,
Vol. 3, No. 10 Lander, WyominCJ Friday, May 28, 1971 ------~------Awards announced. • • Noble, Others Win National Honors
Carroll R. Noble of Pinedale, one of the grand old men of conservation in Wyoming, has been announced as a winner of the American Motors Conservation Awards for 1971. Noble joins 17 other men and two women from 15 states in the nationally recognized honor. Noble won his award in the non-professional category. He was selected for his dedication to wilderness preservation throughout Wyoming. He has been an outspoken opponent of allowing public lands to be used to the detriment of an telope and other wild animals, including wild horses. He is himself a rancher and the son of pioneer homesteaders in the Upper Green River Valley. He was one of the first to call attention to the problems of clearcut timbering on national forests, where high elevations and fragile soils preclude good forest regeneration and where other resources such as watershed, wildlife and recreation are more valuable than the wood products. Three of the award winners are from Colorado. Montana, Idaho and Utah each had an outstanding conservationist named. Frank H. Dunkle of Helena, Montana, • director of the Montana Fish and Game Department, was honored for bringing stability, Wyoming's eagle population, considered by some to be the largest con continuity &nd a high level of professional ad centration in the United States, has had heavy toll taken during the past winter. ministrati~ to a field of public affairs often Poison baits containing thallium sulfate are now known to have been scattered by marked by dissension and partisan politlcs. He unknown sheep ranchers in many areas across the state. Many have died from these baits, indiscriminately scattered on both private and public lands. Golden (Please turn to page 12.) eagles range over large areas, from the mountains to the deserts. Photos by Ron Johnston Poison found . . Eag1e Death Toll Mounts The latest toll of golden and bald eagles found tered from snowmobiles or airplanes. The dead in Wyoming, and reported, now stands at 43. distri_bution is indiscriminate a.s to public lands Fifteen golden eagles were determined to have or pnvate, and as to the meat-eating animal or died by electrocution near Worland and a bald bird which eats it. No one knows where the baits eagle was found under a power line near are scattered except the person doing it. Cheyenne. Thallium is one of the heavy metals and like Twenty-three eagles are either confirmed or so many of them is extremely poisonous. It is suspected of being killed by poisons. Un slow acting and cumulative, concentrating in the confirmed, but suspected of being shot, are 35 vital organs and the brain. It causes irreversible more eagles. brain damage. It can be absorbed through the Another area of Wyoming which has skin. heretofore had no reports of dead eagles will be The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife searched this weekend. But poison baits found in once used thallium sulfate as a predacide the area where there is high eagle con (predator killer). But the poison will kill centrations lead officials to believe more animals and birds indiscriminately. So . when poisoned birds will be found. 1080 was developed to selectively kill canines, Meanwhile, the tragic deaths of so many of the Bureau stopped using thallium. That was in the big birds has stirred national interest. 1967. The poison was supposedly taken off the Senator Gale McGee of Wyoming has scheduled market in 1965. a hearing in Washington on June 2. There, a It has been available to ready purchasers at number of witnesses will put the spotlight on all times. Charles H. Lawrence, chief of what has happened in Wyoming. management and enforcement for the U.S. Evidence continues to mount that the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, told thallium poison which killed the eagles was not a HIGH COUNTRY NEWS that 65 pounds of single instance of a poisoned bait. Besides the thallium sulfate had been purchased and brought known eagle kills in central Wyoming, two more into Wyoming during 1970-1971. He said in nor were picked up near Flaming Gorge National mal predacide usage, one ounce of the poison Recreation Area in southwestern Wyoming. was used per 100 pounds of meat. A poison bait containing thallium has ·also Lawrence said that investigation has been discovered in west central Wyoming. An revealed four companies which have been analysis of the bait showed that domestic sheep producing the poison. One of them was licensed and antelope meat were present, along with to sell thallium in Wyoming. However antelope hair and sheep wool. Wyoming's existing laws and regulations con~ A golden eagle looks over the Wyomi~g Officials theorize that two'-pound packages of cerning all pesticides are so la~ . that practically countryside from a rocky ledge. the poisoned baits are prepared and then scat- (Please turn to page 16.) 2-High Country News Friday, May 28, 1971 ~nm COUN
Wyoming's eagle population has suffered a serious loss. If evidence available is any indicator, ALL eagies may be endangered species in this state. Already over 40 deaQ eagles in widely separated parts of the state indicate that known losses may be only a small part of the actual loss. No one will ever know of lone eagles which crashed to earth at some remote spot, never to be seen again. Some of the eagles are known to have been electrocuted. Their large wingspread got them into trouble when they landed on electric-transmission line poles. . But most of the known dead are dead becau~e of man's colossal ignorance, his. inordinate greed, or his contemptuous value of a wild thing. They are dead because men deliberately and wilfully pl,lt terrible poisons where anything or everything could readily eat them. There ought to have been some lessons learned after all the publicity resulting from "Silent Spring" and the sequels which have followed.That doesn't seem to be the case amongst a goodly number of Wyoming's big sheep operators. I know there are many responsible and understanding ranchers who have problems with • predators and deal with them in specific ways which do not j~opardize other wild things or even human life. a'hey deserve our respect and support. The others, those who deliberately make up packets of poison laden meat and then indiscriminately scatter it on their land and ours, should be summarily dealt with. And laws should be in stituted as soon as possible mpking the possession, use, or tran sporation of ~ertain deadly substances an unlawful matter. The fact that poisoned eagles and the poisoned packets of meat have been found at widely separated points throughout Wyoming is Wyoming's DuNoir River and Wind River flow together in the center of the evidence enough that there is more than one guilty party. It would photo, thenceforth to be known as the Wind River. This scene is from U.S. High almost appe:ar to be a conspiracy amongst certain members of the way 287 between Dubois and the Jackson Hole. sheep industry. . Plllllll!~------. Spokesmen for the industry don't help their case. And neither do their releases on numbers of sheep and lambs killed by the various prepators·. Figures of animals killed by all predators are so out of Letters To line as to be unbelievable by even the most gullible. How the ranchers who help perpetuate such patently phony statistics can believe they can make a case with the public is beyond me. The Editor And now comes M. Joseph Burke, past president of the AmericanSheepProducenCouncil,whosays, ''Iwo~dbegllie~------~----~------~------• public to withhold judgment on such an emotional issue, regret- table as it is, (the eagle poisoning) because of the irreparable Editor: damage they may do to an historic industry that has prided itself in . preserv-ing ow· her:itage and- way- .of life in:·this state.; :pnd wi.IJ;, -)P·· Re~dm~ o~e of,,Y?ur grading and construction of natural beauty for our continue to do so." · ··· · · ·• - - . , •. recenleditonals m the · ,IJ)gp the new railroad line across grandchildren, etc. While Burke then goes on in a news story (Casper Star-Tribune, May . Country News"' .concern~ng the center of the" country to · such an ilPProach is correct, 2~, 1971) ..to .plead f.or .UI).derstand~g . of th~ l>h~ep:)ndusb:~6 l:leaa;w>~e~q~~ 1~r:ob.l .~ms with keepmg connect th~. "rich coal fields" it falls far short of really the industry was the savior of the big game animals in the state!· up . With c~rrespondence, I to the present railroad. reaching and convincing the. "Coyotes are big takers. If they don't have sheep to kill, they'll fully appreciate the .rush and I merely mention these vast majority of society. I am really kill young deer and antelopes. You wouldn't have any fawn dema~ds on your ttme, and things in order to keep in not naive enough to feel that crops if the coyotes weren't controlled," he said. (See Verne certamly want to mind that the conservation an appeal to man's obligation Huser's article, page 6). congratulate you . ~nd and ceo-preservation is an to the Almighty is going to Burke said he personally recalls that as a boy- about 30 years thank Y?U for your contt!lumg unending one, and if anything reach everybody, but if it ago - deer and antelope were almost extinct in vast areas of efforts .m the preservation of we lose ground daily instead succeeds in making just one Wyoming. This, he said, resulted from coyote killings of the Wyomm.g for fut.ure of gaining. Certainly more person aware of his wildlife. generations. I have Just Wyoming needs much responsibility to preserve the Yet records show antelope numbers to be at a near-record high returned from a flight from stronger strip mining laws natural enviroment and to only a' few years later. Sherid.an to Gillette, and probably a basic change take an active stand against Burke really should have said 40 years ago for that was when Wyo~mng; an.d back to in the philosophy of the people pollution, then my time will western ranges were so badly overgrazed by the livestock industry Shendan I.n ~hich w~ passed to prevent Wyoming from have been put to good use. that not even a jackrabbit could have lived over vast areas. Fur- o~er the 011 fields adjacent to becoming a state in which Again, thank you for a very thermore, it was not until 1933 that the Taylor Grazing Act was Gillette. I was appall~d at the extractive industries have the fine newspaper. passed and even a semblance of control over grazing livestock tremendous destructiOn that upper hand. I'm afraid that in numbers was instituted. And to further compound the issue was the has taken place to the Wyoming, in this area, that Sincerely, fact that a server~ drought through the early and middle thirties "useless'·' l~nd in that area. the public cannot be Robert Dale Coapman reduced the chance for a comeback of any kind of animal. T~e area IS honey~om~ed depend~d on to understand LT, CHC, USNR When Mr.Burke says his is" an historic industry that has prided With roads and eroswn n~to and appreciate the itself in preserving our herit~ge," he is stretching a point almost the heads o~ the. creeks, w1th destruction that is taking CREATION OR beyond credibility for those of us who lived here then and know pools of ml etther openly 'place around them in suf DESTRUCTION better. burning or sitting in exposed ficient numbers to stop it. I know. I was also a boy on a Wyoming ranch during those areas. Also, the remains of Therefore, congratulations God created everything in times. the countryside following the and thank you again for your the universe. He is the No, times have changed but the att.itude of the old, livestock efforts· in these areas. creator of all the birds, industry land baron hasn't. Many of the old barons still see animals, insects, plants, yes, Sincerely, even the earth we walk on, themselves as ruler of all they survey, including yours and my the air we breathe and the land, and all the things thereon- including God's eagles. John M. Omohundro III, M.D. Sheridan, Wyoming water we drink and enjoy. He is also the creator of man and 111<;11 f'Ol'!\THY 1\:E\\'S woman. According to the Bureau of Reclamation to Editor: creation myth in the book of Published bi-weekly at 140 Genesis, God stepped back at North Seventh Street. Lan I would like to compliment the completion of creation-- Direct Water. Resources Study der. Wyoming H2!l20. Tel. 1- you on a. very fine and in looked at what he had made :lo7 -:n2-4H77. Copyright 1970 teresting newspaper. My wife and proclaimed that it was Interior's Bureau of wholly or in part west of the by Camping News Weekly, has been sending it to me good! Reclamation will soon be Continental Divide. Primary Inc. J<~ntered as Second Class while I have been in Vietnam; He then said to man you directing a massive, objectives of the study will be Matter. August 21). 19H9. at the it is a very welcome piece of are in charge of the universe; multiagency investigation ·of to develop a general plan to Post Office in ~ander. mail when it arrives. Keep up it is your responsibility . . . water r~sources in the solve complex water Wyoming. under the Act of the good work. And we blew it ! ! ! Did we? western United States, the problems in the 11 western March:~. l!l97. Today everybody seems to The purpose of human Wildlife Management In states. It will be designed to be getting into the act of history is the continued stitute reports. The study, determine the most EDITOH Thomas A. Bell saving the environment. As creation of the universe . . . scheduled for completion in economically acceptable an avid outdoors-man, as well Creation in all fields of en 1977, will supply necessary means of augmenting area OFFICE !\1:\N:HiEH Mary Margaret Davis as a Navy Chaplain, I would deavor and the sustaining of data to establish and im water supplies. Interestingly, like to offer the enclosed all things that have been plement a so-called "Western the study will consider {'IH('UL\TION !VL\N:HiEH Marjorie Higley excerpt from a sermon as created. The Judeao U.S. Water Plan." recommencing non possibly just one more reason Christian heritage does not The study was authorized development for those areas Subscription rate $10.00 for our responsibility to the believe in a God who acted Single copy rate 35¢ by the Colorado River Basin where preservation of environment. So far most once to create the world; it Project Act of 1968 and will existing conditions is a viable Mailing address: Box K, reasons offered have been of believes in a God that con- include the 11 states lying alternative. Lander. Wyoming 8~520 the type--preserve the . (Continued on page 14.)
