After catching a Wyoming rancher illegally subleasing federal grazing permits, Forest Service officials cancelled half his grazing privileges and suspended the remainder for three years. The rancher, George Salisbury, who is also a longtime county commissioner and state legislator, insists he is innocent. “I owned the cattle, I just didn’t have the paperwork to justify […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inFebruary 21, 1994: Draining the budget to desalt the Colorado
Public foots DOE bill
The Department of Energy spent millions of dollars over a 32-month period defending its contractors from the public. A DOE internal document says that the agency paid $47 million to private attorneys from Oct. 1, 1990, through May 31, 1993, to defend its private contractors from class action lawsuits. The suits charged firms such as […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 1994: Draining the budget to desalt the Colorado
State land lease in Idaho goes to the low bidder
In an abrupt turnaround, the Idaho Land Board took away a lease for state grazing land won by an environmentalist, then gave it back to the rancher who has used it for 20 years. At a Jan. 28 auction, Jon Marvel, founder of Idaho Watersheds Project, outbid Challis ranchers Will and Vangie Ingram for rights […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Babbitt has a bad day in New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – For two hours, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt preached the joys of consensus to New Mexico ranchers and environmentalists. And for two hours, the ranchers and environmentalists snapped at each other with the same gusto that has marked their exchanges for the past decade. The Jan. 20 meeting at the University of New […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Agency ends cattle grazing at Idaho refuges
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Can she save ecosystems? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently revoked grazing privileges at two national wildlife refuges in eastern Idaho and is poised to do the same at two others in the state. Annual permits to run cattle in the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Grazing talks split both sides
Most environmentalists hate the idea that Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt would let a group of moderate ranchers and environmentalists from Colorado try to create a consensus plan on grazing reform. It’s like watering down a diluted version of a weak plan that was off to begin with, says Peter Angst, public-lands specialist with the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Grazing: the shape of the future
Most combatants in the public-lands grazing battle are still in their bunkers, happily sending shells into opposing camps. Nevertheless, there hangs over this familiar and comfortable scene a small but dark cloud: the willingness among some former enemies to talk to each other. The possibility of negotiations is as unsettling in the West as it […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Turmoil on the range
Ranchers’ clout drives grazing reform in new directions
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Tiny reporter at a small paper writes a big story
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – In July 1987, newly hired Albuquerque Tribune reporter Eileen Welsome was thumbing through declassified government documents on radioactive waste dumps at the local Air Force base when a footnote caught her eye. It was about plutonium experiments on humans. Stunned, she went to her city editor with the story idea. As Welsome […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Reform was killed by “100 peacocks in heat”
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Turmoil on the range. Brant Calkin, who until a few months ago was head of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, one of the region’s most aggressive environmental groups, thinks he knows why the Rangeland Reform ’94 initiative crashed and burned. He says […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Cows are evicted from Utah
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A federal judge has kicked cattle out of the canyons of southeastern Utah’s Comb Wash. Both environmentalists and ranchers say the decision could lead to sweeping changes in grazing on public lands. Department of Interior Administrative Law Judge John Rampton’s Dec. 20 decision in the three-year-long Comb Wash case found […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
A stark victory in Utah
In May 1989, Gene Nodine, head of the BLM’s Moab, Utah, office, told Arizona law professor Joe Feller: “You don’t know enough about this (public-land grazing) to question what we’re doing.” In retrospect, that was a rash statement. For in December 1993, John Rampton, an administrative law judge for the Department of Interior, ruled that […]
Posted inDecember 27, 1993: Yellowstone
Little support for public-land ranchers
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Little support for public-land ranchers.
Posted inDecember 27, 1993: Yellowstone
Nevada mine wants to grow
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Nevada mine wants to grow.
Posted inDecember 27, 1993: Yellowstone
Wyoming beats around the bush
A Wyoming law relaxing mined land reclamation standards could cost the state federal funding and regulatory authority. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Wyoming beats around the bush.
Posted inDecember 27, 1993: Yellowstone
Mid-Continent mine dispute continues
The federal Office of Surface Mining says Colorado underestimated the cost and extent of reclaiming the Mid-Continent mine site near Redstone, Colo. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Mid-Continent mine dispute continues.
Posted inDecember 27, 1993: Yellowstone
Methane creates an explosive situation in Colorado
Residents of methane-polluted residential areas blame the problem on natural gas companies. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Methane creates an explosive situation in Colorado.
Posted inDecember 13, 1993: Jack Ward Thomas: Hail to the chief
Mining reform moves closer
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Mining reform moves closer.
Posted inDecember 13, 1993: Jack Ward Thomas: Hail to the chief
Congress halts MRS grants
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Congress halts MRS grants.
Posted inDecember 13, 1993: Jack Ward Thomas: Hail to the chief
Jobs flow to WIPP
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Jobs flow to WIPP.