Writers on the Range


Writers on the Range is opinion from the ground up.


Edward Abbey got the FBI interested in literature
According to documents made available through Freedom of Information Act, the FBI kept track of Abbey's writing and activities for 20 years, trying to determine whether the controversial author was a security threat to the United States.
Tom Knudson Opinion Jan. 1, 1990 From the print edition
Federal agents killed about 250,000 predators in 1987
For more than 60 years, very little has changed inside the federal Animal Damage Control division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Steve Johnson Opinion Sept. 11, 1989 From the print edition
Grazing permits are valuable: You can bank on it
With all the fuss made about livestock grazing on public lands in the West, it is surprising to learn that they account for only 2 percent of U.S. livestock grazing. But to the rancher who depends on Western rangelands for pasture, it's a make or break situation.
James A. Lees Opinion July 3, 1989 From the print edition
Ecotage isn't a solution, it's part of the problem
The time for an ambiguous attitude toward ecotage passed with the announcement of the arrests in Arizona and the allegations of a plan to attack the Rocky Flats nuclear arsenal.
Ed Marston Opinion June 19, 1989 From the print edition
Biff! Pow! Bang! Three initiatives lose to big money
Last November, environmental activists waging underfinanced ballon initiative campaigns in South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska took beatings from well-funded experts.
Peter Carrels Opinion May 22, 1989 From the print edition
Logging our way to economic poverty
Coos Bay, Ore., is awash in logs, but for the first time since 1936 there's not a single plywood or lumber mill operating in the area. Instead, there are foreign-flagged ships.
Peter DeFazio Opinion May 8, 1989 From the print edition
How dam opponents developed and refined a strategy
The battle against Two Forks Dam was fought with two strategies, one within and one outside of the EIS process.
Steve Hinchman Opinion April 10, 1989 From the print edition
Why Denver's concrete proposal got beat
Two Forks Dam is on the verge of veto because the economic currents are flowing against it, and the political currents are following.
Ed Marston Opinion April 10, 1989 From the print edition
What did not happen on the Great Plains
The Bureau of Reclamation's grandiose plans -- laid out in the 1971 North Central Power Study -- to turn parts of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas into an energy sacrifice area haven't come to pass.
Steve Hinchman Opinion March 13, 1989 From the print edition
The West is crippled by its resources
Writer Wallace Stegner has a rule of thumb: The more arid a state, the worse its congressional delegation. I have a corollary to that rule: The more a state is "blessed" with natural resources, tile worse off it will be economically, socially and politically.
Ed Marston Opinion Feb. 27, 1989 From the print edition
INEL puts Idaho's political hypocrisy to a rough test
The Idaho National Energy Lab is the biggest blind spot in Idaho politics. Politicians who rail against the evils of big government while pulling every string for INEL projects are faithfully reflecting those who elect them.
Pat Ford Opinion Dec. 19, 1988 From the print edition
Save the forests: Let them burn
There is no getting around this ecological fact of life: Within nearly all forest communities of the Rocky Mountains, fires are essential form maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
George Wuerthner Opinion Aug. 29, 1988 From the print edition
O'Toole is the Adam Smith of forest economics
O'Toole has done all of us, including the Forest Service, a great favor. His genius and hard work have shown us that the national forests are governed by a welter of laws whose purpose and workings are exactly the same as those of the 1872 Mining Law.
Ed Marston Opinion July 18, 1988 From the print edition
Ranchers may be losing the war of the myths
The traditional view of the West and its wild rangeland is changing. No longer are conservationists and environmentalists a fringe interest group.
C. Arden Pope III Opinion June 6, 1988 From the print edition
Phoenix and LA cast long shadows
Petrified Forest-Painted Desert National Park in northeastern Arizona is about 200 miles and a mountain range away from Phoenix, Ariz. But Phoenix, with help from even more distant Los Angeles, is the primary cause of air pollution at the park.
Joan Baeza Opinion May 23, 1988 From the print edition
In the West, subsidy begets subsidy begets subsidy
Knowing that the history of water development in the West is marked by waste, fraud and assorted other abuses does not make it easier to accept new reminders that the government is pouring our money down some drain.
Andrew Melnykovych Opinion April 11, 1988 From the print edition
ORVs on public land require education and regulation
Lack of understanding of the fragility of our Western range and forest lands, combined with unenforced regulations, have allowed off-road vehicles to seriously damage our public lands.
Sid Goodloe Opinion March 28, 1988 From the print edition
McClure-Andrus wilderness bill is worse than nothing
The McClure-Andrus package is obviously superior, statewide, to McClure's 1984 proposal. But the transformation of public perceptions that we require has not occurred. Now the exigencies of substantially improving or fighting this legislation will dominate our time.
Pat Ford Opinion Feb. 1, 1988 From the print edition
Hapless DOE: What a long, strange trip it's on
Transportation of nuclear waste is an issue waiting to get hot. Federal plans for finding a place to put it are unclear, but the government's ultimate goal is disposal of radioactive debris from the civilian reactor and nuclear weapons industries in a deep geologic formation.
Melinda Kassen Opinion Dec. 21, 1987 From the print edition
Bringing wolves back will kill more than sheep
There is much to admire about the wolf. He is strong and brave and invisible to all except the lucky who catch fleeting glimpses of rare individuals. But let's save him for real wilderness where he won't impact ranchers or eagles or grizzlies. Let's be thankful he roams the Snake River plain no more.
Mike Harrop Opinion Oct. 26, 1987 From the print edition
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