Opinions
Opinions on natural resource issues from around the West, featuring Writers on the Range from High Country News.

Designating national park lands as wilderness a political ploy PDF Print E-mail
Written by BILL SCHNEIDER, NewWest.net   
Friday, 26 June 2009
If you’ve read any of my past columns, you know I’m a strong proponent of designating more Wilderness, but when considering whether to support including our national parks under the National Wilderness Preservation System, I have to wonder if it’s a good idea. Here’s why.

Read more...
Last Updated ( Friday, 26 June 2009 )
 
Idaho's bighorn sheep law proves link between bad science, bad law PDF Print E-mail
Written by Idaho Statesman   
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Marie Bulgin doesn't hide her opinions. "I'm not against bighorn sheep," she told the Associated Press recently. "I'm just for agriculture."

Read more...
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 June 2009 )
 
Judges should toss dueling wolf lawsuits PDF Print E-mail
Written by Casper Star-Tribune   
Thursday, 04 June 2009
As expected, Wyoming officials and several environmental groups this week sued the federal government over its decision to leave gray wolves in the state on the endangered species list while delisting them elsewhere in the Northern Rockies. Both plaintiffs should be ashamed of themselves. The judges who consider the lawsuits -- one in Cheyenne, the other in Missoula, Mont. -- should dismiss them as soon as possible.

Read more...
Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 June 2009 )
 
Guns in parks make for a messy, sometimes violent mix PDF Print E-mail
Written by Land Letter   
Friday, 29 May 2009
Congress' approval last week of legislation allowing loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges raises difficult new challenges for the Interior Department, which must try to strike a balance between lawful, responsible gun use and what many believe will be an uptick in vandalism, poaching and even gun violence involving park visitors.
Last Updated ( Friday, 29 May 2009 )
Read more...
 
Wolf delisting ratchets up the rhetoric in Idaho PDF Print E-mail
Written by Idaho Statesman   
Monday, 11 May 2009
Wolves are no longer federally protected in Idaho. The howling you hear as you watch a springtime sunset is not a pack of wolves but environmentalists.

Read more...
Last Updated ( Monday, 11 May 2009 )
 
Who Will Protect the Forests? PDF Print E-mail
Written by New York Times   
Thursday, 07 May 2009
During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama strongly supported a regulation enacted near the end of the Clinton administration prohibiting commercial activity in nearly 60 million roadless acres of the national forests. Eager to open those forests to timber and oil companies, the Bush administration spent eight years trying to undermine the rule. It remains at risk, and President Obama should intervene now to save the rule and the forests it is meant to protect.

Read more...
Last Updated ( Thursday, 07 May 2009 )
 
BLM should follow state's lead on grouse PDF Print E-mail
Written by Casper Star-Tribune Editorial Board   
Friday, 01 May 2009
We'll say this right up front: The sage grouse should not be placed under federal Endangered Species Act protection in Wyoming. Although the birds' numbers have plummeted in other parts of the West, and it's clear that they don't do well amid intensive energy development, the species is not on the brink of extinction.  Read more...
 
Utah senator is wrong to punish Interior on canceled leases PDF Print E-mail
Written by New York Times   
Monday, 27 April 2009
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s first big decision was to cancel 77 oil and gas leases in Utah that were awarded in the final months of the Bush administration. Their cancellation sent a clear signal that the Obama administration would take a more measured approach to energy exploration on public lands and that the drill-now-drill-anywhere days were over.

Read more...
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 28 April 2009 )
 
Wyoming-Colorado water project a bad idea PDF Print E-mail
Written by New York Times   
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
To the list of truly terrible ideas, we would like to add the one that is stirring up residents of southwestern Wyoming.

Read more...
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 22 April 2009 )
 
Interior Secretary Salazar is on the right track PDF Print E-mail
Written by MICHELE HAEFELE, Writers on the Range   
Friday, 17 April 2009
I'm a third-generation Colorado native, and for me, the Rockies have always been all about blue skies and fresh air. Yet I'm old enough to remember the brown cloud that used to hover over Denver. I also remember that after amendments to the Clean Air Act took effect in 1990, I could once again see Pikes Peak from 100 miles away. Unfortunately, our long vistas are being clouded over again, this time by the oil and gas industry. Its supporters immediately – and predictably -- denounced Ken Salazar's farsighted new direction for the Department of the Interior. Read more...
Read more...
 
Idaho must change its 'anti-growth' stance to 'grow your own way' PDF Print E-mail
Written by Idaho Statesman   
Sunday, 15 March 2009
The state never found a way to capitalize on the presence of big firms with long histories in Idaho - such as Albertsons, Hewlett-Packard and Micron. Idaho never seemed able to draw a second wave of corporate employers.

Read more...
Last Updated ( Monday, 16 March 2009 )
 
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next > End >>

Results 1 - 15 of 62