XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

•2·High Country News - Aug. 7, 1981

Dear 'Friends, "

One of the folks who graces ourmasthead is going to take a leave ofabsence after this issue withoU:tever having been properly intro-duced to our readers. On the theorythat it is better late than never, wewould like to introduce CyndySimer, who joined HCN last March8S a production assistant, a job forwhich she is spectacularly over-qualified. Her background has-prompted at least one editor to askher, "What are you doing here?"She said she finds the cutting, past-ing and straightening "therapeu-"t' "IC.

Cyndy graduated from the Col-lege of William and Mary in Wil-liamsburg, Va., in 1971 and got agraduate degree in biochemistryfrom the University of Maryland in1975. She taught chemistry andphysics at the National <,;ithedralSchool and worked at the NationalInstitutes of Health in Bethesda,Md., for three years doing medicalresearch in idiopathic throm-bocytopenic purpura, among otherthings,

From 1977 until recently, shewas an instructor at the NationalOutdoor Leadership School here inLander. An accomplished athlete,Cyndy played left halfback for theU.S. women's field hockey team in1970 and 1971. She also coachedthe women's lacrosse team a t-Georgetown University inWashington, D.C.Last fall, Cyndy was one of nine

climbers who participated in thewomen's expedition to Dhaulagiri,the 26,OOO-foot peak in _theHimalayas. The group made it tothe 23,500 foot level before beingturned back. Cyndy was caught inan avalanche and barely escapedwith her life. The body of onewoman, climber was never reco-vered.

Cyndy is married to Peter Simer.director of NOLS. Peter is a war-games buff and one HCN editorsimilarly afflicted claims he is thebest Diplomacy player in town.Cyndy and Peter are expecting

their first child in late August,Hence, the leave of absence, whichwe hope will be brief. It is difficultto find good production assistance,which requires a sharp eye, asteady' hand and the patience ofJob. It doesn't require climbingropes, chemistry or a field hockeystick, but we'll welcome her back.

- the staff

WBstern Ioun~up

Treating sheep carcass with 1080

1080 revival renews old wrangleFederal officials said they were look-

ing for new facts. But emotion domi-nated the public debate last week inDenver on the use of Compound 1080for killing coyotes. and some observerspredicted that political persuasion willultimately settle the issue.The hearings were held by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency,which earlier this year accepted a re-quest by the National Cattlemen andwoolgrcwers associations to reconsiderits policies restricting predator con-trois. Compound 1080 and other pre-dator pesticides were banned in 1972., Sheep producers have vigorously lob-b.ed the agency to lift the ban. Theyblame the coyote for up to 10 percent ofannual stock losses, especially painfulfor an industry beset by other economicproblems. They argue that the low costand effectiveness of 1080 outweigh theenvironmental and health hazards itsuse presents.IThe EPA asked for "significant newinformation" on six related issues, in-cluding livestock losses from predation,before and after the 1972 ban; the effec-tiveness of alternative controls nowbeing used, as well as 1080; new controlmethods being developed, such as toxiccollars and single-dose baits; environ-mental hazards, particularly secondarypoisonings of non-targeted animals;and human safety."I'd, hoped to see more hard data," ,

said Lou Johnson, head of the toxicchemicals branch of the EPA's Denverregional office.> '

Industry representatives predictablyfocussed on predation losses, citing caseafter case of'coyote kills. Montanarancher Chase Hibbard said he was runout of the sheep business by coyotes.

But environmentalists questioned-the stockgrowers' claims. The EPA's at-tempt to weigh the costs and benefits ofusing 1080 are mistaken, said Dick''Randall of Defenders of Wildlife. "Howcan you put a price on a red-tail hawk?"he asked, referring to-the non-targetedwildlife kills he associates with the useof 1080.

Randall charged that "political evi-dence," rather than scientific, data willlead the EPA to holding formal hear-ings to review its 1080 policy,

Wyoming Farm Bureau public rela--tions officer Herb Manig agreed that. federal officials; including ,EPA Ad-ministrator Anne Gorsuch, would bemore receptive to lifting the b-an, con-vinced by the industry group that care-ful monitoring can make 1080 safe.

The EPA's Johnson," however," saidhis own opinion "will depend a lot onwhether (l080 proponents), whom weasked to submit data to back up theirtestimony, do so."

Capitol givessynfuels boost

f Synthetic fuel producers eyeing oil.= shale deposits in northwestern Col-

orado received good news last weekfrom the nation's capital. The Houseapproved legislation. to ease federalleasing rules and spur development,and the Reagan administration ap-proved a $400 million price guaranteefor the Union Oil shale project... With only five representatives votingagainst the measure, the House sentto the Senate, a bill allowing off-site dis-. pcsal, .with environmental protectionrestrictions; a tripling in lease limita-tions from the present 5,120 acres to15,4~0 -acres: multiple leases withinone state by a single operator; multiplemine r a l development on oil shaleleases; and some state and local gov-ernment consultation provisions.Several of the new liberal rules are

grounded by potentially restrictivelanguage. To override objections by astate gover-nor. for instance, the In-terior secretary would have to find de-velopment necessary to the "nationalinterest."From the administration, mean-

while, came the news that Energy Sec-retary James Edwards had negotiated acontract with Union Oil. The deal pro-vides purchase commitments and priceguarantees for synthetic fuel producedby the firm's proposed 50,000 barrel-a-day operation in northwestern Col-orado.Budget Director David Stockman

had opposed such aid to the industry.The contract was also skeptically r'e- .ceived by Rep. Toby Moffett (D-Conn.I,whose House Government OperationsSubcommittee on environment, energyand natural resources is reviewing it."We can't tell what the effect will be ..

said the panel's st;ff counsel Edit h Hoi-leman. "The Department of Energymaintains there will be no cost. But Ithink they'll end up paying out everycent they agreed to.". The contract could stick taxpayers forup to $400 million, should Union Oilneed full assistance 'to market its shaleoil fuel. Moffett's oversight powers, saidHolleman, are restricted to "letting thepublic know about this." ' -Waiting in line behind Union Oil is

another western Colorado oil shale pro-ject jointly sponsored by Tasca Corp .and Exxon Corp., which is..asking formore than $1 billion in loan guarantees(ruther than the price guarantees alsoobtained by Union), and a coal gasifica-tion project in North Dakota sponsoredby American Natural' Resources Co.,which is asking the federal governmentfor $2 billion in loan guarantees.A decision on these two requests is

expected tbis'week.

Published biweekly at 331 Main, Lander, Wyo. 82520. Telephone"307-332-6970. Se~ondclass postage paid at Lander. (USPS No.