J ' High Country News-3 IGuest Editorial Friday, May 28, 197 I by John D. Mosser The following speech by John D. Mosser home anywhere other than on earth in the what temperature can we afford to heat them? before the Bonneville Regional Advisory Council foreseeable future is just about zero. Do the Hippies perhaps have a point in not taking on January 9, 1970, is reprinted here in the in What is necessary is the preservation of the a bath every day or using electricity to shave terests of further informing our readers on the vital balance on this blue-green orb, this earth, their beards? problems of power generation which face our this home of ours, measured in that frame. Should electric power be used to light and region and nation. Elsewhere in this issue is an The real question for the next decades may not rotate giant hamburgers and other advertising aritcle dealing with existing, proposed and be whether power is necessary but whether symbols in the sky? projected steam generating power plants in the power is tolerable. Before examining the Should electricity be used to amplify sound to Rocky Mountain-Plateau region. The prospects environmental problems of more power, let us the point where it deafens? are frightening. look for a minute at the question with which I Should we bring a miniature power saw to the The editor. titled this speech, "Is Power Necessary?" table to carve-the roast because we are too lazy There is certainly some evidence that power to learn to sharpen a knife? *** is not aprimenecessity in the fact that human life Or, and this one usually wins applause from flourished on this planet without it until the very the environmentalists, should we build a nuclear During the past few years with increasing recent past. Hundreds of millions of people lived, power plant in order to power a dirty aluminum forcefulness the electric utility industry has been loved, enjoyed family life, friendships, worked plant in order to produce another billion jolted from the comfortable assumption that it and played without a single kilowatt-hour as an aluminum cans a year to litter our countryside? could continue growing along a geometric curve aid. Most of what we still recognize as the great I would not blame you for skepticism as to of doubled use every decade. To be sure, the art, music, literature and philosophy of mankind whether people will make these hard choices. I attacks of conservationists on dam locations are was created without any knowledge of elec am convinced, however, that if they do not make nothing new; but the vigor of the opposition has tricity. them utilities will encounter the headaches of lengthened the delays in hydro power site ap "Ah!" you say, "but that was long ago and brownouts and blackouts and have to throw the provals to a new dimension. Further, growing things have changed. There are too many people switch on industries or areas, cutting off all uses storm has arisen to delay site after site for crowded into large cities now. We could riever at some times during the coming decades. It, nuclear plants which the industry had been survive without ever increasing quantities of therefore, behooves you to start educating the thoroughly convinced would be the source of the power! " I wonder. On checking my world public on what types of choices are available future. Now even conventional coal, oil and gas almanac, I found that the seven hundred million and, at the very least, to stop promoting those fired plants are being_ banned in some locations. plus people of China, many of whom are packed uses of power which seem least essential. As if all that were not enough, you should be into larger cities than any we have in the Nor Further, the public must be educated to un undergoing a dawning realization that even if thwest, survive with less power than is produced derstand that there is no such thing as a clean there were no ecologists, conservationists and by the Bonneville Power Administration. industry without environmental impact. do-gooders in the path, there simply is not "Well," you say, "Who wants to live like a Agriculture, education, electronics and tourism enough money to build all the power plants that Chinese Coolie?" all have some detrimental consequences and so further decennial doubling requires. Unless, Now we are getting to the real crux of the do all forms of power. The problem is selecting, that is, it is to be given a priority similar to space matter. There is serious question whether the minimizing and balancing the amount and exploration or war and well ahead of such things wodd can support even its present population at location of these impacts with environmental as education, housing, poverty and pollution an American standard of living, much less an .capacity. programs. increased population at an increased standard of All this undoubtedly seems very gloomy to living. Ever. increasing use of resources and you. In a sense it is unduly so, for I certainly do Not a few in the utility industry, I expect, mechanical servants looks more and more like a not expect that therewill be no increase in power feel that just such priority will be forthcoming. standard of death, rather than life. use in the Northwest, the United States or the The headaches of looming brownouts and Nearly all the world's major religions con world in the coming decades. What I have tried blackouts will, it is assumed, at last awaken the tain something similar to the Golden Rule: Do to do is make you aware that the environmental public to the true necessity for more power unto others as you would have them do unto you. issues are not merely superficial issues of regardless of some further environmental In ecological terms this means do not use more beautification by putting power lines un degradation and a congress awakened by the of the world's resources than you expect others derground or planting roses at sub-stations or cries of outraged consumers will see that the to use. History teaches that man even conservationist issues as to whether a money is forthcoming on a suitable priority does not live by the Golden Rule. But it also certain area should be used for power production basis. If any of you harbor such views, stop teaches that whenever there is too great a or left in a natural state. What is directly in dreaming. The lessons of the '70s and '80s are disparity between the consumption of resources volved is the question of standard of living and going to be quite different - I think. by one group as distinct from other groups, the thousands of individual choices made by The first hard lesson that must be learned is revolution and warfare result. The Atomic Bomb each of millions of consumers of power. We can that man may not within any short time frame do should certainly make us realize that all-out either educated them to make more intelligent everything which his technology permits him to warfare is beyond the capacity of our en choices or face dictated choices by government do. We undoubtedly have the resources of vironment. Vietnam seems to teach that we can intervention or experience wholesale elimination material, machinery and manpower to provide no longer afford even limited warfare. If I read of power through blackout and brownout without adequate housing for everyone in this nation by all these things correctly, the Golden Rule is discrimination among uses. the end of the '70s; or- to rebuild our rapidly becoming not an imperative for getting Perhaps I should make some comment on the central cities or-- to construct new tran to some heaven but for remaining on earth. emphasis of the regional plan on nuclear power. sportation systems or-- to provide adequate Here in the Northwest, we have a I am certainly no expert. I did make an extended diet for all or- to meet all the potential hydrothermal power program projected for effort to become an informed layman when the demands for energy from various sources or- development to 1990. The plans call for an ad State Sanitary Authority faced the job of to upgrade and expand our educational systems ditional 41-billion-500 million kilowatts of determining waste discharge permit limitations or--· to launch exploration rockets to ·Mars, peaking capacity, or a tripling of the present for the Trojan plant. As you know, I voted to Venus, Jupiter and the outer planets or-- to capacity. Increasing reliance is to be put on issue such a permit. Some of my conclusions achieve a hundred and one other major goals thermal plants and primarily nuclear thermal were manifest in its issuance and conditions. Let that people have discussed. But we definitely do plants. me briefly reiterate these and also state some not have the resources of manpower, machinery Now, assuming that the world and the en not previously expressed: and material to accomplish all of those goals. vironment of the Northwest could easily survive 1. Thermal pollution of inland waters by Unless the priorities are very clear and firm, this-expansion, I ask you would you be prepared once-through cooling of these plants must be we shall probably reach none of them. Rather, to live with a comparable goal on a per capita prevented by cooling towers or ponds. · without reasonably settled and ac basis for China? Suppose that nation decided 2. Cooling towers or ponds will involve some cepted priorities, the question would be whether that its top priority were to provide power for its environmental problems. These should be we would make some progress toward each or people comparable to that of the Northwest. minimal east of the Cascades,tolerable in most whether general dissatisfaction with the gap Suppose it also felt that nuclear power was the areas, possibly serious in areas subject to icing between what is technologically possible in any best way to meet its goal. It would set out to build problems like the Columbia Gorge from Por area and what is realistically possible in any six thousand nuclear plants the size of the Trojan tland to The Dalles or areas with inversion area will lead to such strife that we move back plant, which is the first of only ,20 to be built ,problems like the Willamette Valley. . ward instead of forward. under the Northwest program. Are we prepared : 3. 'The possibility of any disastrous e·xplo If the goals are left to the market place to to accept the environmental consequences? sion or release of massive radiation at the plant decide, I feel confident in saying that the electric I do not mean to make a whipping boy of can be virtually eliminated. However, the same utility industry with. its problems of regulation power. Clearly we could have equally type of prudence that quarantines initial moon will not be able to compete to attain its own disasterous results if the Chinese decided their visitors on return to earth favors site locations goals. Neither do I think it likely that in any top priority was to match our use with 500 million away from major population centers until more politically established system of goals electricity automobiles by 1990. What I am saying is that it operatingexperienceis gained. In the longer run, wants will be deemed of high enough priority to is impossible to continue to project power sites in densly populated load centers may be the meet the industry's goals. programs on the basis of an expansion of the · best to utilize waste heat and avoid transmission One reason for this lies in the growing American standard of living and an expansion of costs, both economic and environmental. awareness of the second hard lesson: that man population which could be derived from past 4. The environmental problems that may be S H 0 U L D not do everything which his curves. most serious lie in biological concentration of technology permits. Some of you are no doubt thinking that I am initially low radiation levels, about which we The most important information that has overlooking a major point: that power often know very little, and in the transportation and been so far gathered from the billions invested in offers environmental benefits compared with safe dispositon of nuclear wastes. I would not space exploration is that man is on ·a small any of the alternatives available. For example, halt nuclear power development on these planet quite different from anything else within there is less pollution using electricity for home grounds ; but I would certainly go slow with it. the reach of man's technology, in short, that he heating than using wood, oil, gas or some other 5. The economics of nuclear power do not has no place else to go. Star Trek, Dick Tracy, fossil fuel. I realize this. What I am suggesting is seem nearly so favorable as to justify the em Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and a host of other that the choices are much more fundamental phasis utilities are placing on it. No plant as fictional characters in whom I have long than that. large as Trojan is yet operating. Costs of com- delighted notwithstanding; the prospect that any In terms of environmental impact, how big significant number of human beings will find a are the homes that we can afford to heat? And to (Please turn to page 15.) -·------~ -
4-High Country News Energy May be Cause Friday, May 28, 1971 Of Environmental Degradation by Tom. Bell f problem on a piecemeal· N a t10na1 conce~n or basis. energy may b~ leadmg our Chambers of Commerce wes~ern states mto an era_ of and industry spokes~en will environmental . deg~adatwn tell us on each individual unprecedented m history: power plant that its impact is The unfortunate Cir- really insignificant. Not even cumstance ?f geology and they may be looking at the ge_ography iS such as to whole scope of the problem. mislead all ~ut the ~ost But when you view the concerned . environmentahsts projected, the proposed, the ~hat the problems are not now-building, and the msurmountable. . operating power plants which From Canada to. Mexico, will stretch from Montana to the Rocky Mountai~ states Arizona and New Mexico, you have ?een blessed With vast, cannot but wonder if ~sp01led open spa~es, clean sparkling, clean air is not to air, . and an enviro~ment go the way of the passenger relatlvely unpolluted m all pigeon. resp~cts. That may now be That the concern of many comi~g. to an end. more people is beginning to Milhons of years a.go, the surface gives hope that most great s_wamp? of the Dn~osaur stringent environmental age filled. m vast mland protective measures will be oceans which once covered required. Even so, the the P~ateau and Rocky destruction of land and air Mount~m States. Today, the resources will be on a r~sultmg coal. b~ds are massive scale. viewed as th~ nation s answer Demands for power may to ever-grO~i~g demands for be so great that en- more electnci.ty · . vironmental considerations _ Coupled With that iS the will be rejected. That could fact that vast open spaces are be a threat of enormous the answer to a polluter's proportions. The Wind River wends its way thr~ugh beautiful Wind River Canyon be· dream. Sm_ok~, fumes, and As an example, the tween Thermopolis and Shoshoni, Wyoming, on U. S. Highway 20. Fishing d~a~ly emisswns_ can be Huntington Canyon project iri is cxc:elle11t, permitted by the Wind River Indian Reservation. di_SSipated over Wid~ areas Central Utah does not plan to With nobody but Indians or choose S02 (sulfur dioxide) sheep . herders to suffer the removal equipment in time to immedi~te conseque~ces. have it installed when the . Hearmgs now b_emg held first unit goes on line. The m the We_s~ concermng pov.:er plant will produce 170 tons of Famous Artist's Paintings Now on Sale pl~~t Siting, co.al stnp- S02 per day. Sulfur dioxide mmmg,, and . t~e i~pact of can produce "early aging" in Copies of William Henry non-profit organization sketches, including the two ~uge trans~ts~wn hnes are vegetation. A natural forest Jackson's paintings are now authorized to assist the that have been reprinted, are fmally. begmmng to focus lies just to the west of the on sale at the Visitor Center National Park Service in on permanent display. The attentwn on the overall plant site at Scotts Bluff National furthering )ts interpretive William H. Jackson room is prob~em: It is doubtful if the The ~larm of the en- Monument. Superintendent program by meeting visitor . an important visitor at pubhc Will _be made a:vare_ of vironmentalists is now Homer Rouse announced that information needs. These traction at the National the_ enormity of the_ Situatwn showing in half-page reprints of two of this famous reprints will help satisfy this Monument dedicated to the w~ich faces the entire area. newspaper ads (The Denve• · pioneer artist's paintings are special need." westward migrations. Like so many_ other problems, Post May 23 1971) and i"' / we deal With the whole ' d ' ) available. They sell for $1.75 In the spring of 1866, (Continue on page 5 each, or $3.00 a set. They are Jackson traveled through of a wagon train passing Mitchell Pass as a bull wacker through Mitchell Pass, and with a wagon train. He made one Approaching Chimney numerous sketches as he Nebraska Begins New Program for Wildlife traveled the Oregon Trail to Rock. Participants qualify for the Wildlife Departments, plus Numerous visitor requests California. Later, in 1931 and The Nebraska Game and 1937 he produced the Parks Commission and program by soliciting at least an attractive shoulder patch have been received for copies identifying him or her as an of Jackson's watercolor watercolor paintings that are Oklahoma's Department of one acre of land from a now being made available to Wildlife Conservation have private landowner to be "Outdoor Cover Agent," as paintings, so the Oregon Trail designated " Acres For well as periodic bulletins on Museum Association con the public. announced the start of new A room in the Visitor programs to benefit wildlife Wildlife." These acres rna na gement of wildlife tracted the Brown and cannot be mowed. grazed, or habitat. The landowner is Bigelow Corporation of St. Center at Scotts Bluff by creating and maintaining National Monument is additional habitat, the burned for a period of one rewarded with a one-year Paul, Minnesota, to produce year. subscription to the official the reprints. Mr. Tom Mid devoted to the exhibition of Wildlife Management In Jackson's work. Some 35 of stitute reports. The new Those who enroll tracts of magazine of the Wildlife dleswart, president of the land under the program Department. Association, said, "This is a his original paintings and citizen participation projects are called "Acres For receive a certificate signed Wildlife." by the directors of the HELP! The Greater Sawtooth Preservation Council needs your 1-J.elp. New legislation to create a national r<>creation area will not protect the magnifker;t Greater Sawtooth Area. The GSPC is working for legislation which would create a combination national park-national recreation area complex. Such a complex would provide better protection for the irreplaceable resources of the entire area. They need letters to your congressmen ex pressing your thoughts. And they need money for publications, mailings, and a possible television campaign. Your contribution of whatever amount will be used to alert the public and mount the campaign to protect one of America's last remaining scenic areas. Can you help? Send your contribution to the Greater Sawtooth Preservation Council, Box 1156, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83401. Use the enclosed blank below for your address so they may keep you informed.
