Of all the nutty ideas floating around the West of late — that Wyoming needs an aircraft carrier to prepare for the coming apocalypse, that Idaho residents should be allowed to lure wolves by using pets as bait, or that Yellowstone bison in Montana are “bio-terrorists” because they might cause brucellosis — none can match […]
Public lands
Posted inGoat
Carrots for conservation
A new conservation program that gives landowners incentives to improve habitat for lizard and prairie chicken.
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Accidental Wilderness
Hanford, White Sands and other ‘wastelands’ are good for bombs—and biodiversity.
Posted inWotr
How to survive the lean times
In 1976, circumstances beyond my control forced me into temporary homelessness. For six months, I alternated between relying on the couches of friends and camping out in my car. With the proper gear, it’s surprising how well you can fend for yourself. Of course, it helps to live in a region of the country with […]
Posted inWotr
A chance to do it right in the West
The 2008 election took the West another big step down the path of political realignment that has been underway since the turn of the century. By 2000, the Rocky Mountain West had become essentially a one-party region. All eight of its governors were Republicans, as were 13 of its 16 senators. In the 2000 election, […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Wilderness, schmilderness
In Nevada, wilderness-wary locals derail
lands bills that could help their communities
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 inWotr
Fees have become a public-lands shakedown
Scarcely anyone objected in 1996, when Congress authorized the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to charge the public new or increased fees for accessing its own land to fish, hunt, boat, drive, park, camp or walk. After all, it was going to be an experiment […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Driven to fight
A retired BLM special agent finds herself battling the very agency she once worked for
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Energy illusions
A new report seems to show that more land is off-limits to energy exploration, but appearances can be deceiving
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Is the great federal land debate over?
Every decade or so, people push the idea of selling off big chunks of public land or transferring that land to state ownership and management. Outside of small parcels, it has never happened, probably because most of us support leaving public lands in federal hands. With the recent pronouncements of Idaho’s own Dirk Kempthorne, now […]
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 inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Grazing foes float a buyout
But will ranchers and Congress buy in?
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Showdown on the Nevada range
Ranchers trespass on public lands, says the BLM
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
Monuments caught in the crosshairs
Will Clinton’s designations crumble under Republican attacks?
Posted inDecember 18, 2000: Still here: Can humans help other species defy extinction?
People for the USA! disbands
The wise-use movement’s shrillest voice goes silent, but the spirit lives on
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast
The president’s new monument forces southern Utah to face its tourism future.
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
1996: Clinton takes a 1.7 million-acre stand in Utah
A Bold Stroke: Clinton takes a 1.7 million-acre stand in Utah
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Ranchers arrested at wildlife refuge
The arrest of rancher Dwight Hammond for running cattle on a wildlife refuge provokes a wise-use backlash in Oregon.
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A one-man Sagebrush Rebellion
A Nevada rancher refuses to pay more than $25,000 in fines to the BLM.