After decades of searching, federal biologists haven’t found a single grizzly bear in Montana and Idaho’s Bitterroot/Selway ecosystem. But the Missoula-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies and seven other local environmental organizations say there may be a remnant population – one that people have overlooked. The groups recently launched a “Great Grizzly Search.” It involves […]
Barely there
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Treasure Valley’s housing not so golden
Despite a strong economy and low interest rates, the nearly 20,000 Latinos in southwest Idaho have a hard time finding affordable housing. According to Wayne Hoffman, a reporter at the Idaho Press-Tribune, Latinos in Treasure Valley are 2.5 times more likely to be denied conventional home mortgages and home improvement loans than whites. Hoffman’s report, […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Snow surfers with a mission
A Bozeman, Mont.-based snowboarder group wants to show everyone that clean snow – and water – are way cool. The “Mountain Surf” chapter of the Surfrider Foundation recently launched the Snowrider Project to promote water quality at ski areas. “With the increased popularity of winter sports, it’s really important that the (snowboarders) do no harm,” […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Gracias
-I was like everybody else,” says photographer Celia Roberts. “I’d go to the grocery store and get some broccoli and not think, “Might that last hand that touched it be the one that picked it?” “””Lest we also forget, Roberts is here to remind us. “Gracias,” her bilingual, year 2000 calendar, illuminates the lives of […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Clean-air program may suffocate
Washington state voters recently passed a ballot initiative that slashes taxes but leaves the state’s clean-air program gasping for breath. The initiative cuts license plate fees from an annual percentage based on car value to a cheap $30 and dictates that any increase in taxes for state government and schools must be voted on by […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Buy land now, says Udall
The state of Colorado is tightening its belt on land purchases, and Democratic Rep. Mark Udall wants someone to account for it. The state’s Department of Natural Resources has been discussing a moratorium on buying properties for wildlife habitat, says Greg Walcher, the department’s executive director. Budget concerns drove the decision. “We decided we would […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Desert development raises dust
‘Tis the season to be coughing: November and December are the worst months for Phoenix’s air quality, says David Feuerherd of the American Lung Association of Arizona. “Picture somebody … shoveling dirt down your bronchial tubes.” Officials in the Valley of the Sun say the area’s familiar brown cloud is caused by “fugitive dust,” brought […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
New resort in the San Juans?
Back in the 1980s, Pagosa Springs, Colo., resident Betty Feazel helped lead a successful campaign to stop a proposed ski area in the rugged, undeveloped San Juan River’s East Fork Valley. But now, says the award-winning activist, who has lived in the area for 77 years, the fight may be starting all over again. Back […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
The Wayward West
Four more national monuments could be coming our way (HCN, 11/22/99). On Dec. 13, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt asked President Clinton to create two monuments in Arizona, including the Arizona Strip north of the Grand Canyon, and two others in California, totaling more than 1 million acres. Nevada’s Paiute Tribe made history this month. In […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Westerners take sides on road ban
Around the West this winter, citizens flocked to Forest Service “listening sessions,” part of an initial scoping process to collect comments on President Clinton’s October directive to protect roadless forests (HCN, 11/8/99). Conservationists dominated regional meetings held in 10 cities, including Portland, Missoula, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque. Many supported the Oregon-based Heritage Forest Campaign: […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
All you can eat at Pueblito del Paiz
Ted Medina slams down a pan of, oh God, what is it? A pig’s head. Snout, eyes and yellowish toasted ears bubbling like Picasso’s own dinner. “You name it, it’s all good!” says Ted, stocky, aproned and grinning from under a cap emblazoned Denver Fire Department. “Here, you nibble on this bit here. It’s good!” […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Heard around the West
After the “battle in Seattle” over world trade simmered down, marketing opportunities began to boil: The streets seemed paved with gold, or at least souvenirs. Budding entrepreneurs scoured downtown and came up with rubber bullets, broken police billies and the occasional tear-gas canister; then they put the booty up for auction on the Internet. One […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Bulldozers roll in Tucson
TUCSON, Ariz. – As a bulldozer rolled across a patch of desert, Esther Underwood smiled. It was a brisk, windy December day at the edge of one of Tucson’s rapidly growing suburbs as the dozer scooped up desert scrub and knocked over prickly pear and cholla cacti. “Isn’t that pretty?” Underwood said of the bulldozer. […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Hanford leaves a surprising Cold War legacy
Wahluke means “walking uphill a long way” in the Wanapum Indian language. That’s an apt metaphor for the more than three-decade battle for the Wahluke Slope – a significant part of the last untouched sagebrush desert in the Columbia Basin. For 30 years, farmers and conservationists have fought over what would happen to this land […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
An upscale development divides a town
DONNELLY, Idaho – Dave Dewey used to lead a peaceful life in this bucolic town. The 28-year-old Valley County resident lived a typical Joe Citizen existence, working as a concrete contractor, raising a family, and serving on the county planning and zoning commission. Then came WestRock. Touted as a world-class resort plan, the sleek “WestRock […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Counties grab for control of national forests
Last month, the House of Representatives struck a blow for local control of the national forests. For decades, counties have received 25 percent of the revenue from Forest Service timber harvested within their borders to fund county schools and roads. But in this decade, as federal logging has declined by 70 percent, so have timber […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
WTO limps home from Seattle
SEATTLE, Wash. – After the tear gas cleared from Seattle’s streets, environmentalists and labor unions emerged as the only clear winners from last week’s tumultuous World Trade Organization ministerial meeting. Trade officials hoped that the meeting, the first major WTO event held in the U.S., would be a smooth North American debut for the international […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
GASP! Some greens are grinning
Most environmentalists would agree they have a hard time throwing a party. They are not a group prone to wild optimism and loud hoorays; development pressures in the West usually make the future look too bleak. Yet some say there’s much to celebrate as 1999 comes to a close. At the top of most lists […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Dear Friends
On to the millennium As is our wont, we will skip an issue this winter, both to give readers a chance to plow through that accumulating stack and to give us time to regroup for the next 1,000 years, give or take a few centuries. The next issue will be dated Jan. 17, 2000. Good […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Salmon crisis is a kaleidoscope of complexity
My mother was fascinated by the Columbia River and the fate of the salmon. This was partly because I work with these issues, but also because they have the kaleidoscopic complexity and human idiocy that all really hard problems have. She thought those were the only problems worth our time. From her home in Salt […]