Dear HCN, Susan Ewing’s essay on the sins of owning a ranchette in Bozeman, Mont., is typical of the self-serving confessionals I’ve grown to expect from baby boomers who lack the integrity to live up to the principles they espouse (HCN, 5/10/99). For environmentalists like Ewing, the movement isn’t about protecting ecological systems, it’s about […]
Blah, blah from the ranchette
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Park status doesn’t guarantee anything
Dear HCN, I read with dismay Tony Davis’ article, “Plans for a new park in Arizona” (HCN, 3/29/99) on the movement to create a “Sonoran Desert National Park,” by combining Organ Pipe National Monument, Cabeza-Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. This proposal looks to me like another grandiose scheme […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
A reluctant advocate
Thank you for the marvelous huge feature on Tucson development (HCN, 1/18/99). However, I was chagrined to see the quote from Supervisor Mike Boyd, who has been opposed for years to anti-growth measures, and only under great pressure did indeed advocate the Sonoran Desert Protection Plan. During his last election cycle, Boyd came to our […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Let’s stop trapping
Dear HCN, After reading Tom Reed’s article on purposeful wildlife trapping and accidental pet dog trapping, all I can say to your headline, “Is trapping doomed?” is – not soon enough (HCN, 4/12/99). It is directly due to the activities of trappers that we now have species in trouble, like the wolf, bear, cougar, lynx, […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Powell was a fire bug
Dear HCN, John Wesley Powell was undoubtedly a giant in the exploration of, and proposals for, Western lands. The essay by William deBuys tells us that if we’d have listened to Powell, we might not have clear-cut forests and disenfranchised local communities (HCN, 4/12/99). In fact, we would have no national forests, and what forests […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Hands On Colorado: Volunteer Opportunities in 1999
To get outdoors and do some good this summer, check out Hands On Colorado: Volunteer Opportunities in 1999. This 64-page guide profiles volunteer opportunities for everything from trail building, to bat monitoring and kids’ fishing derbies. For a free copy, contact Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, 600 S. Marion Parkway, Denver, CO 80209-2597 (303/715-1010, ext. 15), […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
37th Annual Wilderness Walks
The Montana Wilderness Association is offering its 37th annual wilderness walks this summer. In places like the Bitter Creek Wilderness Study Area, you can enjoy the vast beauty of Montana’s wilderness, learn about no-trace camping skills, and enjoy celestial shows and howling coyotes. Group sizes are limited. For more information contact the Montana Wilderness Association, […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Mann Gulch Fire
The Mann Gulch Fire near Helena, Mont., in 1949, took the lives of 13 firefighters and significantly changed how the U.S. Forest Service fought fires. On Aug. 4-5, the Helena National Forest will hold a 50th anniversary commemoration of the fire. Invited speakers include Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Environmental Journalism
A workshop at Western State College of Colorado will attempt to raise the bar on environmental journalism. The workshop is co-sponsored by High Country News and will include HCN publisher Ed Marston, Colorado Central publisher and Denver Post columnist Ed Quillen, and Dr. Marilee Long of the Colorado State University journalism program. For more information […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Mountain plover population
Over the last 30 years, mountain plover populations have dropped by more than 50 percent. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that these grassland birds are threatened by sod-busting, routine plowing and prairie dog control on a giant swath of the high plains between Montana and Texas. To protect the species, the agency has […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
The real thing
Real “country living” means really having the right and opportunity to grow both food plants and animals. A block of apartments plopped into the middle of a cow pasture 10 miles from the supermarket isn’t real “country.” It’s guaranteed commuter clog and developer’s profit (buying cheap agricultural land and turning it into urban-density, perpetual-rent housing). […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
New tools for bird buffs
Spring in Colorado has brought with it the clatter of bird calls and a few new tools for finding the feathered beasties. In January, the Colorado Bird Atlas Partnership released the Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas, a 636-page book packed with profiles and pictures of birds, and maps showing where in the state they can be […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Tragedy on the border
Charles Bowden’s recent book Juarez: The Laboratory of Our Future chronicled, in vivid words and photographs, the violent restlessness of sprawling Ciudad Juarez (HCN, 9/14/98). Among the most horrifying, and unforgettable, images were those of the bodies of several young women, all murdered on their way home from low-paying jobs at the U.S.-owned factories on […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Can computers solve Indian problems?
This winter, 112 years of sloppy accounting by the Bureau of Indian Affairs fell into Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s lap (HCN, 3/15/99). Now, his department has bounced back with a million-dollar solution. On June 25, the department will unveil the Trust Asset Accounting Management System (TAAMS). The software program is designed to sort out the […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Miners sneak a rider onto an appropriation for war
When the U.S. Department of the Interior derailed the Crown Jewel gold mine on March 25 with a close reading of the 1872 Mining Law, grassroots activists who’d battled the mine for seven years thought the news was too good to be true. They were right. Just weeks after Interior stiff-armed the Crown Jewel in […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Court nixes land exchange
In a surprise May 19 ruling, a federal appeals court sent a land exchange in western Washington back to the drawing board. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the controversial Huckleberry Land Exchange needed more study and told company loggers to stop cutting the traded land. The exchange gave Weyerhaeuser Co. 4,300 acres […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Mountain to get a facelift
Facing a lawsuit from the Sierra Club, the City of Colorado Springs has agreed to clean up streams and wetlands on Pikes Peak – a project that could cost $14 million to $21 million, according to a preliminary study. The Sierra Club sued in 1998, claiming that the city-operated toll road to the top of […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Fly-in wilderness
During the height of the summer boating season in central Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, the sky buzzes with airplanes bound for one of 31 wilderness airstrips. At the Indian Creek airstrip, as many as 50 planes will land in a day. The Montana-based Wilderness Watch says that volume of traffic doesn’t belong […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Black Canyon National Park?
If Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., gets his way, he will leave behind a legacy. A bill moving rapidly through the U.S. Senate would redesignate the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument as a national park and expand its current 20,766 acres to 30,000. Campbell, the bill’s sponsor, has been pursuing this legislation for […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Fee fighters blast the Adventure Pass
New recreation fees have incensed some Southern Californians who say they don’t want to pick up the tab for playing on public lands. A major point of conflict is what the Forest Service calls its “Adventure Pass,” which is sold for trailhead parking at $5 a day or $30 a year. In the Los Padres, […]