FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt got an earful when he announced his plans for a new national monument on the Shivwits Plateau, or “Arizona Strip” north of the Grand Canyon. About 500 people packed a meeting March 8 in the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University to debate the proposal. Calling the plateau […]
Secretary Babbitt meets a tough crowd
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Tree lovers are willing to pay
Washington’s Loomis State Forest has 25,000 roadless acres, and environmentalists say they’ll spend millions to preserve it. In just a few months, the Loomis Forest Fund raised $3 million, but contributors say they need $10.1 million more to compensate the state for the cash it could make by logging. The forest, which borders Canada, is […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Air Force lands a deal
Environmentalists fighting the expansion of a U.S. Air Force training range in southern Idaho lost a round. At issue was a 961-acre tract of grazing land that the U.S. Air Force says it needs for its 12,000-acre Juniper Butte training area (HCN, 4/13/98). Favoring the military, Idaho’s Land Board turned down a $5,000 bid from […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Bison ranch in the balance
A bison ranch that sits in the shadow of the towering Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado could be sold to developers this year if The Nature Conservancy doesn’t come through. Rocky Mountain Bison Inc. has promised to sell its 100,000 acres to the nonprofit Conservancy if the group can raise the purchase price […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Officials seek the “complete’ Canyonlands
A new proposal by Canyonlands National Park superintendent Walt Dabney would more than double the park’s size, from 368,000 acres to about 852,000 acres. Dabney says the proposal “completes’ Canyonlands by drawing park boundaries along natural features. He hopes it will serve as a model for future park planning. “This is in the public arena […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Outdoor schools get squeezed
Two outdoor schools in Summit County, Colo., are feeling the pinch of development in their high country domains. For the past 20 years, Keystone Science School has used the outdoors as a teaching tool. But the school’s backcountry assets are threatened by Keystone Ski Area’s real estate expansion on the fringes of the school’s 23-acre […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
The Wayward West
In North Dakota, legislators passed a law that makes it illegal to gather the purple coneflower on state lands. Often known by its Latin name, Echinacea angustafolia is a medicinal plant booming in popularity (HCN, 2/15/99). The new law also slaps a stiff fine on anyone caught taking the plant from private land without permission. […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Land deal links desert parks
A California-based land trust has arranged to put almost 500,000 acres of mountaintop forests, sand dunes and volcanic cinder cones into public hands. The $61.5 million deal now awaits a decision by Congress to release $36 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Wildlands Conservancy, based in Yucaipa, Calif., will pay the remainder. […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Cantankerous and contradictory: Remembering Ed Abbey
Edward Abbey changed my life. He saved me from becoming a Republican. Twenty-five years after a friend of my father’s handed me a worn-out copy of Desert Solitaire and a decade after his death, Ed Abbey is, to me, an honest hero in a time and a world where we don’t allow heroes. He’d throw […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Heard around the West
There will be no chapped skin from nude skiing when the season ends April 18 at the Crested Butte resort in western Colorado. As the Denver Post put it: “Crested Butte is cracking down on bare butts. And it has nothing to do with smoking.” Last spring, the 25-year tradition of clothing-optional skiing erupted into […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Take the green elephant off the endangered list
WASHINGTON, D.C. – When the congressional crunch comes – and come it will – over torpedoing the Forest Service road-building moratorium, or the president’s plan to add 5 million acres of national park land to the wilderness system, or another slew of riders on an appropriations bill, here are some of the congressmen on whom […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Where do we put the condos?
DRIGGS, Idaho – This southeast Idaho town is like a forgotten cousin to the ski mecca town of Jackson, Wyo., 40 miles away on the other side of Teton Pass. The wave of development that has descended on Jackson has mostly bypassed this part of Idaho, even though both communities share a spectacular view of […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Plans for a new park in Arizona
In 1966, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall drafted a plan to turn more than 1 million square miles of desert in his home state of Arizona into a national park. But the idea for a Sonoran Desert National Park died at the hands of a lame-duck President, Lyndon Johnson. Now, the park idea has resurfaced, driven […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
High Country Schmooze
Yet another new intern Sporting a black beret and a cheery attitude, the paper’s newest intern blew into the High Country Schmooze office last week, fresh from a blizzard of subpoenas and a lively book tour. “All I want to do is buckle down and work real hard,” Moniker Looinsky said, smiling and winking at […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
A muckraker throws a well-aimed wrench
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In the end, Wyoming’s self-appointed public-lands watchdog wasn’t able to halt the “Big Trails’ land swap atop the Bighorn Mountains. But his one-man battle against the controversial deal changed the way land exchanges are handled in the Cowboy State. The watchdog is John Jolley, […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Wheeling and dealing
Note: a sidebar article, “A muckraker throws a well-aimed wrench,” accompanies this feature story. WESTON HILLS, Wyo. – Larry Gerard’s blue work shirt whips in the wind as we stand among ponderosa pines on this ridge. To the west, the Bighorn Mountains glitter with spring snow. Just below, rancher Joe Collins is planting wheat. The […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Dangers of exploring abandoned mines
A 24-page workbook about the dangers of exploring abandoned mines is available free to youth groups and educators. Mining Utah’s Heritage includes drawings, games and quizzes to get its message across. For a copy, call Jan Morse at 801/538-5305 or write the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program, P.O. Box 145801, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-5801. This […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Cyanide Uncertainties: Observations on the Chemistry, Toxicity, and Analysis of Cyanide in Mining Related Waters
The Mineral Policy Center has published a 16-page pamphlet on the hazards of mining with cyanide. For a free copy of Cyanide Uncertainties: Observations on the Chemistry, Toxicity, and Analysis of Cyanide in Mining Related Waters, contact Mineral Policy Center, 1612 K St. NW, Suite 808, Washington, DC 20006, 202/887-1872, or email: mpc-us@msn.com. This article […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Nebraska National Forest
The national forests of Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming need volunteers who are passionate about the outdoors and conservation. There are a variety of opportunities, from trail work to answering questions at visitor centers. Contact Nebraska National Forest, 125 N. Main St., Chadron, NE 69337, or www.fs.fed.us/r2/nebraska/volunteer/ index.htm. This article appeared in the print edition […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Spring Action Training Camp
The Cove/Mallard Coalition in Idaho is offering hands-on experience May 26-31 to anyone interested in becoming an in-the-woods activist. Workshops at the Spring Action Training Camp include wilderness survival and the “how to” of successful blockades and tree sits. Call 208/882-9755, write P.O. Box 8968, Moscow, ID 83832 or e-mail cove@moscow.com. This article appeared in […]