For years, watchdog groups have said the Bureau of Land Management underestimates the value of the land it trades away to states and private landowners, effectively giving away chunks of the public domain worth billions of dollars (HCN, 2/18/02: Groundswell for a monument?). A new report, released in mid-October, adds credence to those claims and […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Land swap too hot to handle
WYOMING Taxpayers may have a fire on their hands if a land-swap proposal goes through. In the trade, the Bureau of Land Management would give the Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Co. 2,045 acres in Sheridan County, Wyo., believed to hold about 107 million tons of coal. In exchange, the BLM would receive 5,923 acres […]
Posted inWotr
We care for our public lands more than we know
Hear the debate rage. As someone once said, academics get so angry at each other because the stakes are so small. “The author does not seem to understand, and thus misrepresents, many of the concepts he wants scrutinized,” asserts one scientist. “I focus on what appears to be the source of his snappishness,” says another. […]
Posted inWotr
Fee demo on our public lands is a rip-off
If there’s a basic flaw in the government’s Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, or “fee demo,” it’s that it represents a form of regressive taxes, or double taxation. We, the people, already pay taxes for the management of public lands, and now, under fee demo, we are required to pay again for their use. That strikes […]
Posted inWotr
A railroad through Wyoming and South Dakota grasslands is a stab to the heart
If the legal appeals don’t work, two of the nation’s three largest grasslands will become home to the biggest railroad project since Abraham Lincoln was president. Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad plans to build a 260-mile line through Buffalo Gap National Grassland in South Dakota and Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming. The line would […]
Posted inWotr
If it’s good for Florida, it’s good for Montana and the West, too
If Florida Gov. Jeb Bush were governor of Montana, would the Rocky Mountain Front get highest-level protection from future oil and gas development? You bet it would. This May President Bush announced that he intended to buy back more than $200 million worth of oil and gas leases off the Florida coast and in the […]
Posted inWotr
Ranchers are down, but don’t count us out
How are ranchers and farmers faring through this terrible drought? Will we quit farming and ranching voluntarily? Not on your life. For some, unfortunately, it will be their last year. Reading the advertisements for livestock auctions tells the story: “Selling due to the drought.” Ranchers almost never sell herds of mother cows, just a few […]
Posted inWotr
A river, a bird and a flock of untruths
Geez, all those punches must sting. In Nebraska and its neighboring Plains states, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and other employees are again taking shots right and left from critics. It would be one thing if those blows were legitimate – almost all of them, however, hit below the belt. A recent Fish and […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 2002: Delta Blues
BLM gets a land-swap lemon
COLORADO/UTAH In early September, Bill Rodgers, a Buick salesman in Knoxville, Tenn., landed a great deal. Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., introduced a bill to Congress ordering a land exchange that would give Rodgers 3,888 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, mostly in Utah on the Colorado border. In exchange, Rodgers would give 2,048 acres […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
A cow of a time
There’ll be some verbal sparring, rangeland management tips, literary musing and maybe a little bird-watching at this year’s annual RangeNet conference, “Bovines or Biodiversity: The National Campaign to End Abusive Public Lands Ranching.” The three-day-long program in Boise, Idaho, includes talks by Jon Marvel of the Western Watersheds Project * which is sponsoring the conference […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
New Mexico ranchers push to graze preserve
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Corruption and tragic history paralyze range reform on the Navajo reservation.” Northern New Mexico is known for more than fiery red chilis and smoldering mountain sunsets; it’s also notorious for skirmishes between its mostly […]
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
Land plan attracts an anti-grazing gorilla
Plan would put 1.7 million acres in hands of local trust
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Grazing foes float a buyout
But will ranchers and Congress buy in?
Posted inApril 15, 2002: Raising a stink
Fashion faux-pas in the forest
COLORADO Designer Ralph Lauren’s proposal for a land swap with the U.S. Forest Service has been sent back to the drawing board after encountering fierce local opposition. The swap called for the Forest Service to give Lauren 525 acres, including part of a public-access road that runs through his Double RL ranch near Ridgway, Colo. […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2002: How I lost my town
BLM director forced to resign
IDAHO Martha Hahn has been forced out of her job as the Idaho state director of the Bureau of Land Management in a housecleaning move by J. Steven Griles, deputy secretary of the Interior. Hahn announced on March 7 that she would resign rather than take a position with the National Park Service overseeing New […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
Cheney picks former aide to oversee parks, BLM,wildlife
When Paul Hoffman went hunting in Wyoming’s Absaroka Mountains last fall, he shot a six-point bull elk. Then he cut it into steaks and burgers for his family to eat. Now he plans to take the stuffed head and antlers to Washington, D.C., to decorate his new office. “I think that’s one reason they picked […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
Will bulldozers roll into Arizona’s Eden?
Rancher’s wilderness inholding caught in a decade-long feud
Posted inFebruary 4, 2002: Last dance for the sage grouse?
The West can govern itself
Democrat Daniel Kemmis has been the minority leader and the speaker of the Montana House of Representatives. He has been mayor of the university town of Missoula. He is an environmentalist. Yet in This Sovereign Land, Kemmis, now head of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West, argues that the national government must transfer power […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Unranchers gain ground
ARIZONA The Arizona Supreme Court has cleared another hurdle from the path of conservation groups that want to lease state grazing land and return it to pre-grazing conditions. On Nov. 21, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled 4-1 that the state land department can’t deny conservation groups the right to bid on state grazing leases. The […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Wheeling and dealing
UTAH Roads are again at the center of the long debate over Utah wilderness. Two environmental groups say they fear the Bureau of Land Management and the governor’s office have a secret deal in the works that would settle a dispute over Utah counties’ claims to thousands of dirt roads and trails on federal lands. […]