NEVADA Before Anglo settlers arrived in present-day Nevada, the Western Shoshone Indians occupied half of the state’s current land area. Now, most of the tribe’s members live on tiny reservations, many of them in poverty, even though a congressionally approved land-claims settlement of $121 million has been waiting for final Shoshone approval for 21 years. […]
Western Shoshone to cash in?
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Homeless tribe wants its land back
OREGON It may be a long shot, but the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw want 95,000 acres of national forest, an area larger than Portland, as compensation for land stolen over 150 years ago. In 1855, the western Oregon tribes made a deal with the federal government: In exchange for 1.6 […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Will Western skies be clear enough?
COLORADO PLATEAU A coalition of 12 Western states and 10 Indian tribes has a plan to clean the air over the Colorado Plateau. But critics think the Western Regional Air Partnership’s plan is too soft. The agreement, now before the Environmental Protection Agency, would bring Western states into compliance with the Clean Air Act, which […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
The Black Hills won’t log everything
SOUTH DAKOTA The Black Hills National Forest, which straddles the Wyoming-South Dakota border, has always been a friend of the timber industry. Since the first commercial timber contract in the country was secured there in 1898, the industry has logged 97 percent of the 2 million-acre ponderosa pine forest and carved 8,000 miles of road. […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Another legacy of drought
WYOMING Yet another effect of this summer’s drought has reared its ugly head in Wyoming: An unusually high number of cattle in the Cowboy State contracted deadly sulfate-induced polio in the summer months. Merl Raisbeck of the University of Wyoming Veterinary Lab says that in an ordinary year he sees one or two polio cases […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
The latest bounce
Republican members of the House and Senate agreed to approve President Clinton’s $1.6 billion plan for fire recovery and forest restoration (HCN, 9/25/00: Fires bring on a flood of federal funds), but there’s a caveat. An amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill, sponsored by New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, attaches $240 million for salvage […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Heard around the West
Bicycles have been around for more than a century, but they’ve been getting a new look in the last five years, thanks to battery-powered motors that spin their back wheels. With that assist, hills can turn into no-pedal pieces of cake. In Grants Pass, Ore., the owner of a company called Solar Man says, “When […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Migrants leave trail of trash
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Visitors to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument along the Arizona/Mexican border experience one of the most untrammeled pieces of Sonoran Desert in the American Southwest. Nourished by two rainy seasons a year, it teems with hundreds of plant species, including towering saguaro, ocotillos and […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Sanctuary movement revives
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Cochise County is nothing if not a place of extremes. The county’s small towns are bastions of the black-helicopter set, but the old copper-mining burg of Bisbee was taken over by artists, hippies and long-haired drug runners in the 1970s. Today, even Bisbee is […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
A sympathetic landowner
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “I’m not sure why people are mad at ’em,” says Jerry Bohmfalk. “I think they’re mad at ’em because they’re poor.” Jerry Bohmfalk looks like the Marlboro Man but talks like the well-traveled corporate consultant that he became after earning his Ph.D. in integrated […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Border lures the young
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “I’ve been crossing the border more than 20 times. But never was it hard like it is right now.” The bearded man in the black T-shirt has the kind of intelligent face that convinces me that someday he will be a real estate mogul, […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
New Mexico’s secret sport
Cockfighting in the land ofenchantment
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Wilder Grand Canyon proves too contentious
Lawsuit replaces talk about the fate of 94 percent of the park
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Killing salmon to save the species
Critics say hatchery reform takes the wrong tack
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Dear Friends
We celebrate 30 years As firefighting slurry bombers droned overhead, a boisterous, book-loving crowd of 125 showed up for the newspaper’s 30th anniversary bash, Sept. 16, at the National Center for Atmospheric Research on a mesa above Boulder, Colo. In addition to bringing an incredible spread of food (including pumpkin pie that was out of […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
The hunters and the hunted
The Arizona-Mexico borderturns into the 21st century frontier
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Tourism can be self-righteous
Dear HCN, After reading the Geof Koss story, “Hikers stumble into an old dispute” (HCN, 5/22/00: Hikers stumble into an old dispute), I am reminded that any form of tourism on New Mexico land grants, or in traditional Hispano lands of southwestern and south central Colorado, must not merely purport to “respect” Native American and […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Roadless in Montana
Dear HCN, Montana’s gallivanting Gov. Marc Racicot recently bellyached in Washington, D.C., about the administration’s roadless initiative. Since his case had just been thrown out of court in Idaho, maybe he was seeking refuge with fellow anti-enviros inside the Beltway. Obviously, he’s not listening to most of his constituents. Most Montanans, like the great majority […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Pick up an ax
Dear HCN, Joy Belsky, a staffer for the Oregon Natural Desert Association, wrote a thoughtful letter about matters of the imagination in the form of a critique of my essay, “Los Alamos is burning” (HCN, 5/22/00: ‘Los Alamos is burning’). By way of reply let me suggest that we don’t have to imagine a zero-cut […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Was it chinook or sockeye?
Dear HCN, As always, your Aug. 28 issue was quite informative and very enjoyable. One critique I must make, though, has to deal with Rocky Barker’s analysis on the latest federal salmon plan. A reference was made about the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the central mountains of Idaho. He went on to […]