Dredging the Columbia River would allow bigger ships to sail between the Columbia River Estuary and into Portland, says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its $196 million plan would deepen a 103-mile stretch of river by three feet by dredging every day for two years. According to the Corps’ final environmental impact statement, dredging […]
A dredging dilemma
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
The Wayward West
Boise Cascade Corp. in Monmouth, Ore., got a nasty surprise on Christmas Day, when arson destroyed the timber company’s regional headquarters. The Earth Liberation Front, which took credit for a $12 million fire at Vail Resort in Colorado last year (HCN, 11/9/98), has claimed responsibility. “Boise Cascade has been very naughty after ravaging the forests […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Family Farm Alliance
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., will talk to the Family Farm Alliance, a group interested in preserving irrigated agriculture, at its annual conference in Las Vegas, Nev., Feb. 28 and 29. The forum also includes speakers from the Bureau of Reclamation, National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Resources Defense Council. Contact Jody Brennan at 714/516-1311 […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Silverton Avalanche School
Learn everything you need to know about avalanches, snow safety and rescue at the Silverton Avalanche School in Silverton, Colo. Two levels of training are available, both with field sessions, over three weekends in January and February. Call the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office at 970/387-5531 (only between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Winter Fishtrap: Living and Writing on the Edge
Personal tales of adventure and experiences in exotic places can translate into fascinating stories. Three presenters and 50 participants will come together for Winter Fishtrap: Living and Writing on the Edge, Feb. 25-27, a weekend of discussion, readings and recreation in Wallowa Lake, Ore. Write Fishtrap Inc., P.O. Box 38, Enterprise, OR 97828, or call […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Sierra Nevada Aquatic and Riparian Science Workshop
The Forest Service hosts a Sierra Nevada Aquatic & Riparian Science Workshop at Fresno State University, Feb. 11-12. The agency wants the public to help develop a final environmental impact statement for Sierra Nevada forests. Contact the Sierra Nevada Framework Project at 801 I St., Room 419, Sacramento, CA 95814 (916/492-7554), or visit www.r5.fs.fed.us. This […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Western Forest Activists Conference
Activists, scientists and politicians will gather at Headwater’s ninth annual Western Forest Activists Conference in Ashland, Ore., Feb. 3-6. The focus of this year’s conference: restoring and preserving forests as a major campaign issue for the 2000 elections. Call Chant Thomas at 541/899-1712, or e-mail chant@headwaters.org. This article appeared in the print edition of the […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Fund remembers student of science
Matt Clow, 30, was fascinated by whirling disease. As a Montana State University graduate student, he wanted to find out why young Arctic grayling and cutthroat trout fall prey to the disease that is spreading throughout the West’s waters. In June 1998, Matt Clow drowned after his boat capsized on a lake near Dillon, Mont. […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Heard around the West
In southeastern Washington, vandals wiped out an entire forest overnight. They did the deed by chopping down the only tree in an arid landscape of cheatgrass and sagebrush near the town of Connell, pop. 2,000. Townspeople have put up a $1,000 reward for the arrest of the saw-wielding bandit, reports Associated Press. The lone tree, […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Turning the road builders around
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Roads are at the heart of the dispute on the White River National Forest. Gold miners around Breckenridge and silver miners around Aspen built the first roads, while livestock grazers improved Ute Indian trails for stock drives. Later yet came roads for power lines, […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Experiment takes the cut out of logging
COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont. – Surrounded by mountain forests that stretch 80 miles north to the Canadian border and 120 miles east to the Great Plains, this town grew from the seeds of logging. And in contrast to neighboring communities like Whitefish, which now depend on tourism generated by Glacier National Park, Columbia Falls remains a […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Chainsaws fall silent in Cove-Mallard
NEZ PERCE NATIONAL FOREST, Idaho – Just a few years ago, Cove-Mallard, a roadless area, was a rallying cry for anti-logging activists. As bulldozers pushed into the rolling mountains above the Salmon River in north-central Idaho, protesters locked themselves to gates, buried each other under piles of slash and erected and perched in a series […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Dear Friends
Y2K Why bother? Try as we might, staff at High Country News encountered no major glitches as 1,000 years petered out. On the first day of the new millennium, a staffer leaving Philadelphia spotted airline monitors all flashing the date 1900, and closer to home in Paonia, we can report that six houseguests were victimized […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Take your pick of forest plans
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. While the original White River forest-plan alternatives numbered nine, lettered A through I, now there are six. The survivors are: Alternative B: The status quo, which emphasizes production of goods, recreation and grazing. Few restrictions on travel, no new recommendations for wilderness; timber harvest […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
The White River National Forest
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The White River National Forest is the very prototype of a New West forest. The Forest Service estimates that 34,000 people make their living from the forest, though that far underestimates its value. The forest is a huge backyard for those who live along […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
‘Managing for biodiversity is a mistake’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Lou Dawson, a guidebook writer in Carbondale, Colo., was the first person to ski down Colorado’s 54 “fourteeners.” He also hunts, jeeps, snowmobiles and once started an avalanche while downhill skiing out of bounds at Aspen Highlands, suffering an injury that still nags him: […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
‘They’re not good stewards of the land’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Jim Gonzales lives in Minturn, Colo., and grew up hunting elk, deer and grouse with his father, who mined zinc and lead at the now-defunct Eagle Mine, near Vail. He prowled the backcountry roads in a four-wheel drive until two decades ago, when a […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
In their own words
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “It’s really a pivotal moment. The battle lines have been drawn. We’re pointing our fingers, but we’re pointing them pretty much at ourselves. We’re saying that we have to start exercising restraint in when and where we choose to recreate. A lot of people […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
A Hunter’s Voice
Hunters aren’t all the same, says former hunting guide George Wuerthner. He’s founded a new organization, A Hunter’s Voice, to speak for hunters who want more predators and fewer roads in American wildlands. Wuerthner says he is reacting to powerful anti-wilderness and sportsmen’s lobbies claiming to represent all hunters. For more information, write George Wuerthner, […]