EKALAKA, Mont. – We called it the Mother Tree: a mature ponderosa pine on the crest of a small hill, with an acre or so of seedlings and saplings draping the hill’s leeward side, a mini-forest in the making that was the product of scores of pinecones shed by that lone adult. We drove past […]
Coming home to the country
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
Tribe slowed down on road to showbiz
Many Indian tribes are land rich and cash poor. Not the Muckleshoots. The 1,500-member tribe lives on a tiny 3,500-acre reservation between Seattle and Mount Rainier, and last year, its casino and bingo hall brought in an estimated $48 million. For more than seven years, the tribe has been working on another moneymaker: the White […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
In this election, the West is lost
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congratulations, Westerners, you only have to live through 10 more months or so of presidential politics. Then Donald Trump, Warren Beatty, Cybil Shepard and other great intellects of our time will be off our television screens, at least masquerading as politicians, and you won’t have to think about the presidential election. What’s […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
Decision may help a granddaddy keep its teeth
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article,”Court reads the environment its rights.” The October supreme court ruling may help clarify the granddaddy of Montana’s environmental laws, the Montana Environmental Policy Act, or MEPA, which dates back to 1971. Modeled after the National Environmental Policy […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
Court reads the environment its rights
MISSOULA, Mont. – Tom France talks like a man who knows he’s made history. For three years, France, an attorney with the National Wildlife Federation, has been battling a proposed gold mine on Montana’s Blackfoot River (HCN, 12/22/97). In October, he won a ruling from the Montana Supreme Court that could mean the end of […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
Uranium haunts the Colorado Plateau
CROWNPOINT, N.M. – As a trademark New Mexico sunset paints pastels over this high desert town, it’s hard to imagine that the poisonous legacy of uranium mining could be repeated here. During the 1950s and ’60s, this town of about 2,000 near the Navajo Reservation was hit by a uranium mining boom. It left Navajos […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
Dear Friends
A first If you wait long enough, 15 minutes of fame comes to every person and place. Paonia, Colo.’s, came in Nov. 22, when the nation’s most highbrow magazine finally got around to featuring this small town. The recognition is long overdue. Even though The New Yorker’s founder, Harold Ross, was born just over the […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Cartoons from Elmer Sprunger
In Montana, the nonprofit Friends of the Wild Swan is ringing in the new year with a calendar of favorite cartoons from Elmer Sprunger (see page 6), the man who can make bears talk. It’s $10 from Friends of the Wild Swan, P.O. Box 5103, Swan Lake, MT 59911. This article appeared in the print […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Great Salt Lake Issues Forum
The third Great Salt Lake Issues Forum will spotlight selected watershed programs within the state and around the country, including Idaho’s Salmon/Lemhi Resource Area. The goal is to use these examples to devise a collaborative restoration and protection program for Great Salt Lake. The Feb. 25-26 forum is presented by Friends of Great Salt Lake. […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Tailings and mine waste
Colorado State University is hosting a conference on tailings and mine waste Jan. 23-26, 2000, for members of the mining community and other interest groups concerned with mine waste management. Mining, tailings management, geohydrology, geochemistry and other related topics will be covered in focused sessions. For information, contact Linda Hinshaw, Department of Civil Engineering, Colorado […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Kartchner Caverns State Park
There’s a new world underground: Nov. 12 marked the grand opening of Kartchner Caverns State Park, 50 miles southeast of Tucson, and so far 30,000 people have reserved tours of the cave. Reservations are strongly recommended from 520/586-CAVE. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Kartchner Caverns State Park.
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
BIA told to get organized
Allocate $10 million to $15 million for new bosses at the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the beleaguered agency might get itself back on track, says a new report from the National Academy of Public Administration. The BIA, which represents 1.2 million Indians from 558 tribes, has long been plagued by mismanagement (HCN 4/15/99). BIA […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Nevada names
JARBIDGE (Elko). A Nevada post office, established March 5, 1910, and town (the most isolated mining camp in the state) … According to Jarbidge legend, the name … comes from a Shoshone Indian word Jahabich, meaning “devil,” or from Tswhawbitts, the name of a mythical crater-dwelling giant who roamed the Jarbidge Canyon for many years. […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Risks multiply for land managers
Beatings, bombings, death threats and other acts of violence against Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management employees are on the rise. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), agency workers or buildings were attacked or threatened nearly 100 times in 1998 alone. One Forest […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Grant program gives greens GIS
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology can turn hard data into colorful maps and geographic databases, but few nonprofit groups can afford the expensive computer tool. The Conservation Technology Support Program wants to solve this problem by offering GIS grants to environmental groups. In the year 2000, the program will give away more than $1 million […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Dirty air in the deep of winter
Snowmobiles produce nearly all the air pollution in Yellowstone National Park, even though other vehicles outnumber them 16 to 1, says a new report by the National Park Service’s Air Resources Division. Air Quality Concerns Related to Snowmobile Usage found that one winter’s worth of emissions by snowmobiles amounts to 78 percent of all carbon […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Nobody’s perfect
Dear HCN, After reading Craig Childs’ article, I no longer feel guilty concerning my choice of employment for the past 12 years. I’m currently employed by the world’s largest printer (lots of dead wood there), and before that, I was a boiler operator at a sawmill. I have always cared about my impact on our […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
All of us come from primitive cultures
Dear HCN, I read with interest James Bishop’s “Bones of Contention.” I was struck by the comment of Kurt Dongoske: “What he has demonstrated is that people were hacked apart, their bones dismembered. He presents no evidence of ingestion.” Mr. Dongoske is angered by Mr. Turner’s assertion that the Anasazi, particularly at Chaco Canyon, practiced […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Race card trumped
Dear HCN, In a recent essay (-All our backs are a bit wet,” HCN, 10/11/99), Jack McGarvey suggests that U.S. immigration and border enforcement policies are racially motivated and that U.S. immigration policies give preferential treatment to Canadians over Mexicans. When examined in the light of U.S. Census data, however, this race card is soundly […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Another view of La Migra
Dear HCN, Having lived and worked with illegal Mexican laborers for over 20 years from the Mexican border to South Dakota, I disagree with Jack McGarvey’s essay and description of the U.S. Border Patrol as irritating and oppressive (HCN, 10/11/99). From this same perspective I laugh at his reference to the “affectionate” employers who employ […]