-High Country News· 087480). All rights to publication of contents herein are reserved. . -Publisher - Thomas A. Bell Production Manager Kathy Bogan.Editor Geoffrey O'Gara Production Assistant Cyndy SimerStaff Writer Michael Moss Circulation Betsy SchimelpfenigAssociate Editor Dan Whipple Typesetter - Debbie East

The independent Con~buting Editor Peter Wild Photography Mike McClurenatural resourcN biweekly Correspondents Philip White Intern Dale Roberts

of the Rnckieo , Jim RobbinsCall for~rmission to reprint any !irticles o!"illustrations. Contributions (manuscripts,~hotos, artwork) will be welcomedwith th~

SubHrlpdoDl,ll1.oo per year.u~ders~~mdmg.that the editors cannot.be held responsible for loss or damage. Articles and letters will be published and edited at the

SlDaIe copt.. 76 cent.. discretion of the editors. -.To have a sample copy s~nt'to a friend ~ei1d us his. or ~~r a~dres~. \Vri~e to Box K.,Lander, Wyo., 825?0. ISSN: 0191-5657,

, ~., , , ,. ~ .. . .." _. ,. ... , --, --------- - "'- "- ~! ~.:".':. . - --- ------ - -- ... - - - - - - - ,

-, - ,

... ..._-~----------_. .•• _1. -_ •• _-- --,_ J ....

b_

_ .- . __ •••• ~ "" .4 •

/

•;,

.' ,

Interior lifts160-Qcre cop,

Continuing to rebuff the controver-sial 160-acre limitation on owningfederally-watered land, the Depart-ment of Interior has stopped enforcingone key rule u'ntil its lawyers can re-view the 1902 Reclamation Act.The act restricts ownership of lands

irrigated by federally-subsidized waterprojects to 160 acres. Lands exceedingthat limitation must be sold if theowner wishes to stay in the program.. At least, that's' how previous -ad-ministrators interpreted the law, saidAssistant Secretary of Interior GarreyCarr-tithers. Those opinions may bewrong, and he hasordered a new reviewby the agency's solicitor. Meanwhile,excess land sales willbe suspended andthe federal tap will stay on.The rule was partially thrown out in

1978 when fanner Secretary of InteriorCecil Andrus exempted landowners inCalifornia's Westlands District, wheremost of the two million excess acres arelocated. Sales continued elsewhere inthe West where there are excess lands,including Idaho (with 21,000 acres),Wyoming (20,400 acres), Montana(16,500 acres) and Utah (3,400 acres).Those owners wishing to sell excess

lands for estate planning or otherreasons will still· be permitted to do so,said Yern Cooper of the Bureau ofReclamation's budget office, addingthat the solicitor review may extend"until Congress can take a look at the·act:"TH:e~'agency is also reviewing partS of

th~ law requiring on-land residency for'purchasers of excess lands, as well asthe crit~ria.!or-appraisi~g value.

_.Aug: 7; 1981 ~ High CountrY Ne~....:l

Pipeline march: Does it-mash marsh?.A marsh is a marsh, and it's a rare

.marsh if it's found near Rock Springs,Wyo. But the southern end of Tenmilemarsh is no marsh -at all, say officialswith the Colorado Interstate Gas Co.,because it's dry eleven months everyyear. And thus they're resisting anyspecial 'treatment for their proposednew pipeline.Named Trailblazer, the natural gas

line is to run 800 miles from Evanston,Wyo.,-toBeatrice, Neb. The $533 mill-ion project, sponsored 'by CIG and fourother natural gas firms, is awaitingfinal approval by the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission. ..Until now, Trailblazer's route

through administrative channels hasbeen uncontested. A final environmen-tal impact statement' by, fERC, 'sup-plemented by a Bureau of Land Man-agement. review, shared CIG's viewthat the tOO-acre Tenmile marsh wasnot marsh at all. Recent public hear-ings drew no opposition to the project -from environmentalists. .But BLM Rock Springs area wildlife

Wyo. council could tie new tracksWyoming's Industrial Siting Council

is considering intervening in the prop-osed new Sfi-m ile railroad line intendedto move coal from the state's PowderRiver Basin east to Nebraska.The rail line is planned by Chicago &

North Western, which feels the new linecould compete with existing rails' intothe basin owned by Burlington North- ,¥yobraska spokesman Ed Middles-

'worth," a Torrington, Wyo. cattleern. •~ rancher, said- he was confident the sit-- The line received approval from the

federal Interstate Commerce Commis- - ing coyntil would review the new line.-But that review, said Counci.l directorsion. last week, which concluded that. Rich,al'd Moore, is contingent on the"any environmental disturbances

would be outweighed by the construct.ion ~ostsGfthe Wyomi'hg por-(economic) benefits," referring to. the .tion of the Hne exceeding $85 million.increased competi"tion the "line would Moore said Chicago & North Westernbring to '"the are; was now determining its costs.The ICC had rejected an appeal by If the council does review the line,

the. Wyooraska Landowners Associa- said Middlesworth, "'it may not stop thetion, which has taken the ~pposite. view thing, but it certainly will hold it upthat developme,nt, impac,ts o!J ,area more and may bring in'more money,tolandowneF3 would be intolerable. __ c _ help deal with the -impactsi' ' . .,

The Industrial Siting Council, createdin 19'74 to require industry to helpmitigate impacts From development,was given jurisdiction over railroadsearlier this. year by the state Legisla-ture - an expansion Jobbied for byWyobraska. ' .

'[ego/limbofor Indian fox

No coo! swap,so UP & L buys. -

Utah Power and Light ha~ finally ob-tained a tract of federal coalIand inCentral Utah it has been seeking forsome tjme. However, the company hadto bid for the property rather than get itin a land swap with the 'Interior De-partment. UP & L bid $3,150 per acrefor a 3,3~7acre parcel near Castle Dale,Utah, or a total of $10,544,000.For the past several months, the

company has been trying to trade pre-ference right lease application's it 'holdson federal. land in southern Utah forthis tract. The Interior Department,however, said that the Castle Dale tractwas "highly competitive" and that theuovornment would get a better d~al bynucrion'i ng it off. Apparently, the gov-crn mcnt was right. Nine companies bid f-------"'---~--'-------------- __'__~ _!t(!1" tht, tract and the auction took overtwo hours.In all, live Utah coal tracts were au-

climH'd cffIoru total of over $14 miJI-1("1\

biologist Jim Dunder claimed the routecrossing is indeed a marsh .......a raremarsh. Ducks, marsh hawks, migrat-ory birds, muskrats and other wetlandspecies frequent the area for- nesting-and cover, he said, making the entireTenmile area one of only two natural'marshes in all of southwestern wyom-ing.Dunder said the Trailblazer project is

particularly distressing bec'Y':"-" qIG,."in building another pipeline-theeugh .the area last year, failed to restoredamaged wetlands. That damage,.charged Dunder, has caused erosionthat is contributing to Tenmile marsh'sinability to hold water throughout theyear.CIG's public relations director Jack

Chandler said his employee in charge ofrehabilitation was "totally unaware" ofthe erosion and' had not. received any. notice from BLM officials to correct theproblem.Chandler said he expects FERC ap-

proval this fall, with constructionscheduled to begin next April.

.Comments say noto Washakie- oil

.'"i•f

The period for public comment onproposed oil and gas drilling inWyoming's Washakie Wildernessclosed this week with a rough tallyshowing strong opposition to- leasingthe area to energy developers. -The numbers were not large, how-

ever: only 392 comments were receivedby Shoshone National Forest. The687,000-acre wilderness area, whichborders Yellowstone National Park, isthe first wilderness area to test provi-sidns in the 1964 Wilderness Act thatleave the door open for oil and gas de-velopment in wilderness areas.AJ least one of the written comments

may receive special attention. Yellows-tone National Park Supervisor John

• c Townaley wrote that energy develop-ment in the Washakie "would he devas-tating to the critical wildlife habitat·and would destroy the -wilderness val-ues in this wild. remote and incrediblyscenic area."The latest count showell-130 applica-

tions for oil and gas leasing in theWasha'kie, but Forest Service officialssaid more applications were sitting on'their desks .. , ! I

The comments, as well as reports onthe area's oil and gas potential, will beconsidered between now and October,-when a draft decision on the leases isexpected. "I've looked at about 250 of{the comments)," said Shoshone officialBud Riggs, "and I'd say not more thanfive or six were for leasing."

