shiery, the assistant fuels manager for […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
The West’s fire survivors
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. LODGEPOLE PINE If you watched the Yellowstone fires in 1988, you’ve seen lodgepole pine in action. This is a tree that is built to burn. It grows in dense thickets at high elevations where the climate is usually moist and cool. But when drought […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Fruita draws the line against sprawl
Rural town takes a page from ritzy mountain enclaves
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Debate rages over fish poisoning
Supporters say pesticide is the best tool for recovering native species
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Drought drains the West
Dry skies spell trouble for farmers, fish and forests
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Can Mr. Nice Guy lead the Forest Service?
Agency lifer Dale Bosworth lands in the hot seat
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Dear Friends
A community of readers We like to say that High Country News is driven as much by its readers as it is by the ever-changing news. Our letters to the editor are often more entertaining and informative than anything else in the paper. And many a time we have answered the office phone and listened […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Back into the woods
The West goes to work cleaning up its forests
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Timber towns search for a new economy
NORTH FORK, Calif. – Hidden away in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills, this town of 3,500 lies 16 miles from the nearest major road. Occupying, as the sign on the roadside says, “the exact center of California,” it’s a nice place to live: The air is crisp, everyone knows everyone else and the oak- and fir-covered […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Career bureaucrat blazes a new trail
By nature and by training, Brad Powell, regional forester for all of California, could never be called a “bunny-lover.” Yet the forest plan he signed on Jan. 12 has most environmentalists cheering. Activists were happy because the Sierra Nevada Framework is more concerned with critters such as owls than with timber volumes. It sets fires […]
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
Ranchers not necessarily the enemy
Dear HCN, As a Sierra Club member and former resident of New Mexico, I was very impressed with the “zero cow” initiative article, for it highlights the complexity of how to both use and protect public lands (HCN, 2/26/01: ‘Zero-Cow’ initiative splits Sierra Club). In the past, when the proverbial pendulum supported loggers, miners, ranchers […]
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
Bush-Cheney bunch are the new eco-terrorists
Dear HCN, Out of Edward Abbey’s novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang, came the term, “eco-terrorist,” defined as an extremist who so radically loved the ecosystems that sustain the earth, that he tried to protect them by “monkeywrenching” the tools of big extractive industry — dozers, dams and draglines — thus destroying the industrial juggernaut that […]
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
Snowmobiles have no business in Yellowstone
Dear HCN, Reading Ben Long’s story in your March 12 issue, “Yellowstone’s last stampede,” was like getting a kick in the stomach. Who are these pea-brains on their disgusting machines that they can treat the park as though it’s their own personal Disneyland? They obviously care nothing for the land or the animals who must […]