Travel & Outdoors News

New West Feature

As drought continues to hammer southern states—drying out Texas streams, lakes and water supplies—the only things empty in most Colorado rivers are the fishing nets.

“I haven’t seen water like this so late since my first year here in 1985,” said Thomas Schneider, owner of Boulder-based Sunrise Anglers, LLC. “I was guiding last weekend in the park (Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado) and I haven’t seen the Roaring River that high, ever.”

New West Photo Essay

Here are some wild images from this year’s 115th annual Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, which finished at the end of July.

Idaho Fish and Game Feature

Lake Lowell in southwestern Idaho has been much in the news lately. The state government is fighting a federal proposal to limit longtime recreational uses on the huge reservoir, which was built for irrigation in the early 1900s.

Federal officials want to restrict water sports to about a third of the lake and ban dogs and horses, to protect wildlife in the Deer Park National Wildlife Refuge, which incorporates the lake. Idaho Gov. Butch Otter insists the state should manage the wildlife. Amidst this debate, Idaho Fish and Game announced this week it was considering how to reduce a carp infestation that has disrupted the reservoir’s aquatic systems.

New West Feature

A suite of habitat stressors appears to have caused a massive decline in mule deer and pronghorn herds around the border of Wyoming and Colorado, according to a recent National Wildlife Federation (NWF) report.

The herds, which tend to migrate back and forth over state lines, have encountered a number of pressures over the past 30 years, including fragmentation of habitat, disease, energy development, drought, and harsh winters.

Camping Protocol

An increase in abandoned campfires in the Rockies over recent weeks has prompted fire officials to issue a reminder: be careful in the woods this time of year, when the fire danger often is high.

In Montana, more than a dozen abandoned campfires have been discovered lately. Sixty-one percent of fires on lands managed by the state have been human-caused this summer. In the Lolo National Forest alone, firefighters have responded to 16 human-caused blazes, or 55 percent of the total fires there.

New West Feature

The reinstatement on Saturday, Aug. 6, of protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for a mouse in Wyoming might seem a small move, but it encapsulates many of the special interest considerations that dominate land use decisions in the West.

The issue, which goes back several years, revolves around the familiar question of what “best science” means. Government agencies, the courts, the media, and biologists themselves have weighed into the debate, closely attended by conservationists, ranchers, and politicians.

New West Feature

Yesterday’s ruling by a federal judge in Montana that upheld the delisting of wolves under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) might seem like third time unlucky for protectors of the species, but is it?

Twice previously, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy had prevented attempts to escalate the hunting of wolves in the West, but this time he cited a 9th Circuit Court precedent that he decided required him to rule against a challenge of the so-called wolf rider to a federal budget bill passed in April.

Public Land Management

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.

River News

A sustained high water season on rivers in and around Summit County, Colorado, is coming to a close, and that means less juggling for local outfitters.

“It was a challenge, for sure,” Arkansas Valley Adventures owner Duke Bradford said. AVA, like other companies, transferred trips based on flows to put ages and abilities on appropriate stretches. Someone who booked a Brown’s Canyon trip in the Arkansas River Valley may have gotten short notice that they’d now be running the more consistent Blue River, though it still ran quickly, about an hour north in Silverthorne.

Those with youngsters aiming to hit Clear Creek may have been shifted to the farther away Upper Colorado River, because as the water flows increased, consequences were more severe — so companies raised their age limits on certain stretches.

Fishing & Hunting

The hunters stalked their game for hours, carefully taking note of scat and tracks the herd left behind. They hunted on foot through the West’s backcountry wilds, through brush and over mountains. A rumble in the distance sounded like the characteristic clap of a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm. It spooked the elk. Over the hill emerged a firearm-clad off-road vehicle rider.

Many hunters contend they should be protected from noisy, ungulate-frightening machines when out seeking their prey. And in numerous states they are, with rules keeping hunters on ATVs tied to major roadways instead of backcountry paths. But ATV advocates want those restrictions changed, and across the West lawmakers continue to propose bills favoring motorized uses for hunting.

In Idaho, the issue is coming to a head, where a back-and-forth on whether hunters can use ATVs to access wilderness is under way.