Twenty-seven years ago, Chip Ward and his wife, Linda, left the East Coast to explore the West. Impressed with the desert’s stark beauty, the Wards decided to settle permanently in rural Utah. Little did they know that Grantsville, the sleepy town they chose to call home, sits right in the middle of one of the […]
Canaries in the Utah desert
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness management plan
The Forest Service has extended the comment deadline for the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness management plan until March 1. The plan will manage 2.4 million acres of wilderness – the largest and one of the most heavily used in the country. Alternative 9 supports restoring wilderness conditions. To request a copy, call 208/756-5100. […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Report card
The National Commission on Small Farms released a report card grading the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s effort to help family farmers. The agency received a “D” for failing to help independent farmers compete against large agribusiness. It earned its best grade, “B’,” for providing marketing assistance. For a copy of the Time to Act report […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Amend the Northwest Forest Plan
One million acres of old-growth forests in the Northwest could be opened to logging. The Clinton administration proposes to amend the Northwest Forest Plan to loosen requirements for surveys of rare plants and animals prior to timber sales. Request the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Study at 503/808-2197 or view it on the Web at www.or.blm.gov/nwfpnepa. […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
How green is your politico?
A new television ad campaign in Washington state lets voters know which candidates up for re-election next fall have minded their green p’s and q’s. The $2 million project got under way in mid-January, and it features the nationally syndicated Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,” who uses humor and science to teach the public how […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
The Wayward West
For the first time, the federal government concedes that workers at 14 nuclear weapons plants, including the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state (HCN, 9/1/97: Radioactive waste from Hanford is seeping toward the Columbia), were exposed to cancer-causing radiation and chemicals. The Department of Energy report linked radiation exposure to the high rates of cancers […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Hazel Wolf: She made it
Hazel Wolf died in Port Angeles, Wash., on Jan. 24 at the age of 101. Wolf, a lifelong activist for social justice and the environment (HCN, 11/9/98: Wise words from a veteran activist), once told author Studs Terkel that she wanted to live to see the year 2000. “Then I’m going,” she said. Wolf, a […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘Hunting’ for elk in the salt pits of the upper Yellowstone
This October, on a slant-sunny day, I rode with friends just outside Yellowstone Park’s southeastern corner, where an old hunting practice called salt baiting still occurs. For 30 years, commercial big-game outfitters in Wyoming’s Teton Wilderness have strewn salt in the meadows of the upper Yellowstone River and along the park boundary. They do it […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Heard around the West
There’s something about “the big ditch” that’s got the U.S. Postal Service buffaloed. Last year, the federal agency honored Arizona’s Grand Canyon with a stamp that placed the giant gorge in the wrong state – Colorado. That led to the shredding of 100 million stamps. This year, a new 60-cent stamp reverses an image of […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Mumma resigns – wildlife division shaken up
Nine years ago, Northern Regional Forester John Mumma stood tearfully before a House subcommittee and said he had been betrayed by the Forest Service (HCN, 10/7/91). Because he didn’t meet timber quotas in the 13 national forests under his care, he said, powerful industry and political interests had conspired to force him out of his […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
From missile silo to theme park
Tourists can explore the home of a Minuteman
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Dear Friends
In a union town It was probably the wrong place to hold the annual High Country Foundation budget meeting, if only because it led to so many bad jokes about balancing the budget at the craps table. Nevertheless, approximately 25 board members and staff of this organization converged on the San Remo Hotel, just off […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Fee fighters refuse to pay
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Sun Valley, Idaho, resident Diana Fassino returned from a hike last July 31 to find a ticket on the window of her car. She’d been walking in Adams Gulch on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, an area popular with equestrians and mountain bikers, and […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘We want the public lands to be in the backyard of the little guy’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Chris Wood is senior policy advisor to Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck: “I’ve been on a fee demonstration area on a national forest and absolutely befuddled by how I was supposed to get a permit to use an area on a Saturday. I literally […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘I think recreation should be subsidized’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Gary Guenther, a former Inyo Wilderness ranger and volunteer with Missoula-based Wilderness Watch: “I think the pressure should be on Congress. The agency is between a rock and a hard place on this issue. I think it’s interesting when the environmental community and the […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘You can’t sell a sunset’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Scott Silver is the founder of Wild Wilderness, an anti-fee organization based in Bend,Ore.: “The Forest Service is looking at industrial strength recreation as their new business and us as their customers. More and more, the Forest Service is putting itself in between (the […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘Fee demo is not the full answer’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Jeff Bailey has been the Inyo National Forest supervisor since May 1998: “Congress needs to realize we need more dollars out here. Fee demo is not the full answer. It’s one of the very small tools, and it’s a very small component of what […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Working class can’t foot the bill
For some, it’s a choice between recreation and a new pair of school shoes
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Fees around the West
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests, Colorado A fee to see the top of Colorado’s Mount Evans sparked rage from some motorists when they discovered that they were the only visitors paying. The Forest Service changed its approach, charging drivers $6 per carload at the […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Land of the fee
Recreation fees promised a jackpot for money-starved federal agencies. So far, they’re a drop in the bucket, and they lock some people out.