New research shows that the decline of salmon populations in the Northwest has drastically altered the diet of the region’s grizzly bears. Historically, say Charles Robbins of Washington State University and other researchers, salmon accounted for an average of two-thirds of a grizzly’s diet, and, at times, as much as 90 percent. The biologists examined […]
Are salmon bear essentials?
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Adopt-a-ferret is under way
Once close to extinction, the black-footed ferret is making a comeback this year. Over the past decade, thousands of the critters have been raised in captivity by a federally funded breeding program. This year, scientists plan to release around 250 ferrets in five Western states, adding to the estimated 200 captive-bred ferrets already in the […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Help arrives for the ailing Alamosa
For years, locals have declared Colorado’s Alamosa River “dead,” killed by pollution from the notorious Summitville Mine. Now, a grassroots organization has teamed up with a national group to resurrect the river. The Capulin, Colo.-based Restore Our Alamosa River was selected from 130 applicants to join a national umbrella group, Water Keepers Alliance, that provides […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Here comes a wayward wolf
When the lone gray wolf appeared ahead of a snowplow driver on Highway 7 in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon, it became the state’s first official wild wolf sighting since 1946. Leaving Idaho, the two-year-old female had traveled hundreds of miles over mountains, rivers and highways, looking for a mate, but its days in […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
State senate says voters weren’t very smart
Were Montana voters confused last year when they passed an initiative halting any expanded or new cyanide leach gold mines? Yes, say some state legislators, and not only confused, but wrong. “Just because the people said that is what they wanted, that does not make it right,” said State Sen. Lorents Grosfield of Big Timber. […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Paying for a gold mine
When the Dakota Mining Corp. abandoned its Stibnite gold mine in the rugged mountains of the Payette National Forest last year, it left a mess behind. Shacks were stuffed with barrels brimming with unknown chemicals; it took a bomb squad from Mountain Home Air Force Base to remove one bottle of particularly volatile acid. Almost […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
The Wayward West
Missing: more than 600 boxes of documents from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in southern Idaho (HCN, 9/29/97). Federal scientists studying the effects of the laboratory’s underground radioactive storage facility on downwinders fear the boxes were lost or destroyed by past INEEL employees; they say that at least 60 of the boxes may […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Toxic cleanup turns up frogs
During a routine survey of a toxic-waste dump near Santa Maria, Calif., EPA staffers stumbled upon a peculiar surprise. Hiding in the vegetation surrounding a series of rain-filled ponds were an estimated 300 red-legged frogs, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. While the discovery was welcome news, biologists now worry that […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Julia Butterfly won’t come down
Julia “Butterfly” Hill has become something of a celebrity. She has lived in a 1,000-year-old redwood tree near Stafford, Calif., for over a year, spreading the message that “each and every one of the old-growth trees is ancient, precious, and priceless.” From the 300 to 500 letters she receives daily, Hill is confident that people […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Deciphering the ditches
It is widely acknowledged that conventional approaches to economic development in the rural West, based on mineral extraction, industrial relocation, and capital-intensive tourism, have met with dismal results. Jobs may be created, but the benefits are inequitably distributed; growth may or may not occur, but poverty and underdevelopment persist, and in the process, the community […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Green versus gold
California sometimes seems to play in its own league, its affairs completely separate from the rest of the West. But the lively new collection, Green Versus Gold: Sources in California’s Environmental History, shows how universal California’s lessons are. Editor Carolyn Merchant dips into every phase of California’s history, from before Europeans arrived, through Spanish colonization, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Just go away
-So what’s the American Dream for the people out here?” I asked. “To be left alone,” Baker replied. “Just to be left alone?” I asked. “But that’s not possible, is it?” “Nope,” Baker said. “How do they react when they find it’s not possible?” I asked. “They get really mad,” and (she) broke up laughing. […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Mormons on the land
-We cannot return to Eden. We know too much and we care too little about the complexities of our collective past. But perhaps we can find our way toward a new genesis, a wiser relationship toward Creation that is founded on the sacred principles of love and respect and empathy.” * Terry Tempest Williams, New […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Oil wells in my backyard?
DURANGO, Colo. – -Well, in the late 1980s, the kids started lighting the lemonade on fire, so I knew something was going on,” says Carl Weston, a resident of southwestern Colorado’s La Plata County. Something was also going on miles away at Randy Ferris’ house; he was alarmed when his tap water emerged looking like […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Paddlers want onto ‘the Everest of rivers’
The Black Canyon of Yellowstone National Park seems to swallow the Yellowstone River in one gigantic gulp. From the canyon’s mouth, rapids turn the river into a powerful torrent that careens into Gardiner, Mont., the north entrance to the park. Mention the Black Canyon to many experienced boaters, and their eyes will glimmer and private […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Chaos reigns in Idaho wildlife agency
In Idaho, the state Fish and Game Commission is almost a hallowed institution. Its history extends back to the 1930s, when a national committee led by writer and conservationist Aldo Leopold advanced a management formula devised to protect wildlife from the political whims of the day. Voters adopted Leopold’s plan by approving a citizen’s initiative […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Locals work to tame the Air Force
RENO, Nev. – Grace Potorti lives 10 minutes away from the neon lights and slot machines of this “Biggest Little City in the World.” Hers seems an unremarkable home – magnets adorn the refrigerator, two teenage children drift in and out. But from this base, the 40-something Potorti takes on the Pentagon – for the […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Indian money: Where is it?
A federal judge raked Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt over the coals last month, when he held Babbitt in contempt of court in a lawsuit over unaccounted-for Indian money. Babbitt’s department “engaged in a shocking pattern of deception of the court,” said Federal District Court Judge Royce Lamberth. “I have never seen more egregious misconduct by […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Dear Friends
Almost fooled by a fax We received a confusing message by fax machine recently from promoters of something called The National Media Guide in Altamonte Springs, Fla. At first, it seemed a no-brainer: We sign our name, we get a “complimentary copy” if we “rush” back a reply. Then, we noticed an odd line at […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Heard around the West
If you’re standing on the vast Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington and a tumbleweed tumbles your way – better step aside. Last year the federal Department of Energy surveyed tumbleweeds on the 560-square-mile complex, a high-security bomb factory, and found that 20 tested toxic. That’s up from 1995, when only five of the weeds […]