“There was a time I could go out and ride a motorcycle cross-country,” says Ray Peterson, director of the Emery County Public Lands Council. “And the next day I could go back out and there wouldn’t be another track except mine.” That’s no longer the case: Off-road vehicle use in Utah has exploded during the […]
Utah
Posted inWotr
Death of a New Westerner
Late on a Friday night last October, word came to me that my best friend, Bill Benge, had died suddenly of a massive heart attack in Moab, Utah. He was only 60. We had both come from large cities to Moab as young men, more than 30 years ago, and had chosen, for our own […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Two weeks in the West
As more people play in the snow, skirmishes heat up.
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Notes from a place of risk and hope
Writer Kevin Holdsworth copped Wyoming’s tourist slogan “Big Wonderful” to describe a place of both risk and hope, a beautiful, battered landscape rich in myth and fact. He presents it through the complementary perspectives of a mountain climber, family man and friend, describing both Utah, the state of his birth, and Wyoming, the home of […]
Posted inOctober 30, 2006: Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico's Forests
Heard around the West
UTAH AND IDAHO Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Forest Service employees from Utah, that’s who. Two staffers from the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Ogden were working in Idaho’s Sawtooth Wilderness Sept. 23, when they spotted wolves chasing a bull elk across a meadow. They weren’t frightened by the sight of the running […]
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 inJune 26, 2006: The Tamarisk Hunter
Saints speak out against nuclear waste
Although Mormons call Utah their promised land, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has rarely taken a stand in defense of its environment. Recently, however, the highest echelon of the church threw a protective arm around the state by opposing a nuclear waste storage site near Salt Lake City. In a three-sentence statement […]
Posted inMay 29, 2006: 'Clinging Hopelessly to the Past'
‘Clinging hopelessly to the past’
The cantankerous gospel of Jim Stiles and The Canyon Country Zephyr
Posted inApril 17, 2006: The War on Wildfire
Enviros wary of ‘Nevada-style’ wilderness bill
Utah proposal includes public-lands sale, utility corridors
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
Pipeline and dam dreams
A new dam for Utah’s urban Wasatch Front and a pipeline for the fast-growing city of St. George got a boost in February, when the state Legislature approved a bill directing about $8 million a year to “preconstruction” work on the projects. The money, from state sales and use tax, will fund environmental studies and […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Congress bets on oil shale
But on the ground in the West, big companies are hedging
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Tapping into energy’s fringe
As companies drill for ‘unconventional’ natural gas, environmental impacts mount
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
Western military bases still reporting for duty
New Mexico’s Cannon Air Force Base won’t be shut down — at least not for the next few years (HCN, 8/22/05: Leavin’ on a Jet Plane). It and four other Western military installations narrowly escaped the base-closure ax. The nine-member federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission finished its hearings on Aug. 26, voting against […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
His playground pulls fun hogs off the public lands
NAME: Jeremy Parriott VOCATION: Extreme-sports videographer and promoter AGE: 32 HOME BASE: Moab, Utah CLAIM TO FAME: Helping to create “Area BFE,” a private playground for “extreme” off-roaders, mountain bikers and climbers. HE SAYS: “Public lands around here are getting pretty bombarded with use — why not bring it to a private place?” Standing […]
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
Moab: On the horns of a recreation dilemma
Finally, a limit to off-roading on public lands
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Beehive state may get new wilderness — and more
Wilderness advocates in Utah have long butted heads with rural county commissioners and the state’s conservative congressional delegation. Last May, in an attempt to resolve the impasse, then-Utah Gov. Olene Walker announced county-by-county discussions on land use, including potential new wilderness areas (HCN, 6/21/04: Lame-duck governor moves deadlocked wilderness debate). Now, the state may see […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Colorado River kisses a toxic mess good-bye
A 12 million-ton relic of the Cold War willget hauled away from Moab
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
The life of an unsung Western water diplomat
Mark Twain once remarked that in the West, “whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” But Delphus E. Carpenter, who spearheaded the 1922 Colorado River Compact among seven states, would have disagreed twice over. Carpenter not only abstained from spirits, but believed water problems could be resolved through diplomacy instead of fisticuffs. His life […]
Posted inNovember 8, 2004: Keepers of the Flame
Follow-up
After three years of negotiations, wilderness in Idaho’s Owyhee Canyonlands is one step closer to reality (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the Middle Path). On Oct. 22, the Owyhee Initiative voted 8-0 to forward its 500,000-acre wilderness proposal to the Owyhee County Commission, which quickly sent it on to Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. A spokesman for Crapo […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 2004: When a Boom is a Bust
Heard around the West
UTAH The Davis County Library in Layton has a neurotically uptight patron, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. The unknown reader has been changing every “hell” and “damn” in certain mystery novels to “heck” and “darn,” doing the deed with a purple pen. So far, only books based on the Murder, She Wrote TV series have […]