A new conservation program that gives landowners incentives to improve habitat for lizard and prairie chicken.
Endangered Species
Posted inApril 12, 2010: The Butterfly Sting
The Butterfly Sting
How a federal wildlife agent brought down one of the world’s most notorious insect thieves.
Posted inAugust 4, 2008: Hostile Takeover
Drilling, wolves, guns and plutonium
“Drill here, drill now,” has become something of a political mantra in this election-year summer of high gasoline prices and frustrated consumers. Tack on “pay less,” and it’s the bumper-sticker slogan for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s national campaign to expand domestic energy production. Many Republicans now running for Congress hope their enthusiasm for drilling […]
Posted inArticles
Love for the clay-loving buckwheat
By 8 a.m., the July day felt like a scorcher. Waves of heat rippled along the western Colorado adobe hills, shriveling plants and baking the soil to a fractured crust that crunched with every step. Two white tents peeking from between golden hills could have been a mirage, if it weren’t for the sizzle of […]
Posted inNovember 13, 2006: Bred for success
Two weeks in the West
“With no disrespect to the eagle, I’ve always thought that the horse should be our national emblem.” —Singer Willie Nelson, arguing against the slaughter of horses for human consumption Interior’s fuzzy science. If it were up to many U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists, the Endangered Species Act would now protect the Gunnison’s prairie dog, […]
Posted inAugust 7, 2006: Is It or Isn't It (Just Another Mouse)?
Is It or Isn’t It (Just Another Mouse)?
Why science alone will not settle the West’s endangered species dilemmas
Posted inWotr
Killing cougars is the easy choice
The state of Oregon is back in the business of killing cougars. After a long and contentious public comment process, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission recently approved a management plan for the state’s top predator that would allow government-paid hunters to reduce cougar numbers back to 1993 levels. That could ultimately mean the killing […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
Primrose focus of legal dustup
This summer, no one is enjoying the dusty trails of central California’s Clear Creek Management Area: The Bureau of Land Management has temporarily closed 30,000 of the area’s 75,000 acres. George Hill, the BLM’s Hollister assistant field manager, says the agency shut the area down to protect people from naturally occurring asbestos dust. But environmentalists […]
Posted inWotr
The passing of a Yellowstone Cinderella
It’s mating season for wolves in Yellowstone, and the alpha male of the Druid Peak pack sits alone on a snowy ridge, howling mournfully. His mate, whose only name was the number 42, is dead. One of Yellowstone’s oldest wolves at eight, 42 was killed by a rival pack the previous night. She was also […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Biologist busted for moving endangered cacti
A darling of developers, consultant gets five years’ probation and $5,000 fine
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Hatching reform
SEATTLE, Wash. – From 80 feet above downtown, the throngs of people wrapped in raincoats on the sidewalk below look like a spilled package of multicolored candies. The view is less colorful looking outward from the eighth floor window of the historic Cobb building, but no less busy; glass and steel high-rises thrust upward in […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
‘Weed’
A marriage of the arts and government took the stage Aug. 4 as Weed premiered at the Creede Repertory Theatre in Creede, Colo. The Colorado Rural Development Council commissioned the play last year, hoping to present a nonbiased – and entertaining – view of land-use issues. During playwright Micki Panttaja’s research for Weed, she toured […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Tough but threatened
The ironwood tree, long a symbol of desert abundance, may soon be protected by a new national monument in southern Arizona. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt toured an ironwood forest near Tucson in mid-March, and expressed interest in protecting about 71,000 acres of BLM land. A recent report by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson says […]
Posted inDecember 12, 1994: Shrink to fit
Stupid shooting
The large cactus on Arizona’s Tonto National Forest near Phoenix wasn’t menacing anyone, yet it now stands riddled with holes, the shooting target of vandals. The three arms of the approximately 250-year-old saguaro were shot until they fell to the ground. The Maricopa County attorney’s office will arraign five suspects, all under age 20, who […]
Posted inFebruary 11, 1991: Idaho savors its waters as region seeks more hydropower
On grizzlies, babies and a shrinking land
I got married last fall and was immediately inundated with questions concerning when my husband and I were planning on having kids. Someone even sent me a card wishing me lots and lots of little ones. The sentiment behind that wish is really what brought ISO folks and me together in mid-January to hear a […]