CASPER, Wyo. – Clad from head to toe in sterile white clothing, environmental engineers have become a familiar sight in this central Wyoming city of 51,000. They come to clean up the defunct Amoco Corp. oil refinery, one of the state’s oldest, and one of its most notorious, hazardous-waste sites. During its boom years in […]
Wyoming regulators gamble on Amoco cleanup
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Renegade house with a view – for now
The three-story cedar house with its tall windows and panoramic views stands boldly on an open bluff near the rim of the Columbia River Gorge, where its prominence defies a federal law that says it should not be there. Since the house went up last year, it has become a test of the 13-year-old National […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
The last mine closes in Leadville
For the past 139 years, men and machines have mined along the gulches at the source of Colorado’s Arkansas River, producing metals worth more than $2 billion at current prices. That era ended Jan. 29, when the Asarco Black Cloud Mine, which sits above timberline about 10 miles east of Leadville, Colo., hoisted its last […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Dear friends
A very good year The board of directors of the High Country Foundation met in St. George, Utah, on Jan. 23 to review 1998’s circulation and financial results and to consider the 1999 budget proposed by the staff. The past year was better than expected. HCN’s circulation grew by 4 percent, ending the year at […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
The Pacific Yew: Chasing a cancer cure with a chainsaw
Above 4,000 feet it rained every day of the summer of 1993. On the Fourth of July, a long night of rain and wind gave way at dawn to a fine sleet that lay on the ground like snow, and didn’t melt for nearly three days. We were somewhere east of Pierce, Idaho, on the […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
An entrepreneurial spirit
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Each fall, Yan Saeteurn hitches a camper trailer to his V-6 Toyota pickup at his home in Redding, Calif., and heads four hours north to what is the locus of the matsutake mushroom harvest. There, near Crescent Lake, Ore., he builds a small wooden […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
It’s our tradition
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Sherlette Colegrove is a 42-year-old member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California. She, too, is a member of the harvesters’ alliance. Since 1993, Colegrove has been harvesting plants and mushrooms introduced to her by her grandmother. “When someone was sick, she’d say […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Freedom of the woods
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Bill Knight is a 42-year-old mushroom harvester and buyer from Shelton, Wash. He got his start 10 years ago, and is a member of the Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters, a group providing a unified voice for the Northwest forest harvesters. “Someone takes […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Plant identification
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Beargrass is sometimes called “Indian basket grass,” but it isn’t a grass at all. Buyers in the Northwest pay 45 cents for a half-pound bunch of the tough, grassy leaves of this lily, which are sometimes dyed bright colors and added to floral displays. […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Uncommon Bounty
Note: four sidebar articles accompany this feature story: a guide to identifying edible and medicinal plants, a profile of a mushroom harvester, and mushroom harvester Bill Knight and Hoopa Valley Tribal member Sherlette Colegrove sharing their views in their own words. With a few lengths of steel and the blue flame of a welding torch, […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Stereotyping hunters is easy
Dear HCN, Thanks for providing an open and honest forum so that we can discuss the myriad issues, such as hunting, that affect the West. In recent issues I’ve read Stephen Gies’ whiny diatribe about the “macabre act of hunting” and Marc Gaede’s bizarre but hilarious evaluation of the human male. I fit their stereotype. […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Don’t believe that grizzlies are doing just fine
Dear HCN, Many of us who follow the Yellowstone grizzly summer after summer know one thing for certain about the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee: It is an intensely political organization (HCN, 11/9/98). Like a political party, most of its deliberations are in secret and many of its pronouncements are in the form of propaganda. Propaganda […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Outfitters do a lot for Grand Canyon
Dear HCN, Whether one supports wilderness for the Colorado River corridor in Grand Canyon or not, to inextricably link it with access for private boaters is wrong and very misleading (HCN, 12/21/98). Part of the reason that there is such a long wait for private boaters to get to the river is that the current […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Society for Ecology Restoration
When members of the Society for Ecological Restoration meet next September in San Francisco, they will focus on moving stewardship of the land back to the community – away from government or large corporations. To submit abstracts for a talk or poster by March 15, contact Deborah Amshoff, program chair, 2489 Whitney Dr. #1, Mountain […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Stegner Center Symposium
Two of the country’s experts on water policy will speak at this year’s 4th Annual Stegner Center Symposium, “Where the Rivers Flow: Sharing Watersheds and Boundaries’ in Salt Lake City, Utah. On hand April 16-17 will be Dan Beard, former commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, and Marc Reisner, author of Cadillac Desert: The American […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
San Juan National Forest Artist in Residence
The San Juan National Forest Artist in Residence program offers artists the chance to stay at the historic Aspen Guard Station in exchange for producing a creative piece that represents their experience in the former ranger station. All types of artists are encouraged to apply by March 1 for the one- to two-week fall stay. […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
College scholarships
The Sierra Club will award four-year college scholarships of $1,000 per year to 10 students from small communities in the Sierra Nevada region. Applications must be postmarked no later than March 5; for more information, write to Jackie McCort of the Sierra Club at 85 Second Street, Fourth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105-5500, call her […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Connecting Ecosystems – Connecting Peoples
The Environmental and Outdoor Education Council of Alberta, Canada, holds its annual conference April 22-24 at Waterton Lakes National Park, just north of Montana’s Glacier National Park. “Connecting Ecosystems – Connecting Peoples’ is the theme, and topics include the proposal to link the Yukon-Yellowstone wildlife corridors. Contact Keith Roscoe at 403/329-2446 or keith.roscoe@uleth.ca. This article […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
National Land Trust Census
The last decade has been a good one for the West’s land trusts. A census conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Land Trust Alliance reveals the number of land trusts that serve the Rocky Mountain states has risen from 20 to 52, and the Southwest shows similar growth. Nationwide, these private nonprofits, whose primary purpose is […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Fees feed volunteers
Years of budget-cutting have taken their toll on the trails and roads of the national parks, and the Park Service is using a windfall from increased user fees to clean up its act. Two million dollars in park user fees have jump-started the Public Land Corps, a program administered by the nonprofit Student Conservation Association. […]