Name Photo by Pat Hull Street Smoke stacks from industrial plants as well as steam generating electric plants and the ever-present automobile contribute to our growing, national, air City State Zip pollution problem. Technology is not available to remove all pollutants from stack emissions. In addition, industries balk at the additional cost to remove the last two or three _P.ercent of emissions. High Country News-5 Friday, May 28, 1971 Electricity Does Not Give "Power to Spare" .
{'\:)the air as waste products tracts) there simply is not 1t-tw = 1 million watts. Total output of plants about 14 billion wattS•
\ from the burning of coal (to any place to go. All other 2Average life of coal-fired plant roughly 35 years. )5 X 365 x coal burned daily = total amount to be burned.
produce steam to generate favorable areas are occupied. 3rot· plants alr~ ady in operation, actual fly ash emissions are given; for those not yet constructed, we as summed electricity) will put an end to Functionally illiterate and 99 . 5% fly ash recovery •• Initi.:ll Kaiparowits plans indicate 97% anticipated recovery. It should be not.ed that clear blue skies, distant unemployable for industrial neither of plants in o peration ·•o•.: are achieving the 99.5'1. optimum figure; actual recovery closer to 977.. 4 Pot.rer companies s ay , "No techno logy exists to remove sulfur o xides". Many scientists dispute this. At any rate, views, and fresh air. and urban life, these people no plants- wi 11 have s u 1 fur oxide removal capability until that great "technological breakthrough". No plans at " LOS ANGELES SMOG will be refugees. This is all for removal of nit rog(.'.n oxides. (Kaiparowits plant: Fly ash removal at 97% removal instead of 99. 57. ef.ficiency 5 Acre Ft. = 325,850 gallons (Sufficient. to supply water needs of 6 persons for 1 year~wlll provide about 100 tons AT LAKE POWELL? More progress ... rather than 17 tons per day. I of a certainty than a A PROBLEM FOR THE possibility. The Lake Powell FUTURE. Pollution, health area is prone to inversions. effects, water waste, land • • The two plants to be built at damage, Indian injustice. All • • the edge of the lake will burn that is bad enough, but the •• 70,000 Tons -of ~oal per day. most serious problem is the • =·• • They will produce 1,100 tons accelerating rate of con Gillette • of sulfur oxides per day sumption of energy resour *proposed WYOMING I (three times the amount put ces. This too-rapid con ~ under construction out by Kennecott in Salt Lake, sumption may deprive future e in operation and four times as much as all generations of their needed ,.• Casper . Los Angeles); over 100 tons of power--AMERICANS USE 50 0 being planned ••• fly ash per day (as much as TIMES AS MUCH POWER • projected Los Angeles); and over 650 PER CAP IT A AS THE REST tons of nitrogen oxides per OF THE WORLD. If we could a Kemmerer Green River day (as much as all the cars but convince ourselves that ,. .. in Los Angeles emit) . . . we could get along with only • From only two plants. 25· · times as much power, •• • •• "DANGER TO HUMAN we would only need half as Craig HEALTH. Significant in much power. Half as many UTAH creases in the U.S. death rate dams. Half as many power * *Hayden from lung cancer and em- plants. Fewer strip mines, <:' physema are directly related transmission lines, poles, and Huntington to increases in air pollution, wires. THE ESTIMATED particularly sulfur oxides and POWER OUTPUT IN 0 COLORADO particulates. Few people CREASE IS 500 PERCENT live in the Four Corners area, IN THE NEXT 30 YEARS. but their lives are none less Are we intelligent · and valuable than those of people responsible enough to living in cities. Particulates, recognize this prediction as a NEVADA sulfur oxides, and nitrogen warning signal, and reduce oxides have long range, our consumption rather than cumulative effects on all increase it? living things. We don't fully "MUCH OF OUR understnad what the total DEMAND FOR ELEC impact of these poisons might TRICITY IS ARTIFICIALLY be. Is it wise to dump huge PRODUCED. Much of the quantities into the air without "need" for power plants has knowing? been caused by intensive and NEW "POOR USE OF WATER often irresponsible ad ARIZONA IN OUR ARID REGION. vertising by utilities and MEXICO The Colorado River Basin is appliance companies. We do one of the most water-short not, nor does any power ~ areas in the country. The company, have "Power to immediately planned power Spare '' Producing elec Cholla plants will consume eriough tricity from coal is also very 0-High Country News Part Five--Philosophical Dissertation by Verne Huser 2 7 Fdd•y.M·y S.,. ,Predator Control In Wyoming
Predators--those creatures that live by killing · received $187,937 from the State Department of Mike Frome, conservation editor of FIELD and consuming other creatures--kill livestock Agriculture, the State Fish and Game Division AND STREAM-- "The War on predators has and wildlife. There is little doubt about that fact, ($15,000), county commissioners, wool growers, been waged with little scientific knowledge of and certainly livestock owners have the right to cattlemen and grazing associations. their beneficial roles in the biotic community, protect their investment, at least on their own Broadbent's pamphlet quotes a number of with a little moral or ethical consideration for land, when they suffer losses. But more and experts on predator control: man's responsibility in conserving natural life as more people are questioning their right to kill Walter Shannon, past-director of the an integral part of the environment.'' predators on public land they may be grazing, California Department of Fish and Game--"Our Several statements quoted in the Broadbent and the indiscriminate killing of all meat-eaters department could not demonstrate the need for pamphlet relate to predation on antelope: 1) through poisoning campaigns or of all curious predatory animal control for the benefit of basically, the key to the antelope situation in animals--including man--with cyanide guns is wildlife.'' Utah lies with the land." (Jay R. Udy, "Effects highly questionable. Robert L. Salter, assistant director of the of Predator Control on Antelope Populations," a One Colorado trapper once studied the tracks Idaho Fish and Game Department-"General Utah Fish and Game publication) ; 2) stomach of a cattle-killing mountain lion, a big tom, in widespread predator control for game samples from 911 coyotes in northeastern midsummer when he knew he'd have a most management purposes has been demonstrated to California were studied and "When these difficult time trapping or hunting down the be of little, if any, value and we do not support samples were analyzed, no antelope remains critter. As soon as the first snow fell in the fall, this philosophy." were .found," in an area thick with antelope. he went after that one cat-not cats in general. He Wendell G. Swank, director of the Arizona (James Gilman, past game manager for the treed five different cougar, including one female Game and Fish Department--"! believe it California Department of Fish and Game); 3) with two kittens, before he found the guilty tom behooves · the state wildlife management "Predators are not the factor that are limiting and killed it. That is sane and reasonable agencies to have ample and adequate antelope numbers. Most wildlife technicians predator control. When a rancher begins losing justification for control of any animal." consider range conditions as the most significant calves to coyotes, he should have the right to kill Harry R. Woodward, director of the Colorado force controlling antelope." (Glen Griffith, the offending animals--but not all coyotes Department of Game, Fish and Parks--"There is Nevada Fish and Game Department at the 1962 everywhere by whatever means possible. considerable evidence that predator effect on Interstate Antelope Conference); 4) "The most More and more Wyoming ranchers are tur game is negligil:lle when habitat conditions are important limiting factor to antelope increase ning to illegal poisoning programs, and the good." I might add that the same is true for and distribution at the present time is the intense pra~tice of aerial shooting of predators is livestock. food competition from domestic sheep." grQwing in the state. Reports· of a Rock Springs Ted Trueblood, associate editor of FIELD (Helmut Buechner's "Life History, Ecology, and woolgrower's shooting 40 coyotes in a 3-hour . AND STREAM-"The perpetual war against the Range Use of the Pronghorn Antelope in Trans flight by helicopter and of 25 eagles shot and coyote would dwindle to an occasional skirmish Pecos Texas). Can the antelope situation in buried near Saratoga may not be true, but again if there were no domestic sheep." (Continued on page 7) they may. The coyote carcasses poisoned with 1080 and left on the lower end of the Teton National Forest recen~ly suggest once again the widespread use of that dangerous poison by Wyoming ranchers who can apparently buy it as readily as snuff. The 22 eagles--11 bald and 11 golden--that were found near Casper in early May certainly suggests foul play, perhaps illegal poisoning. Both species are protected by Federal law and with good reason (I recommend to the readers of the series Leona Train Reinow's book THE YEAR OF THE LAST EAGLE, written in conjunction with her husband Robert Reinow; the Reinows are also the authors of MOMENT .IN THE SUN) . . - ' ' I have always wondered how wildlife got along before man came onto the scene to control the predators. When the wolf still roamed the state. the buffalo was common, and elk roamed the plains as well as the mountains. When the deer and the antelope played, the wolf and the mountain lion were more plentiful then they are today. Over on the California Coast, the abalone, a large edible--and delicious--snail, was everywhere in the shallow waters when the sea otter count ran into the millions. Today, the commercial abalone fisheqnen blame the few hundred remaining sea otter for the paucity of abalone while they harvest millions of tons of the succulent flesh every year). When the Snake River and the Columbia flowed freely to the sea, there were millions of salmon and steelhead; natural predation did not decimate the salmon and sea-run rainbow trout, but man, the dam builder did. Predators don't have much chance in a state so geared to the gun, so steeped in the so-called frontier spirit, so tied to the pioneer tradition and mired in the myth of superabundance. Killing predators is as natural as fencing range or carrying a rifle in a gun rack in a pick-up truck. Yet all predators are not guilty of killing livestock, and often predators benefit wildlife. Predators, by their very nature, take what is easiest to kill--and many of them find enough carrion not to need to kill at all. Yet, there are bills in both houses of Congress right now that would give ranchers the right to kill any bird or animal they want to kill any time they want to kill it as long as it's on their land (S78 and Hr 5060) , if the bills were amended as the Wyoming Woolgrowers would have them amended. The bills actually outlaw aerial shooting of wildlife. But sheepmen and cattlemen, in some cases, in several western states would use the bill to further decimate predators that may actually be doing them more good than harm. How do you get a sheepman to listen to the facts instead of the old wives' tales he's been brought up on? Robert V. Broadbent, a member of the Nevada State Fish and Game Commission, in June of last year published a little pamphlet entitled "Predator Control in Nevada-- a pork barrel threat to the environment," in which he pointed out that "the total value of livestock and poultry lost to predators was $32,315 (in Nevada in 1969). Yet the 'control' amounted to ex penditures of ten times that amount." In Utah in 1970, the total value of livestock and poultry lost to predators was $74,830, but during the same Coyote and bobcat carcasses are often ignominously hung from fences or posts period the predator control program in the state as if in bizarre warning to live animals. High Country News-7 Predator Control. • • Friday, May 28, 1971 Wyoming be so vastly different from that in predator kill count included 2707 coyotes, 408 involves the same general principles. We cannot utah, California, Nevada, and Texas? bobcats and lynx, 408 foxes, 110 badgers, 29 continue to upset the natural ecological cougars (out of an estimated population of over a relationships by overgrazing or by in When Wyoming woolgrowers claim--as they thousand), and 13 bears. It is interesting to note discriminately destroying whole species. have in a Campbell County publication--that they that while 13 bears were killed by DWS per Livestock owners should have the right to kill are providing more wildlife for the hunters by sonnel, only two cattle were killed by bears