Hanford’s full of holes Whistleblowers at the Hanford nuclear reservation in central Washington now have the federal General Accounting Office on their side. Although nearly a million gallons of waste are seeping from Hanford’s underground storage tanks toward the Columbia River, the Department of Energy has long downplayed the problem, assuring critics that the soil […]
Michelle Nijhuis
Michelle Nijhuis is a contributing editor of HCN and the author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction. Follow @nijhuism.
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Delay for the “Oregon way’
Oregon’s Gov. John Kitzhaber has been trying to protect salmon on state and private land – and keep the fish off the endangered species list. Now, he says, the National Marine Fisheries Service threatens to upset his attempt at “managing our resources the Oregon way.” Kitzhaber’s Oregon Plan would protect salmon through voluntary efforts by […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Predator control gets out of control
In 1993, without much fanfare, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management turned their predator problems over to the experts. The agencies signed an agreement allowing the federal Animal Damage Control agency, now known as Wildlife Services, to plan for the extermination of coyotes, mountain lions and other “problem” animals that kill livestock […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
EPA to ASARCO: Time to pay
For the past two years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been investigating ASARCO Inc. for violations of federal environmental laws. Now the mining company is going to pay. On Jan. 23, the EPA announced that the company will pay $62 million in fines and cleanup costs for its projects around the nation, with the […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
VERNAL, Utah – Dinosaurs live on in northeastern Utah. A life-size plaster Tyrannosaurus rex, advertising nearby Dinosaur National Monument, stands poised to pounce on visitors as they enter the town of Vernal. The wide main street is lined with hotels, restaurants and gift shops – the Dinosaur Inn, Dine-a-ville, the Dinosaur Quarry. Thousands of visitors […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
A few fish may move a mountain of tailings
Thank the squawfish, say community activists in Moab, Utah. In the latest round of a long controversy, the endangered fish may be the lever that moves 10 million tons of radioactive uranium tailings away from the banks of the Colorado River. Last spring, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ruled that Atlas Minerals could leave the […]
Posted inMarch 30, 1998: A bare-knuckled trio goes after the Forest Service
Groups sue over microbes
WYOMING, MONTANA Groups sue over microbes Three environmental organizations are suing the National Park Service over plans to allow private “bioprospecting” in Yellowstone National Park. Charging that the park has conducted “closed-door dealing with a part of our national heritage,” the Edmonds Institute of Edmonds, Wash., the Center for Technology Assessment in Washington, D.C., and […]
Posted inMarch 30, 1998: A bare-knuckled trio goes after the Forest Service
Wildlife dollars fund prison
A recent federal audit of Colorado wildlife funding has gotten some people upset. Among other violations, the audit has revealed that license fees intended for state wildlife programs were spent on land for a prison in Rifle, Colo. Each year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reimburses state agencies for a portion of their wildlife […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
Tribes protest Ward Valley dump site
Since early February, protesters from five Native American tribes have camped out near a proposed nuclear waste storage site in Ward Valley, Calif. The Bureau of Land Management, which wants to finish studying the site, ordered the 30 or so people off the land by Feb. 19. But on Feb. 25, the BLM stopped policing […]
Posted inMarch 16, 1998: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games
The mouse that roared “Preble”
Naturalist E.A. Preble, who bagged a nondescript mouse on the bank of an irrigation ditch near Loveland, Colo., in 1895, might be surprised at the ruckus he’s caused. The meadow jumping mouse named for him – a subspecies restricted to the foothills of Colorado’s Front Range – is now at the center of a controversy […]
Posted inMarch 2, 1998: Wild horses: Do they belong in the West?
‘Ghost roads’ haunt forests
In his announcement of the Forest Service’s 18-month road-building moratorium on Jan. 22, Chief Mike Dombeck admitted that there are over 60,000 miles of unmapped “ghost roads’ in national forests (HCN, 2/2/98). This was no news to members of the Bozeman, Mont.-based Predator Project, whose Roads Scholars program has been documenting these roads in the […]
Posted inMarch 2, 1998: Wild horses: Do they belong in the West?
Feds ready to get WIPPed
Twenty-three years after the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., was first proposed, the controversial $2.5 billion underground storage facility is scheduled to open this spring. The Department of Energy formally approved the project on Jan. 23, and the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to certify it in May. Department of Energy officials […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
A scarlet “A’ for ASARCO?
A controversial open-pit copper mine proposed for the Santa Rita Mountains of southern Arizona (HCN, 9/1/97) has been put on hold. In a Jan. 21 letter from ASARCO Inc. to the Coronado National Forest, the company blamed low copper prices for the pullout and said the project would be delayed for “at least a couple […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
Fore! on the Inyo National Forest
For the first time in its history, the U.S. Forest Service says a golf course will be built on agency land. The owners of the Snow Creek golf course in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., have a permit to turn 95 acres of sagebrush on the Inyo National Forest into a “back nine,” despite the opposition of […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Zoologist says listing process is endangered
Ronald Nowak, a national-level Fish and Wildlife Service zoologist, has resigned from his position in protest, claiming the agency has “fought tooth and nail to avoid doing its job” of protecting the Canada lynx and other sensitive species. Nowak calls the lynx – a cousin of the bobcat – -one of the most blatant examples […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Road ban proposal eroded by exceptions
The Forest Service has overseen the addition of more than 380,000 miles of roads to national forests – a network more than twice the size of the national highway system. Now, the Clinton administration wants to call an 18-month halt to the construction of new roads in roadless areas. Forest Service spokesman Alan Polk says […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Wanted: More Colorado Natives
WANTED: MORE COLORADO NATIVES Trout Unlimited wants to see more wild trout in Colorado’s rivers and lakes and fewer diseased fish. If a new Wildlife Commission policy becomes a reality, the nonprofit group may get its wish. Issued in November, the state policy emphasizes restoring streams and native trout like the Colorado cutthroat – a […]