Some irrigators say dams are the problem, not ditches
Farmers asked to ante up for salmon
Posted inFebruary 26, 2001: Return of the natives
‘Zero-Cow’ initiative splits Sierra Club
Are urban members ignoring rural range life?
Posted inFebruary 26, 2001: Return of the natives
How to draw a duck
Start with basic shapes: an oval for the body, a circle for the head, triangles for the bill and tail, a pole for the neck and a checkmark for the wing. Be sure to fill up most of your paper. Now, let’s round out the lines and add color. Then, draw in the duck’s habitat. […]
Posted inFebruary 26, 2001: Return of the natives
Dear Friends
Changing times The Nez Perce tribe is returning to its stolen lands. As we report in this issue, the tribe now manages wolves on 15 million acres of central Idaho wilderness, and it’s even bought back part of the Oregon homeland that Chief Joseph fought for in 1877. Though many tribes continue to struggle against […]
Posted inFebruary 26, 2001: Return of the natives
The return
The Nez Perce tribe brings wolves back to the Idaho wilderness — and reinvents its political future
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Assessing Sunbelt sprawl
A recent poll found that nearly half of Phoenix’s residents would pack up and leave tomorrow, if given the chance. Two-thirds think the region is doing a “poor” or “fair” job of preserving the desert or open space. With this harsh assessment of the city’s quality of life in mind, a team of university researchers, […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Sex-swappin’ salmon
Puzzling piscine sex reversals have left salmon researchers scratching their heads. A study released by the University of Idaho and Washington State University reported that of the female salmon sampled, 84 percent tested positive for a male genetic marker, suggesting that these females actually began life as males. Sex reversals could hold clues to declining […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Men without women
“How sad life is, but the saddest thing is to sleep alone even though one has a wife, Luis.”– A tree carving, translated from Spanish in Speaking Through the Aspens You’re walking through an aspen forest and suddenly you see it on a tree trunk – a carving of a woman’s body or a bird, […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Out of the grave
Presumed dead for nearly two decades, the Mountain Gazette, the rough-cut and barbed-tongued journal of 1970s mountain culture, has been exhumed, resuscitated and, according to its editors, “printed on paper so damned biodegradable … that you can pour milk on it and eat it.” Among its glossy newsstand rivals, the resurrected Gazette looms like a […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Easement saves artifacts
Conservation easements usually protect open space on private land (HCN, 2/28/00: Acre by acre: Can land trusts save the West’s disappearing open space?), but a new easement in southwestern Colorado also protects what’s underneath the land. In December, an agreement between landowner Don Dove and the Montezuma Land Conservancy preserved 110 acres of ancestral Puebloan […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
It’s not that simple
Dear HCN, As one of the designated bad guys in Greg Hanscom’s reprise of Milagro Beanfield War (HCN, 12/4/00: Road block), I guess I should be thankful that the Valley Improvement Association came out looking no worse than it did … and stay quietly holed up in my “airy offices” (in a 30-year-old converted shopping […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Unwise welcome?
Dear HCN, “Troubled harvest,” your Dec. 18 lament over an immigration policy that doesn’t encourage immigration, reads like a plea for “wise use.” A population that grew more than 13 percent in the 1990s – the fastest growth rate among the industrial nations – exacerbates virtually all of the environmental problems covered so well by […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
The power of love, and its opposite
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Money isn’t everything, you know. There’s also love. And its opposite. In politics, we know that money corrupts, but so does love. And its opposite. Consider the rules. No, not the rules of love, but the rules of government – specifically those rules of the previous administration suspended for 60 days on […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Park photo contest comes with corporate baggage
NATION Amateur photographers are now submitting their sharpest national park photos to the National Park Service in hopes of appearing on the 2002 Parks Pass, which allows entry to the nation’s 383 parks. Kodak has agreed to organize and fund the entire contest, including flying the winner and family to any park in the country. […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Legal woes for Legacy Parkway
UTAH After the federal government signed off on the construction of a 14-mile highway along Utah’s Wasatch Front in early January, a coalition of environmentalists and smart-growth advocates, including Salt Lake City’s controversial Democratic mayor, filed two separate lawsuits. Utahns for Better Transportation contends that the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Owl things considered
SOUTHWEST After eight years of legal wrangling, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has settled one of the Southwest’s most embittered endangered species debates – or has it? On Jan. 18, the Fish and Wildlife Service designated 4.6 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah as critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl. […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Chinook tribe recognized
WASHINGTON In 1805, the Chinook Indians met Lewis and Clark at the mouth of the Columbia River. Historians say that without the tribe’s help the explorers would have perished over the long, wet winter. The tribe’s name is now attached to landmarks throughout the Northwest, but for decades the federal government has acted as though […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Silence of the clams
ARIZONA Environmentalists have long charged that dams and water diversions are killing the Colorado River and its delta (HCN, 7/3/00: A river resurrected: The Colorado River Delta gets a second chance). Now, scientists have quantified those accusations by counting clams. Their conclusion: The delta has lost 95 percent of its biological richness since Hoover Dam […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Anglers fish for solutions
IDAHO The South Fork of the Snake River is running at a trickle. In order to save water for next summer’s irrigation season and to flush salmon smolts this spring, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is holding back water behind dams that leaves the river flowing at a rate well below the Idaho Department of […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Coyote killing continues
COLORADO On Jan. 11, the Colorado Wildlife Commission approved a nine-year, $2.6 million coyote-killing experiment in western Colorado. Some deer hunters, outfitters and sheep ranchers in the state have lobbied long and hard for coyote control, blaming the predators for a plummeting deer population. Deer have declined in Colorado for 40 years, and biologists say […]