Getting air, losing a ski. Photo taken at the opening of Sun Valley's new terrain park by Nils Ribi. Read more about the terrain park on Ribi's blog.

See more photos on the New West Images photoblog.

Guest Opinion

In Indian Country, a Federal Spending Cap Will Hurt

It sounds reasonable: Why not just cap federal spending? Make every agency operate with the money that’s already there. This notion has commonsense, yet it is impossible in practice.

A few years ago, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights looked at federal funding needs for American Indians and Alaska Natives. The report concluded that “federal funding for Native American programs has increased significantly. However, this has not been nearly enough to compensate for a decline in spending power, which had been evident for decades before that, nor to overcome a long and sad history of neglect and discrimination.”

New West Feature

Rep. Lummis Lashes Out at Environmental Lawsuits

Sparks flew during last week’s annual convention of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, in Casper.

U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), chastized conservation groups WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Western Watersheds for excessive recourse to lawsuits, which she claimed are giving the environmental movement “a black eye.”

Guest Opinion

Pollsters Call Conservation Funding a “Shell Game”

What gets voters agitated when they talk about the federal budget?

Sure, voices rise one moment over “spending like drunken sailors” while at the next moment, voters howl over potential cuts to a host of government programs, most notably Medicare. But get past those now predictable, first-blush comments and you’ll hear that what’s really bothering American voters is the distinct notion they have been conned. 

New West Feature

Conservationists Deplore Bombing of Avalanche Runs at Yellowstone

The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, backed by several other conservation groups, has strongly criticized Yellowstone National Park’s winter use plan to keep Sylvan Pass open between Cody and the park’s east entrance.

The pass features 20 avalanche runs that must be knocked down by artillery shells fired from a 105 mm howitzer, at a cost of $325,000 per season. Weather permitting, high explosives are hand-dropped on the avalanche runs from a helicopter.

New West Feature

Wyoming Declares War on Wolves

An agreement reached last week between Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe, and the State of Wyoming will allow treatment of the wolf as a predator that can be shot, trapped, or run over at any time throughout most of the state.

Interior has agreed to remove Wyoming wolves from the threatened and endangered species list, and give the state authority to manage wolves under a unique and widely criticized dual management plan.

New West Column

What Can We Make of Multiple Use?

Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt’s re-entry in the political fray in recent weeks, which he says was precipitated by fears over the future of the nation’s wild lands, brings up the question of what it means nowadays to be a Westerner.

To many people, the answer probably would be the same as it ever has been: wide-open spaces. Even though relatively few of us actually live in undeveloped areas anymore, wild lands remain central to our collective identity.

It’s hard to think of any topic that gets Westerners going more intensely than wild lands and all they contain. Wolves, elk, salmon, sage-grouse, logging, mining, rivers, off-road vehicles, roadless areas, the list goes on and on. Is there a greater number of special interest groups involved in any other aspect of Western life?

Public Land Management

Is Tim DeChristopher A Civil Disobedient for the Modern Era?

In 1849, Henry David Thoreau posed these questions in his essay, “Civil Disobedience.” Last week, a civil insurgent from the climate-change generation, Tim DeChristopher, was sentenced to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine for actions stemming from his own answer to Thoreau. It was December 2008 when DeChristopher defied a government action he perceived as unjust: the sale of energy leases around Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. He entered the federal auction and bid on the parcels to drive up their prices or win them, ultimately nabbing 14 leases for $1.8 million.

“I was there to try to disrupt this process,” DeChrisopher has said. “This was an act of civil disobedience in response to this fraud against the American people and a threat (climate change) to my future.”

Due to DeChristopher’s actions, the government halted the auction midway through, had him escorted out, and later arrested. He was eventually charged with the crimes of disrupting a federal auction and making false statements on forms to enter the auction. He was convicted March 3.

Guest Column

House Under-Estimates Public Concern Over Oil Pipeline Spills With Bill to Rush Keystone XL Tar Sand

On July 26, the House passed a bill mandating a decision on the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline by November 1. This bill is unlikely to pass the Senate and become law, mostly because it would speed us toward a pipeline that could have a disastrous effect on U.S. waters and communities. What the public wants is better pipeline safety, not acceleration of a pipeline that would threaten the Yellowstone River, the Nebraska Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer. The more the public learns, the more concerned they get. It is ironic that in the wake of the Yellowstone River oil spill and on the anniversary of the yet-to-be-cleaned up Kalamazoo River tar sands oil spill, the House would act so contrary to the public concerns about pipeline safety. In fact, to heighten the irony, tomorrow, the House Energy Committee will discuss a draft pipeline safety bill that would require a study of the impacts of raw tar sands oil such as would be carried in the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Before Tuesday night’s vote, more than 22,000 National Resources Defense Council activists wrote to their members of Congress asking them to vote “No” on the bill. The National Farmers Union also wrote to Congress today on behalf of farmers, ranchers and rural communities opposing the bill and urging that no fixed deadline for making a decision be put in place. The League of Conservation Voters wrote to Congress asking for a “No” vote and noting that this vote might be included in their 2011 Scorecard of environmental votes. Yesterday, the White House issued a statement opposing the bill. That’s a lot for the House to disregard as they did that night.

Adventure Journal Post

Former Interior Secretary Babbitt Calls Out Obama — And Here’s His Speech

Politicians generally don’t level shotgun blasts at sitting presidents of their own party, but in June that’s exactly what former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt did. He brought to the bully pulpit of a former Cabinet member a broadside against President Obama for a lack of leadership on environmental and climate change issues, calling the current Congress the most radical in history and Obama’s failure to engage it “appeasement”. From within the highest levels of the Democratic party, he expressed the frustration with Obama that so many environmentally oriented people have felt, to some a betrayal, to other discouragement and the sense that what might be perhaps the one and only opportunity to tackle the issues of climate change and environmental degradation before it’s too late is slipping away. If not Obama, then who?

Babbitt’s remarks were covered moderately widely in the press, but it did not spark a debate and the response from the establishment was muted, to say the least. It’s true that Obama has made some positive moves, but most reasonably conscious observers can see that the challenges to the global environment are orders of magnitude greater than what we’ve dealt with previously, and Babbit’s speech, along with Al Gore’s powerful and frightening call to action in a recent Rolling Stone, is a much deserved, well needed, and overdue alarm from a voice that carries more weight than most.

Here is his speech, in its entirety.