Note: this article is a sidebar to the news story “Utah’s river kid takes on the water buffaloes.” Zachary Frankel, a native of Salt Lake City, is the executive director of the Utah Rivers Council. Zachary Frankel: “I lived in Washington state and studied river ecology. I went diving in rivers and realized how gorgeous […]
Water
Posted inJuly 3, 2000: A river resurrected
A river resurrected
The Colorado River Delta gets a second chance
Posted inJuly 3, 2000: A river resurrected
Utah’s river kid takes on the water buffaloes
Where is Utah’s water needed most: in fading farming towns or booming cities?
Posted inJune 25, 2007: Predator hunters for the environment
Watershed moment
A former California timber town becomes ground zero in the battle over bottled water
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
The end of a water mine?
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article,”The Great Sand Dunes: the next new national park?“ A federal buyout of the Baca Ranch would erase the threat of a sale, by a private developer, of San Luis Valley water to the Front Range. But pressure […]
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
BOMBAY BEACH, Calif. – Steve Horvitz, the superintendent of the Salton Sea State Recreation Area, keeps a copy of the movie Chinatown on his office bookshelf. He’s seen the tale of ruthless Los Angeles water barons many times, and it still makes him angry, but he doesn’t watch it as often as he used to. […]
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
Trickle of hope
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. An international border slices through the final stretch of the Colorado River, and for decades the region has been pushed to the political margins by both the United States and Mexico. The river only occasionally reaches the Gulf of California, and the once-lush wetlands […]
Posted inMay 22, 2000: Save Our Sagebrush
Service says dams should stay put
NORTHWEST The federal agency charged with recovering endangered salmon won’t recommend dismantling dams – at least for now (HCN, 12/20/99: Unleashing the Snake). Will Stelle, regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said recently that his agency wants to table the breaching debate for five to 10 years while it tries to boost salmon […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The Clark Fork unplugged
MONTANA On Montana’s Clark Fork River, pressure is mounting to demolish a dam. The Milltown dam sits seven miles upstream from Missoula, where the Blackfoot River and the Clark Fork meet. For years, it has acted as a plug, holding back 6.5 million cubic yards of sediment contaminated with arsenic and heavy metals washed away […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Corps catches criticism
NATION A national storm is swirling around the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and some say it could rattle two of the agency’s most controversial projects in the Northwest: dredging the Columbia River and continuing operation of the Snake River dams. In February, The Washington Post reported that the agency rigged a $50 million economic […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Shaky truce on the Rio Grande
Amid a political dust storm, an agreement keeps endangered fish alive
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Dust settles in Owens Valley
Los Angeles vows to return some water to a parched lakebed
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
One dam, two rallies
A protest draws demonstrators who want to drain Lake Powell, and those who love it
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
An unruly river
In Rivers of Empire, historian Donald Worster argued that the West’s dams and irrigation systems and hydroelectric facilities were imposed on the region by an all-powerful water elite. The elite built a hydraulic empire, which thwarts democracy and subjects most of us to a peasant existence. Now comes historian Robert Kelley Schneiders with a different […]
Posted inApril 10, 2000: Beyond the Revolution
A new generation comes to terms with Lake Powell
The loss of Glen Canyon to Lake Powell grieves many people deeply, including those too young to have known “the place no one knew.” At 25, Provo, Utah, native Jared Farmer has known only Lake Powell, the prized destination of a new generation. Yet in his new book, Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell and […]
Posted inApril 10, 2000: Beyond the Revolution
Water deal could drain New Mexico’s small towns
Northern New Mexico farmers fear cities will suck their communities dry
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Property owners call the shots
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. HELENA, Mont. – Most agree that the greatest long-term threat to the integrity of the Yellowstone River is the unregulated development of private property along the banks. “Once a house is built in the floodplain, there is zero tolerance for bank erosion,” said Rob […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
An opportunity lost to politics
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In President Clinton’s 1997 State of the Union Message, he introduced the Heritage Rivers Initiative as a means to address the management issues of 10 notable American waterways, and as a vehicle to provide federal assistance and funding to complement state and regional efforts […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
A river divided
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Upper Yellowstone River currently is in the political hot seat, but that section of the river represents less than one quarter of the river’s 670-mile length. Any approach to management has to address the complete watershed. Yellowstone Park contains much of the headwaters […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
The last wild river
The Yellowstone River survived the era of dams, but can it survive riprap?