Features Home     >> Older articles >>

New West Feature

Yesterday’s announcement by the Canadian company, Mosquito Consolidated Gold Mines Ltd., that it had received final approval from the U.S. Forest Service to begin exploring for molybdenum in Idaho’s Boise National Forest is bound to refocus attention on an old federal law that plays a central role in mining decisions.

The 1872 National Mining Act, which still governs how mining occurs on federal lands, has been a bone of contention between environmental groups and mining companies for decades. 

New West Feature

Informal talks this week between Denver’s mayor and Colorado’s governor about the 2022 Winter Olympics would be the start of a long process full of hurdles, should Denver make a serious bid for the Games.

On Sunday, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper confirmed to the Denver Post that the idea interests them, but both expressed awareness of how long and winding any road to the Olympics would be.

New West Feature

White-tailed deer hunters in eastern Montana will have to scramble for licenses this season.

The number of “B” licenses for antlerless white-tailed deer in the region has been reduced for the 2011 hunting seasons from 5,000 to 2,000, because of a tough winter on the animals, followed by a disease outbreak.

New West Feature

Criminal charges levied earlier this week on Jeremy Hill, who shot and killed a grizzly bear cub in his yard last May near Porthill, Idaho, just below the border with Canada, have sparked statements in his defense by Idaho’s local, state, and federal politicians.

Hill pleaded not guilty in federal court on Tuesday to the misdemeanor charge of killing an animal protected by the Endangered Species Act. A sow and two cubs wandered into his yard, and he said he was defending his six children.

New West Feature

The web is abuzz with news of the U.S. State Department report released today, which concludes that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the oil sands developments in Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast will have minimal environmental impacts.

The $13 billion pipeline of TransCanada Corp (TRP) would extend 1,661 miles from Alberta through parts of Saskatchewan and eastern Montana on its way through five more states to Houston, Tx., and Port Arthur, La.

New West Feature

Among more than $53 million in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants announced last evening to help protect habitat for threatened and endangered species, Montana was a big winner for native fish, while Colorado was awarded substantial funding to reintroduce the extremely rare black-footed ferret to a safe place.

Montana’s Stimson Forestlands Conservation Project in Missoula County will receive $4 million to fund a conservation easement of more than 9,300 forested acres. The land, adjacent to another easement of 18,700 acres, continues a landscape-scale conservation effort of several years in northwestern Montana aimed at protecting bull trout, Columbia redband trout, mountain whitefish, pygmy whitefish, and westslope cutthroat.

Summit Daily News Feature

Dense, sub-alpine forests are what comprise the terrain for Breckenridge Ski Resort’s Peak 6 proposed expansion—meaning the project’s effect on lynx has come under significant public scrutiny.

The Forest Service issued an amendment that allows the project to move forward despite being “likely to adversely affect” lynx and despite the project being situated in primary lynx habitat.

Guest Column

The Coalition to Protect the Front supports the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act as a means of “protecting the Front”.  It justifies the legislation by the “threat” noxious weeds make to the native plant communities of this magnificent landscape. Weeds, by displacing native plants, reduce the carrying capacity of the Front for native wildlife—which everyone agrees is one of the special attributes of the Front. 

Unfortunately, the Heritage Act only proposes a paltry 67,000 acres as wilderness. While any new wilderness on the Front is welcome, the Heritage Act misses an important opportunity to protect the bulk of the wildlands that exist here, including the Badger Two Medicine and other important roadless lands. Indeed, on their web page, the Coalition sees the threat of more wilderness as one of the reasons for supporting their plan.  So to prevent the “threat” of wilderness, locals want to designate the majority of land along the Front as “Conservation Management Areas.” What a misnomer that name is.

NRDC Study

At a time when management of the Colorado River Basin water supply is facing unprecedented challenges due to over allocation and climate change, energy companies are proposing to move forward with oil shale development—a water-intensive, inefficient source of energy that could become a major producer of greenhouse gas pollution.

A new report from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Between a Rock and a Dry Place, explores the potential impacts of oil shale development on water supplies in the basin and on the region’s agricultural economy, water quality, protected species and natural environment.

High Country News Feature

The decade-long tussle over energy development in New Mexico’s Otero Mesa has been reinvigorated recently, as hardrock mining claims now threaten the region for the first time.

The area, sometimes referred to as the “Southwest’s Serengeti,” is a 1.2 million-acre stretch of undisturbed Chihuahuan Desert grassland. The sprawling but sensitive expanses of black grama are home to more than 1,000 species of native wildlife, including a genetically-pure herd of pronghorn antelope, the endangered northern aplomado falcon, mountain lions, mule deer, bald and golden eagles and hundreds of species of plants, insects and migratory birds.

Features Home     >> Older articles >>