MONTANA With all-terrain vehicle and snowmobile use skyrocketing in the backcountry, environmentalists fear the machines could spell disaster for grizzly bears. Several groups recently sued the Forest Service to force the agency to study the way ATV and snowmobile use affects endangered grizzlies in Montana’s Gallatin National Forest. “It’s time for them to step up […]
Will bears get a break?
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Crater doesn’t come cheap
ARIZONA Conservationists are close to protecting a volcanic crater and wetland near Flagstaff, Ariz. All they have to do is raise $3 million. In March, the Flagstaff-based Grand Canyon Trust signed a land-swap deal with developers, in which the trust bought the 247-acre caldera known as Dry Lake. Developer Jim Mehen, who had first proposed […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Corps catches criticism
NATION A national storm is swirling around the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and some say it could rattle two of the agency’s most controversial projects in the Northwest: dredging the Columbia River and continuing operation of the Snake River dams. In February, The Washington Post reported that the agency rigged a $50 million economic […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The Wayward West
President Bill Clinton designated another national monument (HCN, 4/10/00: Beyond the Revolution). Now 355,000 acres are preserved in California’s Sequoia National Forest, and that means existing logging rights will be phased out over the next three and a half years. While environmentalists celebrated the latest link in Clinton’s land-legacy chain, locals were upset. “We who […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The Clark Fork unplugged
MONTANA On Montana’s Clark Fork River, pressure is mounting to demolish a dam. The Milltown dam sits seven miles upstream from Missoula, where the Blackfoot River and the Clark Fork meet. For years, it has acted as a plug, holding back 6.5 million cubic yards of sediment contaminated with arsenic and heavy metals washed away […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
A growing movement in green
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. It’s hard for the untrained eye to tell, but not all of the wood at Karen and Tom Randall’s mill on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington is created equal. Some logs have come from forests that aren’t clear-cut, where water quality, wildlife and wetlands […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Why I ride the bus
Only one other passenger waits to catch the 6:47 a.m. commuter bus from Pullman to Moscow, Idaho. She is pleasant looking, well dressed, with Walkman headphones snaking up out of her sweater. Because I ride this bus regularly, I’ve learned some details of this woman’s life. Whitney Houston is her favorite singer. The woman has […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Former uranium town wants its waste back
Town folk say radioactive waste will boost business
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Baca Ranch buy-out has strings attached
Bill could put millions of acres of public land on the auction block
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The burning season begins again
Is a California army depot poisoning its neighbors?
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Western weather waffles
The Northwest looks at a soggy summer, while the Southwest may just burn
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Wanted: experienced firefighters
The Forest Service discovers it’s hard to find good help
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Dear Friends
Spring visitors Glen Miller, a retired geologist from Grand Junction, came by to say hello and to talk about how guilty he felt because he’d let his subscription lapse. We’re always interested in why people drop their subscriptions, but he couldn’t tell us. “It just happened,” was as close as he could come. We could […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Restoring our future
Note: This essay appears in the print edition of this issue as a sidebar to a feature story. Moments of affirmation are rare in Washington, D.C. So I was pleased to run into a friend, living now in Los Angeles, whom I last saw in college, and to hear her excitement about the Forest Service’s […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
‘Specialists in diversity’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Is RBM Lumber a one-of-a-kind operation, or could there be many such firms at work in the Northern Rockies? Judge for yourself. RBM originally stood for three Thompsons, Roy, Ben and Malcolm. Malcolm, Ben and Roy’s father, is a philosopher-ascetic who has returned to […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
‘It shouldn’t be all or nothing’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Evelyn Thompson is co-owner of RBM Lumberin Columbia Falls, Montana. In 1997, she was recognized as Montana’s Businesswoman of the Year by the Small Business Administration. Evelyn Thompson: “One of our biggest principles is to eliminate waste. We developed a lot of our products […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
‘The emphasis is on what’s best for the land’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Tom Kovalicky, a 30-year veteran of the Forest Service, was the Nez Perce National Forest Supervisor from 1982-1991. He still lives in Grangeville, Idaho, where he is the volunteer chairman of Stewards of the Nez Perce, a collaborative community group working with the Nez […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
‘We still have the opportunity to practice wild forestry’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Bob Love is a hunter, naturalist, writer and logger in Columbia Falls, Montana. His company is Confluence Timber Company. Bob Love: “Our public forests in the past were corporatized, and now you could say we’re trying to communitize our forests. We need to invest […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
‘We don’t need a revolution’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Teresa Catlin of Priest River, Idaho, is involved in a community forestry project called Forest Community Connection. She is an ecologist for the Colville National Forest in eastern Washington. She also operates a forest consulting company in Idaho called Total Land Management. Teresa Catlin: […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Change is coming
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. John McCarthy is conservation director of the Idaho Conservation League. He lives in Boise. John McCarthy: “The big message in the forest today is, “change is coming – hard and fast.” We know the days of towns built around big, wasteful sawmills that required […]