Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. If you want a good look at the internal debate over the Church Universal and Triumphant’s new direction, go to cyberspace, where a pair of Web sites are dedicated to airing viewpoints pro and con. People speculate about the sex life of CUT guru […]
On the Web, church chats up a storm
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Bison may get ground to stand on
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Church Universal and Triumphant remains willing to remove all cattle from its Royal Teton Ranch and to allow bison to roam there once state and federal government make some commitments of their own. Here are the highlights of the church’s proposal, some of […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Church lands will help bail out bison
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. If someone tells you they have a simple solution to the bitter controversy over Yellowstone National Park’s wandering bison, turn around and walk away. The Church Universal and Triumphant’s offer concerning its Royal Teton Ranch illustrates the complexity of the problem. What could have […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Church picks and chooses to create a belief system
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The theology of the Church Universal and Triumphant is a mixed bag of Christianity, Buddhism, New Age mysticism and astrology. Add in beings called Ascended Masters, who speak through Elizabeth Clare Prophet, angels and “elementals,” who embody earth, fire, water and wind. Then there […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
A biography of Prophet’s most recent life
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Guru Ma’s got troubles. Lots of them. At the age of 59, she has both a preschool child and Alzheimer’s disease. All four of her adult children have turned their back on the Church Universal and Triumphant, the institution she spent almost 40 years […]
Posted inMarch 15, 1999: Selling off the Promised Land
Selling off the Promised Land
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 […]
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 […]