You have to read this final report just issued by the Interior Department to appreciate the blatant disregard for the West’s air quality demonstrated by the Bush Administration in its final weeks. First, some background. Late last year, I wrote a piece for High Country News that revealed the blistering critiques EPA’s Rocky Mountain office…Continue Reading…
During Bush’s two terms, I wrote a bunch of magazine stories about oil & gas development on public lands. I never encountered so many pissed off people. Many of them felt steamrolled by the energy boom– ranchers in Wyoming and New Mexico, environmentalists in Colorado, and archaeologists in Utah. Lots of career staffers in the…Continue Reading…
Why do people get all misty-eyed over wild horses? I’m no exception. The times I’ve witnessed them galloping through Utah’s canyon country I immediately forgot that they are an exotic, habitat-killing species. Several years back, Ted Williams in Audubon magazine wrote about the “ecological havoc” caused by the estimated 30,000 hoofed beasties that roam the…Continue Reading…
Remember those controversial Resource Management Plans in Utah that the BLM rammed through during Bush’s final months? I covered the story here. The federal land plans must be on increasingly shaky ground because the Utah State Legislature has drafted a resolution expressing its strong support for the way BLM handled them. My favorite line in…Continue Reading…