predators that are decimating their herds and killing predators, what real justification do they (though bears did take 64 sheep and 66 lambs). flocks, it seems to me, but they should not have have? Perhaps the facts are that by overgrazing The cougars lost 29 of their number to DWS blanket authority to kill on mere circumstantial their own lands and their Federally owned trappers and hunters. They killed only three evidence. If they graze their livestock on public grazing lands, they are in fact reducing the cattle (plus 160 sheep and 195lambs). How many lands, they should take their chances with antelope and deer populations that they claim to sheep are worth one free-ranging mountain lion? whatever other wildlife may use that public land. be enhancing. And now Wyoming woolgrowers How were these thousands of predators (Have you ever counted the coyotes on the have objected to the wild horses grazing in the killed? In Utah more than a quarter (27.5%) of all National Elk Refuge? Yet we still have elk). state because the horses eat what the sheep coyotes were killed by denning (dug out of their But a better idea than killing predators might should have. Do those sheep ranchers ever dens as pups and clubbed or shot or poisoned). be a livestock insurance program that pays consider the amount of sheep graze eaten by the Coyote getters accounted for 18.5% of the total livestock owners for their actual losses. rabbits that overpopulate because coyotes are number of coyotes killed (no records are Throughout the west predator control programs killed off?What will it take to make believers out available concerning other animals killed by cost more--even , in dollars and cents, but of the woolgrowers? Why can't they accept fact? these cyanide guns, which--according to a DWS especially in environmental damage--than the Quoting from the 1964 Leopold Report, document--are theoretically capable of killing a actual loss of livestock. Rancher traditionally Broadbent develops the case against predator person who weighs less than 275 pounds. Jack overestimate their losses to predators, control programs even further: "It is the Olsen reports the deatn of a 49-year-old Texan as exaggerate their financial losses to coyotes and unanimous opinion of this board (Secretary of the a result of his being shot with a coyote getter in eagles and other predators. Would it not_make Interior Stewart Udall's Advisory Board on his Poisoning-of-the-West Series in SPORTS more sense to turn the DWS funds into an in Wildlife Man?gement) that control is con ILLUSTRATED.) Traps (17%), aerial shooting surance program for liv~stock losses and stop siderably in excess of the amount that can be (15%) and ground shooting (11 %) were all more killing the predators unless they become justified in terms of public interest ... (my effective as coyote killing methods than epidemic? And we have learned--though italics) ,The primary target of predator control in "predacides" (mostly 1080), which killed only livestock owners rarely listen to the tr.uth about the western United States is the coyote and the 10% of the total coyotes (but who knows how predators--that uncontrolled coyotes 'don't main ·purpose of coyote control is to protect many other creatures?). overpopulate, that predatory species are in fact domestic sheep," and "It is traditional for Wyoming's kill of coyotes in 1970 breaks down con~rolled by the prey species. , sheepmen to charge nearly all losses to as follows: total kill, 5,475; traps and snares, 417 Poisoning, indiscriminate killing of predatory predators." Something close to half.of all lamb (7.4%); coy~t~ ge!ters, 1,477 (27%),; Pt:e?i<:id,es, taq~ets as well as many innocent non-target losses for 1970 were attributed by Wyoming p;3 (29,6) ;. shot, 6~7 (l2;5%); s.h,ot frorrp~trP,lane , species, shQuld be ended in Wyoming, and woolgrowers to the predators, primarily the 1 554 (28.4%)·; denning, 1,220 (22.3%); . taken by throughout the West. Responsible control of coyote. And finally, "The assertion that native d~gs, 7. Again, the two percent of coyotes killed proven livestock killers may make some ~ense in birds and animals are in general ·need of by predicides cannot justify the widespread use centain areas at .certain times, but ·the . blan~et protection from native predators is supported of poisons, killing of important-to ecologb;al relations'lliP,s, weakly, if at all, by the enormous amount of The fact that poisoning is such a relatively wildlife species cannot be allowed to continue. wildlife research on the subject conducted in the ineffective killer of coyotes and such a totally Yellowstone wolves and grizzly bears and past two or three decades." indiscriminate killer of everything that eats the eagles--all of them endangered species--are still When are we going to -start listening to the baits (or ever touches them--you can absorb a threatened by 1080 stations outside the park. truth? The Division of Wildlife Services, lethal ~ose of 1080 through the skin) raises the Those in Montana have been removed from currently being sued by Defenders of Wildlife question of whether or not poisoning ought to be areas adjacent to the park under the direction of and the Sierra Club in one case and by the allowed at all. That's what the Defenders of Montana DWS Director Norton Miner. But 1080 Humane Society in another, conducts and Wildlife-Sierra Club suit is all about. Land ad stations remain on both the Targhee and the coordinates predator control programs in every ministered by the Forest Service and the BLM Shoshone National Forests, according to Park western state. Its avowed three-fold purpose is 1) b~longs to you and me; yet we and our pets and Service authorities, including one in the Clay animal damage control, 2) wildlife enhan our wildlife are all endangered by the practice of Butte area of the Beartooths, in areas where cement, and 3) monitoring and surveillance. But spreading poison baits and coyote getters all wolves have been reported during the past ten the animal damage ~ontrol means preventive over-our land to "control" predators wh~o may be years. Of four wolves known to have existed in control, in most cases before the fact, and in guilty of nothing more than kill~ng mice .. . the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone a year ago, discriminate control, not merely control of the Agai!'l I ask, who has the nght to kill my only one appears to remain at present. individual guilty predator(s). The enhancement coyotes on my land so he can raise sheep that Do we continue to destroy our wildlife through of wildlife means killing non-game species to destroy my land with overgrazing, and at the ecological ignorance (we know the facts but we protect game species, a practice that frequently same time create an imbalance in the ignore them) or do we put an end to personal upsets the natural balance and leads to further ecosystem that leads to further environmen~l prejudice politics and preserve the integrity of a control efforts and mis-management by man- degradation? When the rodent and rabb1t natural world that has room for man only if man such as the mass rabbit drives in Idaho this past population explodes in the absence of coyotes, we finds his place in that world. Man cannot control winter and the widespread poison campaigns are told that a posion campaign is necessary (or the natural world, as much as his ego would like aimed at rodents. a community rabbit drive), so we pump more to believe he can. And the more man meddles The monitoring and surveillance program poison into the ecosystem, a practice that causes with nature without attempting to understand leaves much to be desired. In Wyoming, for even further environmental degradation. Why do the delicate interrelationships, the sooner man example, the DWS cannot tell you how many we continue to base our predator control will cease to be part of that world. As Aldo black-footed ferrets--if any--still live (Utah's programs on old wives' tales in~te~d .of Leopold tried to teach us, we must develop an DWS can't either, but at least they are con ecological evidence? On personal preJUdice m ecological conscience. We must come to un ducting a search for the rare mammal: in a ten stead of scientific fact? derstand our role and accept it instead of trying square-mile prairie dog town near Monticello in Wildlife includes all species, predators and to play God. And we must co-exist with the southeastern Utah, DWS observers have found prey alike, and as Park Service research.biolo~ist predators because they play a vital part in our trenches similar to those made by ferrets in Glen Cole points out, "Harmful relationships lives. South Dakota, their last real cannot exist in nature." At the Thirty-sixth Few creatures have stirred the human spirit North American Wildlife and Natural Resource as greatly as the mighty eagles, both the golden Conference in Portland in March, Cole said eagle that was the symbol of the Roman Empire "Previous assumptions which were the basis for and the bald eagle that is our own. Few artificiallyregulating ungulates overestimate the creatures have stirred the human heart--with regulatory effects of predators." Left to itself in both fear and respect--as the wolf, the grizzly a natural situation, wildlife doesn't need our bear, the cougar though old wives' tales about he I p; it needs our wisdom and tolerance. But in these great predators have painted garish roads on wildlife habitat such as the Kendall pictures of them all. In ancient Europe and in Dam project or the Clark's l<'ork Canyon Road, primitive America the fox and the coyote both in Wyoming, will destroy our wildlife as became the epitome of cleverness. We deny our surely as 1080 and coyote getters, as surely as the very culture when we insist in destroying these aerial shooting and denning practices we allow creatures that live by killing, and perhaps we in the name of wildlife enhancement. show our own true colors. Domestic livestock is another matter, but it stronghold). The ferret, by the way, has been Campgrounds Reserved for Memorial Day brought to the edge of extinction by poison campaigns aimed at prairie dogs, the basic food Developed campgrounds in these campgrounds in 1972, against open fires and the of the ferret. the inner canyon (below the reservations will be accepted gathering of wood in · the Jack Olsen points out in his second SPORTS rim) of Grand Canyon beginning October 1, 1971. canyon. Campers must carry ILLUSTRATED article in the "Poisoning-Of National Park are fully Applications with a postmark stoves and fuel if they wish to The-West" Series the kind of wildlife enhf,n reserved for the Memorial before October 1 will not be cook meals below the rim. cement program the DWS conducts. In a single Day weekend and for most considered. Address requests These rules were made year DWS personnel killed 90,000 coyotes~300 - weekends and many week to the Superintendent, Grand necessary by the excessive mountain lions, 21,000 bobcats and lynx, 2,800 red days between now and mid Canyon National Park, Grand destruction to living trees due wolves, 800 bears, 24,000 foxes, 7,000 badgers, June. Canyon, AZ 86023. Reser to wood gathering. 19 ooo skunks, 10,000 racoons, 1,200 beaver, 7,600 · Campers wishing to hike vations for 1972 will be Campers hiking the opossums, 6,700 porcupines and others. And the the developed trails into the awarded on the basis of the developed trails of Grand next year livestock losses to predators were canyon and camp overnight earliest postmarks. If more Canyon National Park have higher than ever--according to the estimates. should request reservations applications are received given overall acceptance to The Wyoming predator count kill for 1968 was far in advance of their than spaces available, a the registration system 5,637 coyotes, 3,770 bobcats and lynx, 940 ~oxes planned visit to the park. To drawing will be held to recently instituted by the (foxes killed 800 lambs), 151 bears, and a ~mgle avoid disappointment, a determine who will receive National Park Service at the mountain lion (out of an estimated populatiOn of minimum of one month in permits to camp. park. between 50 and 75 in the whole state). advance is suggested. Regulations instituted this ~ C>:{.-_._ Ir. Utah during the fiscal year 1970 the For tnose who plan to use year include a prohibition 8-High Country News Friday, May 28, 1971 Boys -
'· . . . High Country News-9 and the Sport of Kings Friday, May 28, 1971
Scott Dav'is and Rus.sell Lewis ar.~ two Lander, Wyoming, boys whose hobby is falconry. Each · of them has a red-tailed hawk which he is train ing for the fun of it. Later, as they become more proficient, they hope to train their birds to hunt rabbits or .rodents. They and their birds are . legally register ed with the Wyoming Game and Fish Depa.rt ment. They obtained permits to capture and hold the young birds a year ago.