The nation's highest courts have de-layed decisions on two cases testing. thevalidity of severance taxes on Indian~reservations.The VB. Supreme Court on July 3

ordered a reliearing next fall on a casebrought: by oil companies objecting to aseverance tax levied by the JicarillaApache Tribe of New Mexico.Meanwhile the Ninth Circuit Court

of Appeals in San Francisco returnect tothe lower court a case in which theCrow Trihe challenged the right of thestate of· Montana to collect a stateseverance tax on Iniian coal. ,Thejudgeslndica&<! they favored the

tribe, saying they iiispected the stateseverance tax conflicted with the 1938Mineral Leasing Act. The Crows willhave another opportunity to argue.their case in the U.S. District Court inBillings, Mont.Indian tribes .throughout the North-

ern Plains and Rockies are watchingthe cases carefully, and several saidthey plan to. enact their own mineralseverance taxes if the Crow or JicarillaApache are successful.A tribal. severance tax can be critical

to tribal control over energy develop-ment. Many tribes argue they arelocked into low royalty rates, distri-buted in per capita payments to tribalmembers. The tribal governments, r.e-sponsible for cushioning the impacts oftl." develo~ment, often get only a smallpercentage of the income from the min-erals. _ .In the Crow case, though, the state of

Montana contends that it is taxing the· non-Indian lessees, and the state must· provide for the off-reservation impacts.

~ MBJ:ianeAmbler

4-lIigh Country News - Aug. 7, 1981

Une Ret-rence Terve

the MX would cost each taxpayer$2,500 "while adding nothing to our na-tional security."The CEPreport urged that the money

planned for the MX would make thecountry more "secure if it were spent on"a long-term program affuel oil conser-vation." The report said, "Th~ 1980balance-of-trade deficit ($2.4 billion)could be completely eliminated andconverted into a substantial surplus"with a conservation program.The Air Force has estimated the total

cost of the JYIXsystem at $52 billion.CEP said it would be more like $232billion.

\ViIern Kounaup

,

Aliens program. ' ..wornesreglonThe immigration reforms announced

by Pr€sident Reagan last week havedrawn a "mixed, ifnot puzzled. reactionfrom agricultural producers in theRocky Mountain region.Caught between declining labor sup-

plies and fears of the constricting gov-ernment involvement Reagan's prog-ram may bring, growers are weighingthe pros and cons of changes that couldsignificantly alter their operations.The administration proposals, which

require congressional approval, includea guest-worker program that -wouldallow U.S. employers· to import up to50,000 foreign workers, mostly from'Mexico, for temporary labor. Emp-loyers continuing to hire illegal alienswould be subject to $1,000 fines.I Growers throughout the region com-plain of labor shortages. "It's awful-tough to get the American people backon the farms," said National FarmersUnion President George Stone in De-'nver, noting most ranchers and farmersrely on Hispanics to supplement familyfarm labor.Recent surveys in Colorado cite labor

shortages as a major reason for today'sfarm economy troubles.' In Wyoming,hired ranch hands have declined from6,000 to 4,000 in the last flve years.Growers in energy producing areas facestiff competition for labor from high-paying energy firms.But Reagan's worker program,

known as "bracero," may be far too lit-tle, charged Sen. Harr ispn Schmitt(R-N.M.l, whosaid as many as 2 millionworkers were needed each year to takeagricultural jobs Americans refused.It may also be· too expensive, said

Allan Jones, a western Colorado fruitgrower. Jones said worker housing andhealth standards required by the prog-ram did not exceed what he alreadyprovided for his hired illegal aliens, butthat the paperwork involved in par-ticipating in the bracero program couldsend costs too high.And most agricultural observers, in-

cluding Herb Manig of the WyomingFarm Bureau, found the fines for hiringillegals "unwarranted," requiring far-mers to be law enforcement officers forthe government.The Farmers Union's Stone and

others said they would withhold finaljudgement until Congress could de-velop more specific provisions.Taking an immediate hard line

against the proposal, however, is theidaho Migrant Council, speaking forboth American and alien Hispanic farmworkers."There's a high unemployment

among farmworkers now," said Hum-berto Fuentes, executive director of thegroup in BOise. "Agri-busmess justwants an abundant supply of cheap"labor," headded, discounting much ofthe grower outcry for more labor."What's missing in the Reagan prog-

ram is a concern for abuses of humanrights," said Fuentes. "There's no talkabout guarantees - for housing,health, wages - and until there is, no,we don'~ need any more workers." ;'

Cr-itics' paper, Reagan doubts hurt MXThe Reagan administration has ap-

parently joined the long line of thosequestioning the usefulness of the"racetrack" basing system for the MXmissile.Reports from Washington indi-cate the administration is going toscrap the "shell game" concept andmount. the missiles on airplanes. An of-ficial White House spokesman said,• however; that President Reagan 'has-yet to make a final decision on the pro"ject.The Washington Post reported that

Defense Secretary Caspar Weinbergerwould recommend placing the MX mis-sile aboard transport pla~s as part ofa .

liDtllneWESTERN SLOPE POWERWith protests.in an adjacent- county

still pending, the Public Service Co. ofColorado has begun placing new60-to 120-foot towers in Lake and Eagle.counties for its. planned 345,000 volttransmission line. The utility willspend $16.5 million- to put up 324 to- .wers along a 51~mile corridor, fromBasalt to Malta, by October, 1982, un-less a suit by Pitkin County to halt the.project 'is successful.

NEW BLM FOCUSWith the appointment of Denver at-

. torney Sandra Blackstone "tohead theBureau of Land Management's energyand minerals department, the agencyhas announced a new drive to "increasethe availability of Federal lands forenergy and rriineral exploration anddevelopment." Blackstone brings ex-perience to the job. She formerly hand-led synthetic fuels business for RockyMountain Energy Co. 'in Denver, andhas been a consultant to Colorado CoalCo.

CREDITING OIL-SHALEEquipment used in creating oil shale

through hydrogenation will be eligiblefor a 10 percent investment tax credit,under new legislation introduced bySen. Bill Armstrong (R-Colo.!. Thechange, he said, would put that processon par with coal-gasification, liquifica-tion, and the other synthetic fuel pro-cesses-that.now receive tax breaks., .

/

defense package that would .also in-clude development of a new bomber.The air system would replace the cur-rently proposed 4,600 shelters scat-tered through Utah and Nevada, con-nected by highways. In, the racetracksystem, the missiles would be shuttledfrom silo to silo to keep enemies in thedark about their exactIocation,The MX received an additional blow

when the New York-based Council on- Economic Priorities sent a report toCongress charging that the Air Forcehad biased its information on the MX,understating costs and overemphasiz-ing benefits. The report concluded that

-

SORRY, NO MONEY, The Reagan administration and keymembers ofCongress are continuing toliold firm against dish ing out federal.dollars for new water projects. Gov.Dick Lamm (D)and other Colorado om-dais journeyed to the nation's capitallast week, seeking start up funds forthe"state's proposed Animas La Plata andNarrows projects.' But failing to geteven promises of hope from InteriorSecretary James Watt or Rep. Tom Be-vill (D-Ala.), chairman' of the HouseAppropriations public works panel,Lamm lamented to the Denver Postthat "the good old days" of cooperativefederal funding appear to beover.

