The American Museum of Natural History in New York City sponsors a symposium on Nature in Fragments: The Legacy of Urban Sprawl, April 13-14. The focus is unplanned growth and its consequences for North American biodiversity. Call 212/769-5200 for tickets and request code SPRAWL2K. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with […]
Nature in Fragments: The Legacy of Urban Sprawl
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Off-road vehicle use
Off-road vehicle use and its threat to public lands is the topic of a national conference April 7-11 in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by environmental groups, including the Wilderness Society and the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads, the event will cover strategies on how to organize, campaign and lobby. Contact Melanie at American Lands, 202/547-9267, for […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
What’s in your organic burrito?
Ever wonder what makes an organically labeled food organic? Soon, you’ll know. The Department of Agriculture recently released its proposed national organic standards for comment on the federal register. The 146-page document includes a list of substances approved and prohibited in organic foods. The agency’s first attempt at setting organic regulations, which allowed genetically engineered […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Preserving the westward way
The National Park Service wants to preserve everything from vistas to wagon ruts, graves and campsites along 13,000 miles of historic Western trails. A plan completed last fall provides guidelines for protecting the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express trails. But saving a trail system that crosses 12 states isn’t easy, says Jere Krakow, superintendent […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Tax-averse Wyoming hurts itself
As other Western economies boom, Wyoming is trying to rein in a large budget deficit without raising taxes. The Equality State Policy Center, a nonprofit public-policy advocacy group, doesn’t share Wyoming’s romance with “no new taxes,” and says taxes on the state’s minerals industry are an overlooked source of revenue. A report released by the […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Oh, give me a home…
Contrasting Western images: A lone cowboy on horseback rides through the recently paved streets of a new, cheerily painted subdivision, while a voice laments that the West is becoming a place an old-timer might not recognize anymore. That’s how the documentary, Subdivide and Conquer: A Modern Western, begins. It takes a sobering look at the […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Whirling disease keeps spreading
NEW MEXICO A deadly fish disease that has been spreading across the West now has a foothold in New Mexico. Three state hatcheries recently tested positive for whirling disease, prompting New Mexico Game and Fish officials to begin testing streams, rivers and lakes. Whirling disease spores, now known to be present in 10 Western states, […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Guides may get guidelines
NATION Close to 4,000 outfitters ply their trades in national forests, bringing in nearly $4 million annually to the Forest Service. With recreation booming on public lands, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, has introduced a bill that standardizes outfitter operations in areas administered by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Craig’s Outfitters Policy Act […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Mine proposal stumbles
CALIFORNIA The Bureau of Land Management might just say “no.” For years, critics have blasted a proposed open-pit gold mine on public land in southeastern California, arguing that the Glamis Imperial Corp. project would destroy both Native American sacred sites and habitat of the threatened desert tortoise (HCN, 8/2/99: Weighing artifacts against gold). After a […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Greens call snowmaking a snow job
COLORADO The Forest Service has given Arapahoe Basin Ski Area the green light to imitate nature and make snow. In 1998, A-Basin, the only major resort in Colorado that doesn’t make artificial snow, submitted a plan to divert water from the North Fork of the Snake River. Snowmaking would allow the ski area to compete […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Agency torpedoes canyon planning
ARIZONA Grand Canyon National Park recently pulled the plug on consensus efforts among private boaters, environmentalists and commercial rafting companies (HCN, 12/21/98: Grand Canyon Gridlock). The outcome could have reduced the number of motorized boats on the river by giving more permits to private rafters and kayakers, and by implementing a wilderness management plan. The […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
The Wayward West
A federal judge threw out a lawsuit challenging a 1997 ban on oil and gas drilling on the Rocky Mountain Front, imposed by then Lewis and Clark Forest Supervisor Gloria Flora (HCN, 10/13/97: Forest Service acts to preserve ‘the Front’). The lawsuit claimed Flora was unduly influenced by public opinion and ignored her agency’s analysis […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
High Country
Gov. Stanley K. Hathaway was criticized last week for siding with the mineral industry in Wyoming. It was not an unusual situation. I was doing the criticizing and he was doing the reacting. The governor said of me, “He hasn’t had anything good to say about this administration for six years.” In which he was […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
HCN at 30: ‘On faith alone’
“The Shame of it!” cries the headline of the Nov. 24, 1972, issue of High Country News. The story is accompanied by a disturbing close-up photograph of a golden eagle, talons clenched in death. The eagle was one of hundreds poisoned or shot by Wyoming sheep ranchers in 1970 and 1971. Stories of the killings […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Heard around the West
Old West shoot-outs? Gun battles these days have lost a lot of their family fun. In fact, people firing bullets at each other can be downright terrifying. As moviegoers were leaving a Las Vegas theater last July, many reacted with horror to a volley of gunshots out on the street. What they didn’t know – […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Forest chief steers agency down a rocky road
Forest supervisor warns that Dombeck’s policy will spark civil disobedience
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Parks rev up to ban snowmobiles
Yellowstone, Grand Teton could be snowmobile-free by 2002-03
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Homesteaders sue over ancestral land
Their mesa became home to the Manhattan Project
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Sly Country News
Weird Friends An empire is born On the eve of its 30th birthday, Sly Country News leapt headlong into the world of media empires. In a special April 1 meeting, SCN’s board of directors voted to privatize the operation. The paper’s stock hit the market at $5 a share and immediately jumped to $500. “We’ve […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
A river divided
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Upper Yellowstone River currently is in the political hot seat, but that section of the river represents less than one quarter of the river’s 670-mile length. Any approach to management has to address the complete watershed. Yellowstone Park contains much of the headwaters […]