.. _ ·. ' .
. . PHOTOS BY CHARLES J. f~RMER 10-High Country News flowing streams and snow-bound woods is a sight to behold. Friday, May 28, 1971 Yellow monkeyflowers blooming in the thermal-fed New Park streams as early as the first week of May surpris.e even the veteran visitor, and glacier lilies follow the receeding Regulations snowline with their bright yellow. · Hundreds of elk in small bands--sometimes up to thirty Effect or more--graze the newly-opened meadows. Snowshoe hare In by Verne Huser New park regulations to be hop about the woods in their changing coat. A pine marten in effect this summer will watches slyly from behind a log. A black bear yearling require campers to be more perches high in a lodgepole pine while a young grizzly feeds alert in keeping their food nosily upon an elk carcass by the river nearby. An osprey properly stored, according to family rebuilds its nest on a pinnacle in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and a dipper(water ouzel) sings by the Yellowstone Park Superin rushing waters. tendent Jack K. Anderson. Anderson said, Park Rangers A grizzly sow with two large cubs--probably two-year will be instructed to collect What is Yellowstone National Park like when it is first olds--digs for roots and rodents in the Hayden Valley. A any food left out, and not in opened to the traveling public in the spring? Snowmobilers huge bull buffalo detours traffic near the mud volcano. A use, wbich may attract bears have owned the park all winter, roaring around in their trio of white pelicans feeds in the Yellowstone River while into the campground. noisy machines (more than 16,000 over-snow vehicle geese and several species of ducks search for nest sites. He said the regulations visitors in 1970 compared to 267 over-snow foot travelers; This is Yellowstone in the spring before the thousands of state, that unless the food is snowmobile visitors outntimbered automobile visitors 3,381 tourists arrive--relatively few of the tourist accomodations are open yet. And you bring your own picnic lunch instead of being eaten, or being to 1,440 during December). prepared for eating, it must One of the sounds I associate with spring in Yellowstone waiting in line for poor food at high prices. You worry about be kept completely sealed iP~ is the absence of snowmobiles. For a.while there is the roar running out of gas (some roads aren't open yet--I may have vehicle or a camping un. of the snow-removal equipment, then. the ever increasing to back track--where was there a service station open?) but you see auto license plates from only a dozen states. · that is constructed of solid, sound of automobiles and even trucks hauling supplies to non-pliable material, or must the in-park tourist facilit~es. . Spring and fall are the times to see Yellowstone for those tie suspended at least 10 feet But there is also the howl of the coyote in the cold quiet who live near enough not to be forced to visit only at the height of the summer season. How many people can above the ground and four night and the winnowing of the Wilson's snipe as it declares feet horizontally from any ' its territory in skylark-like flight at.' dusk. There is the Yellowstone National Park experience before the people no post 9r three trunk. He ex honking of the Canadian geese, the resonant melody of the longer have a Yellowstone experience? Or is the plained, this regulation is trumpeter swan, the wild weird rattling of the sandhill Yellowstone experience the over-crowded scene that many intended to protect the tent crane. If you're lucky, you might even hear the howl of a of us know from a visit in July or August? I hope not, and I camper. Since the food is wolf in the Hayd_en or Lamar valley or on Cougar Creek. like to visit the park before everyone else gets there. cooked and eaten in the There is still lots. of snow. Snowdrifts may be twelve to campgr:ound, the odor is twenty feet high even in mid-May, but almost everywhere always present. However, if the snow. banks are above the top of a conventional car when the food is not available, the the park opens May 1 (from a Land Rover you can just ·bear , will go elsewhere, barely see over the roadside snowbanks in most places, but hopefully in search of his occupants Qf conventional cars see little except in the natural diet. thermal areas, especially in the higher country). Reports of Trail Study Available A report of the Continental ranges and adjacent lands of Recreation, Building 41, Divide Trail study has been central New Mexico. Denver Federal Center, completed by the Bureau of The Bureau has been Denver, Colorado 80225. Outdoor Recreation. The concerned not only with the The reports are available report has gone out to the feasibility of such a trail for review at the state offices various states through which system but also the of the Bureau of Land the trail would pass, as well desirability. The Bureau Management and at all of the as to the congressional relied on public reaction, forest supervisor's offices delegations. ideas and comments as to the through which the trail would The report covers the desirability. Enthusiastic pass. They may also be seE''\.. feasibility and desirablility of support, as well as direct at various national ._, '1 designating national scenic opposition, was received and headquarters and at dish •..:l trails in the vicinity of the incorporated into the report. BLM offices through which Continental Divide. It also The Bureau is now asking the trail would pass, as well explains the possibility of a for comments and as state parks or state similar pathway - the Kit suggestions on the report. recreation commission of Carson National Scenic Trail Address them to the Regional fices in the various states. through the mountain Director, Bureau of Outdoor Dr. Curry Testifies at Washington Hearings Dr. Robert R. Curry is assistant professor of ming" and said "If you're right, Mr. Curry, you environmental geology at the University of have made a very serious indictment of the Montana at Missoula. He appeared before the Forest Service." Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands holding In his written statement, Curry concluded by And yet, the game is somewhat concentrated by the hearings on clearcutting of timber on the saying, "The matter is, in my opinion, so serious snow. Buffalo still hover about their winter range near the national forests. and so universal and so completely damaging to hot springs as do the elk, and consequently the grizzly bear Dr. Curry's testimony was some of the most our land that a full-scale, crash, 4-year nation emerging from their winter dens congregate there too. damning to be brought before the hearings. As a wide fact-finding effort should be undertaken Since these areas are usually served by roads, the traveling direct result of his testimony, Sen. Lee Metcalf of now, administered by non-governmental and public has a good chance of seeing all three of these species Montana said he would ask that substantial non-industry related agencies and personnel." as well as moose and mule deer, coyotes and Canadian amounts of forest reserach monies be redirected He called for a 4 to 5 year moratorium on geese. into the kind of research Curry advocates. forest cutting. Porcupines waddle about from evergreen to evergreen Curry said reserch done by himself and on the snow or along the water-logged openings where the other,s points to massive loss of soil nutrients by snow has just melted. Marmots emerge to sun themselves reason of clearcutting. He said, " ... recent work on the rock piles, and robins stake out their territories in the on soil and forest watershed chemistry . . . in piney woods, si1~ging until darkness takes over. dicates that chemical reactions in the soil It's fun and kind of exciting to wallow about in the winter following logging in many areas cause the soils elements. I saw one father digging a snow cave into the to be stripped of their nutrients so rapidly that seven-foot bank for his sons to play in, and others bring soil sterility is virtually assured in a matter of their sleds and saucers. The snow, for the most part, has two to, at maximum, six theoretical recyclings long since disappeared at home--usually much lower areas- of forest growth . . . " and the kids haven't had a chance to play in the snow for ''Both clearcutting and some selective cutting weeks. Oversnow foot travel has greatly increased in effects a speedup of bacterial action that Yellowstone during the past few years (an increase of ultimately renders the soil sterile," Curry said. 2,670% in 1970 over the previous year: 10 to 267), and spring "The soil looks fine but actually it is eroding in touring has become quite popular in the park. Even as late the form of sterility." as July warm-climate visitors to the park thrill at finding He said that sterilization of some soils may snow in shaded pockets near the passes as my brother al)d I come in 20 years even though it took 20,000 years did many years ago coming up from central Texas where to form. Curry added that in clearcut areas soil we'd rarely seen snow. loss is occurring 40 to 400 times the rate of soil But spring storms can block passes and make roads formation. dangerous even in May or June--for that matter, almost any Dr. Curry told Senator Church and members month as in August of '60 and again in August of '68. Rock of the Subcommittee, "I humbly and openly slides are common, and snow slides are not unusual even in challenge anyone in the Forest Service or in May. Winter weather can be unpleasant and downright dustry to prove that clearcutting can scien dangerous to a family out for a Sunday drive in anticipated tifically meet the Sustained Yield and Multiple spring weather. Changing a flat tire in a short-sleeved shirt Use Acts." with a hungry grizzly bear looking over your shoulder may Curry sa\d the Forest Service has ignored not be the most pleasant way to go. significant findings from its own research on the Photo by Dale Burke, The Missoulian Most of the lakes are still frozen over when the roads subject of loss of soil nutrients. He also said Dr. Robert Curry, geologist from the open, even in such relatively low areas as Mammoth, but as research which is documented in a U. S. University of Montana, testified at the clearcut May merges into June they begin to open. A full moon on the Geological Survey report has been ignored. hearings in Washington on April 5 that the ice-covered lakes, on the steaming hot springs, on the Senator Church called his testimony "alar- practice was rendering the forest soils sterile. ,---..------· ----,, --·-, --· ....
