Churches use a federal law to trample local land-use rules
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inWotr
Ranching still has a place on our public lands
I found a recent photograph that shows three people in cowboy gear – I’m the one pouring coffee from a thermos into beat-up cups. We’d all just gotten down from our horses, and the guys are leaning on a pickup truck marked U.S. Forest Service. Here’s the surprise: We’re all laughing. I’m a rancher, and […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Rebels with a lost cause
A movement of property-rights lawyers emerged from the sagebrush in the 1970s to fight a wave of environmental regulations. They are still fighting in courtrooms across the West, but their role remains ambiguous.
Posted inArticles
Red Desert rarity
Wyoming moves to protect Adobe Town –
but will the feds follow suit?
Posted inNovember 26, 2007: Beetle Warfare
Growth unfettered
When 29-year-old Jon Regner bought a small house in Flagstaff’s oldest neighborhood last year, he already had plans for the property. He’d replace the 700 square-foot carriage house in the backyard with a two-story duplex. Then he’d live on one floor and rent out the other while he renovated the main house. He’d use the […]
Posted inNovember 26, 2007: Beetle Warfare
Betting on the house
In Las Vegas, the BLM puts cheap land on the table for affordable housing
Posted inArticles
Highlighting Western heritage
The cottonwoods, willows, mesquites, and palo verde trees that once towered over the banks of the Colorado River near Yuma, Ariz., have returned. These native trees once again shade hikers and shelter wildlife, thanks to a massive wetlands restoration effort in the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. Since the area was officially designated in 2000, […]
Posted inArticles
Public lands precedent?
Recently, the Utah Bureau of Land Management cancelled an oil and gas lease sale, citing the need to further study the impact of drilling on wildlife habitat. Conservationists think the cancellation – the first in over 25 years – sets a national precedent for protecting wildlife habitat from energy leasing. But the BLM disagrees and […]
Posted inArticles
The road more traveled
Trevor Leach remembers riding horses on Bald Knoll Road as a child in the 1920s. During the ’60s, Arlene Goulding and her kids used the route for hunting trips. The testimony of these Kane County residents helped the Bureau of Land Management piece together the history of Bald Knoll Road, which laces across public lands […]
Posted inArticles
Free range
Livestock foraging on 160 million acres of public lands could roam more freely than ever, thanks to a recent policy change at the Bureau of Land Management. On Aug. 14, the BLM granted eight new “categorical exclusions,” designed to speed up the approval process for a slew of activities on public lands, including grazing, logging, […]
Posted inArticles
Red Mountain miracle
In the late 1800s, some 3,000 people lived and worked in the Red Mountain Mining District near the top of Red Mountain Pass between Silverton and Ouray. Just about every acre was clear-cut, built upon or mined. Today, the miners are gone and aspen trees and tundra plants have reclaimed most of the area. The […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
A dustup over weed control
The BLM’s plans to spray nearly a million acres with herbicides have some environmentalists fuming, but many biologists and land managers welcome the policy
Posted inWotr
Why bad people do good things for our public lands
There I was out on the high prairie that angles up to the mountains of the Front Range of Colorado, digging out Mediterranean sage with a tool of torture called the pick-mattock. I couldn’t have been paid to do this. Not only was I there, but over 100 other people were there, too. The weather […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Scientists and the city
Urban ecology studies in Phoenix teach lessons for the West’s arid metropolises
Posted inArticles
From weapons to wildlife
The Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant was once known for making plutonium triggers for the much-feared nuclear bomb. Today, Rocky Flats is seeking a new reputation – that of a wildlife refuge, where deer, elk, mountain lions and even bald eagles can roam in peace. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency certified the completion of the […]
Posted inArticles
A dustup over weed control
They race across the West covering 2,300 acres each day, devouring an area the size of twenty Wal-Mart superstores every minute. They reduce habitat for wildlife, dry up water tables and intensify the threat of wildfires on 35 million acres of public land. As the area covered by invasive plants grows, so does the amount […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Fear in the Valley
Immigrants in southern Colorado live in the shadows of anxiety following a high-profile raid
Posted inWotr
When mud-boggers rip up the land, penalize them
Flashing red and blue lights sent me a strong message: I was busted. I’d just passed a truck as I drove into a small, southwestern Oregon town and neglected to slow down to 30 mph. I got a ticket. Deterrents work, yet there are places where deterrents don’t reach, and drivers of all-terrain vehicles know […]
Posted inArticles
Advice from a horse
If going hunting twice in his life makes Mitt Romney a “lifetime hunter,” then you could say I’m a lifetime horse rider. Besides a couple of childhood pony rides, I took one riding lesson as a teenager from an instructor whose teaching style resembled that of a Russian ballet mistress — when she cracked her […]
Posted inWotr
A hope for Father’s Day from a divorced father
I will celebrate this Father’s Day by cashing in what’s left of my retirement account so that I can — once again — go to court to request more time with my kids. My almost 10-year status as a non-custodial parent has helped me become accustomed to the almost insurmountable odds and legal fees that […]