Historical photographs of ranch life tend to be so full of men that an observer might think no women ever lived on the range. But in 1898, Mabel Souther did more than just live on the Big Red Ranch in northeastern Wyoming – she took pictures that documented the working life there. Perhaps her cowpoke […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inAugust 17, 1998: Living out the trailer dream
More than pretty parks
The secret’s out. Some Bureau of Land Management land can rival the scenery of more famous – and more crowded – national parks. The BLM, in cooperation with more than 20 conservation and recreation groups, has just published Beyond the National Parks, a guide to Western public lands, which covers all the Western states, including […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
We can take it
As the country struggled through the Great Depression, nearly 3 million young men came together in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with the motto, “We can take it.” Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC built 125,000 miles of roads, strung 89,000 miles of telephone lines and revegetated almost a million acres of rangeland. This year, […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Fees please visitors
Land-management agencies call new user fees an “unqualified success’ and they’re asking Congress to make them permanent. During its first season on more than 200 sites around the country, the fee program raised $53.5 million. Before the trial fees got under way, public correspondence ran about 2-to-1 against, saying they discouraged low-income and local users […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
To burn or not to burn
Another 40-foot stick-figure totem will be set ablaze by 12,000 revelers in the desert in Nevada if a federal agency says yes to the San Francisco-based organizers. Last year the Burning Man arts get-together was moved to private land, where county fees, including $308,000 for fire insurance alone, drove the festival into debt. That made […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
VERNAL, Utah – Dinosaurs live on in northeastern Utah. A life-size plaster Tyrannosaurus rex, advertising nearby Dinosaur National Monument, stands poised to pounce on visitors as they enter the town of Vernal. The wide main street is lined with hotels, restaurants and gift shops – the Dinosaur Inn, Dine-a-ville, the Dinosaur Quarry. Thousands of visitors […]
Posted inMarch 2, 1998: Wild horses: Do they belong in the West?
Colorado BLM going wild?
The Bureau of Land Management has announced that an additional 167,000 acres of public land in western Colorado are eligible for wilderness status. When the BLM’s roadless lands were first surveyed in 1980, 800,000 acres in western Colorado were given protection as potential wilderness areas. The new acreage may now be added to these existing […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
Private rights vs. public lands
Thousands of inholdings create conflicts inside federal lands
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
On the offensive: developer Tom Chapman
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. There are those who say he’s a classic American businessman who’s become a fierce defender of private property rights. Critics believe he’s a Colorado profiteer who makes millions blackmailing the U.S. Forest Service to buy him out. One thing is clear: Thomas E. Chapman […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
Managing scenery, wildlife and humans
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. STANLEY, Idaho – Since it was set up 25 years ago, the Sawtooth National Recreation Area has been colored by a contentious relationship between the Forest Service and private landowners, whose inholdings – including homes, ranches and businesses – account for 25,000 of the […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
Counties want to develop public land
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. It’s not the pristine view that Lewis and Clark observed nearly 200 years ago. Wind surfers zip across the wind-whipped river; barges haul goods to seaports and cars cruise down the freeway. Cities, dams and homes dot the landscape. But the Columbia Gorge National […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
Haggling over the Grand Staircase-Escalante
Conoco has turned its back on an oil well in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In December, Conoco engineers “packed up their oil rig and they are out of there,” says Bureau of Land Management spokesman Don Banks. “The hole has been capped without a blade of monument grass or a dollar of taxpayer green […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Paying to play in the Sawtooths
KETCHUM, Idaho – Buying a recreation pass for the ranger district here and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, two popular parts of the Sawtooth National Forest, is easy. The hard part is remembering to do so. For the first time ever, a walk across the Sawtooth’s mountain meadows isn’t free. On July 1, the Forest […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Mountain bikers in Moab pay to ride
MOAB, Utah – Mountain bike pilgrims who come to ride Moab’s Slickrock trail find something new these days: a tollbooth. Next to the booth, a sign reads: “Welcome to Sand Flats. All fees are used here for improvements.” A visit to this mecca of mountain biking now costs $1 per person if you’re walking or […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Barbara Sutteer: Fees draw fire from two public-land users
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Barbara Sutteer, a career National Park Service staffer, has roots in both the Northern Ute and Cherokee tribes. She is former superintendent at Little Bighorn National Monument and now works as a tribal liaison officer for the Park Service in the agency’s Denver office. […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
The land is still public, but it’s no longer free
Skip Edwards sits at one end of a long table, looking like a criminal facing a parole board. He argues passionately before nine stern faces. “We are taking the soul out of the reason for public lands,” he says. “We are losing our freedom to roam our open spaces, for a pittance to balance the […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
At Mount St. Helens fees go dangerously high
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. At Mount St. Helens National Monument in Washington state, the money problems began two years ago, when officials had to close the Silver Lake Visitors’ Center four days a week. The funds just weren’t there to keep the center open full time. Things got […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
No cheap thrills in the Grand Canyon
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. For years, rafters and kayakers have paid to float the muddy Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park. Typically, the trip cost private boating groups about $130. When the price jumped to around $1,500 per group for the trip last spring, boaters were shocked. […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
It’s time for the public to pay up
Throughout the West, the forests are alive with the sound of bellyaching. This time it’s not loggers or ranchers who are at war with federal land-management policies, but rather backpackers, birdwatchers and anglers. They want federal lands managed more for recreation and wildlife, but they aren’t willing to pay for it. Take, for example, the […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Greens, as usual, are easy to bait
Environmentalists, the criticism goes, are naive about economics. I think that’s generous. Most of us in the movement work for substandard wages because we believe in the cause. Even worse, we expect others to make similar sacrifices, preserving rivers, forests and wildlife regardless of the consequences to struggling families or communities. That’s one reason why […]