Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In President Clinton’s 1997 State of the Union Message, he introduced the Heritage Rivers Initiative as a means to address the management issues of 10 notable American waterways, and as a vehicle to provide federal assistance and funding to complement state and regional efforts […]
An opportunity lost to politics
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Property owners call the shots
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. HELENA, Mont. – Most agree that the greatest long-term threat to the integrity of the Yellowstone River is the unregulated development of private property along the banks. “Once a house is built in the floodplain, there is zero tolerance for bank erosion,” said Rob […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
A family encounters a conservation quandary
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Andrew Dana considers himself, and the rest of the family partnership which manages a large landholding south of Livingston, to be “dedicated conservationists.” In 1982, his parents put much of their riverbank property into a conservation easement to protect it from future development and […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
The last wild river
The Yellowstone River survived the era of dams, but can it survive riprap?
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
About those Churro sheep
Dear HCN, Lisa Jones’ cover article in the Jan. 31, 2000 High Country News essays the travails Lyle McNeal has encountered with his Churro sheep. While I can’t judge the accuracy of the whole article, the portion I have personal knowledge of is just plain wrong! The writer states that Dr. McNeal’s sheep were used […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
How much forest planning is enough?
Dear HCN, I disagree that President Clinton’s 40 million-acre roadless area proposal represents “uncharted territory: (HCN, 11/8/99: A new road for the public lands). We have already done what the president wants – been there, done that! Each national forest has been through at least one forest plan. In that process we looked at each […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Tom Bell: The rancher’s dominance is over
Dear HCN, Wyoming’s illustrious Senate president, Mr. Twiford of Douglas (HCN, 2/28/00: A prof takes on the sacred cow), needs to creep out of his cave, somewhere in the wilds of Converse County, and smell the roses. This is the 21st century, not the 1890s, and the times they are a-changin’. I flew with the […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A dam good speech
OREGON In a rousing speech before the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society in February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber became the first major political figure in the Pacific Northwest to back the breaching of four federal dams to recover dwindling salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia River basin (HCN, 12/20/99: Unleashing the Snake). […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Neighborly mining negotiations sour
MONTANA Environmental groups and a Montana mining company failed to see eye to eye over a “good neighbor” agreement after eight months of talking, and negotiations have stopped. Stillwater Mining Co. and three citizens’ groups agreed that the platinum and palladium mine, located on public and private lands in the Beartooth Mountains, would be around […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
EPA sets sights on snowmobiles
WYOMING, MONTANA Banning snowmobiles is the only way to clean up the winter air in Yellowstone National Park, says the federal Environmental Protection Agency, at least until the industry comes up with cleaner machines. The Park Service disagrees. Its preferred alternative in a new winter-use plan would plow the road between West Yellowstone and Old […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Loggers tap new forests
THE SOUTH In the Pacific Northwest, the federal government can get tough with lumber companies because the forests are publicly owned. Not so in the South, where 85 percent of all timber grows on private lands. After the federal government drastically slowed logging in the Northwest in the 1990s, Boise-Cascade and other big forest-products companies […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A scarce bird tests the new rule
The Gunnison sage grouse thrives in open country
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Hunter orange is a long shot
IDAHO Five Idaho hunters died accidentally during last year’s hunting season, the highest number of fatalities for the sport since 1982, says a report from the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Since the fall accidents, a member of one victim’s hunting party has vowed to see Idaho implement a law that would require hunters to […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Round two for Steens Mountain development
OREGON — In southeastern Oregon, a couple has come up with a new approach for developing the 160 acres they own on Steens Mountain, the massif that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is eyeing for federal protection as a national monument (HCN, 11/22/99: Go tell it on the mountain). This time, John and Cindy Witzel, who […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
The Wayward West
A partially built farm for 859,000 hogs on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota has tribal members upset (HCN, 11/8/99: Can a hog farm bring home the bacon?). “We wish the production facility and the whole project would go away,” says Mike Blatz, a business representative for the tribe. But a federal judge ruled […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
The last Celtic warlord lives in New Mexico
LA JOYA, N.M. – Jim Catron, lawyer and history enthusiast, is sitting in his living room discussing the noble and inconvenienced Celt. He isn’t talking about modern-day Scotland or Ireland, however, which to his mind have degenerated into Socialist republics populated by barfly poets. He’s talking about real, live Celts. He’s talking about cowboys. Catron […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Shoveling vs. sniveling
Watch out, Nevada! It’s gonna rain shovels. In case you haven’t heard, the Montana timber boys are teaming up with Nevada cow-punchers. The loggers are sending 10,000 shovels to Elko, Nev., as a sign of solidarity against the federal government. I think collecting stepladders might be a more appropriate gesture. The way the B.S. is […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Shadows out West
She greets you and your kids at the doctor’s office. Watching her as she goes about her work she seems very intent, almost frowning. But when a patient arrives she is attentive, tender towards the suffering, reassuring the frightened, and, especially with children, offering an encouraging smile. Her filing is precise and swift, as if […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Heard around the West
Holy flying s…! “Feces rained from the Utah skies again,” this time in Sevier Country, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. Two homes and two cars were splattered in February. This is Utah’s fourth poop-bombing, and police agree that a jetliner was the likely culprit. Last spring, three homeowners in the Utah towns of Riverton and […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Marc Racicot: One of the would-be president’s men
You never know who you’re going to meet on an airplane. Last summer, on a flight to Helena, Mont., as the seats in coach class began to fill, a handsome, middle-aged man walked up the aisle and slipped into the seat next to me. He appeared exhausted. His name was Marc Racicot, and he was […]