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: […]
‘Managing for biodiversity is a mistake’
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, […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Our Environment and Our Health
The fourth annual “Mission Possible” conference, Our Environment & Our Health, in El Paso, Texas, features Russell Chianelli, the chemist who headed the Exxon Valdez cleanup. Representatives from Mexico and the Southwest will also gather at the Jan. 22 event to share success stories about improving public health and the environment; Spanish translation is available. […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Free, four-hour tour of his ranch
New Mexico rancher Jim Winder will lead a free, four-hour tour of his ranch Jan. 15, talking about cattle rotation, biodiversity, economics “and other cool stuff.” The tour is a project of the Quivira Coalition, which believes that “healthy ecosystems and healthy rural economies are not mutually exclusive.” The coalition’s mission is to find common […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Barely there
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 […]
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. […]