With everything from invasive insects to energy developers threatening national forests, wildlife refuges and other public lands, it’s not hard to understand why conservationists are scowling a lot these days. But in From Conquest to Conservation, Michael Dombeck, Christopher Wood and Jack Williams argue that Americans, now more than ever, realize public lands are more […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inWotr
Guts and grit will still get you to America
The most recent illegal migrant I’ve met was named Marvín Leonel Contreras. I spotted the 22-year-old during an early morning hike in the Santa Cruz River valley below my home in Rio Rico, Ariz. He was limping up the center of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. When he spotted me, he waved and smiled. He […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
Reckless rancher cuts sweet deal in D.C.
Bush administration orders local BLM office to back off
Posted inSeptember 15, 2003: The West's Biggest Bully
Couple buys state land to block development
When a developer threatened to bid on 1,280 acres of school trust land in the redrock country northeast of Moab, Peter Lawson and Anne Wilson laid out $1.3 million to preserve the mouth of Mary Jane Canyon. “The prospect of having this canyon we love so much have houses run through it was more than […]
Posted inSeptember 15, 2003: The West's Biggest Bully
From Washington, D.C., comes a new spoils system
Under the guise of flexibility, the Bush administration is quietly engineering a corporate takeover of government. President Bush has ordered all federal agencies to solicit bids from private corporations to replace 425,000 civil service jobs by the next election. That’s nearly one-quarter of the entire permanent federal workforce. The National Park Service has been one […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2003: Courting the Bomb
A peek over the edge
In the endless arguments over public land, it’s healthy to seek the boggy middle ground. But it’s also worthwhile to stroll out to the edge, out where the arguments define right and wrong. For readers ready for such a stroll, Richard W. Behan has written a provocative travel guide, Plundered Promise: Capitalism, Politics, and the […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Change comes slowly to Escalante country
In the BLM’s showcase monument, local grudges and national politics create a nasty quagmire.
Posted inWotr
Wyoming lives uneasily with big game and big equipment
As meat lockers go, this corner of northwestern Wyoming is one of the prettiest on earth. Behind me, as I sit on this sage-covered bluff, is a great horseshoe of snow-dusted peaks: the Wind Rivers, the Gros Ventres, the Wyoming Range. Ahead lies the Upper Green River Valley: empty, vast and skeined with moving lines […]
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
Grasslands take a step toward nature
Efforts to restore an ecosystem are bold but controversial
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Conservation pays off in a desert town
A plan to purchase state land could save open space — and make money for schools
Posted inWotr
Talking trash in a national monument
The December afternoon was dry and warm as I eased my car along a remote, rock-studded road on Canyons of the Ancients National Monument near Cortez, Colo. I hadn’t seen another soul, so it was a surprise when I came around a curve at 5 mph and spied a Ford pickup parked facing me in […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Road warriors back on the offensive
Christmas Eve announcement reignites controversy over roads in wilderness areas, parks and monuments
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
New lands boss takes the reins
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Project mixes suburbs with nature preserve.” SANTA FE, New Mexico — Last month, Pat Lyons was fighting two-foot snowdrifts and looking for a hired man to replace him on his 15,000-acre ranch near Cuervo, on New Mexico’s […]
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Compromise can take more courage than taking a stand
Sometimes it takes more courage to compromise than to take a stand. That has become true for many of the ranchers, environmentalists and local officials fighting over the last wild places left in the West. The people whose lives are most tied to the scenic landscapes of the region have been asked to take sides […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
Ranching conference secrets revealed!
Ever wonder what transpires at a ranch and reform conference, but lacked the chance to see for yourself? Now, you can: “Ranching West of the 100th Meridian,” a landmark conference held at Colorado State University, is available on four 50-minute videos. For three days in spring 2000, conferees chewed the cud about ranching in the […]
Posted inWotr
Public servants may go the way of the dodo
President Bush wants to privatize 425,000 federal jobs, one-quarter of the nation’s positions that are product or service-oriented in nature. Workers who exercise discretion, set policies and budgets, or perform other duties that are “inherently governmental” are immune from the process, for the time being. Does this sound good for private enterprise? Sure, for some […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Outside the agency, it’s a cold, cruel world
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “The push is on to privatize federal jobs.” Displaced federal workers will likely enter a brave new world when they step outside their agencies. The life of a contract forest crew, for example, is a far cry […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Cow-free crowd ignores science, sprawl
The West is tiny when pitted against our imagining of it. We imagined the buffalo would never be extinguished and the beaver would never be trapped out. We imagined big trees would always stand over the next ridge. But in a short time, the mountain men and buffalo hunters and loggers rolled over this alleged […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Ranching advocates lack a rural vision
In the summer of 2000, in the midst of one of the most intense droughts in the Southwest in decades, I was radicalized by fire. During an 11-day backpack across the Gila Wilderness, my companion and I came across one of the rarest events in the cow-burnt landscapes of the West – a gentle fire, […]
Posted inWotr
Ranchers in the West should call it quits
In the summer of 2000, in the midst of one of the most intense droughts in the Southwest in decades, I was radicalized by fire. During an 11-day backpack across the Gila Wilderness, my companion and I came across one of the rarest events in the cow-burnt landscapes of the West — a gentle fire, […]