The National Park Service wants to preserve everything from vistas to wagon ruts, graves and campsites along 13,000 miles of historic Western trails. A plan completed last fall provides guidelines for protecting the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express trails. But saving a trail system that crosses 12 states isn’t easy, says Jere Krakow, superintendent […]
Recreation
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Parks rev up to ban snowmobiles
Yellowstone, Grand Teton could be snowmobile-free by 2002-03
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
EPA sets sights on snowmobiles
WYOMING, MONTANA Banning snowmobiles is the only way to clean up the winter air in Yellowstone National Park, says the federal Environmental Protection Agency, at least until the industry comes up with cleaner machines. The Park Service disagrees. Its preferred alternative in a new winter-use plan would plow the road between West Yellowstone and Old […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
A test case on access
MONTANA A federal judge says a family living inside Montana’s Glacier National Park can no longer use a snowmobile to access their property. Former Denver residents Jack and Stephanie McFarland sued Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in Missoula’s U.S. District Court on Feb. 2. The McFarlands said park officials had acted improperly when they refused to […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘You can’t sell a sunset’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Scott Silver is the founder of Wild Wilderness, an anti-fee organization based in Bend,Ore.: “The Forest Service is looking at industrial strength recreation as their new business and us as their customers. More and more, the Forest Service is putting itself in between (the […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘I think recreation should be subsidized’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Gary Guenther, a former Inyo Wilderness ranger and volunteer with Missoula-based Wilderness Watch: “I think the pressure should be on Congress. The agency is between a rock and a hard place on this issue. I think it’s interesting when the environmental community and the […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘We want the public lands to be in the backyard of the little guy’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Chris Wood is senior policy advisor to Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck: “I’ve been on a fee demonstration area on a national forest and absolutely befuddled by how I was supposed to get a permit to use an area on a Saturday. I literally […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Fee fighters refuse to pay
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Sun Valley, Idaho, resident Diana Fassino returned from a hike last July 31 to find a ticket on the window of her car. She’d been walking in Adams Gulch on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, an area popular with equestrians and mountain bikers, and […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Land of the fee
Recreation fees promised a jackpot for money-starved federal agencies. So far, they’re a drop in the bucket, and they lock some people out.
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Fees around the West
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests, Colorado A fee to see the top of Colorado’s Mount Evans sparked rage from some motorists when they discovered that they were the only visitors paying. The Forest Service changed its approach, charging drivers $6 per carload at the […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Working class can’t foot the bill
For some, it’s a choice between recreation and a new pair of school shoes
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
‘Fee demo is not the full answer’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Jeff Bailey has been the Inyo National Forest supervisor since May 1998: “Congress needs to realize we need more dollars out here. Fee demo is not the full answer. It’s one of the very small tools, and it’s a very small component of what […]
Posted inJanuary 31, 2000: Searching for pasture
Arizona gets a new monument
ST. GEORGE, Utah – President Clinton stood on the chilly, wind-whipped South Rim of the Grand Canyon in mid-January and announced the creation of the million-acre Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northwest Arizona. The next day, southwest Utah’s daily newspaper duly reported the announcement, but it shared front-page space with another story – one that […]
Posted inJanuary 31, 2000: Searching for pasture
Off-road riders told to stay on the road
Off-road vehicles, from 4×4’s to motorcycles, are under the gun. For years ORV users have been free to ride across public lands in the West unless signs designated an area closed. But concerns about erosion, damage to wildlife habitat and renegade road building could turn this policy on its head. In November, the Forest Service […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Snow surfers with a mission
A Bozeman, Mont.-based snowboarder group wants to show everyone that clean snow – and water – are way cool. The “Mountain Surf” chapter of the Surfrider Foundation recently launched the Snowrider Project to promote water quality at ski areas. “With the increased popularity of winter sports, it’s really important that the (snowboarders) do no harm,” […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
Babbitt’s wish list grows
Some western Colorado locals were nervous when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt visited the Colorado National Monument in November to announce his latest land-protection initiative. “Any time the secretary of the Interior comes to little Grand Junction, you’re apprehensive about what he’s got on his mind,” said Warren Gore, a third-generation grazing permittee. “The last thing […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Nonstop service to the Mojave Desert?
A 6,500-acre swath of federally owned desert, 10 miles from California’s Mojave National Preserve, could become the site of a new Las Vegas airport. But environmentalists and the National Park Service say airport overflights will ruin the preserve visitor’s experience. “One of the really special things about Mojave is the opportunity for solace and quiet,” […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Dirty air in the deep of winter
Snowmobiles produce nearly all the air pollution in Yellowstone National Park, even though other vehicles outnumber them 16 to 1, says a new report by the National Park Service’s Air Resources Division. Air Quality Concerns Related to Snowmobile Usage found that one winter’s worth of emissions by snowmobiles amounts to 78 percent of all carbon […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Kartchner Caverns State Park
There’s a new world underground: Nov. 12 marked the grand opening of Kartchner Caverns State Park, 50 miles southeast of Tucson, and so far 30,000 people have reserved tours of the cave. Reservations are strongly recommended from 520/586-CAVE. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Kartchner Caverns State Park.
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Babbitt looks for support on his home turf
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Shivwits Plateau wasn’t on environmentalists’ radar screen a year ago. Better known as the Arizona Strip, the Shivwits lies in the extreme northwestern corner of Arizona. Cut off from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, it […]