When a Missoula Rail Link train derailed April 11, 1996, ruptured tank cars exposed suddenly wakened residents of Alberton, Mont., to 129,000 pounds of chlorine gas and 17,000 gallons of potassium cresylate (HCN, 8/3/98). More than 1,000 people were evacuated from the western Montana town that night, and most didn’t return until health and emergency […]
A lasting chemical legacy
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Wolff campaigns for wolves
For nine years, New Mexican Pat Wolff has been working to shut down publicly funded programs that kill predators and other problem animals (HCN, 4/27/98). Last year, the organization she founded, New West Research, won a lawsuit requiring the government to release names of ranchers who get federal help to control predators. Now, she’s touring […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Wolves at Colorado’s door?
During a recent presentation at the University of Colorado by a Boulder-based wolf recovery organization, Sinapu, a captive-raised wolf named Rami was introduced to the audience. As Rami calmly walked up and down the aisles with her handler, sniffing boots and licking faces, audience members sat in awed silence. Wolves, like many other predators, are […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
California Wildlands 2000 Conference
Supporters of California wilderness are invited to participate in the California Wildlands 2000 Conference, co-sponsored by the California Wilderness Coalition, the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and Friends of the River. The May 5-7 conference at California State University in Sacramento will focus on building support for an initiative to inventory all of the land […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Frank Church lecture series
The late Idaho Sen. Frank Church, an architect of the Clean Air Act and the Wilderness Act, is often hailed as an environmental hero. The Environmental Resource Center of Ketchum, Idaho, will pay tribute to Church’s spirit at its first annual Frank Church lecture series, Dec. 4 in Sun Valley. Speakers include Assistant Secretary of […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Montana Audubon
Montana Audubon will be offering grants totaling more than $1,000 in the year 2000. The money will be awarded to individuals or nonprofit organizations whose project will directly benefit wildlife in Montana. Preference will be given to projects involving non-game wildlife, from birds to invertebrates, and their habitats. Interested applicants should call 406/443-3949 to obtain […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Montana Wilderness Association
The Montana Wilderness Association’s annual conference will be held Dec. 3-4 in Butte. Plans for the gathering include a slide show of Montana’s wildest places and an update on efforts to inventory the state’s roadless areas. Write MWA at P.O. Box 635, Helena, MT 59624 (406/443-7350), or e-mail: mwa@wildmontana.org. This article appeared in the print […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Cowboy Poetry Gathering
Every January for the last 15 years, ranchers, poets, musicians, gear makers and Western enthusiasts have headed to Elko, Nev., for the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. The Jan. 22-29, 2000, event, expected to draw some 10,000 people, will explore ranch culture and cowboy tradition. Tickets range from $15 to $100 for a package. Call toll free, […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Life near Rocky Flats
A new major study looks at the public-health effects of Rocky Flats, 16 miles from downtown Denver, where triggers for nuclear bombs were built for more than 35 years. Funded by the federal Department of Energy and administered by the Colorado Department of Public Health, Historical Public Exposure Studies says public risks were low. John […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
A road-ripper’s report
-The Road-Ripper’s Guide to Wildland Road Removal takes up where the first four Road-Ripper’s Guides left off. While the first four explain legal and political strategies for challenging different land-management agencies to close and remove roads, this guide explains how to make sure those roads are removed correctly.” * Bethanie Walder In 1997, Forest Service […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
The sacred comes home
In the spring of 1991, the Hopi and Navajo Nations asked Sotheby’s auction house in New York City to remove three ceremonial masks from its annual “Fine American Indian Arts’ auction. Sotheby’s refused the requests, Hopi and Navajo dismay got national coverage, and Elizabeth Sackler, a native New Yorker with a Ph.D. in public history, […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
USFS plans for more planning
The Forest Service proposes to improve national forests by reshaping the 15-year management plans that guide them. The agency’s draft rule says plans must emphasize ecological balance and sustainable use of forests, boost public involvement during the planning process, and shift some decision-making from regional and national offices to forest-level managers. The current system of […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
The Wayward West
New York-based copper producer Asarco Inc. said Oct. 25 that it has signed an agreement to merge with Mexico’s largest copper company, Grupo Mexico (HCN, 4/13/98). Total value of the deal is $1.18 billion. The copper industry has been consolidating in reaction to a global oversupply of the metal and record low prices earlier this […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Court enforces a healthy environment
A provision in Montana’s constitution guaranteeing residents a “clean and healthful environment” has as much bite as bark, thanks to a recent Montana Supreme Court ruling. In October, the court unanimously agreed that that the constitution protects the state’s resources from actual, proven damage, and from potential harm as well. “Our constitution does not require […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Wilderness water wins round in court
In what Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, calls a “devastating blow to Idaho’s water sovereignty,” almost 3,000 claims to water rights upstream of Idaho wilderness areas were placed in doubt by an Oct. 1 ruling of the Idaho Supreme Court. The court ruled 3-2 that when the federal government established wilderness areas in Idaho, it also […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Score one for the owl
A federal judge has clamped down on permits for new subdivisions, roads, power lines, shopping malls, and other projects in the habitat of the endangered cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl in and around Tucson. Many of Tucson’s suburbs continued to approve subdivisions after the pygmy-owl was listed in 1997, despite a county-wide effort to preserve the owl’s […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Heard around the West
Homes on the range: photos by High Country News readers This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Heard around the West.
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
ORVs run wild and free in Utah
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Buffed-up and bristling with rock-banging, wall-climbing extras, the 1999 Grand Cherokee Jeep Laredo with all the bells and winches will set you back a cool $34,000. And you may need the power of a Grand Cherokee to conquer the Moab, Utah, trail dubbed the […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
One forest takes on roads
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. On the Clearwater National Forest in north-central Idaho, a group of hikers follows a Forest Service tour guide along a creek not far from where Lewis and Clark crossed the Bitterroot Mountains. Under clear August skies, they discover a different sort of pioneering effort. […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
A convert to conservation
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Shawn Regnerus is a native Montanan, a hunter, angler, hiker and a former lover of dirt bikes. Regnerus, 30, grew up in rural Amsterdam, near Bozeman, where his father worked as a high school teacher. He later studied law at the University of Montana […]