URANIUM SPENDING SLIDESU.S. uranium producers are project-

ing steadily declining expenditures onuranium mining and milling facilityconstruction, with planned spendingdropping from $515 million last year to$195 million in 1982. The market is souncertain, some firms say, that they·can't project any. continued spending.. .~"

SYNFUEL PASSES TESTSSuccessful test results from the year-

long Exxon pilot project in Baytown,Texass should encourage private indus-try to take the lead in further research,said Secretary of ·Energy James Ed-wards. The plant has been processi ng.some- 250 tons of Illinois coal a daythrough tlte Exxon Donor Solvent pro- "cess - producing 625 barrels of oil.A full size plant would handle as muchas 30,000 tons ~ day. Further testingwill involve western coal from Wyom-ing. DOE's contribution to the $350million project is now projected at$166.6 million, down to a 48 percentshare of the previous 50-50 cost sharingarrangement with Exxon and six otherfirms.

WETLANDS NOT SO WETBacking away from a heated local

outcry, the Army Corps of Engineershas drafted a map of Gunnison County,Colo., wetlands that exclud~s virtuallyall ir r igated land. Area landownerswere concerned the agency would exer-cise tight regulatory controls over alllar:ds defined as wetlands. Irrigatedlands, they successfully argued, shouldnot be included because the wetness isman made.

MINING THE MILITARYOver six million acres of fe~eral

military lands are now open to oil andgas leasing, ending an 18-mo~thmoratorium imposed by the Carter ad-ministration, announced the Depart-ment or Interior. The agency is alsobacking a bill by Rep. John Ham-merschmidt (R-Ark.) to give statesone-half of the revenues generated fromdeveloping any discovered resources on Ithose lands. ~ .

SLOW TO MINE FARMLANDDick Harris, nominated to head the

Office of Surface Mining, has promisedto move cautiously in opening primefarmlands and alluvial valley floors tocoal mining. In confirmation hearingsbefore the Senate Energy Committee,Sen. John Melcher (D-Mont.) said he .was concerned about Harris' support foran Indiana legislative resolution chal-lenging the federal rules protectingfarmlands (rules the Supreme <Courtsuhsequently upheld). Said Harris: "Ifit can be shown on an experimentalbasis that prime farmlands 'can be re-turned to a high percentage of produc-tivity, we will have access to these vastcoal resources. Ifnot, there will be a lot-of unrnineablecoal." ,"

HOMESTEAD 1981Not to be outdone by the Sagebrush

Rebels of the West, Rep. Philip Crane(R-Ill.) has-Introduced a bill to giveaway lands currently managed by theU.S. Bureau of Land Management.Crane's bill makes the old HomesteadAct sound positively stingy. Crane'shomesteaders. would not be required tofarm 'the land' they take, according tothe Outdoor News Bulletin, pub-lished by the Wildlife Management In-stitute. Rather, they'd only have to puta "residence on the land, live in it for twoand it half years, and put the land to"productive purposes,"

COAL BOARD HELP?The Reagan administration's budget

cuts will hit Montana hard, accordingto a recent ·report by the Coal Boardadministrator. Murdo Campbell. Hesaid local governments will turn to the"board for help, seeking for airports,sewers, and home loans, among otherthings. Board members expressed reliefthat the Supreme Court had upheld thestate severance tax, which the coalboard distributes. Of $9.3 million av-ailable this year, $2.9 million is alreadyout, and requests stemming from theReagan budget cuts are just starting toarrive.

SPILT MILKCanadians seemingly aren't too

happy to see water from the Milk Riverflow across their border into Montana, .where it is gobbled up by irrigators. Sothey are thinking of damming it. Thefederal Bureau of Reclamation also hasa number of canal projects in mind. Theriver starts in the United States, goesnorth into Saskatchewan, and thenloops hack into Montana. In dry years,like this one, the Milk doesn't evenhave enough aqua to supply presentusers, and it Tl,lDS dry.

NORTHERN TIER NEARSDespite fears ofsome tribal members,

vote";' on the Flathead Reservation inMontana approved a right-of-way ag-reement between the ConfederatedSalish and Kootenai Tribes and theNorthern Tier Pipeline Co. Tribalcouncil member Bearhead Swaney cal-led the agreement a "rip off' and said hefeared a pipeline break that would pourthousands of gallons of crude oil intoI the reservation's irrigation system.Now the company awaits only a sitlngpermit from the state of Washingtonbefore ~tcan 'proceed with constructionof its 1,500 mile pipeline from .PortAngeles, Wash., to Clearbr~ok, Mi~n.

FISHY EXEMPTION _Land sold to non-profit, tax-exempt

organizations or state and federal gov-ernments primarily for preservation offish and wildlife or natural areas wouldbe exempt from capital gains taxesunder a bill introduced by Rep. RobertLagomarsino (D-Cali£.). Tbe bill wouldrequire the Secretary of the Interior togrant exemptions after revtewing themanagement plans for an area. d'..c.r:'-:;;;:---"

I.;r"''''', ~.//,., .

,I "_/

--=-~~_"r--~?~;f,

CARING FOR ANIMALSAlthough Agriculture Secretary

John Block denies' it's an importantissue, Congress is considering" estab-:lishing a panel to investigate animalrights - the treatment (or mistreat-ment) of farm animals raised for ftad.·Rep. Ronald Mottl (D-Ohio) is pushingfor a 16-member panel of agricultureand .consumer activists to investigatelivestock production techniques, ani-mal welfar..e, and the economics ofmassproduction, which Mottl believes maybe less favorable than non-intensivefarminl! methods. ~Block said hecouldn't take ·,· .nimal rights "very seri-ously."

FJVE YEAR BREAKAfter five years of distributing coal

tax revenues to encourage renewableenergy development, Montana is cal ~. ling a temporary halt in its grant prog-ram to get its bearings. The programhas given out $5.1 million; including$220,000 for a massive wind farm nearLivingston, solar heating systems, anda grant to tap hot springs energy, re-ported the Associated Press. A prog-ram spokesman said they had to reex-amine the grants in light of today'scommercial-scale renewable energytechnology, and that grants wouldbegin again in the fall.

WYO, COAL LEADERSHIPWyoming now ranks third as a coa]-

producing state, but federal officialssay it may overtake Kentucky andWest Virginia in the next decade ifpresent trends continue. Barry Levy ofthe U.S. Department of Energy's Officeof Coal Supply Development told theCasper Star-Tribune that projectednew mining in <the Powder Ri verBasin would put the state ahead, L;'styear Wyoming produced 94 milliontons, compared to 'Kentucky's 149million tons.

BLOW ME DOWNIt was a case of too much o(a good

thing. Medicine Bo-w, Wyo., .is consi-deredone of the better sites in the coun-try for large-scale wind energy projects.Work has begun there to erect several'large wind turbines - the first phase ofa planned "wind farm." Butwhen windsclocked at over 90 miles per hour sweptacross Wyoming last week, reinforce-ment bars at the 'base .of the wind~trterat~r cite }ie~e~blo~n ~ver.

,

U.S. dependence on foreign oilnotwithstanding, Asamera Oil,Inc.; one of Colorado's three majorgasohol distributors, has bowed outof the market. The two to sevencents more per gallon it was charg-ing for the grain fuel depressedsales and company profits. SaidAsamera official Ellwood Amen,"The patriotism tIiing just didn'tfl- " . '.y.

POWER TO GROWAmericans are anticipating "sub-

stantial" growths in the use of electric-ity by the turn of the century, reports anew survey conducted by Westinghousefor Power Engineering, magazine.Expectstions for solar energy's rolewere only slightly higher than predic-tions for contributidns from coal andnuclear power, the pollsters found. Re-spondents with below-average expects--tions for electricity growth, themagazine reported, included women,blacks, and nuclear opponents.

