Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt boasts that the BLM is moving away from its early reputation as the “Bureau of Livestock and Mining” to a more conservation-minded agency overseeing national monuments around the West (HCN, 11/22/99). This summer, when managers ordered cows off Utah’s drought-stricken Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, that new reputation was put to the […]
Ranchers test an agency’s image
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
On the trail
Congressional races in Montana are heating up. Brian Schweitzer, the Democrats’ maverick Senate candidate, is still well behind two-term Republican incumbent Conrad Burns, but he’s made some small gains in recent polls. Schweitzer, a mint farmer from Whitefish, defends small-scale agriculture and criticizes rising health-care costs. Over the last year, he has shepherded busloads of […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Does the “death tax’ protect open space?
The federal estate tax affects only the wealthiest 2 percent of the U.S. population. So why should most Westerners care about the current Republican push to repeal it? One reason is that part of that wealth isn’t cash. It’s undeveloped land. And in some cases, the threat of estate taxes keeps it permanently undeveloped. Here’s […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
The latest bounce
A Fourth of July party landed Nevada’s Jarbidge Shovel Brigade in hot water (HCN, 7/31/00). The Justice Department has sued the group for clearing rocks and debris from a national forest road, closed to protect endangered bull trout. l For the first time, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has formally apologized for mistreating Native Americans. […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Truth-telling needs a home in the West
Brothers is a store and a highway rest stop 43 miles east of the New West boomtown of Bend in central Oregon. It is also home to some of the most shocking roadside markers we saw in 3,600 miles of Western travel this summer. After days of reading highway signs that painted the surrounding area […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Heard around the West
Las Vegas, Nev., detective John Zidzik was patrolling his city’s airport when he noticed something peculiar about a traveler, a man in his early 30s. There were “unusual bulges in his groin area not consistent with male anatomy,” said the police officer, who conducted a delicate search. The bulges, moving oddly, turned out to be […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Of bison, the French and our faux wild
There’s an inside joke in these parts that Yellowstone bison have a thing for French photographers. It’s a weird twist on dwarf tossing, this propensity of theirs to spear and fling men with names like Jacques and Pierre. Now, this is not a hard and fast rule. The most recent casualty was an elderly Australian […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
The hope of a freshly planted field
Growing up, I often despised the cornfields surrounding my parents’ house outside of Bozeman, Mont. By the end of July, the plants rose to the sky, blocking our view and trapping their own musty sweat. When I pulled on patched jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, my eyes heavy at 6 a.m., the fields meant hard […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Clean fuel, dirty neighbors
We should be a little grateful this time around. The West’s last energy boom threatened the region with mountains of spent oil shale, huge pits from which the rock had been taken, air pollution from coal gasification plants, and large ditches carrying Columbia River water into the Colorado River Basin. This latest energy boom is […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Under pressure, Montana opts for a slower approach
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Open for business.” MILES CITY, Mont. – After it drains the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming, the Tongue River flows north to join the Yellowstone near this eastern Montana city. The Tongue doesn’t carry a lot of water, but it’s a lifeline for […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘There is a light at the end of the tunnel’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Open for business.” Byron and Marge Oedekoven, who own a ranch 12 miles north of Gillette, Wyo., have had a more positive experience with coalbed methane development on their property. Buteven though the company doing the development, Redstone Resources, worked with the […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘The industry’s philosophy has been to fragment the community’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Open for business.” Mike Foate, who ranches north of Arvada, Wyo., has developed a Web site – powderriverbasin.org. – for landowners concerned about coalbed methane development in the area. He says he decided to go online to try to get information out […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘We became Michiwest’s sewer’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Open for business.” Earl and Sue Boardman’s ranch on the banks of the Powder River is dotted with gas wells owned by the Michigan-based company Michiwest. In 1999, Earl Boardman shot a video of the dry water wells, eroded arroyos, and quagmires […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Open for business
Wyoming throws away its water to get out the gas
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘The playing field has to be leveled’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Charles Micale owns the My Way Ranch in Collbran, Colo. In October 1999, Strachan Exploration Co. drilled a methane well at the ranch’s entranceway; since then, Micale has been fighting for more property rights for landowners who live above methane […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘It’s hard to keep fighting’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Janey Hines runs the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance in Parachute, Colo.: “We have no idea how many wells will be here, or how many roads, because the oil and gas companies are not required to make a plan. Maybe it […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Status quo reigns in New Mexico
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” AZTEC, N.M. – Five miles below the Colorado border in Aztec, N.M., green-painted pumpjacks and oil wells line the highways like sentinels. Many residents of this town of fewer than 6,000 people say they worry about poor air quality, noise […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘It’s corporate greed’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Arnold Mackley, who is fighting to protect his ranch from 20-acre well densities, was a Garfield County Commissioner from 1988 to 1996. He currently is a consultant for a nahcolite mining company, but he and his wife have plans to […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘We need that gas’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Ken Wonstolen of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, in his own words, says that Colorado is an energy-dependent state, and the methane gas it produces is greatly needed. “We live in an energy-dependent state. Unless we’re willing to give […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
How well do you know your wells?
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Understanding methane-gas drilling isn’t easy. Here are some basics about what might be underground in a Western backyard. Conventional wells extract methane gas from sandstone 1,000 to 20,000 feet below the surface. Sitting in zucchini-shaped air pockets in the rock, […]