In the Northwest, where thousands of people have rallied to save salmon, the salmon are helping young, at-risk Native Americans. The Salmon Corps – a partnership of five tribes, the federal Americorps, the city of Portland, government agencies and several corporations – trains Native Americans, aged 18 to 25, in stream restoration work, while they […]
Wildlife
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Ranchers forgo their federal lease
IDAHO Cows and salmon don’t mix; at least that’s the message rancher Rollin Baker says he has received repeatedly from the National Marine Fisheries Service. So Baker and his partner, A.D. Watkins, recently relinquished their federal grazing privileges near Bear Valley Creek in Idaho’s Boise National Forest. The ranchers say strict rules aimed at protecting […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Fires burn through boundaries at Mesa Verde
The flames have illuminated – and possibly strengthened – the park’s intimate connections with its neighbors
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
The latest salmon plan heads toward a train wreck
Federal officials released on July 27 their long-awaited plan for saving 12 stocks of endangered salmon in the Snake and Columbia rivers. As expected, they stopped short of recommending to Congress what the majority of scientists say may be necessary to prevent Snake River salmon from going extinct – breaching four federal dams in eastern […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Home is where the heat is
Federal firefighters save houses while the West’s woods burn
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Protect yourself from wildfires
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article,”Home is where the heat is.” The Montana Division of Disaster and Emergency Services has a few suggestions for making your home more fire safe: Copyright © 2000 HCN and Mark Matthews This article appeared in the print […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Bonfire of the Superweeds
In the Sonoran Desert, good intentions combust
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Reform school for wolves
MONTANA Things are shocking for three wolves on Ted Turner’s ranch near Bozeman, Mont. For the past several weeks they have been serving time in what one wolf biologist calls “reform school,” an experiment that managers hope will stop wolves from killing cattle. In a few weeks, when a beef calf is added to the […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Condors back in captivity
ARIZONA The California condor is one bird big enough to complement the vast size of the Grand Canyon. But it will be a while before visitors see the endangered birds’ huge soaring silhouettes again. All of the Grand Canyon condors, whose reintroduction began in 1996, were recaptured this summer after lead poisoning wiped out four […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Subdivision approved in owl habitat
ARIZONA Last year, when the federal government designated Tucson’s northwest side as critical habitat for the endangered cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl (HCN, 8/30/99: A pocket-sized bird takes on Sunbelt subdivisions), developers feared their boom had busted. But a federal Fish and Wildlife Service decision in late July may bring the bulldozers back. The agency says developer […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Tee off for salmon
OREGON When Ed and Janice Hopper bought a 27-hole golf course at the base of Oregon’s Mount Hood in 1989, they dreamed of coho and steelhead salmon swimming in the small stream that runs through the course. More than 100 years ago, the fish were there in the Wee Burn, a tributary of the wild […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Critter-watching etiquette
If you’ve ever wondered why it’s hard to see raccoons at night, or why Lassie’s favorite meal didn’t include broccoli, a new children’s book called On the Trail of Colorado Critters can help. “Have you ever been hiking and seen a deer? Have you heard an owl hooting at night? Does a woodpecker live in […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Migrating with the monarchs
Trying to unlock the secrets of the West’s monarch butterflies, writer and naturalist Robert Michael Pyle logged over 9,500 miles in his beloved 1982 Honda Powdermilk. In his Chasing Monarchs travelogue, Pyle starts by the Similkameen River in Canada, traveling south along the Columbia and Snake rivers, through the Great Basin, up onto the Colorado […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Who speaks for the sheep?
Desert bighorns are caught between waterholes and wilderness
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Forests on a forced diet
Hungry Washington office keeps Forest Service funds from reaching the ground
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Barberry bush beats bacteria
A compound from a barberry bush found on Colorado’s Western Slope is helping researchers fight antibiotic resistance. Some bacteria, particularly those that cause staph infections, can become resistant to antibiotics by pumping the drug out of cells before it begins to work. Colorado State University professor Frank Stermitz and Tufts University professor Kim Lewis discovered […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Help search for snakes
Hikers, bikers and river rafters should be ready to capture – with cameras, that is – any scaly-skinned critters sunning themselves on Grand Canyon rocks. Nikolle Brown, also known as “the Snake Lady,” needs help documenting reptile sightings for her Snakes of the Grand Canyon Identification and Distribution project. Brown, a seasoned wildlife biologist for […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
The bees’ needs
Golf courses are becoming a great place to learn about the birds and the bees. A Portland, Ore.-based group says that with a little encouragement, native pollinators such as bees and beetles will easily inhabit golf courses. Only a small percentage of any golf course is used by golfers, and the rest has great potential […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Vulgar yet valiant
For most of us, a quick glimpse of a plane as it drones overhead on its way to a wildfire is all we’ll ever see of smokejumpers or the work they do, but Murry A. Taylor’s Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper’s Memoir of Fighting Wildfire in the West, offers insight into their hectic lives. Taylor, who […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Killing Coyote
The human hordes are still at it, roaming the last of the Big Open with their guns and traps and poisons, trying to wipe out yet another of their fellow creatures. This time, the target is the resilient trickster himself, coyote. Doug Hawes-Davis frames his latest documentary film, Killing Coyote, with the Calcutta, a coyote-killing […]