National Coalition· Underway to ''Save the Snake'' A national coalition of conservationists and who have been active in various groups. The new group, as well as the existing Hells environmentalists has got ten underway in the Another meeting is planned for the Memorial Canyon Preservation Council, is asking for Northwest to save the Snake River from further Day weekend when Senator Packwood and citizen help. Letters are needed to the following: damming. The coalition's main initial effort will others will be floating the Snake through Hells Mr. William B. Ruckelhaus, Administrator, be to work for passage of Senator Bob Pack Canyon. Environmental ·Protection Agency, Washington, wood's Hells Canyon-Snake National River Bill. A final meeting, to include. all participating D.C. 20460, expressing concern at Federal Power The new group may be called the Coalition To groups and concerned individuals is slated for Commission delay in the filing of, and making Save The Snake, a name suggested by attorney Lewiston, Idaho, on June 26. All interested public, an environmental impact statement, and Lewis Bell of Everett, Washington, and persons and groups are invited to attend. asking EPA to intervene to insure that the en president of the Federation of Fly Fishermen. Idaho conservationists point out that the vironmental impact is fully and· completely Jack Hemingway of Sun Valley, the eldest son question of keeping some of the Snake River free considered, and an opportunity is given to of Ernest ·Hemingway and Northwest Field of dams, and its tributaries, has been around for examine the statement before the FPC acts. Editor for Field and Stream Magazine, has a long time. The situation has been studied, To: Senator Henry Jackson, Chairman, In agreed to head the new organization. countless articles have been written, hearings terior and Insular Affairs Committee, Rm. 3106, Pete Henault, president of the Hells Canyon have been held, and still the dam builders get New Senate Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. Preservation Council, said the long-range preferential treatment. 20510, askil1g that the Committee schedule public purpose of the new group is to prevent any more A moratorium against dam building backed field hearings on the National River Bill (S.717) dams being built on the entire Snake River. This by Idaho's two senators was supported by and/ or if any action is taken by the Committee, includes its source in Yellowstone Park to its conservationists in the last session of Congress. that they also consider all other bills relating to confluence with the Columbia River. However, they have now withdrawn their sup Hells Canyon. . Henault said the coalition is the first of its port in favor of bills to create a Hells Canyon Send copies of your letters to Senator Bob type in U~e Northwest. It will bring together all of Snake National River. Packwood, New Senate Office Bldg.' the diverse organizations that are concerned Senator Packwood has introduced S.717 and Washington, D.C. 20510, Attn: Barbara Holliday\ about the declining· quality of the Snake River Congressman John Saylor of Pennsylvania has Those wishing to join in the effort to save the~ and the rapidly increasing losses of aquatic life introduced the companion bill in the House, H.R. Snake should write or send contributions to Jack each year. 4249. The proposals would establish ad Hemingway, Box 387, Sun Valley, Idaho 83353, or "For too long we've been losing all the battles ministrative units to be managed as wilderness the Hells Canyon Preservation Council, Box 2693, on the Snake," Henault said. ·'We've already lost or as recreation areas. Idaho Falls, Idaho 83401. the upper reaches of Hells Canyon, the world's deepest river canyon and as magnificent as any , anywhere. We've lost Twin Falls and Shoshone Falls and most of the springs near Hagerman. We've lost all the anadromous fish runs up stream of Hells Canyon Dam; not only those of the Snake itself but also the Weiser, Payette, Boise, Owynee, Bruneau, and a score of others. The lists of losses go on and on and we have yet to win our first real victory." f Henault said three organizing meetings have been held beginning in early April. The first was in Washington, D.C. and included officers of The Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, 'the Hells Canyon Preservation Council, and the environmental councils of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. A second meeting in Seattle was attended by the Federation of Fly Fishermen, Trout Unlimited, and others. The third meeting in Sun Valley was a get-together of Idaho leaders \., ----' \ r\! "" Ronc·aJ io Asks-H·ouse· -to · "'' l I I n Develop Federal Offices I Wyoming Congressman is "being systematically I Teno Roncalio has asked the eroded by one construction House to establish a Select project after another. As the Joint committee of Congress D.C. funding bills revealed to develop an orderly last week, the problems of program of decentralization Washington defy and dispersal of Federal exaggeration. The capital offices. would be better off with a Calling for a direct ap cessation of Federal building. proach to the problem of Congress must take the overcrowding in · the initiative here. Deployment \ metropolitan Washington and dispersal have to be the 1 area, Ronca I io urged a new watchwords on the moratorium on Federal Potomac.'' construction in the capitol: Roncalio told the House the nation is suffering from two problems resulting from population maldistribution: the plight of overburdened Reservations cities and the equally com pelling crisis in rural Needed to Camp America suffering from outmigration. In Grand Canyon He quoted President Nixon as saying, "Vast areas of Campers going into Grand rural America have been Canyon National Park, with emptied of people and the intention of camping below the rim in the inner· I promise while our central I r.. cities have become the most · canyon, will have to apply for L-, reservations beginning in '-, conspicuous area of failure in '-, American life." 1972. Applications for camp I Noting population losses in site reservations along the I the Dakotas and minimal developed trails during 1972 I gains in Wyoming, Montana may be mailed to the I I and Iowa, Roncalio said Superintendent, Grand I Canyon National Park, Grand I Congress should encourage I growth in non-metropolitan Canyon, Arizona 86023 L.l beginning October 1. I areas by a more orderly I deployment of Federal of The Park Service says if I I fices. more applications are \ ! Roncalio said the National received than there are Governors Conference in 1970 spaces available, it will hold a ~------and the Congress of cities in drawing. . ___ ...-. ·--- -- ~-~ ------. 1969 had both asked for a Campers will be limited to \ ,,/,,,' BOUNDARY MAP national policy of population two days at each camp and a .' _____ , redistribution to relieve rural total of seven days in the THE HELLS CANYbN- SNAKE NATIONAL RIVER I ' and urban areas. entire park. They will also / ( Describing the special have to carry stoves and fuel IDIIHO for cooking. Open fires and OREGON responsibility of Congress to WASHINGTON Washington, Roncalio said the gathering of wood in the the capital's historic beauty ca.nyon are now prohibited. ~~ ~ l 't '"J .. "' ... l .••J .f~,·.· 'J 1 1 ,.;~?'-' C:Jrl, '.),IJJ f}lfl ~ : ·,ITI " • -~;d b9(1£;::, .:-.')1ll 1'J 10.' .. r ?t:-~i'!.• ·,.r-1.•, r.r: r r ra:>.'IJ~· _· , !.'... , -::~J;G1 D3",l\'(l 'bi 12-High Country News Friday, May 28, 1971 Photo by Jeff Clack
with Charles J. Farmer =~=-~~~
Backpack Camping There is a motive behind the madness of a man, woman or child who takes pleasure in donning a pack and hiking for the sheer pleasure of being "self-propelled" and "self contained." Perhaps one of the most important reasons for back packing as a sport is the feeling of total independence which comes from the ability to cover distances through the use of foot and leg power. For people brought up in a world of mechanized motivation, the temporary escape from temperamental motors and the noise, stink, and ulcers they cause, is like reaching a cool, sweet oasis after days on the burning, harsh sands of a desert. There is the sudden realization that the body, and especially the legs and feet, were given a higher purpose than being cramped behind the power of a travel machine. How much better they feel, flexed and relaxed, on the carpet of a forest floor. Backpacking is a unique sport in that it does not require catching, stalking, collecting, scoring or the highest or lowest number of points in qrder to be enjoyed. What it does require is a self-respect for the body ... a very simple un derstanding that the "man-machine" is still number one. And that this machine gets better with use. Backpacking, the term used alone, is somewhat in complete. There are few backpackers who stretch into a pack simply for the thrill of wearing one. Backpack cam ping is a more correct term ... complete in that it defines the two necessary ingredients for ultimate satisfaction from the sport. If you have read this far and you are not already a back packer, at least you are interested. As a rather brief in troduction to the sport, I can give some points on equipment especially suited for Wyoming and places to go in the state. Your basic needs will be a pack frame, bag or sack, lightweight sleeping bag, nylon tent or fly and a pair of comfortable, sturdy boots that give your ankles plenty of support. · Clothing should be loose fitting and worn in layers so that it can be removed and added according to the weather conditions. Pack frames are usually made of aluminum or wood. I A rotary snowplow clears the highway on Togwotee Pass between Dubois and prefer contoured aluminum frames because they are Jackson, Wyoming. Heavy snows in the mountainous regions of the West make lightweight and require no upkeep. The pack frame with the highway maintenance difficult. Yellowstone National Park highways should open attached shelf is ideal for securing your sleeping bag. on Schedule, May 1, unless other spring storms interfere: Frame should be complete with padded shoulder straps and waistbelt. A good rule to follow in selecting a sack is to purchase the largest one you can afford. Heavy duty nylon is the best National ~ Honors. • • material. Some packs have the main compartment section ed,which makes packing large,bulky items tough. Test all has led his department into a program of Federation. He has also served on national, state zippered compartments for opening and closing. broadening concern for the · physical en and regional committees of the Wildlife Society Style of hiking boot is up to the individual. Leather, vironment, convinced that a sound environment and the Izaak Walton League of America. rather than man-made materials, are best forwalking. for wildlife is essential to a quality environment The two women who won awards were Mrs. Vibram soles are an important asset to a pair of boots for man. Hugh F. Stoddart of Groton, Massachusetts, and whether they are purchased as part of the boot or purchased Roger P. Hansen of Denver, executive Mrs. Charles P. Yarn, Jr., of Atlanta, Georgia. separately and fitted to a favorite pair of boots. director of the Rocky Mountain Center on En Mrs. Stoddart was cited for her leadership role in Wyomingites are blessed with some of the finest back vironment, was cited for his leading role in the restoratiqn and preservation of important water packing areas in the world. For the most part you will have creation of the Colorado Open Space Coor resources and natural settings in Connecticut the forest to yourself. The majority of people do not venture dination Council. The Council, which is an ever and Massachusetts. Mrs. Yarn was selected for far from the main road. growing force for quality environment in her ceaseless fight to preserve islands and Some good areas to discover this summer would be such Colorado, grew out of his proposal that all state marshes along the Georgia coast. wilderness areas as the Bridger, North Absaroka, South conservation organizations pool their resources The awards, established in 1953, are presented to work together for desired legislation and to annually to 10 professional and 10 non Absaroka and Teton. Primitive areas in the state include formulate action programs. He has assisted professional conservationists for dedicated Cloud Peak, G·lacier, Popo Agie and Stratified. That's a conservation groups in 17 other states to form efforts in the field of renewable . natural total of 587,930 primitive .acres alone that you can explore. similar councils. resources. In additon, awards are presented' Looking for a different type of vacation?Try a motor-less Charles Hjelte of Westminister, Colorado, is each year to nation..al and local groups for out trip into the quiet outdoor world. editor of Colorado Outdoors, official publication standing achievements in conservation. of the Colorado Game, Fish and Parks Com All winners will receive bronze sculptured mission. He has initiated numerous programs medallions. Professionals and groups also designed to alert Colorado residents to the fact receive honorariums of $500. that their wildlife resources, while bountiful, are Roy D. Chapin, Jr., chairman of the board of not inexhaustible. American Motors, announced the awards. In his Dr. Jessop B. Low of Logan, Utah, is leader of announcement, he said, "Among problems the Utah Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. confronting our nation today, the preservation of Dr. Low was selected for his continued influence our natural resources assumes an imperative National Audubon Society; Richard H. Pough, over a quarter century upon students in the field quality. The wisdom with which we meet this Pelham, N.Y., director of the Natural Area of natural resources both on a personal and a need can serve to bring together the elements of Council, Inc., and Dr. A. Starker Leopold, professional basis. His former students are in our nation in a common cause, at a time when professor of zoology at the University of positions of responsibility in most state and such a cause is very much needed. Additionally, California. federal agencies dealing with wildlife con of course, our wisdom in preserving the en The awards program is directed by Ed Zern, servation. vironment will importantly determine the way of conservation and outdoor sports writer. Robert L. Salter of Boise, Idaho, assistant life of future generations. director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department "We at American Motors believe it is was cited for his nearly two decades of ex essential to focus public attention on what both ceptional service to the cause of wildlife con citizen and professional conservationists are servation in Idaho. In addition to his duties with doing to preserve our natural resources. In this the department, he has served on the widely way, we hope not only to honor these outstanding acclaimed and highly successful Idaho Water individuals but to stimulate broader citizen ~ollution Contro1 Advisory Council since its participation in the Conservation effort." mception, distinguishing himself in water American Motors Conservation Award pollution control and analysis. winners were selected by a committee of Ralph R. Hill of Denver is a retired wildlife distinguished conservationists which includes biologist with the U.S. Forest Service. He was Arthur H. Carhart, authority on national parks honored for more than 40 years of service to and forests and consultant for the Conservation cons~rvation . He has been secretary and Library Center, Denver; C. R. Gutermuth, vice prestdent of the Colorado Wildlife Federation president of the Wildlife Management Institute; and a national director of the National Wildlife Charles Callison, executive director of the Canoll R. Noble High Country News-13 Friday, May 28, 1971 Wild Horses Need Protection Thoughts 'tlr1 by Joann Ostermiller The Bill requires the Reduction of 15 to 20 head ~ During this century the Secretary of the Interior to seems to be the goal for this m from the wild horse and burro establish and maintain a year. population, now scattered minimum of 12 refuges with The continuous throughout eleven Western · the advice of a board of