When the Bighorn National Forest drew up a plan to bring more visitors to the centuries-old Medicine Wheel, a Native American sacred site in northern Wyoming, tribes organized to stop it (HCN, 5/26/97). And they succeeded. Eight Plains tribes, known as the Medicine Wheel Coalition, worked with government officials to write a Historic Preservation Plan, […]
Lawsuit may take what’s holy
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Armed with alarms
As the prowler approaches, metallic shrieks reverberate across the grassy benchland, and strobe lights pulsate in the black night. The would-be assassin escapes into the forest – on all fours. The high-tech alarm system, designed by a scientist at the National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colo., is the newest tool in wolf management. […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
The Wayward West
Residents of Jackson Hole, Wyo., have some new neighbors: a pair of gray wolves and their five pups. Roughly 50 wolf pups have been born this spring around Yellowstone National Park, bringing the population to more than 160. Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is appealing a 1997 district court ruling that ordered the […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Spare the plow, save the squirrel
The arid grasslands and shrub steppe prairie of the Columbia Plateau have gradually dwindled as farmers have plowed up thousands of acres to plant lucrative crops such as potatoes and onions. The Washington ground squirrel is among the species linked to this dwindling habitat, and over the past decade the squirrels’ population has dropped by […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
‘Petroglyph police’ try to save the art of the ancients
ZION NATIONAL PARK, Utah – A prehistoric petroglyph, chipped out of red sandstone to resemble a fat sheep, contends with a crude contemporary scrawl about a foot away. The scrawl looks roughly like a circle, scratched out with a sharp stick – the mark of an unsupervised child, or a thoughtless adult. When Sharon and […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Heard around the West
Utah’s state seal refrains from exhortations, but does feature a bald eagle flapping its wings above a beehive. Judy Fahys in the Salt Lake Tribune finds this far too bland: “To truly personify the state, Utah’s official seal might have illustrated a family the size of a track team slurping vanilla ice cream cones.” The […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
A park all their own
HOLBROOK, Ariz. – When seasoned businessman Marvin Hatch bought a northern Arizona ranch, he and business partner Terrence “Shorty” Reidhead knew the land would yield more than just hamburger. The 60,000-acre, $3.3 million Paulsell Ranch is littered with Indian ruins, artifacts and petroglyphs. The ranch’s resources are so important that its neighbor, Petrified Forest National […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Stepping lightly in a sanctuary
COTTONWOOD, Idaho – Sister Carol Ann Wassmuth grabs one of the ropes dangling from a ceiling at St. Gertrude’s Monastery. “If you pull too hard, the bell flips all the way over,” she says, demonstrating how to summon 78 Benedictine sisters to midday Mass. Soon, three bells send a joyful sound across the high plains. […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Lions push bighorn onto an island
Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, the latest addition to the federal endangered species list, may survive extinction with the help of Mono Lake, itself threatened for decades by the diversion of its feeder streams to Los Angeles (HCN, 12/8/97). Mono Lake can help to save bighorn by providing what one expert calls “an imaginary zoo” – […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Dear Friends
Welcome, Keri New intern Keri Watson arrived at High Country News on Paonia’s first sunny day in what seemed like weeks. She’d just spent time shepherding her German in-laws around Salt Lake City, the city where she was born and where she worked as a camera operator at KUED-TV while also doing research for a […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
The Hidden West
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Implicit in the late Wallace Stegner’s phrase, “a society to match the scenery,” is the belief that the West is built from the bottom up, and that the health and vitality of the land and its wildlife will be determined by the health and […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Mining the past
Note: an introductory, front-page sidebar, “The hidden West,” accompanies this feature story. BUTTE, Mont. – George Bigcraft, John Bjornstorm, Daniel Budovinac. Near midnight on June 8, 1917, an electric cable caught fire at the 2,400 level of the shaft that served the Granite Mountain and Speculator mines here. Toyvo Kokkonen, Ben Konecney, Mike Kubilus. All […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
For the record – from Dave Foreman
Dear HCN, It is my policy not to comment on news coverage of me, but in this case I have to correct the record. A letter you mailed out to potential readers with the lead article on The Wildlands Project seriously distorts history (HCN, 4/26/88). I did not ever agree to not “speak out about […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
Doom can’t be soon enough
Dear HCN, Is trapping doomed? (HCN, 4/12/99). Of course it is. When decent people like Liz Kehr and Kevin Feist are forced to haggle over how many days animals should remain in traps before they are bludgeoned to death or whether trappers should post signs to warn the public of their dangerous and cowardly practices, […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
Land swap reporter comments
Dear HCN, Readers of Andy Wiessner’s letter about land exchanges (HCN, 5/10/99) might have been better able to evaluate his criticisms of Janine Blaeloch and the Western Land Exchange Project had he acknowledged that he was a consultant to Plum Creek Timber Co. on the Interstate 90 exchange. Yes, the I-90 exchange will result in […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
Think forests, think water
Dear HCN, While Andy Wiessner did many environmentally heroic deeds in the past when he was counsel for the House Interior Committee, such as making sure that the California Wilderness Bill included many key lands in the Trinity Alps Wilderness, he seems to have let the big money his consulting work brings in color his […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
Yellow Bay Writers’ Workshop
The 12th Annual Yellow Bay Writers’ Workshop will take place Aug. 8-14 on the shores of northwest Montana’s Flathead Lake. The event is sponsored by the University of Montana’s Center for Continuing Education and features writers Pam Houston, Jane Miller, Fred Haefele and Denis Johnson. Contact Lea Upshaw at 406/243-2094 or e-mail her at hhi@selway.umt.edu. […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
Sustainable Development Speakers Series
The Environmental Protection Agency has been hosting a free Sustainable Development Speakers Series in Denver, Colo. Coming up: “Sustainable Community Design,” July 15; “Zero-Waste Manufacturing,” Sept. 16; and “Opportunities for the Next Millennium,” Nov. 11. To sign up, contact the EPA at 999 18th St., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80202-2466 (303/312-6241). This article appeared in […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
San Juan Citizens Alliance
The San Juan Citizens Alliance is calling on nonprofit and grassroots organizations around the Four Corners region to participate in a festival of community involvement. The celebration will be held at Gateway Park in Durango, Colo., June 19. Contact Carolyn Lamb at 970/382-9609 with questions. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine […]
Posted inMay 24, 1999: The last weird place
Strategies in Western water law
Strategies in Western water law, from courts and coercion to collaboration, is the theme of the University of Colorado’s 20th annual summer conference, sponsored by the Natural Resources Law Center. Speakers include Patricia Beneke, assistant secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, and Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt. For more information about the June 9-11 […]