Conservationists worry wildlife will be stuck in bureaucratic limbo
Endangered species must learn to wait
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Goose got your gander?
Pooping plagues people in urban settings
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Poison traps kill unintended victims
A rash of dog deaths puts the federal Wildlife Services agency in the hot seat
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A new town hits the skids
Residents say no to development
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Tom Watkins has left us, but his Western dream remains
Tom Watkins, another pathfinder, has passed from the campfire circle. “He was a strong, clear and important voice backed by a good old-fashioned Rooseveltian-Ickesian liberal heart,” says Bozeman writer David Quammen. “Now we’re all older and more alone again, as we knew we were when Ed Abbey died.” T.H. Watkins died last week from cancer […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Dear Friends
Reaching out Chris Setti’s work is a lot like that done by High Country News. He attempts to cover about 600,000 square miles of the West (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming) with a few hundred square miles of resources. So when he stopped by our office a few weeks ago, we […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A barbed tragedy is lodged in Libby
Note: This essay is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story,”Libby’s dark secret.” You remember asbestos: It used to be the hottest little insulator around. For years we crammed it into buildings and warships, wrapped it around water pipes and brake pads, wove it into fireproof clothing and flame-resistant drapes. Then we found out how […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
‘Grace is going to have to own up’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Don Judge is executive secretary of the Montana State AFL-CIO in Helena. Don Judge: “For many years, neither the union nor the workers knew that the dust had asbestos in it, but we asked the company to clean it up. In 1964, the union […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
‘It’s like sacking feather’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Former Grace worker Lester Skramstad is slowly dying from asbestos-related diseases. His wife and two children, now in their 40s, have also contracted asbestosis. The following is taken from his testimony in court. Lester Skramstad: “We built a screen, jig sort of a situation, […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Who knew what, and when?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. W.R. Grace maintains it has always been frank about the dangers of asbestos. Former workers and union leaders disagree. They say Grace didn’t come clean with its workers until 1979, 16 years after it bought the mine. Earl Lovick, who managed the Libby mine […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Libby’s dark secret
For decades, mine dust has been killing people in Libby, Montana. Why didn’t anyone do anything about it?
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
A new day
Note: this front-page editor’s note introduces this issue’s feature story, “After the fall.” The “giant sucking sound” that presidential candidate H. Ross Perot described in his 1992 campaign can be heard today in the Northern Rockies, where the major timber companies are about done liquidating their private land and are busily moving cash, jobs and […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Book says cows don’t belong on most BLM lands
Debra Donahue, a law professor at the University of Wyoming with an M.S. degree in wildlife biology, has gathered biology, economics and history in her The Western Range Revisited: Removing Livestock from Public Lands to Conserve Native Biodiversity. Her proposal to evict livestock from arid rangelands receiving less than 12 inches of precipitation annually is […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Tom Bell quotes
“While I am a believer in the multiple-use principle, the concept of conservation, and an ecological approach to resource use, I find myself reacting to those who disregard any or all of these. And so I strike back. To the public, it would appear I am completely and diametrically opposed to all progress, to all […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
McNeal should be sheepish
Dear HCN, If many families elected to have eight children, as Lyle McNeal did (HCN, 1/31/00: Searching for pasture), there would be no space available to pasture his Churro sheep. In fact, it will be “Standing Room Only” for humans on our fragile planet. Lew VavraLaramie, Wyoming This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
WTO protesters deserve better
Dear HCN, I have some problems with Jon Margolis’ Washington Watch (HCN, 1/31/00: Protesters raised the right questions): Some anti-WTO demonstrators’ arguments might or might not have been “silly,” but one adjective does not constitute a counterargument. Some of the costumes were “silly’? We readers and the protesters in the street struggles deserve more than […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
A red herring issue
Dear HCN, In “Experiment takes the cut out of logging” (HCN, 1/17/00: Experiment takes the cut out of logging), Mark Matthews writes, “Some environmentalists who have followed the (Flathead Forestry Project) group fear that, like the Quincy Library Group in Northern California, stewardship contracts put land that is owned by every U.S. taxpayer in the […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
We’re making a new claim on nature
Dear HCN, Many thanks for Allen Best’s excellent feature story on the White River National Forest Plan (HCN, 1/17/00: STOP – A national forest tries to rein in recreation). On a related topic, a conference held in December in Snowmass, Colo., provided in-depth dialogue on many of the issues at play in the White River […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
‘Old West’ Idaho was better
Dear HCN, I was born and raised in Idaho near Sun Valley. The Wood River Valley was an incredible place in which to grow up; I was as carefree as Huck Finn. The fishing and hunting were fantastic, and it wasn’t considered politically incorrect then. Idaho’s scenery was beautiful and pristine, and the “undesignated wilderness’ […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
One rancher’s narrow viewpoint
Dear HCN, I can’t quite figure why Peggy Godfrey’s story got front-page coverage (HCN, 12/6/99: Peggy Godfrey’s long, strange trip). While she is certainly an interesting person, her life and outlook are neither unique nor visionary. She appears to view the world through the same narrow slot common to many other ranchers. Her awareness and […]