development of the west has ~~ . States, has been reduced qualified scientists. Should forced these wild herds into , from over 2 million to less these animals overpopulate the desolate and almost l than 17,000 in number. These their existing habitat, the bill useless areas to escape the animals have been captured allows the Secretary of the increasing pressures of man. r and cruelly treated and slain. Interior, in agreement with The bill provides a means of Many have been tormented, the advisory board to remove legal protection for private or by Cris Pearson used as pet food, and fertilizer excess animals by their sale Government leased land Miss Pearson, the author of the following and now · are in need of to private individuals, holders from intrusion on essay, is the granddaughter of Carroll R. Noble, protection to keep them from however, th€y shall not be their property of unwanted one of the 20 national recipients of the American becoming a part of by-gone disposed of inhumanely. The wild horses and burros. Motors Conservation Awards for 1971 (see page days. Bureau of Land Management The bill . specifically for 1). She wrote her paper for a senior high school A bill was introduced officials in Lovell, Wyoming bids the establishment of English class at Pinedale, Wyoming. March 4, designed to protect are now discussing the wild-horse ranges on land The editor. the last of the wild horses and possibilities of culling wild where these animals do not ~ burros of the United States. mustangs. A recent currently live. A fine of not *** This bill provides a means of helicopter count reveals that more than $2,000 or im legal protection for the wild forty percent of the toal herd prisonment for not more than The outdoors--the stem of my very existence. creatures. consists of stallions a year, or both for violations It is through this very source that I draw my -·---- · of this act. exuberant life. A flower extracts essential Committee hearings have elements from the rich soil as do I from the sun, been held. However, it has the air and the freedom·of our spacious outdoors. yet to go to both Houses of A feeling of glowing and radiant ecstasy fills my Congress. This is where help heart when I roam at will amongst God's won is needed. Write to your drous creations. Senators asking their support It is on this fine, clear summer's day that I of the Jackson Bill, S. lll6, and come to realize how truly fortunate I am to to your Congressman asking possess this great freedom to wander at my his support of the Baring Bill, heart's desire through such a beautiful, un H.R. 5375. polluted surrounding as that of the mighty Green River. Innumerable thoughts enter my mind as I ponder such questions as, "How many people in New Bill this enormous world have this chance to see a majestically flowing, undisturbed river as it Modernizes BLM winds and curls ever flowing, onward, sometimes lazily like a dancing, fluttering A bill to enhance the ad butterfly sometimes rapidly as if angered by ministrative powers of the some unknown force?" And as I sit by the river's Bureau of Land Management edge, a tiny fluffy·bumble bee zips by in search of and to modernize the ap the sweet nectar of a nearby dandelion. proach to handling public A sudden splash draws my attention at once lands is receiving widespread to the sparkling, shimmering water. Near a support, according to the ripple by the far, green bank, a German brown Wildlife Management In makes a fast jump to snatch an unwary horsefly. stitute. S. 921, entitled the Further upstream the whirring, whistling sound Public Do.main Lands of wings breaks the solitude of the heavenly air. Organic Act of 1971, would A beautiful mallard has taken to the sky, his update and strengthen ELM's mate following closely behind, winging her way position to that comparable of to his side. A gentle breeze begins tosoftly touch other federal land agencies my cheek whisking with it the pleasing scent of such as the National Park sage from the nearby bluff where a proud an Service and U.S. Forest telope can clearly be seen as he nibbles tender Service. grass shoots. Introduced by Senator A flopping sound draws my attention to the Henry M. Jackson (Wash.), mouth of a tributary that seems to ask ad the measure would specify mittance to the great river. It is at this ·locale these presently unnamed that a pair of beaver leisurely take a cool dip. millions of acres of public They swim along the boulder stream river domain as "national resource Wild horse numbers are dwindling as animals bottom. An enormous bull moose, in all his lands". in keeping with vanity, proudly steps forward on nature's stage are killed, ranges are fenced, and officials look designations for other federal the other way. to display his rack and a long bell that nearly lands such as national parks, reaches the knobby knees on his lengthy legs. His forests, and seashores. It appearance startles a soft-eyed doe and her Whale Licenses Terminated directs that national resource curious fawn. They take a hurried leave from the lands shall be administered scene with mighty leaps and bounds. Secretary of Commerce Department is vitally con on the principles of multiple In the deep foliage of splendidly beautiful Maurice H. Stans has cerned with the economic use and sustained yield of all cottonwood trees, I spot something black. In an directed the National Marine health of all U. S. business, it their values It authorizes instant, I realize that the mysterious, dark object Fisheries Service to publish a is also firmly committed to much needed Jawenforcement is a Black Angus cow standing knee-deep in proposal in the Federal sound conservation practices. powers for designated BLM waving green grass-grass that grows abun Register terminating the "There is no reason why a employees to make arrests dantly, due to its ability to drink the nearby cool, licensing of commercial sound economy and sound for violation of applicable crisp water. hunting of whales listed as conservation cannot go hand laws and regulations on the Oh, how nature's children thrill and delight endangered species, the in hand," he said. "In the past public domain. my senses, delving into my soul's very inner Wildlife Management In thoughtlessness and Title II of the bill is labeled depth. As I view with delight these heart stitute reports. ' The list i r res p on s'i b iIi t y have the "Federal Land Mineral warming occurrences"I suddenly become sad contains eight species, in removed no fewer than 120 Leasing Act of 1971." Among dened and downhearted at the thought of the cluding the finback. sei. and different species of wildlife other things, this section proposed Kendall Dam to perhaps be built • perm whales. which are the from our planet." This action would repeal the outdated hastily, at the head of this majestic system of only species now sought by U. will do little for the whales, Mining Law of 1872 and in splendor and grandeur. It would be like S. commercial whalers. however. since the U.S. takes stitute mineral leasing removing the part of one's body that controls the Secretary Stans said that only a small percentage of the procedures for mining ac entire,ty of one's self. while the Commerce .annual harvest. tivity on public lands . What will become of these previously men tioned natural and ' wondrous sights? I can't help but feel a lump swell to enormity in my the Mountain West throat as I think of the possible end of my Spokesman lifetime pleasures, derived from my existence by the beautiful riverside. But as long as my delights remain intact, I shall enjoy them to the fullest and fight to save this stem of life from High Country Hews whence grows a lasting peace and joy. Box K Lander, Wyoming 82520
1
State Zip 14-High Country News Friday, May 28, 1971 IIV~IIIITIS Letters to .the Editor .... tinues creation. Creation is "Pogo" is one of my more not a thing of the past; it is an favorite comic strips. About a Settling Ponds Decrease Number of Toxic Metals on-going activity. year ago there was a God's continuing creation is sequence in "Pogo" dealing It ijas been reported that several toxic metals have decreased since the to be carried on in and with the problems of establishment of settling ponds by the mining industry in the Coeur d'Al~ne, through us. But we have pollution. All of the Idaho River Basin. A 16-month study was financed by the Idaho Bureau of Mmes failed. We have concerned characters had decided that and Geology and funds came from an Idaho ~hort Term Applied Res~a~ch ourselves too mlJch with they ought to get rid of Project. Pollution in the study area in 1964 was estimated that 2,217 tons of mmmg material "progress," and pollution ... a very noble but tailings per day were being discharged into the Sou~h F~rk. Rese rchers feel that have forgotten our respon difficult undertaking. They sibility to the created world. the elimination of zinc and cadmium concentrations 1s essential to complete finally decided that the only recovery of the river. Charles Darwin in one of way to succeed was to his numerous studies became eliminate the cause of enamoured with the im pollution. But what is the Buildings in Seven States May be Radioactive portance of the work of earth cause of pollution? Human worms. The earthworm beings! The answer then is Radioactive leftovers from uranium ore processing mills have turned up in transports vast amounts of simple, do away with human building materials in three areas of Western Color~do and are ca_us~ng con soil; he draws organic beings and you do away with siderable concern as a possible health hazard. An estimated 2,700 bmldmgs are matter down into the soil; his pollution. Everybody was known to have had radioactive tailings used in their construction. Such burrows aid in the aeration agreed; however, nobody widespread findings in Colorado have caused worri~s in seven other s~ates where and drainage of the soil. This wanted to admit to being uranium mills have operated-Arizona, New Mex1co, Utah, Wyommg, Tex~s, is just a small example of how human. They started to list South Dakota and Washington. Paul Smith of the Environmental Pr~tecbon one seemingly insignificant traits of their own per Agency's Denver radiological office said th~ EPA_ was_ ~!ready stu~ymg t_he member of the team does his sonalities, such as problem in Riverton, Wyoming where uramum mlll tathngs are mtxed wtth "thing" in the on-going selfishness, cruelty, selenium, a rare metal toxic to animals . . process of creation. The deceitfulness, carelessness, plants and animals who are etc. to show that they were our neighbors may not have not human. But Pogo, who Automobile Cause of Lake Tahoe Air Pollution intentions of benefiting the happens to be as wise as the environment by their life earthworm, informed them Air pollution, primarily from automobiles, was blamed Monday for damage to work, but we do have in that these were the exact pine trees in the Lake Tahoe Basin. A study by the University _of Neva~a,Reno _and tentions and purposes. characteristics of human Yet it ·is becoming clearer the Nevada Highway Department showed evidence of the dtscoloratwn of pmes beings. Are ·they? To my and firs in the basin, as well as foliage loss. Dr. John E. Maxfield, a plant everyday that our intentions knowledge they still have not and purposes are much pathologist at the university said the typographical make_-up ~nd the _almo~t resolved the problem for enclosed basin makes the Lake Tahoe area very susceptible m trappmg atr narrower than those served .nobody wants to solve the pollutants. by our unthinking neighbors- problem of pollution by -the plants and animals over eliminating human beings ... which we are to have granting that it would Game Farm Owner Fined $900 dominion. Most, if not all, of definitely be a valid and our many "creations" have complete <.~nswer. only one purpose, and that is W. E. Arrington, owner of a game farm in Idaho Falls, was charged with What we must do is to strive possession of game animals, sale of moose and sale of antelope. He pleaded no normally a utilitarian one of a to find another answer and contest to these three counts. Arrington was fined $900 with $300 suspended by 7th very short life span, when put it into use and practice. District Magistrate Michael J. Donohoe. County _Prosecut?r Grant young said compared to its total We all know that many of the Arrington had a Fish and Game Department perm1t for a ~nvate game farm, but existence in the environment. problems of pollution are was charged with having animals that were not grown on hts own farm. I am heartened by such steps industrial and that an in as taken recently by the dividual cannot by himself Oregon House of control industry, but govern Telephone Company Donates Poles to Birds Representatives banning the ments ..:an and together we sale of non-returnable soft control the governments. But The Utah telephone company is doing something for the birds. It has been drink and beer bottles and even more important, or at reported that all of the 18 miles of telephone lines in the Las Vegas-to-Salt Lake cans, but that is only a small least as important, is the link were removed but the 45 poles were left as roosting and nesting sites for step on a very long journey. pollution that each and eagles, hawks and falcons. The bir_ds_ hav~ ~sed these poles f~r. f~fty years. However, as Lao Tzu said everyone of us is guilty of -- Platforms were built on the poles to atd m bmldmg nests. The posstbthty of these many years ago, "A journey throwing a piece of paper on birds used as targets is a problem the Bureau of Lan~ Management f~ces. of a thousand miles begins the road, throwing a bottle in However, they feel the public will see the value of these btrds and there wtll be with a single step." We must the river, possibly destroying fewer losses. no longer concern ourselves some plant or animal life for with the purpose something is no apparent positive reason. going to serve alone; we must When was the last time you Wild Horses Upset Arizona Farmers start to concern ourselves flipped a cigarette butt on the with it throughout its entire road? I don't have the an Farmers in the Chandler Heights Area 50 miles southeast of Phoenix, "life" from . the moment of swers ... I doubt if anybody Arizona, are complaining of the raids of wild horses on their ~rops. An ~st~ma~ed conception, through its does right now, but we must 30-50 wild horses slip out of the low-mountain desert land to dnnk at the trngahon creation, its use, its find them and find them fast ditches and graze in the grain fields. The horses are also reported ~o have "disposal," and finally its re or the world which God gave developed a.liking for young apricot trees in orchards along the Hunt h1ghway. entry into the environment. us dominion over is not going If we come back to the to be ours for very long. creation myth we can see that Last year Vince Lombardi, this is not only a matter of the one of football's greatest survival of man on earth, as personalities died. Jn the many of our ecologists are eulogies that appeared I saying, but it is also our duty found the following quotation to our Creator. We all learn that Lombardi is reported to the ten comn'1andments and have made during his career: the "golden rule;" these "Any man's finest hour is eleven guide-lines for life are when he has worked his heart absolutely meaningless and out, exhausted on the field of useless unless we take to battle, victorious." Our field heart our responsibility to of battle is to save the t!n have dominion over the en vironment in which we live; vironment. We could even go we will have to work our so far as to say that ·the ten hearts out, and we will be commandments and the exhausted, but it will also be "golden rule" were derived to om· finest hour if we are help us understand how we victorious .. are to have dominion over the environment. We have not Robert D. Coapman succeeded. LT, CHC, USNR Bill to Protect Hawks and Owls Congressman John D. to include all species of hawks Dingell (Mich.) and 10 of his and owls. It would not colleagues have introduced a prohibit possession or bill to give hawks and owls transportation of th~ birds the protection now accorded lawfully taken before the to bald and golden eagles, the effective date of the proposed Wildlife Management In act. Twenty-six states now Bighorn sheep feed along an open ridge in Wyoming's Whiskey Mountain stitue reports. have statutes to protect all management area. Here, through the cooperation of the U.S. Forest Serivice, the The bill, H. R. 5821, would species of hawks and owls Bureau of Land Management, a private landowner, and the Wyoming Game and amend the Act for the while 22 others have laws Fish l)epartment, one of the nation's largest sheep herds is provided adequate Protection of the Bald Eagle giving partial protection. winter range. High Country News-IS r,. -,...