All in a name: Caterpillar TractorCo. officials say they're expectinghigh earnings from their' SedarTurbines International Division,acquired last week for $505 millionfrom. International Harvester Co.Good times for solar energy? Notquite. This "Solar" firm's principleproducts are natural gas compres-sor sets, generator packages andpump drive units used in producingand transporting crude oil andnatural gas.

The National Earthquake In-for mat.ion Service employs ageophysicist named Waverly Per-son.

The Great Outdoors. SecurityRock Bits and Drill Tools has in-vented a combination charcoal andgas grill capable of cooking 400pounds of meat at once.

WINDBLOWN .STA TISTI CSWind erosion has again broken re-

cords in the Great Plains. according tothe Deparbqient of Agr iculture. Mon-tana took th@worst beating. More than20 percent of the··12.5 million acresdamaged nationwide were within itsborders, The ag experts consider ac-reagedamaged if soi l has been removedor deposited that will impair the land'sproductive capacity. North Dakota-had2,1 million acres damaged; SouthDakota, L3 million acres; Wyoming,

- 31,250 acres; Cofor ado, 2.3 millionacres; ·a·n~'~ew.-Mexic~..570,800 acres.-

WILDLIFE TRAILWyoming State' Sen. John

Turner (R-Teton) has hit the cam-paign trail for legislation to create a.$250 million trust fund to enhancewildlife and recreation' in the state.Turner is holding public hearings onthe bill, which only passed the Senatethis year. Turner will need a two-thirdsvote to get the bill considered inWyoming's 1982 budget se~sion. Thelegislation has been opposed byagricul-tural interests, who fear it will rsise thecost of ranchland and allow the state tobuy agricultural land for wildlifehabitat. Und~r Turner's bill the funds- which will come from oil and mineral'severance taxes - could-be used to im-prove winter range, assure minimumstream flows, as well as expand and irn-prove -state parks and historical sites.- "~ .

,

. 6-High Country News - Aug. 7, 1981

Line Refwenc:e T.-rvet LR'

THE 'PIT AND' T-HE PENST·EMON•

Wyoming's endangered plantsby Betsy' Bernfeld

In 1979 Penstemon acaulis, adainty blue desert flower, was listed asan endangered species in Wyoming. Itsonly known habitat was a few gravellyridgetops in the Flaming Gorge area inthe southwestern part of the state -directly in the path of an expandinggravel pit. .Last year Dr. Robert D. Dorn, plant

ecologist for the Wyoming Departmentof Environmental Quality, and RobertW. Lichvar, plant taxonomist for theWyoming Natural Heritage Program ofthe Nature Conservancy. went down toinvestigate. The story has a happy end-ing. The two botanists found a nearby20-by-5 mile strip of pens tern on popula-, 'tion which is out of reach of the gravelpit and where no otherdevelopment isplanned. The plant was removed fromthe endangered list, .That leaves three endangered species

ofplants in Wyoming. These are listedin the second edition of Rare and En-dangered Vascular Plants and Ver-tebrates of Wyoming, edited by Dorn-and r». Tim W. Clark, just releasedJuly. 2nd,Laramie. false sagebrush'

(Sphaeromeria simplex), which lookslike a miniature sagebrush, is one ofthese endangered three. The specieswas first collected in 1899 by Aven Nel-son, one of the first faculty members ofthe University ofWyoming and founderof the Rocky Mountain Herbarium. Itwas collected until 1907, then went un-seen until 1978,' when Dorn stumbledon it during a mine inspection.The plant is restricted to a limestone

formation southeast of Laramie. ("Idon't want to give any directions," saidLichvar) and covers less than 1,000acres. Twenty percent of this habitat,has already been destroyed by a limes-tone quarry,Although the Endangered Species

Act of 1973 mandated that federalagencies protect endangered species,there are two obstacles with-Laramiefalse sagebrush. It is growing on pri-vate property, not federal lands or pro-jects. Also, althongh it is a "candidate"for the 'federal endangered register, ithas not yet been approved. "Candi-dates" have no legal standing;,theirprotection is purely a management de-cision.Laramie false sagebrush has been a

"candidate" for six years, so one Col-orado and five Wyoming botanistssubmitted a petition in March to the _Fish and Wildlife Service Ofticeof En-dangered Species request.ing im-mediate listing. On May I, Fish aridWildlife responded that they "intendedto proceed with proposing" the speciesfor listing. Dorn feels the plant's posi-tion is "really no different than it hasbeen for the past seven years."Ross bentgrass (Agr:>stis

rossiae), an annual grass about 3 to 4inches tall, is another endangeredspecies for which Wyoming botanists,have proposed. immediate listing. Its~bi~t happens to be in YellowstoneNatiOnal Park, which .makes its futureIn'ightei<.'Natioii8.! ParK Servia, regu-

0," •.1, ,..,"'~~ ).j I .... {\~/...:'J l.!".j .'rG11~..

\

_a~ , ,lations prohibit "the destruction, re-moval or disturbance in any manner ofany animal or plant matter'."At the turn of the 'century Ross

bentgrass was found all along theFirehole River. Then it went uncol-lected from the early 1900's until the1950s when Dr. Alan Beetle, then aprofessor at the University of Wyom-ing, collected it at two geysers.In 1979 Dorn and Lichvar searched

the entire Firehole Basin and- foundbentgrass to be restricted to one hotspring. The population was 50-250 in-dividuals and encompassed a 30-by-30foot area. ,There-is no proof as to why the

bentgrass population is decreasing. Onetheory is that shifting durihg the 1959Yellowstone earthquake may havechanged the plant's geothermal envi-ronment.Don G. Despain, research biologist at

. Yellowstone National Park, said,"There is no reason to panic. We aren't.even absolutely sure the plant is goingextinct."It is difficult to identify the grass ex-

cept for several days per year when it isin flower. Despain feels that more needsto be known about plant growth ingeothermal areas before any recoverysteps can be-taken, Right now "the lesswe do to draw attention to where it isand what it is, the better, " said Des-pain. ,-

The third endangered Wyomingplant is Colorado butterfly-weed(qall,ra Neomexicana ssp,eoloradensis), a tall plant with white,four-petaled flowers. This species onceranged from Fort Collins, Colorado toPine Bluffs, Wyoming to Cheyenne.Presentlyit grows in just two locations.One is outside of Cheyenne; the other'alon(a~E~~k-, V\'NCl),ciq~:tjl~P.?.wer .

,between Wyoming and Colorado, Onthe Wyoming side there are about sixplants and five miles away in Colorado'a population of a few more plants.. Agriculture has been a large factor inthe reduction of the butterfly-weed. Thespecies grows in wet meadows and pro-duces a seed head every two years, U.n·fortunately, the seed heads are nevermature by August, when farmers cutthem with their wild hay._ Other populations of butterfly-weedhave been destroyed by' urban growth,Housing developments and a shoppingcenter now stand directly over the oldcollecting sites in Fort Collins,Over the past six years Darn and

Livar have been largely responsible formaking recommendations to the Fishand Wildlife Service regardingWyoming's endangered and threatenedspecies of plants, In 1975, when theWyoming .endangered and threatened'list was first drawn up, itconsistedof39plants. Dorn and Lichvar have whittledit down to five. Lichvar describes hismethods as "lean and mean." "When Istand up and get excited about a plant,I'm not just trying to whitewash some-thing."Botanists working in the field keep

the "Iist" very much alive. In fact, Lich-, var saysthe bOOKthat just came out, byDorn and Clark, is already out-dated,Two species listed as threatenedshouldbe deleted from it. Lesquerella·macrocarpa, whose common 'name islarge fruited bladderpod, further nick-named by Dorn and Lichvar as Red De-sert cabbage, is now off the threatenedlist and under consideration for the~~8ensitive" list, a 'new category prop-osed by the Bureau of Land Manage-ment. Several miles from the~l;>laddeFP.,OO'sonly kIlowI\ populatiOn,"POJ;IlJ..ll!ld !li""Vft!'..fo'\\P(~\><>)lt ~G,P.QO

