The Bureau of Land Management has a new nationwide strategy for off-highway vehicle management. The plan, released Jan. 19, calls for local environmental analyses of vehicle impacts, saying that some endangered species habitat may need further protection from OHV use. It also broadens BLM’s definition of off-highway vehicles, which will now include snowmobiles, personal watercraft, […]
Agency will try to track trails
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
A slow comeback for Mexican wolves
Mexican gray wolves continue to die along the Arizona-New Mexico line. In December, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials found a dead wolf outside of Reserve, N.M. It was the 21st Mexican gray wolf to die or disappear since the agency first released captive animals into the Apache National Forest in 1998 (HCN, 12/21/98: Wolf killers […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Swift fox may lose the race
The last days of the Clinton administration haven’t all been rosy for environmentalists. In early January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped the swift fox as a candidate for endangered species listing. Environmentalists petitioned the federal government eight years ago to protect the housecat-sized canine under the Endangered Species Act. But the Swift Fox […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Park Service bans Jet Skis
A recent settlement between the National Park Service and Bluewater Network, a San Francisco-based conservation group, may eliminate personal watercraft from the entire park system by 2002. Last March, the National Park Service banned Jet Skis from all but 21 of its units. The watercraft are now restricted to 11 national recreation areas – including […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Landowners could get gas relief
For years, landowners in Colorado have complained that the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, charged with regulating methane gas development, is biased towards industry (HCN, 9/25/00: Colliding forces: Has Colorado’s oil and gas industry met its match?). Now, four bills currently in the state Legislature promise to give landowners more rights. Greg Walcher, the head […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Monumental changes
With only three days left before George W. Bush would become president, the Clinton administration pressed forward with its land-protection plans and created seven new national monuments. The Sonoran Desert National Monument in Arizona is the largest of the pack, encompassing over 486,000 acres of desert northeast of Organ Pipe National Monument. The area will […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
The latest bounce
New rules released in early January by the National Marine Fisheries Service signal a new phase in the salmon recovery effort. It is now a crime to harm or kill threatened salmon along the West Coast (HCN, 12/20/99: Unleashing the Snake). That means land users such as farmers and developers could be sued by anyone […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
From hardware to software
How the wilderness movement got its start
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Heard around the West
“One of the reasons environmental protection is so hard is that it is so embarrassing,” says Oliver Houck, a law professor at Tulane Law School in Louisiana. It’s one thing to say you got ticketed for speeding, but another to confess “that you are using the Boise River as a sewer,” which explains why the […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Ski area arms race dirties the water
Colorado critics say snowmaking should not be allowed
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Montana, feds find common ground for bison
Greens find no good news for the animals
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Weirdness abounds in Washington
Bush has already abandoned bipartisanship
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Service leaves endangered species in limbo
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt reshaped a powerful conservation tool
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Roadless plan slides to safety
Dombeck stakes out his vision for federal forests
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Paul Fritz left a unique legacy for the Park Service
We have reached a time when many conservation legends of the 20th century are disappearing. David Brower, the environmental giant, is a recent example. Now we’ve lost a lesser-known but very influential conservationist. Paul Fritz died quite suddenly on Christmas Eve from an undiagnosed brain tumor. He was 71. Fritz’s generation possesses a pure conviction […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Dear Friends
Remember the Alamo Tim Sullivan, who survived an HCN internship last fall, has known for a long time that his home state, Utah, is a little different than the rest. He called the office recently with the latest evidence. “I’m very worried about the Mexican Army coming across our borders,” Bob Scott, a World War […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Wind power spins into the energy mainstream
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to an essay, “Rearranging the grid.” While most of the power-strapped West looks toward fossil fuels for relief, wind power has quietly swept onto the energy playing field as a viable alternative. Next month, on the Oregon-Washington border, construction will begin […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Rearranging the grid
A rural electric co-op becomes a progressive force
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Backyard power struggle
Locals hope new energy sources will save their view
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Power on the loose
Deregulation sparks an energy revolution