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FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

If you've been following the Cooper Firearms story (202 comments so far), you might be wondering who was telling the truth. Did Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse cancel orders following the controversy, as I originally reported--or not, as the representatives of the mega-retailers claim.

Well, I finally tracked down Dan Cooper this morning, and we had a little chat--and the answer is: Everybody is telling the truth. [more]

NO CANCELED ORDERS

My special Wild Bill column on Monday covered the statements and campaign contributions made Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms in support of President-elect Barack Obama. As his statements caused a firestorm of criticism from his customers on gun websites and blogs, Cooper resigned from the company and said he was worried about the future of his company because two of his biggest retail accounts, Cabela's and Sportsman's Warehouse, had canceled their orders.

Which turned out to not be true. [more]

Generation Recreation with Michael Pearlman

I woke up this morning in a Wyoming county where 68 percent of voters supported McCain, a vivid reminder that all politics is ultimately local. My dyed-in-the-wool Republican neighbors are protective of their jobs in the oil and gas industry and loathe tax and spend liberals. They're worried that Obama will take their guns, cost their business more money and have Washington bureaucrats making land use decisions about where they can play with their motorized toys. [more]

PERFECT PLACE FOR BLUE TIDE TO QUICKLY MAKE ITS MARK

On January 5, 2001, with George W. Bush's moving van parked at the back door of the White House, President Bill Clinton signed his now-infamous Roadless Rule. With a stroke of his pen and without the approval of Congress, Clinton protected almost one-third of our national forests, 58.5 million acres, from road building.

The incoming Bush administration immediately reversed the rule, but a judge rapidly reversed the reversal. Ever since, the Roadless Rule has been a tennis ball, back and forth, on and off, mired in a ridiculous succession of administrative rules and court cases, making it hard to decide who's ahead in the game. As I write this, to emphasize the folly, two judges have made opposing rulings, one spiking the Roadless Rule, one re-affirming its validity.

So I say, let's end the tennis match and make the Roadless Rule the law of the land. [more]

WILL THEY EVER FIND A CURE FOR THIS FEVER?

One of the biggest challenges any outdoor writer faces is writing an article about a fishing trip when he couldn't catch a fish. It's scary, really, especially when you're doing it on Halloween, which is precisely what I was doing last Friday. I'd already spent most of three days frantically flaying the waters of the Grande Ronde River without raising a single steelhead.

Then, it happened. [more]

FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

Anybody who has been following the cyber-firestorm over pro-Obama statements and campaign contributions made by Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, knows that as part of the collateral damage, life has gotten hectic at Sportsman's Warehouse.

After the story broke on October 28 in USA TODAY and became the subject of my column on NewWest.Net five days later, gun owners angry with Cooper besieged Sportsman's Warehouse's 66 superstores and corporate headquarters with threats of a boycott if the company didn't stop selling Cooper's products. Then, gun owners angry with gun rights activists calling for the boycott went into those same stores threatening their own boycott if America's Premier Outfitter didn't continue selling Cooper products.

You got to feel for Sportsman's Warehouse, obviously caught in the middle of a controversy they didn't create, so I called CEO Stuart Utgaard. He was anxious to clear it up for us. [more]

THE SCARIEST THING THAT HAPPENED ON HALLOWEEN

Something extremely scary happened last Friday on Halloween. Dan Cooper, President and Founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, resigned.

Not so scary, you say. Well, wait until you hear why. If you believe in freedom and that there's a reason why the right to free speech is the First Amendment, prepare to be terrified.

Editor's note: Links to three updates at the end of the story.--Bill Schneider [more]

From The New West Blog

A report on the effects of climate change in Montana, particularly on trout, will air tonight on PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Titled "Trout and Drought," the report features interviews with Governor Brian Schweitzer; Professor Steve Running, Regent's Professor of Ecology at University of Montana; well-known fishing guide Craig Mathews, of West Yellowstone; Jenny West, a fishing guide from Hamilton; Walt Sales, a farmer in the Gallatin Valley; and Missoula Mayor John Engen. [more]

Last year I wrote a series of articles about concerns voiced by Montana hunters about Cabela's Trophy Properties, the real estate marketing division of the world's largest retailer of hunting, fishing and camping gear, Cabela's.

Facing a rapid decline in access to both private and public land, the last thing Montana hunters needed was "one of their own," Cabela's, to launch headlong into the amenity real estate business and further speed up the loss of huntable land.

Fueled by the state's largest sporting group, the 7,000-member-strong Montana Wildlife Federation, the issue became white-hot controversial. The MWF even asked its members to return their catalogs to Cabela's with letters protesting the new venture. Hundreds of them did exactly that and, suddenly, hunters had the company's big-time attention and promises to do what it could to smooth out the ruffled feathers.

But did the firestorm really change anything? Or a year later, is Cabela's Trophy Properties (CTP) doing business as usual? [more]

Boise Events

Date night in Boise on Nov. 7 should bring out a crowd of outdoorsy types typical of ski towns. It’s the fourth annual Backcountry Film Festival, hosted by the Winter Wildlands Alliance, which will feature “inspirational and thought-provoking films from grassroots filmmakers that will inform you about backcountry and environmental issues as well as entertain you with exceptional skiing,” according to WW’s Jeff Cole.

WWA’s signature fundraising event is organized each year to promote human-powered winter sports such as backcountry and Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, and winter hiking and camping, as well as to raise awareness of WWA’s work on issues affecting quiet winter ecosystems.

The film program is a combination of short films and longer films, which emphasize the pleasures of quiet, untracked snow, the excitement of steep descents and the ingenuity of wind-powered snow recreation - all captured through the unique vision of grassroots filmmakers. [more]

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