. more plants.And although there is an increasing

amount of energy development in the'area, the botanists are not worried thatroads or pipelines will endanger theplant. The species grows only on bento-nite beds and says Lichvar, "Nobody in ~th~ir right mind would put a road overbentonite. It would be totally impassi-ble the first time it rained."Precocious milkvetch (Astralagus

proimanthus) is also off thethreatened list, About 20,000 of these:plants inhabit a six-mile long, '240-'acrestrip In the Flaming Gorge area. It is'extremely restricted geologically. It willgrow only on a whitish shale formationunder certain conditions. In spite of itssmall numbers and restricted habitat,it does not qualify for threatened clas-sification. There are no threats.Botanists have determined that

other endangered and threatenedplants have simply been misnamedand are actually members of morecommon species. Yeilowstone rockcress(Arabis fruetieosa) was collected byNelson in 1899 .along a buggy road inYellowstone. It has never been foundsince. Dorn and Lichvar have concludedthat it was simply a robust variant of", Arabis microphylla. During one gen-eration its chromosomes could havedoubled producing bigger fruits for thatone year.While field work has cut some names

from the) registers, "it has also addednew names for consideration. Severalplants collected in the past, but neverproperly identified because of poorspecimens, have been "rediscovered"and classified. Two plant species com-pletely "new to science" have beenfound in the last three years, and threeor four more species suspected of beingnew are now being examined. "Botani-cally, Wyoming is reasonably well-known, but there is still a lot of work to".be, done," said Dorn.In recommending candidates for list-

ing, Dorn and Lichvar tend to stick toplants which are found only in theWyoming region. Plants rare in Wyom-ing but common in other states don'tqualify. Often plants that qualify arefound on dry, windswept, unusualgeologic formations, They have learnedto adapt to the most severe conditionsand therefore hold much knowledgethat people need,The large-fruited bladderpod is a

member of the cabbage family whichhas adapted to life on clay soil in thedesert. It shouldoffer clues to.arid landfanners. A plant in the same genus asLaramie false sagebrush contains cer-tain cell-growth inhibitors which maybe useful in the treatment of cancer.The intermountain basin region,

with its arid climate and geologic for-.mations which expose strata not seenelsewhere, has been the site of muchstress-caused differentiation amongplants. South and west of Wyoming en-demies become even more common.Utah, has approximately 55 end,emicplant species on their endangered andthreaten~d lists. Nevada has 180.Galifornia,has, 700. ,i

} '-: :.-r,','t.·S.f ~\!l\ .~iJ~-r,o1\11o\'Jj''''*">Ct1~) , 1;.10'-:. ' .- ~.. ,.. .

8-High Country News - Aug, 7, i981

Just when you have them convinced of the rightness of a thing,,

.cows will decide to vote Republican.. \ . .

Cattle drive ...tcontinued from,pa~e n square miles in which to run and hide. They go to Scoop

Shovel Creek, Cottonwood Canyon, Rock Hollow Canyonand other places without names. Sometimes they go tvMuddy Creek. Bernard said, "I hope they aren't down onthe Muddy. The mosquitoes and horseflies are terribl~down there. There ate only two places to get out of thecanyon and the bugs will eat you alive."The first place they check for cows is near a roofless,

abandoned homesteader's cabin that shows the strain of'sitting in the weather for a hundred years or more. Thehorses are unloaded from the trailer and the cOW~OYSI someof them ersatz, begin a hot day.There is~'t much to know about moving cattle, said Wen-

dell, "just keep them moving in the direction you want-them to go in." This isn't hard_most of the time, unless aparticularly independent cow decides that the direction is .not to her liking. They do this every so often. "Last year, Ihad a cow that just wouldn't go up to the gathering point;"Bernard said. "1 turned her twice but she just didn't want togo. The third time I turned her, she just backed off, turnedher head and rammed myhorse 'right in the guts. I lost herafter that...the sonofabitchgot away."Today - a Friday - as Wendell was pushing a bunch up

Rock Hollow, six of them decided they didn't like the easyte~rain, they were travelling and headed straight up theside of the canyon. Two of the ersatz cowboys took afterthem, exhausting their horses in the process. After a chase,the cows turned and ran straight down the side of the_canyon- again, joining the others. A great deal of cussingfollowed them.

In order to get tfie cows across the interst~te, they had tomove through a narrow concrete underpass. Cows have acurious sort oLintellige9"'i; In'yeare past, the Fraughtons, sent tile ~.ttle und~~ the high,wayvia a'lnetal cul¥ert .bouL

"

two miles further up the road, which was only large enoughto walk a horse through. The underpass is an improvementbut cattle are creatures of habit. A numberof them remem-bered the culvert and-continued toward it. Wendell headedthem off and turned them bark towa-rd the underpass.A few of the ~ows,now remembering the underpass, went

through. Most of the rest followed. as did a herd of sheepthat no one wanted except a Peruvian sheepherder whosuddenly.appeared, astride his horse, wearing white SOCKS

and sanda Is.Some cows still didn't want to go through, however. This

is the way with rows. Just when you think you have themconvinced, of the rightness of ~ thing, 'theydecide to voteRepublican. Three 01: four cows, in the face of all that isproper, decided they would rather stay on the prairie. Wen-'dell and Bernard, ropes whirling over their heads, pursuedthe recalcitrants. first with haste and efficiency and even-tually with undisguised fury. Horses spurred to a full gal-Jop, they roped the cows and calves, cussing each time thelasso missed its mark end cussing each time it hit. Thecaptured 'animals weredragged by the -neck through theunderpass, feet firmly planted' in front, like a puppy the. first time on a .leash. -The sheep had to be cut from the herd and sent back. This.

was not exceptionally difficult, as sheep are readily distfn-guishable from cows to the practiced eye. THen came thesomewhat harder task of cutting out the 20 or so cows' notscheduled to make the trip tc the Mountain Ranch. Thesewere the property of other ranchers with grazing permitsfor the same range. It is impolite, not to mention illegal.itotake them from their owners. This done, the cows weremoved along the road and left to rest for the night along theright-of-way of a natural gas pipeline. The cowboys hadgathered 81 of 150 ~ows.Back at the ranch came the nightly ritual of .aitt.ing on

"the porch, discussing the events of the day and watching'~he f'!f' side of the valley for deer. Keith, Wendell, andIlernard, rUILliiomethingof a game pr~serve"al1owing very

limited hunting with certain a"Wm;n Betty and I first got rnamoney.So we lived on game mennd kill a deer-for food. We everfordinner one day and served Iknown what we were doing, buthe .dian't -tiayanything. Anyw.c?re'of us, so now we can take

As you approach ~he r~~ch (therecis a large oil drilting ri~yardsoff the property line, hut011 ishit, the Fraughtons and SvThere is a saying in the WI

raneher has an oil well." Evans:achieving national notoriety f(growing faster than cattle anpeople are following the boom."Theydrilled up here a fewy

of the crew came down here tloffice.He was trying to be quietthat they'd hit oil. We were reawas it. We rode up to the rig aaround a' week for more worn.well.We were pretty disappoinseismograph crews have criss-A friend from Evanston cam

Dave Paul runs the Gambles :what's new in town."Nothing. Just more people. I

pauses a moment. "Ohyeah, theCenter one-way streets in OpP(Keith said, "There's a lot of'ol

e:.1"::L tbose.streats for -yeare who areticket." 1

, ,

AUg. 7, 1981 - High CotiDtry Newio-9

nited hunting with certain areas off limits. Keith said,Vm;n Betty and I first got married, we didn't have muchJoey. So we lived on game meat. I'djust go down the roadd kill a deer-for food. We even had the game warden overrdinner one day and served him venison. He must have:0r-rn what we were doing, but he knew our situation.andlIili.n't ?ay anything. Anyway, I figured the deer tookreef us, so now we can take care of them."

