Well aware of the irony, conservationists in the West are gearing up for a land grab they can call their own. They’re reaching for what have been the most obscure public – or at least semipublic – lands of all. The definition itself is up for grabs. There are about 40 million such acres, or […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Utah kids benefit from state land reform
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, ‘Unranchers’ reach for West’s state lands. Inevitably, any disagreement over state-owned lands raises the spectre of schoolchildren in need. In Utah, where spending per pupil ranks lowest in the nation, that dismal statistic has spurred reform. State lands have never generated fat revenues for […]
Posted inJune 13, 1994: A doomed species?
Millions for furniture
Between 1990 and 1992, the Bureau of Land Management in Oregon spent $5.4 million intended for reforestation on staff salaries, new furniture and remodeling buildings, a federal audit reports. Eventually, this misallocation could cost taxpayers up to $200 million from lost timber harvests. The 21-page report also found that since 1990 the Oregon BLM has […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A spinning door
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Dan Beard isn’t happy with former agency colleague Joe Hall. Eight months after resigning as the number two official at the bureau, Hall was hired as a $95-per-hour consultant by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, reports The Denver Post. According to federal ethics law, former top officials must abstain from […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
South Pass reconsidered
A Wyoming environmental group has been successful in getting the Bureau of Land Management to reconsider the route of a natural gas pipeline over historic South Pass. Following a tour of the area last year, the Wyoming Outdoor Council convinced former BLM chief Jim Baca to reconsider the route. Council founder Tom Bell and other […]
Posted inApril 18, 1994: The salmon win one
A leaking public lands fund
The Clinton administration recently proposed spending $254 million of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The amount – less than anything proposed by the Bush administration – shocked some environmentalists. They hoped Clinton would tap more of the $900 million that flows each year into the fund, primarily from offshore oil drilling royalties. Environmentalists calculate […]
Posted inMarch 21, 1994: On the borderline
RS 2477: A loophole for vandals
For years, Utah’s Arch Canyon was closed to motorized vehicles to protect sensitive riparian and natural values. But when off-road vehicle users began promoting the canyon as a travel route for their annual jeep safari, the Bureau of Land Management opened the canyon to vehicle use. Now, vehicles crush streamside vegetation, send fragile soils downstream […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Lake Tahoe, Nevada – Fifteen months after taking over at Interior, and a few months after suffering demoralizing defeats in the U.S. Senate and among his environmental supporters, a confident, energetic Bruce Babbitt came to Lake Tahoe to put his stamp on the Bureau of Land Management. The occasion was the first-ever BLM Summit: a […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 1994: Draining the budget to desalt the Colorado
Wise-use ordinances suffer legal setback
In a decision that environmentalists hope will reverberate throughout the West, an Idaho district judge ruled that a county wise-use law is unconstitutional. Judge James Michaud said Jan. 28 that Boundary County’s land-use plan asserting local control over all decisions affecting federal and state lands in the county violates both the Idaho and U.S. constitutions […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 1994: Can she save ecosystems?
Baca at the barricades
A movement is under way within the Clinton administration to remove Jim Baca as director of the Bureau of Land Management. Baca has had a difficult year, butting heads with ranchers and miners over federal land reforms and with Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus over a proposed bombing range (HCN, 1/24/94). On Jan. 27, top officials […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
BLM union comes to Moab
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Turmoil on the range. MOAB, Utah – Citing frustration with their agency’s treatment of natural resources and employees, Bureau of Land Management staffers in two agency offices here voted to unionize. In response, Moab District BLM managers filed an objection to the […]
Posted inDecember 13, 1993: Jack Ward Thomas: Hail to the chief
J’accuse in Oregon
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline J’accuse in Oregon.
Posted inDecember 13, 1993: Jack Ward Thomas: Hail to the chief
The return of Tom Horn?
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The return of Tom Horn?.
Posted inNovember 15, 1993: The decline and fall of salmon
Two “miners” may be seeking to shaft into U.S. Treasury
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Two “miners” may be seeking to shaft into U.S. Treasury.
Posted inNovember 15, 1993: The decline and fall of salmon
Office bombed in Nevada
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Office bombed in Nevada.
Posted inNovember 1, 1993: Sunbelt confrontation
From rocks to pot
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline From rocks to pot.
Posted inNovember 1, 1993: Sunbelt confrontation
Arizona BLM punishes ‘bad bureaucrat’
BLM hydrologist is censured after charging that groundwater pumping could harm the nation’s first national conservation area along the San Pedro River. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Arizona BLM punishes ‘bad bureaucrat’.
Posted inOctober 4, 1993: Mining reform: Searching for common ground
A ‘Holy Land’ is saved in Montana
The “Gallatin Range Consolidation Act of 1993” land swap appeases loggers, pleases environmentalists and protects elk, grizzly and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. To read this article, download this HCN issue in PDF format. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A ‘Holy Land’ is saved in Montana.
Posted inSeptember 20, 1993: Triumph, Idaho, to EPA: Get out
Ruinous roads
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Ruinous roads.
Posted inAugust 23, 1993: Timber theft: Logging firms rob a lax agency
Let the public through
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Let the public through.