CORWIN SPRINGS, Mont. – The big trouble started 10 years ago, when federal agents arrested Vernon Hamilton for possession of illegally purchased sniper rifles in Spokane, Wash. There was more. Hamilton was carrying $130,000 worth of gold, cash and crates of ammunition, along with an elaborate false identity he had stolen from a California man […]
Selling off the Promised Land
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Friends of the dogs
Dear HCN, Woody Beardsley’s review of “Varmints,” shown in Boulder, Colo. (HCN, 1/18/99), depicts Rocky Mountain Animal Defense (RMAD) as antagonistic to the filmmakers in particular and prairie dog conservationists in general. This could not be further from the truth. This misrepresentation is not Beardsley’s fault; RMAD’s views were simply poorly represented at the film […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Sprawl also harms native people
Dear HCN, Tony Davis’ story on desert sprawl (HCN, 1/18/99), with figures proving the city of Tucson has more than doubled in size in 40 years, and that an acre of the Sonoran Desert disappears every two hours, seems absurdly unbelievable. It is preposterous that people can destroy the saguaro, prickly pear cacti, and ironwood […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Who should float the Colorado?
Dear HCN, I seldom voice my opinion in the public arena, but I felt compelled by the recent articles in High Country News to share some of my experiences and opinions. Like Brad Dimock, I am a recovering river rat. I got my start with Outward Bound School in the late 1960s. I started floating […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Hogs replacing hogs are still hogs
Dear HCN, Re: “Fun-hogs to replace cows in a Utah monument” (HCN, 2/1/99), give us a break. Give us the real story. The Escalante, a lone remnant of Glen Canyon, is a sensitive and disastrously disturbed river system. It is a central riparian corridor for wildlife, but at present it is barely alive. It flows […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
High Country News derides hunters
Dear HCN, I am sorry to say that I will not be renewing my High Country News subscription. I have been reading your paper with much interest and appreciation for the past four years, but lately have become increasingly disappointed with your anti-hunting, and anti-hunter, sentiment. While your writers do an outstanding job illuminating some […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Murder, hunting and macho men
Dear HCN, I should like to respond to Paul Quinnett’s letter (HCN, 1/18/99) in which he says he is unaware of any science that can demonstrate hunters are “subconsciously killing other male humans because of competition for females.” There are numerous scientific publications dealing with the issue of hunting and personal aggression, but one will […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Wilderness and Spirit
The School of Forestry at the University of Montana in Missoula offers a lecture series focused on human relationships with nature. Wilderness and Spirit is open to the public and takes place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. until the end of April. Speakers include activist Scott Silver and writers Richard Manning and David Peterson. For […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
The 10,894 acre Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills of Kansas was created in 1996 and the National Park Service is accepting comments on its General Management Plan until March 5. Use the online comment form at www.nps.gov/tapr/altcom3.html or call 316/273-6034. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Sustaining the Missouri River for Future Generations
Native Americans and scientists will be among those meeting in Pierre, S.D., on March 21-24, to discuss Sustaining the Missouri River for Future Generations. For more information on the third annual get-together, contact Jeanne Heuser, Columbia Environmental Research Center, 4200 New Haven Road, Columbia, MO 65201 (573/876-1876), e-mail: jeanne_heuser@usgs.gov, or visit the Web site at […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Five Flagstaff photographers
Five Flagstaff photographers are showing their work in an 80-piece exhibit that will be on display until May 31 at the Museum of Northern Arizona. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 3101 N. Fort Valley Rd., Flagstaff, AZ 86001 (520/774-5211). This article appeared in the print edition of the […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps
If you’re between the ages of 15 and 18, you can join the ranks of the Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps this summer. For eight weeks, paid participants will learn about the environment through park maintenance and resource management projects. Send applications by March 15 to YCC Program, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Beyond Borders
Some 50 writers from around the world will convene in Flagstaff, Ariz., March 17-21, for a gathering called Beyond Borders. Special guests include Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz and Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient. Contact the Northern Arizona Book Festival, P.O. Box 2432, Flagstaff, AZ 86003, or www.weeklywire.com/nabookfest/. This article appeared in the print […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Wallace Stegner Lecture Series
In California, this year’s Wallace Stegner Lecture Series is selling out fast. The series raises money for the Peninsula Open Space Trust’s initiative to protect over 12,000 acres of the San Francisco Bay Peninsula. “The properties are so diverse; you name it and we’ve got it,” says coordinator Janet Curtis. Scientist Theo Colborn recently spoke; […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
User fee critics contest report
New gate fees charged in national parks and other federal recreation areas raise money without turning away visitors, according to a recent General Accounting Office report. But the report was based only on the comments of people at trailheads who were willing to fill out cards; those not bothering to respond or who protested by […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Pipe down!
A new group complains it’s too noisy in the Pike-San Isabel national forests. “Machines are over-running our public lands,” says Quiet Use Coalition board member Dick Scar. Founded in Buena Vista, Colo., the 100-member group hopes to convince the Forest Service to restrict motorized use in 16 areas of the forest to ensure a more […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Yellowstone soft on safety
After five people working in Yellowstone National Park were accidentally killed in a little less than four years, a federal investigation found that the first and most famous national park had ignored hundreds of safety regulations. “Employees at almost all levels demonstrated an unwillingness to take responsibility for safety,” concluded a 1998 report by the […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Are snowmobiles overpowering parks?
During the peak of the snowy season in Yellowstone National Park, as many as 1,000 snowmobiles a day roar over its groomed roads. Critics say the machines cause more noise and air pollution than the park should have to handle. Park rangers who sell entrance tickets complain of headaches and nausea from breathing in clouds […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
Clearcut the neighborhood
Whoever said irony is wasted on the West never met Tom Clyde. Clyde spent 17 traumatic years practicing law in Park City, Utah. In 1984, he packed his belongings into his Volkswagen bus and moved to a cabin on his family’s ranch 20 miles away. From this safe distance, he has been providing the locals […]
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
A Wyoming river needs help
A group of Wyoming fly fishermen needs help resuscitating a river. Since 1961, a 17-foot conduit has been sucking Platte River water from Wyoming’s Fremont Canyon and tunneling it down to a hydro-electric power plant managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. When the river dries up in the summer, “the bugs dry up, the fish […]