OREGON A gravel company’s proposal to mine 550 acres of farmland near the Willamette River has farmers fighting to save their soil. A mild, wet climate and top-grade soils make Oregon’s Willamette River Valley a prime farming location. “Anything you put in it will grow,” says Thom Lanfear, planner for Lane County. The river valley, […]
Farm it or mine it?
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Condors back in captivity
ARIZONA The California condor is one bird big enough to complement the vast size of the Grand Canyon. But it will be a while before visitors see the endangered birds’ huge soaring silhouettes again. All of the Grand Canyon condors, whose reintroduction began in 1996, were recaptured this summer after lead poisoning wiped out four […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
A leaky mine must get in line
IDAHO When the Grouse Creek Mine opened in 1995, it was hailed as an example of mining done in harmony with the environment. But the central Idaho gold mine closed in 1997 because it wasn’t making enough money, and its 500 million-gallon tailings pond leaks and has been contaminating streams with cyanide. Now federal and […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Reform school for wolves
MONTANA Things are shocking for three wolves on Ted Turner’s ranch near Bozeman, Mont. For the past several weeks they have been serving time in what one wolf biologist calls “reform school,” an experiment that managers hope will stop wolves from killing cattle. In a few weeks, when a beef calf is added to the […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
The Wayward West
Wildfires continue to scorch the West at a record pace (HCN, 7/31/00: Colorado blazes fuel forest restoration efforts). High temperatures, low humidity and a plethora of dry lightning have created the worst wildfire season since 1988. The federal government is spending $15 million a day on fire fighting. As of Aug. 7, more than 60 […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
The next great adventure: Stay home
The cover of a recent issue of National Geographic Adventure proclaims “America’s Best! The Adventure 100.” Topping the “adrenaline trip” list are the Colorado River and the White Rim Trail in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. In the “Letter from the Editor,” John Rasmus muses: “We need vacations! We all need to decompress from the rigors […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Native American wannabes: Beware the Weasel Spirit
I once stayed at an upscale spa that had a Native American theme. We padded around on Navajo rugs, awoke to morning drumming and disrobed in locker rooms referred to as kivas. At night, instead of finding a chocolate on my pillow, there was a woven dream catcher. This failed to soothe my Spirit Self. […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Heard around the West
If you’re dying to see 70,000 nonpoisonous snakes, then a town of 20 people in Manitoba province, Canada, is the place for you to go. Narcisse, though tiny, boasts four limestone pits that shelter the gray and black snakes from minus-40-degree winter weather. In spring, the snakes wake up, and that’s when University of Oregon […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Forests on a forced diet
Hungry Washington office keeps Forest Service funds from reaching the ground
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Who speaks for the sheep?
Desert bighorns are caught between waterholes and wilderness
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Small mines stay under the radar
Environmental laws, designed to regulate the big boys, overlook some big messes
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Telluride tackles ski town sprawl
It’s big money vs. big money in Colorado development battle
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Farewell, Marc Reisner
In 1995, when we first asked Marc Reisner to write an article for High Country News, we didn’t know what to expect (HCN, 3/20/95: The fight for reclamation). Would the man who had changed how America thought about dams and reservoirs accept suggestions from an editor of a small paper in a small town in […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Dear Friends
An unlikely lead Why, you might be asking yourself, would High Country News run a cover story on methamphetamines? One reason can be found on the front page of a recent Grand Junction, Colo., Daily Sentinel. “Pot-meth bust leads to 5 arrests.” Pick up any Western newspaper these days and you’ll find similar headlines. After […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
The makings of a meth lab
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Mike LaScoula makes sure I correctly write down the following quote: “Not everyone associated with meth is a dirtbag,” says the Spokane County Health District’s chemical and physical hazards adviser, “but they are all dumb asses.” To prove his point, LaScoula takes me to […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
‘There’s not much to do out there’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Erec Hopkins, 20 years old, is serving a year of work release for third-degree sexual assault. He works 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. four days a week at the Whitman County shop, where he assists in maintaining county vehicles. When he’s not on work […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Meth invasion
America’s drug of the moment wreaks havoc in the rural West.
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Don’t blame cows
Dear HCN, The recent issue on wildfires and exotic weeds continues a disappointing trend in your paper, of peddling panaceas rather than creating dialogue. In the opening page, the “usual suspects’ are rounded up – grazing, farming, roads, mines – and from there it reads like a tabloid account of the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder. One […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Expect the big burn
Dear HCN, After the forest fires in New Mexico and Colorado, I had to write. This could be nature getting back at the hobby ranchers and interlopers. On the Front Range in Colorado and New Mexico, you don’t have corporate tree farms, so most of the interface lands from the Plains to the U.S. Forest […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Delta water treaty needs amending
Dear HCN, I read with interest Michelle Nijhuis’ fine piece on the Colorado Delta. As HCN so aptly puts it, the issue is really whether or not environmentalists can find the means to change the Law of the River. While I support and applaud the legal efforts of the Delta coalition (Southwest Center for Biological […]