"Hell," said Dave, "most of the people haven't-figured outthe four-way.stop signs yet.". The boom in Evanston has been fairly typical of theothers in the West, except perhaps it has hit a little fasterand a litJ;le harder. Oilfield workers have a reputation as~bad neighbors. There isn't enough housing for everyone. soEvanston has 8 rash of "squatters" - people who set up atent on.federal or private lan-a. One rancher predicted thesquatter problem would cause the next range war. Therehaven't been any squatters on the Mountain Ranch yet.Keith joked about going to town. Betty said, "There

wouldn't be anywhere to go with all those oil workers. itused to be you'd go in a place andsee folks you knew. Now,we wouldn't know anybody." ,The next day - Saturday-s- they gathered the ~estofthe

'cows. Wendell went back up Cottonwood and Rock HollowCanyons to collect any they might have missed the daybefore. Bernard and the temporary help moved a largebunch up a broad sage-covered plain and through a small,lovely cedar grove. They pushed the cows along a barhedwire fence, which the cows. understood, and' then turnedthem upcountry, which the. cows didn't, They milled aroundand made a 'fuss, but eventually accepted the new direc-tions.

ls you approach the r~nch on the road, in the distanceerecis a large oil drilting rig. As it turns out, it is 100rrds off the property line, but it is close "enough so that ifIishit, the Fraughtons and Sweats will get-some income.There is a saying in the West that, '''Every successfulneher has an oil well." Evanston and the area around it ishieving national notoriety for its oil boom. Oil rigs.areowing faster than cattle and paying better.' Plenty 'ofcple are following the boom."T~y drilled up here a few years ago," Keith said. "Onethe crew came down here to use the phone to call thelice.He was trying to be quiet, but we overheard him sayat they'd hit oil. We were real excited - we thought this1S it. We rode up to the rig and looked and then waitedound a' week for more worn. But then they capped jhe~U.We were pretty disappointed." With the recent boom, K -ismograph crews have criss-crossed the ranch. eith doesn't ride anymore. 'Twas gatherin~ out here aA friend from Evanston came out to visit after dinner, few years ago and a calf split out of the herd. I took ofTafterive Paul runs the Gambles store in town. He is asked it. The horse got going good and then stepped in a badgerrat's new in town. hole. There are badger holes all over this country. Anyway,"Nothing, Just more people. More people e-very day." He the horse fell on my leg and then rolled over me. I thought Iuses a moment. "Ohyeah, they'sgoing to make Mainand was dead for a minute, but Iwas just knocked out. Iguess.nter one-way streets in opposite-directions." Wendell must have thought I was dead, too. There wasKeith said, "There's a lot ofold-timers who've been using blood coming out ofmy nose and everything. I came to andose.streats for 'years who are just gonna get-ticket after got up and blacked out again.rrght away. Ididn't break any.ket," I " "'- i". borres, but I do,,"t Jja"".any'f~eli.ng in inylright.lell'liiilowthe·, . .

knee. Haven't been able to ride a horse since." Then headded, smiling, "I'd much rather get thrown from a-horsethan have one roll over ml!J."The task of gathering cattle is made a little easier by twoanimal instincts - the herd instinct and the maternal.Cattle, given their druthers, would rather be with othercattle. There are exceptions to this rule, usually referred to-as a "wild sonofabitch" or a "wild bastard." But, by andlarge, when you introduce one cow to another one, they willget pretty chummy and stay that way: This makes themeasier to move. . .The profitability of the husiness is dependent on the

strength of a cow'smaternal instinct. A calf will stay withits mother. Since there is no way totell whom aealf'belongsto if it is born on the open range, this is very handy. Obvious-ly, it belongs to the person who owns the mother. If a cow anda calf are separated, both will usually return to the placethey last saw each other. An unmarked calf without amother is known as a maverick. The question of ownershipof mavericks led to bloodshed in the old days. The practiceof "mavericking," or rounding up these unmarked calvesand adding them to one's herd, contributed to the famous-Johnson County Cattle War of 1891. It was equated withrustling by the big ranchers and, truth be told, sometimes itwas. To this day in Johnson County it is said there are.rnnchers who have never eaten their own beet:The Fraughton's have three Lrands.- the running M'

Cf1/\, the KF quarter, ~ ,and the 0,whichBernard says they refer to as the shithouse quarter. Forquick identification purposes, they cut awattle - a piece ofloose skin - on the left side of the cow's jaw. The wattlemakes 'for r~sier identification at a distance, though it isnot proof of ownership. Some ranchers now use plastic eartags for the same purpose."That evening on the porch, Wendell remarked that the

cows looked very healthy after their three month-sojournnorth of the highway, surprising because the land seemed

(continu~d on ri~xtpage)

10-High Country News - Aqg. 7, 1981 '

Bernard Sweat'

•

UMy ears weresofrozen- swelledup Iike balloons'- the doctor laughedand said he knew agood plastic surgeon because they were gonna falloff."

Wenciell Fraughton

Cattle drive...

Keith Frau~hton sitting in the private family museum.

(continued from page 9) i , knew these things."That afternoon, when the drive stopped midway to the

ranch, there was a party at the ranch for the volunteerhands. There was much food and drink and although itdidn't rain, everybody got wet because most of them gotthrown in,the kids' swimming pool: Hoaty and Tooty, two,great Horned owls that inhabit the barn, came out to-watchthe proceedings. '. John Stevens was one of the folks from town who cameout to help with the cattle drive. He now sells insurance forthe Farm Bureau group, but he used to be a bull rider inprofessional rodeo,I "I got hurt in Laramie-a few years ago," he said. "The bullthrew me and ran over me three times. It severed a bunch ofmuscles to my backbone. Ijust laid there in the ring - 1couldn't walk for three days.

r., , ' "WJ{at really bothered me though wss that I couldn't.I.he Fraughtons move their herd down the road .tc pie- hold a glass of beer. I didn't go to the hospital. The guys justdmont, then off along a fence line through a narrow valley. lifted me in the truck and we went out drinking. We .gctInNovember, before 'the Mountain Ranch becomes socked some beer in pitchers and 1 lifted my glass, got it aboutin by winter, they move to their individual places near Fort halfway up and dropped it. They said, "'What's the matterBridger and Mountain View. taking cattle, chickens and with you?' .. John is all right now and a good cowboy.everything with them. Keith said, "One winter several The final day was uneventful. A few panicky calvesyears ago, we got caught in an early snow storm, so we had jumped through a barbed wire fence. Bernard and Wendellto move them out pretty quick. We got down the valley had a horse race to celebrate the end of the drive. Everyoneabout hslf wsy and the temperature-dropped to about 40 - cows, horses.and men - was tired and pleased for thebelow. I got frozen pretty bad in my ears, neck and the left end of it.side of my face. My ears were so frozen, you could have In Evanston, on the way out of town, there was a mechan-broken them off. I went to a doctor and he laughed and said ical bull set up at the Outpost Inn. Anyone could ride it forhe knew a good plastic surgeon because.jhey were gonna 15 seconds for a fee of$2.00. Manypeople took advantage offall off. They were swelled up like balloons. But I spent the opportunity. It could be set for varying degrees of diffi-about a week in the hospital and I was fine. No aftereffects. culty, from novice to expert. John Stevens said he used oneI'd stopped atthis rancher's house and his wife kept my pars, to train for the rodeo. After four d.ay~ i~ t):le saddle, ho')'-

