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 […]
Recreation
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Is the Grand Staircase-Escalante a model monument?
Note: a sidebar article, “Ninety years of the Antiquities Act,” accompanies this feature story. Three years ago, Jerry Meredith was pretty sure he had landed one of the toughest jobs in the federal government. The 51-year-old middle manager for the Bureau of Land Management had just been tagged to oversee the brand-new Grand Staircase-Escalante National […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Keeping Glacier Park intact
Four years of work, months of public review and a $1.5 million investment have paid off for Glacier National Park planners. Last summer, the Park Service signed the General Management Plan that will guide Glacier’s resource management for the next few decades. Project leader Mary Riddle says the plan reflects people’s desire to keep the […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
ORVs run wild and free in Utah
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Buffed-up and bristling with rock-banging, wall-climbing extras, the 1999 Grand Cherokee Jeep Laredo with all the bells and winches will set you back a cool $34,000. And you may need the power of a Grand Cherokee to conquer the Moab, Utah, trail dubbed the […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Volunteer work in the nation’s parks
Student Conservation Association interns will soon have more than pretty pictures and increased conservation acumen to show for their volunteer work in the nation’s parks, refuges and forests. Starting in 2000, the group’s resource assistants will also receive educational awards, ranging from $1,200 to $4,000, depending on program length. The money is allocated through the […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Monumental chaos
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The shooting has stopped at Petroglyph National Monument. Established in 1990, the park protects 17,000 petroglyphs that Native Americans pecked into volcanic boulders on what is now the city’s west side (HCN, 11/1/93). Yet just a few years ago, weekend joyriders and even the National Guard drove to the monument for target […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
We’re the good guys
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. A 24-year staffer with National Park Service, Petroglyph National Monument Superintendent Judith Cordova came to Albuquerque, N.M., from Grand Junction, Colo., where she was superintendent of Colorado National Monument. She is the only female Hispanic superintendent in the Park Service. Judith Cordova: “We’re here. […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
An overall poor attitude
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. A Park Service team, composed of employees from other monuments in the region conducted an “oversight review” of Petroglyph National Monument, submitting its 20-page report on Sept. 25, 1998. The group, chaired by Linda Stoll, asked 19 employees the question, “What is working well? […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
You have to show you care
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Matthew Schmader is the assistant superintendent for Albuquerque’s Open Space Division, which manages about 4,000 acres of city lands within the monument acquired by the city through a local, dedicated open-space tax. Matthew Schmader: “A lot of sweat and blood has gone into protecting […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
It should embarrass the Park Service
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Dave Simon, who is based in Albuquerque, is the Southwest regional director for the nonprofit National Parks and Conservation Association. Simon helped draft the bill that established the monument. Dave Simon: “Given current circumstances, turning over total control of the monument to the National […]
Posted inOctober 11, 1999: A home-grown Water War
Dudes on the dunes
-We struggled to scramble up near-vertical walls of loose sand,” writes Mark North in the online magazine Explore. “Still, the weight of the tent, beer, snowboard and snowboard boots on my backpack didn’t topple me over … At the summit, we’d swap snowshoes for snowboards … spray on a coat of Pledge to increase glide, […]
Posted inOctober 11, 1999: A home-grown Water War
Resort may crowd Mount Rainier
Ashford, Wash., a rural town of about 1,500 people that is only a stone’s toss from the western gate of Mount Rainier National Park, may soon have a big, new neighbor. Earlier this month, Pierce County endorsed plans for a $70 million, 400-acre resort that would more than double the number of housing units in […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
A gem of a park
Great Basin National Park is a modest gem. Set in Nevada, within a stone’s throw of Utah, deep in the stillness of the Great Basin, the park was formed out of other public land in 1986. Like many parks, it was the child of compromise: Cattle were permitted to continue to graze the alpine meadows […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
A Lewis and Clark revival hits the Northwest
While tracing the steps of Lewis and Clark, Judy Anderson has stopped off at two dozen places where the explorers walked nearly 200 years ago. Among these, Pompey’s Pillar, a lonely landmark on the plains of southeastern Montana, remains fixed in her memory. There, immortalized behind Plexiglas, she saw William Clark’s signature carved into soft […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 1999: Troubled Oasis
Fur and loafing
Cartoonist Phil Frank, creator of the San Francisco Chronicle’s cartoon strip, “Farley,” has devoted a lot of ink since 1986 to the political travails of Yosemite National Park in California. This is a park so loved – and so roaded – it is visited by more than 3 million people each year. In hilarious fashion, […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 1999: Troubled Oasis
Continental Divide Trail
People who like to work hard in high places are needed to help maintain the Continental Divide Trail. Winding for 3,100 miles from Montana to New Mexico, the trail traces the rugged backbone of the Rocky Mountains. Volunteers, who will monitor and maintain 3- to 25-mile segments, can contact the Continental Divide Trail Alliance, P.O. […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 1999: Troubled Oasis
Tempers flare over winter plan
Gardiner, Mont., is a sleepy town in the winter. Yellowstone National Park’s northern gateway community virtually closes down when the park’s roads do. The local fly shop rents cross-country skis, and a handful of cafés serve burgers for lunch. A few sight-seers drive into the park at dawn and dusk in search of the park’s […]
Posted inAugust 30, 1999: Who's stopping sprawl?
Second tram heads for Moab
The redrock desert around the tourist town of Moab, Utah, has been colonized by motels and mountain bikers for over a decade. Still, some locals never thought they’d have to worry about ski lifts. Now, less than six months after a controversial chairlift opened for business on the west side of Moab, the county planning […]
Posted inAugust 30, 1999: Who's stopping sprawl?
Horses shy from competition
Connie Berto was walking her horse down a wide fire lane in Marin County, Calif., when a mountain biker, traveling at high speed, missed her by inches. It’s not an uncommon experience on the West’s public trails. Pressed by other trail users, horses and their riders are finding themselves less welcome on some trails. “Equestrians […]
Posted inAugust 30, 1999: Who's stopping sprawl?
Grand Canyon development sparks debate
The Forest Service says a new 272-acre development near the south entrance of the Grand Canyon can control growth near the park. Critics, including some environmentalists, are not convinced. “They’re creating mass development … ext to one of our crown jewels,” says Sharon Galbreath of the Sierra Club’s southwest office. Canyon Forest Village, which got […]