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 […]
Utah
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 […]
Posted inAugust 30, 2004: How Long Will it Flow?
Ancient archaeological secret is revealed
Over the years, rancher Waldo Wilcox had told very few people about the well-preserved Fremont Indian settlement on his land in eastern Utah’s Range Creek Canyon. The site, which includes a thousand-year-old treasure trove of pottery, arrowheads and cliff dwellings, is one of Utah’s most dramatic archaeological finds. But in the late 1990s, when Wilcox […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2004: Journey of Rediscovery
Follow-up
Tired of hearing about the 33,000 salmon and steelhead that died in the Klamath River two summers ago? According to the California Department of Fish and Game, those numbers were off: Based on a two-year study of the fish kill, which was believed to be the largest in the Pacific Northwest, the agency has found […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2004: Journey of Rediscovery
Heard around the West
ARIZONA Maybe it was amazement and disbelief that caused a motorist to call the cops: The white car ahead of her had the words “U.S. Forest Service” emblazoned on its side, but the driver was throwing lighted cigarette butts out the window in the middle of a hectic fire season. The driver turned out to […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2004: The Greening of the Plains
Heard around the West
UTAH Filmmaker Michael Moore really knows how to energize people. His Bush-bashing documentary enraged so many Park City residents that a movie theater added a disclaimer, saying Fahrenheit 9/11 did not represent the views of the management. That a disclaimer was considered necessary disturbed several readers of the Park Record, who praised the film for […]
Posted inJune 21, 2004: A Walk Between Worlds
Lame-duck governor moves deadlocked wilderness debate
UTAH The decades-old battle over how much of Utah’s desert should be protected as wilderness took a new turn in May, when Gov. Olene Walker, R, announced county-by-county discussions to break the impasse. Utah has lagged behind other Western states in designating wilderness areas on Bureau of Land Management land: Of nearly 23 million acres […]
Posted inJune 7, 2004: Wal-Mart's Manifest Destiny
Defending the West Desert: Utah activist Jason Groenewold
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH — Utah’s West Desert is a tough place to love. The barren landscape, which stretches across tens of thousands of square miles along Utah’s border with Nevada, lacks the redrock spires and canyons that draw recreationists and sightseers to southern Utah. The occasional mountain range and salt flat are the only […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
In Search of Solidarity
Will hard times renew historic alliances between environmentalists and labor unions?
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
Water ‘holy war’ rages in central Utah
Will taxpayers foot the bill on a federally subsidized fossil?
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
President Bush should consider a “land grab” of his own
I flew into the sprawling city of Phoenix recently not expecting a nature experience or a political revelation. My colleague and I rented a car and, after an appointment in the city, fought through an hour of bumper-to-bumper afternoon traffic on our way north to Flagstaff. What a relief it was to finally see the […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Uranium mill or dump?
Locals hope to stop a Utah mill from finding new work
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Wilderness activists look on as the Bush administration gives oil and gas drillers first crack at the West’s last wild lands
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Getting under the desert’s skin: Biologist Jayne Belnap
The scenery of southeastern Utah is hard to miss. Steep redrock canyons plunge into long and lazy riverbends; wind-sculpted stone arches glow pinkly at sunset. But when biologist Jayne Belnap hikes through this famous landscape, it’s not the show-stopping rocks that draw her attention. It’s the algae. “This is not a rocky landscape, this is […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Proposed wilderness on the auction block
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Two decades of hard work, plowed under.” The following areas, which are proposed by citizens for wilderness protection, will be up for grabs during the BLM’s January/February 2004 lease sale. WIA = wilderness inventory area CWP = citizens’ wilderness proposal New Mexico (Jan. 21) […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Heard Around the West
TEXAS In the Dubious Achievement category, let’s send the 2003 Biology Award to Texas A&M’s vet school, which just cloned a white-tailed deer with a rack measuring 230 points on the Boone and Crockett scale. The lead researcher told the Houston Chronicle that the trophy buck is a “conservation tool.” The bottle-fed deer, dubbed Dewey, […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
King coal is back
With natural gas supplies stretched thin, and the Bush administration loosening environmental regulations, energy companies are turning their attention back to coal
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Heard Around the West
CALIFORNIA Remember that New Yorker cartoon, the one where a plump pussycat looks at its behind in a mirror and asks: “Does this collar make my butt look too big?” Well, humans are passing on their overeating habits to pets. Medical researchers warn we’re also bad influences on wildlife: Bears in the Lake Tahoe area […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Being Green in the Land of the Saints
In the heartland of the Mormon Church, a new movement is taking root