VAIL, Colo. – One of Colorado’s best-known real estate speculators is back, but some say the deals he’s offering ought to be turned down. Tom Chapman has a history of buying private land in wilderness areas, threatening to build mansions, and then goading the U.S. Forest Service into buying him out or trading him valuable […]
Wilderness developer Tom Chapman is back
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Dear Friends
Count those cows Writer Perri Knize of Missoula was intrigued by a pair of numbers in HCN’s April 27, 1998, issue. According to the article, “livestock” across the West had declined over the last 100 years from 20 million to 2 million. Perri, working on an article on grazing for the July 1999 Atlantic, wanted […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Low-paid service workers get squeezed in a booming Montana resort town
WHITEFISH, Mont. – After working his $7-an-hour job at the Grouse Mountain Lodge, Jerry Wheeler doesn’t hang out in this picturesque town in western Montana. He drives 20 miles south to a modest home on the outskirts of Kalispell, the mercantile center of the Flathead Valley. Wheeler says he is one of the few Grouse […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Who loses when a city neighborhood goes upscale?
PORTLAND, Ore. – In Northeast Portland, you can get culture shock just by crossing the street. Near the corner of Alberta Street and 28th Avenue, a no-frills tacqueria called La Sirenita sells fish tacos to a long line of customers for little more than a dollar apiece. On the other side of Alberta, Bernie’s Southern […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Inspired by Cesar Chavez
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Maria Gonzales Mabbutt nurses her four-month-old daughter Marisa in her Canyon County home while she tells her story. She is 43 and grew up as many Hispanics in her generation did: migrating. From the Rio Grande Valley town of Elsa, Texas, Mabbutt […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Out of the fields: South Idaho’s Hispanics create acommunity
Note: a sidebar article, “Inspired by Cesar Chavez,” accompanies this feature story. “We did not cross the border, the border crossed us.” –Erasmo Gamboa CALDWELL, Idaho – The front room of Manuel Garcia’s tiny apartment at the Farmway Village labor camp resembles a flea-market booth. Stacked from floor to ceiling are toys, dolls, blankets, model […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
The new faces of the West
Note: this front-page essay introduces this issue’s feature stories. Now that small towns are disappearing from America, we visit Disney theme parks designed to remind us of them. Or we crowd into the first small town we can find and set about changing it into the suburb we came from. This is the last of […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
How crazy?
Dear HCN, How crazy have we become? Brent Israelsen writes in the May 24th HCN about ranchers wanting a new $8 million dam on the Escalante River to supply water to raise cattle feed in arid southern Utah. With a surplus of meat in the United States, it is time for livestock producers to look […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Sadness from a native son
Dear HCN, Your article, “Greens not welcome in Escalante” reminded me why I left my home state (HCN, 5/24/99). Southern Utahns have long regarded nature as an enemy to conquer, dating back to the days when Brigham Young sent them to colonize a howling wilderness. Considering the local belief that the Earth is a mere […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Trappers should be liable
Dear HCN, Thanks to HCN for doing the article on trapping (HCN, 4/12/99). Many people think trapping went out with the advent of the 20th century … even in Nevada. The Nevada Division of Wildlife has been recalcitrant, as have most fish and game agencies, seeing any restriction on trapping as a move on our […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Fight that knee jerking
Dear HCN, I received a great deal of satisfaction from reading Dan Flores’ and Susan Ewing’s articles on Western subdivisions (HCN, 5/10/99). Here are two essays that aren’t the usual blinders-on, cheerleading drivel. As a prelude, I should add that I disagree with the authors on many points. As a range ecologist living in the […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Trapping lives on
Dear HCN, Your cover article pronouncing the death of trapping was premature (HCN, 4/12/99). Here in Minnesota, voters last November passed a measure to amend the state constitution to guarantee the right of Minnesota residents to hunt, fish and trap. The measure passed by a lopsided 77 percent to 23 percent, despite editorials against the […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Mining company knew it was golden
Dear HCN, People whose livelihoods depend on creating and extending controversy about the Crown Jewel Mine have suggested that Battle Mountain did not litigate the federal denial of its plan of operations because the company had concerns about the merits of its case (HCN, 5/24/99). In fact, just the opposite is true. Battle Mountain was […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Siuslaw National Forest
Write a 250-word essay explaining why the Siuslaw National Forest is important to you. Do it well enough and you could win an all expense tour with Jim Furnish, former supervisor of the forest (HCN, 11/23/98). Participants must have a Siuslaw National Forest annual pass or an Oregon Coastal Access pass. Send your essay by […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Sustaining and Enhancing Riparian Migratory Bird Habitat on the Upper San Pedro River
A panel of scientists assembled by an international commission says the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona is threatened by runaway growth and development (HCN, 4/12/99). The panel’s final report, released in March, recommends aggressive water conservation measures by area residents and nearby Fort Huachuca. For a copy of the 123-page Sustaining and Enhancing Riparian […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Conservation hero?
Do you have a conservation hero? The National Wildlife Federation wants to know. Every year the federation honors a conservationist or contributing to the future of wildlife, wild places and natural resources. Past winners include Lady Bird Johnson and Morris Udall. Send your nominations by July 10 to the Communications Department of the National Wildlife […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
The Power of Place: Writing Out of the West
Writers Mary Clearman Blew, Don Snow, C.L. Rawlins and Hannah Hinchman will lead workshops at the 16th Annual Western Montana College’s Writers’ Conference. The theme of the July 16-18 conference at the Birch Creek Center in the Pioneer Mountains is The Power of Place: Writing Out of the West. The $200 fee includes instructors, meals, […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
An Olympic eyesore?
The Utah Sports Authority is etching out a 120-meter ski jump on a mountainside near Park City for the 2002 Winter Olympics, but the project isn’t inspiring Olympic fever. Instead, it’s raising the ire of local critics, who lament the ugliness of the scarred slope. “There was no environmental input whatsoever, and consequently we’re going […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
The Wayward West
The beleaguered black-tailed prairie dog is getting some federal help (HCN, 11/11/96). On May 28, the Forest Service ordered all staffers to stop poisoning the ground squirrels except in “extremely rare situations.” The ban will remain in effect until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides whether to list the animals as threatened. Wildlife Services, […]
Posted inJune 21, 1999: The disappearing farm
Big Oil down the tubes?
A Northwest oil consortium’s plan to build a 237 mile-long pipeline across Washington has fueled a fiery debate between environmentalists. Will the pipeline eliminate the risk of oil spills in the ocean or will it create a recipe for disaster right in the heart of the Cascade Range? “It makes more sense to get petroleum […]