-----..,,. -tc=::::>t,. ~,.----=>!,. -, Friday, May 28, 1971 E . I n Guest Editorial . • • ~ nvlronmenta uponent manufacturing and delays in delivery What is now needed is further leadership in have risen dramatically. New oil, gas and coal securing the type of broad ecological studies to ~ves sources have been discovered with potential use which I have alluded. In the past, utilities have U ropper for the Northwest. I question the commitment to frequently been the leaders in identifying and ~ E d ~ nuclear power as a former Budget Director as developing sites for heavy industry. Today I do much as I do as a former head of the Sanitary not recommend that industry undertake the type LOONEY LIMERICKS Authority. of studies I am talking about on its own. I think to Since more power plants will be built, I am achieve broad public acceptance of them, by Zane E. Cology .sure you also will continue to be concerned with nothing less than a completely · independent the problems of site location and transmission study by a broadly based planning agency will ''Let's go west,'' said Tourist McQueen- corridors which bring you into direct con bring peace from those who put environmental frontation with environmentalists in almost quality first. "! hope to breathe air that is clean." every case. Utilities are going to be in trouble as But his hope was unfounded I think timing is important in this matter long as they pick the sites and then commence the since there are only so many ecologists in the He was always surrounded . studies as to the environmental consequences at By the fumes from his large limoustne! country and those who first get off the ground the same time they are proceeding to let con- with their studies will have the cream of the *** tracts for site development, reactors and so on . available manpower. Fortunately for m~, many What is clearly needed to avoid the costly delays good people are located at the universities in the which such confrontations bring and the com Northwest. Today we could attract manpower UPI has reported the deaths of 37 members of the plete losses that result when sites have to be nationwide. Soon, perhaps as soon as the Presidential Honor Guard of Honduras. The deaths of the abandoned is much better over-all planning and President's State of the Union message, there soldiers was attributed to food that had been sprayed with an advance study of sites by someone other than the will be clamor everywhere for such studies. insecticide . . The news release did not give details on the developer. · Those who delay will have a long wait for quality specific poison. . What I am suggesting is the need for broad results . ecological studies in the Northwest to determine I urge the Bonneville Administration and its * * * the best locations for power development, for advisory committe'e to seriously consider the various kinds of heavy industry with above using of Bonneville revenues to fund the broad Walrus can tell when Arctic pack ice is about to melt. average pollution problems, for related tran studies which I have outlined under the auspices Soviet Scientists are now using the walrus as forecasters of smission and transportation and, also, to identify of the state governments in the Northwest. It ice conditions. The discovery that the animals have some clearly those sites which are unacceptable for seems to me that such costs could then properly uncanny knowledge of the natural phenomena is forcing any of these uses. be charged back as part of the development cost scientists to re-evaluate the place of wild animals. These studies should be conducted under of each site to be developed in the future. What it general government supervision by university would insure is a stockpile of on-the-shelf sites *** specialists and independent consultants in which were known to have minimum opposition ecology, botany, biology, geology, so that substantial savings in time and money It has been reported that a woman eating swordfish as a oceanography, meteorology, hyrology and with could be achieved at the time of development. diet food has died of the first U.S. case of mercury industries and the general public on goals. The states, of course, stand to gain much poisoning. Dr. Roger C. Herdman, deputy health com Here in the Northwest we have been blessed valuable information for other programs in the missioner for New York state, said the woman developed with the leadership of Bonneville and the course of such studies. dizziness, loss of memory, hand tremors, and difficulty in cooperation of all other electric utilities, both Certainly this cannot be done by a mere snap walking and speaking. Dr. Herdman said it was believed to private and public, in arriving at a program for of the fingers or nod on the part of Bonneville be the ''the first case of human illness in this nation directly unified development of power sources and for Power Administration. It would have to over attributable to mercury poisoning from ordinary maximizing tl)e usefullness of existing tran come any political reluctance of the states to get marketable food.'' Herdman testified during subcommittee smission corridors. Certainly this type of ap involved in specifying such sites either positively hearings on proposed fish inspection regulations designed proach deserves applause from those who are or negatively and, also, must secure approval of to keep off the market fish with excessively high levels of interested in the environment for it avoids waste, budgetary sources in Washington before com . mercury. and fragmentation of effort and poor utilization mitting the funds. *** of resources. The time to start was yesterday.
The Citizens' Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality call air pollution "Our most immediate health azard" and say environmental programs deserve a bigger • ut of the federal budget. The committee said Ad ministration efforts to increase water pollution control funding was a step in the right direction but more steps were needed. The committee also suggested the adoption of a national land-use program for urban areas. The group also called for more research on new power sources.
* * * The Associated Press has announced that Federal Of ficials have decided to permit an indefinite delay in the reporting of 51 types of industrial waste discharged into waterways. The delay was approved following a meeting in wl}ich industry spokesmen told representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, and Office of Management and Budget that they could not meet the July 1 deadline for most of the reporting requirements. The delayed reports include: radioactivity, sulfur com pounds, chlorides, cyanide, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals, mercury, oil and grease, phenols, chlorinated hydrocarbon, the chemical family of DDT and pesticides, and bacteria. * * *
The American Can Co., National Can Corp., Continental Can Co., and Heekin Can Co., of Cincinnati have an nounced a nationwide can reclamation program, that is designed to help ease the litter and solid. waste disposal problems. Can collectors aren't going to be paid directly. The more than 200 collection centers the new group expects to have operating around the country by mid-June will collect the cans from individuals and civic groups and pay selected local government agencies. The aluminum association recently reported total aluminum can collec tions of 73 million for the first quarter of 1971 and ll5 million cans collected in all of 1970. ***
Cougar Now Game Animal The cougar is now an of tana, Nevada, New Mexico, ficial game animal in ten Oregon, Utah, and western states, the Wildlife Washington in giving cougars Mangement Institute reports. much needed protection. Photo by Ernie Day Arizona and Idaho recently California is considering a reclassified the big cats to closed season to increase its A fisherman trys his luck in the deep, dark pools of the Middle Snake River in game status and joined cougar population. i'jorth America's deepest canyon. Hells Canyon remains free-flowing and un California, Colorado, Mon- dammed but developers seck to still its beautiful waters. 16-High Country N~ws Friday, May 28. 1971 ~-r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--4M~~~~~~~~~~
The dark hulk of a buffalo bull looms through the dense blanket grass· that grow around the warm areas. The animals remain here of fog surrounding the geysers and steam vents in Yellowstone until May when foraging grizzlies take the weakest. Early visitors National Park. In winter, the thermal basins take on an eerie look to the park may see all of these species as well as others at a time of as fog coats the trees with hoar-frost and wild animals - mainly the year when there is more wildlife than people. For more on buffalo and elk - plod through the mists seeking tender shoots of Yellowstone in the spring, see Verne Huser's column, Page 11. Eagle Death Toll ... no control exists. Private buyers can purchase Governor of the State of Wyoming, immediately Wy_Qming Epitaph either thallium or 1080 in other states without initiate and complete an executive investigation by J . D. Pedry restriction· and without revealing to any agency of the importation, possession, sale, transfer, use I or political subdivision the fact that they possess and other disposition of all poisonous substances I the material @r intend to use it. used, usuable or forbidden within Wyoming for A thousand feet above pine crested rid~ the control of all predatory animals or rodents. rugged canyons channeling ribbons of liquid No restriction We further resolve and petition that the full and chisel, a pair of fierce eyes prey. A powerful complete record of such investigation be made glider, more swift than the winds it rides, circles Governor Stanley K. Hathaway has chided available to the Wyoming public as such in patiently, confident in the order of nature from the public for not . supporting Senate File 75, vestigation progresses and be published when and into which it was born. Eagle eyes lock in, introduced in Wyoming's last legislature, to completed." The Outdoor Council represents flesh and blood and unerring instinct dive to kill, provide for registering and using pesticides. many different conservation and citizen groups. to satisfy life. What the govPr'!Gr did not tell the public was the But on the ground carrion meat lies, inviting. fact that the bili. was so loosely written it would Shooting from air And a proud bird eats, hungrily, greedily. not have prevented the eagle deaths if it had To soar again on content, which only lasts a been passed two years ago. Furthermore, it was Lawrence says he thinks the killing of eagles little while ... Suddenly! something very wrong introduced mainly by stockmen into a stockman by shooting from the air is more serious for the is happening, inside. Flesh erupting in chemical dominated legislature and didn't have a chance eagles than the poisoning. That action is chaos, dying in agony. Innocent majesty of accomplishing protection for the public. struggling against fear, an enemy unknown, specifically forbidden by law unless special crying for the right to challenge. Sickness SF 75 passed the Senate, riddled by amend provision is made through the Secretary of the ments and escape clauses. It was defeated in the Interior. stabbing repeatedly, unmercifully sinks him. House where even those who wanted a tough Crashing, ungracefully defeated, to the earth, to Lawrence has earlier pointed out that it would suffer finally. pesticide law were forced to vote against it. At no be difficult to prove wilful! intent to kill eagles time did Governor Hathaway publicly ask for Glory of the sun, pride of the wind, symbol of with the poison, although the users surely know a nation lies in a canyon tomb, broken. And the support of the bill while it was being considered. that thallium is deadly for aU animals and birds. Lawrence said the American Smelting & wind whines through the trees, moans across the Killing from an aircraft is a deliberate act. darkening sky-- Refining Co. at Pueblo, Colo, has informed him it Last year, GovernorHathawaycalled on then is stopping production of thallium. The company Secretary of the Interior Walter Hickel to allow also says it will try to buy back as much of the Wyoming sheep ranchers to kill eagles from the *** poison as it can from buyers of record. air. Hickel rejected the request. The foregoing was written by a young man Hathaway says he has asked the State As recently as March of this year, from Casper Wyoming locale of the death scene Agriculture Board to remove thallium from a list representatives of Wyoming's sheep industry for number; of eagles.' ( of registered pesticides. His action still does not testified in Washington on H. R. 5060,to prohibit The edit ..,. ) preclude unauthorized persons from buying the the shooting of wildlife from aircraft. They asked '- poison in another state, bringing it in, and using for a special exemption from the act for sheep p J•t · · Accused of Run ·' it at will. ranchers. The bill passed the House May 17 on a 0 I I cIans ). I~ State Representative John Turner of Teton vote of 307-8. The sheep ranchers did not get their G & f • h 0 f f County, a Ph. D. candidate in ecology at exemption. a me IS epar men Michigan and an authority on eagles, says he The sheep industry consistently maintains favors federal legislation. He said he will ask that eagles kill sheep and lambs. Federal-State The president of the Cicco said his organization Wyoming's Congressional delegation to in Agriculture Crop Reporting Service reported in Sweetwater County Wildlife will press for legislation that troduce a bill which would make it illegal for any April that Wyoming ranchers claimed the loss of Association has charged that will change the present unauthorized agent or person to possess, tran 8,400 lambs and 200 sheep to eagles during 1970. politicians appointed by the method of appointing game sport, or use thallium, 1080, strychnine, cyanide, Knowledgeable biologists and conservationists governor run the Wyoming and fish commissioners. He parathion or other toxic substances. have challenged the figures as being highly Game and Fish Department. said their efforts will be The Wyoming Outdoor Coordinating Council exaggerated. · Lou Cicco of Rock Springs based on the fact that it is has petitioned Governor Hatha w~ y for a full So, far, no arrests or imminent prosecutions said in a prepared news sportsmen's dollars that investigation. The petition said: have been announced in connection with recent release, "It is the feeling of support .the entire operation "Believing the recent discoveries of eagles found eagle deaths. However, Secretary of the Interior everyone I haye talked with of the department. dead of man's poisons to constit!Jte a disgrace to Rogers C. B. Morton told the annual convention on this matter that the time Cicco said his group's ef the State of Wyoming and the nation, and of the National Audubon Society meeting in has come when the sport forts are being supported by believing that the people of Wyoming have a Milwaukee that criminal prosecutions will be smen's organizations should the Jackson Hole Outfitters, right to be informed of the true facts surrounding sought. Morton said federal officials are trying have representatives on the the Wyoming Outfitters and the poisoning so that the proper corrective and to determine " whether we can prpsecute and Commission inste.:d of the Wyoming Wildlife preventive measures can be undertaken, we do make a criminal violation stick." politicians appointed by the Federation. hereby resolve and petition that you, as Governor."
(