WEST GLACIER, Mont. – The first director of the National Park Service, Stephen T. Mather, saw the Going-to-the-Sun road as a way to hold Glacier National Park together. Mather proposed building the road in the early 1920s to lure a “great flow of tourist gold” to remote northern Montana, and to convince miners and loggers […]
Recreation
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
But trouble the Mountaineers
Mount Rainier National Park bypassed public discussion and sprang a surprise fee on backcountry visitors recently, drawing a protest letter from the Mountaineers, the Seattle-based conservation group. The Mountaineers says the new hierarchy of fees is too steep, especially for short visits. Two visitors might pay $10 to enter the park, $20 to camp in […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Motorizing Montana’s trails
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service give motorized trail projects the go-ahead without scrutiny, according to The Montana State Trails Program: Motorizing Montana’s National Forest Trails, a 13-page report by the Predator Project in Bozeman. Widening trails significantly damages habitat, but agencies dismiss it as “repair and maintenance,” […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
Winter recreation is a hot topic at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks as well as at the five-mile John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway that connects them. To involve the public in an upcoming environmental impact statement, open houses have begun in Idaho, with more meetings set for Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota and Washington, […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
In search of Mount Rainier’s power
What is it like to become obsessed with a mountain? In The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier, Bruce Barcott describes how he circled the mountain on foot and interviewed mountaineers, climbing guides, priests, historians and scientists before he and his father attempted to scale the country’s highest volcano. Barcott, a […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
A lively memoir out of the National Park Service
For a variety of reasons, I have been reading about the National Park Service – reports, histories, and bilious (but also far-seeing) polemics like Alston Chase’s Playing God in Yellowstone. They’re useful but tend to be lifeless. Now we have a restorative potion to go with the reports and histories: a book that breathes life […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
The yearly number of hikers attempting a 14,000-ft. peak has tripled in 10 years, to 200,000, says the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. And that is why the coalition of five nonprofit groups seeks volunteers to restore heavily eroded trails. Those interested in high-altitude work on Huron Peak and Humboldt Peak can contact Kristen Sauer, Colorado Fourteeners […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Capulin Volcano National Monument
How should a “recent extinct volcano” greet visitors in the future? The National Park Service invites the public to help plan the management of Capulin Volcano National Monument in northeast New Mexico. To comment or to receive a newsletter, contact the National Park Service, Capulin Volcano National Monument, P.O. Box 40, Capulin, NM 88414 (505/278-2201 […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Feds sue a Utah county for building a road in a national park
Garfield County in Utah has yet to prove historical use of the Burr Trail road through Capitol Reef National Park, a federal judge said in April. With the ruling, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins rejected the county’s motion for summary judgment, and now a trial will likely begin this summer. An attorney defending Garfield County […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Land swap splits conservationists
Saguaro National Park officials and Tucson environmentalists are praising a recent land exchange that adds 632 acres of prime wildlife habitat to the park’s holdings. They say the expansion helps to protect the cactus forest from urban sprawl, but others are wondering if too much was sacrificed in the process. The Tucson Mountains acreage, owned […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Ruckus on a recreation river
Each summer, thousands of rafters and kayakers head for central Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon River, considered by many the nation’s premier wilderness river trip. During the week-long, 100-mile journey, floaters play volleyball on the beach, fly fish for native trout, surf the rapids and cook up Dutch oven feasts – all in the […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Monumental deal over Utah’s trust lands
On May 8, after months of quiet negotiations, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt resolved a major sticking point in the debate over the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (HCN, 1/19/98). Their agreement trades the scattered blocks of state-owned school trust lands within the new monument for federal lands elsewhere in […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Buffering buffalo
BUFFERING BUFFALO Don’t expect brucellosis to disappear from the Yellowstone area anytime soon, says a draft report issued by the National Academy of Sciences. The disease, common among bison and elk, led the state of Montana to shoot or slaughter nearly one-third of the Yellowstone bison herd last winter when the animals moved outside park […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Bison sleek, but suspect
MONTANA Bison sleek, but suspect West Yellowstone, Mont. – It’s been an easy winter for Yellowstone National Park’s bison. Only 11 of the shaggy giants have been killed, a fraction of the nearly 1,100 that were shot or shipped to slaughter in the brutal winter of 1996-97. Protruding ribs and jutting hip bones were bison […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Jet Skis: Thrill or scourge?
With 750,000 Jet Skis currently in operation, and more than 100,000 new “personal watercraft” sold annually, the industry is pushing the Park Service for access to 62 sites on national park waters – nearly double the number of sites currently available in the parks. But the Park Service and the Department of Interior can’t agree […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Outfitter bill may be missing the boat
Guiding hunting expeditions and rafting trips is a risky business, but some commercial outfitters think that some challenges shouldn’t be part of the job: They say the changing policies of federal agencies make it difficult to get guiding permits. They’re hoping a new bill, sponsored by Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., will […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Jetboat race withdrawn
Two hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark’s wood and hide boats lacked speed, but floated the explorers safely along sections of the Yellowstone River. Had Bill Henderson of Big Sky Marine not withdrawn his application to host a Jet Boat Marathon this June, 20 personal watercraft would have raced up and back a 50-mile stretch […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Climbing ban upheld at Devils Tower
The National Park Service can continue to ask rock climbers to stay off Wyoming’s Devils Tower during June, the month when Native Americans hold religious ceremonies at the foot of the volcanic monolith. On April 2, U.S. District Court Judge William Downes dismissed the case brought by climbing guide Andy Petefish and the Bear Lodge […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
The latest 1,000-pound gorilla
WASHINGTON, D.C. – “Good evening, sir and madam, Henri here, your concierge, representing ‘All-Natural, Inc.,’ the contract manager of Frogwart Hollow National Forest. Place Number 23 is reserved for your recreational vehicle, and there you will find posted our fee schedule for walks to the simulated waterfall, per-hour rates for fishing in the beautiful Cootahatchie […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
Grizzlies on staff
If the old adage, “Once you’ve studied something long enough, you become it,” holds true, the Glacier Institute has a grizzly bear, a glacier and a wildflower or two on staff. For 15 years, the nonprofit educational organization has recruited wildlife experts and artists to take students of all ages traipsing about Glacier National Park […]