Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Fred Otley is a fourth-generation rancher on Steens Mountain in the Kiger Creek and Kiger Gorge area. He is the coordinator of Friends of Steens Mountain, a group of local citizens and ranchers, and is a “private landowner liaison” to the Resource Advisory Council. […]
‘I don’t want to run a different business’
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
‘The more protection … the better’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Bill Marlett is the executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association. He has filed a number of appeals and a lawsuit against the BLM, all asserting his group’s opposition to grazing on Steens Mountain. “I told (Babbitt) point-blank that we want a date-certain […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
‘I see lawsuits as a last resort’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Jill Workman is a Portland-based volunteer for the Sierra Club. She believes that livestock grazing should continue on Steens Mountain. “I see lawsuits as a last resort. I’d rather try to work with people. I personally don’t think you can rule those people out. […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
‘Environmentalists will win’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Andy Kerr is a veteran Oregon environmentalist who represents The Wilderness Society on the Steens issue. He is pushing for an end to livestock grazing on Steens Mountain. “The (Southeast Oregon Resource Advisory Council) is the wrong entity to cut a deal. It has […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Babbitt looks for support on his home turf
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Shivwits Plateau wasn’t on environmentalists’ radar screen a year ago. Better known as the Arizona Strip, the Shivwits lies in the extreme northwestern corner of Arizona. Cut off from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, it […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
One proposal nearly runs aground
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Last spring, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt got to have some fun. He took a raft trip on Montana’s Missouri River Breaks accompanied by author and filmmaker Dayton Duncan and historian Stephen Ambrose, author of Undaunted Courage, a recent and highly popular telling of the […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Go tell it on the mountain
FRENCHGLEN, Ore. – Atop 9,600-foot Steens Mountain, a brisk northwest wind races up the spectacular U-shaped canyon of Little Blitzen Creek at dawn. Howling over the top of golden aspen trees in the canyon below, the wind rips up-canyon to a steep alpine bowl at the top of the draw, and – poof! – like […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Mining may need some brakes
Outdated federal mining regulations cause environmental disasters, says the Mineral Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Its 32-page report, Six Mines, Six Mishaps: Six Case Studies of What’s Wrong With Federal and State Hardrock Mining Regulations and Recommendations for Reform, describes a wide range of mining sites that have “slipped through the loopholes of regulations,” says […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Wising up to whirling disease
Scientists are considering new management strategies for whirling disease, which has been attacking fish in the West since the early 1990s. The disease has spread from one Western river to the next, eluding attempts at a cure and draining funds from state game and fish department budgets. Trout get the disease by eating worms infected […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Keeping Glacier Park intact
Four years of work, months of public review and a $1.5 million investment have paid off for Glacier National Park planners. Last summer, the Park Service signed the General Management Plan that will guide Glacier’s resource management for the next few decades. Project leader Mary Riddle says the plan reflects people’s desire to keep the […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
A lasting chemical legacy
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 […]
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 […]