_. __•• __ .~ . '.' • . _. ..," - -' - ::aQq Qecltwc:ll.lt<liAimo"l:,she_was:anold:ranch..wife'ands.he;-.-r.- .M'''', 'fie-E1eolined to ride thie-one, ' •........ - ••••••• -.,, _ ~' __ o<-~ .. .,._..... - . , •

. too dry. Nevertheless, it is teeming with wildlife, particu-larly sntelope. ,. Sunday was it rest day for cows, horses and people. Mar(.day was the first day that the cows began to make someprogress toward home. One hundred and fifty C3WS, pluscalves, may not sound like much, but they can put up quite.a racket, not to mention dust.In the old days, one cowboy had to ride "point," ahead ana

to one side of the herd to keep them moving in the properdirection. Now, however, fences usually keep the cowsmoving in the right direction and the cowboys mostly trailalong behind, keeping them moving.and eating a lot ofdust.

LIne R~ TargetLRT.eE4

Aug. 7, 1981 - High Country News-ll

High rollers toke a tu-mble on ,dicey oil and g~s lottery-by Dale Roberts

The odds are good, price is low, win-.nings offer quick-get-rich potential.The players range from geologists togamblers. The game? Oil lease lot-teries.Each month approximately 150,000

people take a chance at winning oil andgas leases on federal and state lands inWyoming alone. For an entrance fee of$10 for federal lands or $15 for state,people from all over the country arefiling on Wyoming land. Many havenever seen the state, and never will.Lists are published monthly of U.S.

Bureau of tand Management andstate-owned lands, describing availabletracts, their locations and sizes, whichrange from 40 to 10,240 acres. The listscan be reviewed 'at state offices, purch-ased for $2 to $5 each or, for a subscrip-tion fee of$15 a year, sent to individualhomes. I

From the lists of approximately 40 to60 parcels per lottery the potential lee-see can take a stab in the dark, employtheir own geologi-cal know- how, or hirea filingservice for a substantial fee.Filing services, run by real estate'

brokers, 011 attorneys, stockbrokers andjust about anyone with selling experi-ence, are making a killing. 'Phey turnpublic information into profit by offer-ing a service for people with money butwitllout the time or know-how to checkour the tracts. .These services operate in-one of three --

ways. Some evaluate parcels on thebasis of geological and marketing data;others- offer maps and informationabout activities of oil companies operat-ing in the area where the parcels arelocated; and others select an economi-cally promising tract from the listposted and assist the applicant in filing.

Their ada appear in newspapers.;magazines; telephone directories orcome througb the mail.painting all op-timistic picture of sudden wealth. "Getrich overnight," they claim. "Competewith the big oil companies." But the,.filing firms file for hundreds and some.times thousands ef clients ~ month on alimited number of parcels of state andfederal lands, most of whiefi offer littleor no market value. Much of the infor-mation they charge up to $20 for is freeat BLM or state offices. -For $1 an acre rental fee annually

and 12 percent royalties, the lessee buysexclusive rights to drill for and remove_oil and gas deposits. The lease is goodfor 10 years or as long as oil' and gas areproduced in paying quantities.Most winners do not keep their leases.

According to a Denver filing firm, Deal..& Associates, LTD., the objective inwinning a valuable parcel is to tum

, .

around and sell the lease to a major oilc,p"pany that has the capability to exp-lOre, drill and produce. The lessee maykeep royaltyrights of 4 to 6 percent onthe gross profit; .According 4J a Wyoming BLM staff

geologist it's a game for people withmoney to bum. "I would never play thelottery. It's such a gamble. So manyacres have no potential.""People from all over the U.S. are fil-

ing," said another Wyoming BLMgeologist. "Unless they know the legaldescriptions or havelegal help they arejust picking out ofthe clear blue sky!'And pick they do. One BLM employee

estimated that two years ago BLM madeabout $1 million a month from entryfees alone. In 1979, roughly 4 millionpeople filed for 7,000 tracts.

, "According to the firm, which files for

800 to 1,000 clients each month, the $15

filing fee is cheap for the amount the 'service has invested in maps andgeologists."Most people don't have tJtl, time and

interest to spend the extra money onmaps," .explained a spokeswoman forDeal & Associates. The short gap bet-ween the date the parcels are postedand the drawing often allow .. only'enough time to choose the desired ac-reage aod file with the service, whichchooses' the area and particular tract forthe client.If a client should win, the filing,firm

may refer them to people more know-ledgeable about the area. Deal & As- -sociates claims not to be in direct con-tact with any oil companies concerning-the names of clients who may have wondesirable parcels, but this informa-tion is made public.·According to the BLM. none of the

tracts offered has known potential foroil and gas production. Those areaswithknown reserves are offered corn-petitively, by auction.·"In certain cases noncompetitiveleases have brought substantial profitto winners. These are leases in hotareas - that is, th~ were near knownoil and gas development," explained theBLM.So ~lren Deal & Aaaociates claims

that "government experts believe thatmillions of barrels of oil may lie undis-covered as yet under parcels' of randwhich are subject to the Wyoming stateoil and gas lease lottery," they are, ac-cording to Allen Verploeg of the Wyom-ing Geological Survey, stretching thetruth just a bit to sell their services.B. Christian Armington Compaoy,

which. files for Wyoming land fromCalifornia, offers to advance the $1 peracre rental-fee. upo!1.issuance of a wi_D-ning lease. Their assistance is interestfree and repaid only when the clientsells the-lease at a profit.«No other money making opportun-

ity that we know offers so much prom-ise to .folks with limited capital," saysthe firm. .- The BLM began an investigationover a year ago into filing abuses. Corn-panies would have several employeesfile on one tract .•only to sign over theircards prior to the drawing. As a result ofthe scrutiny, Koch industries, an oilcompany in Wichita, Kansas was finedand the lottery procedures werechanged. The BLM is now offering lot-teries bi-monthly instead of monthly.In addition, entrants cannot sign over aticket before a drawing is held.If you're 19 or older, with a little

_extra money - but not enough to getyou to Las Vegas - the oil and gas leaselottery may be just what you're lookingfor. Butin the words of B. ChristianArmington: ':it is a gamble, not an in-vestment."

POSI'VION OPEN~ Executive Directorofnewcitizens' .future~ center for the NorthernRockies region. Requirements: Administra-tive and fundraieing experience; commit-ment to citizen action and fu the NorthernRockies. $25,000-$35,000 peryear beginningNovember 1. Deadline for applications is'Sept .. i, f981. For more information ..write:

Teton Tinkers and Traders ArnoldSilv~rman. Dept~ofGeology,Univ{!'r-Sox 91. Victor, ID83455 sity of Montana, Missoula. MT 59802. .

(208 7. -~r.; • - . . J~_ _r...;....;._.;.)...;..8.;7_-2_49..5 ,..',...';,,,,,,,!"'oi-l ;',~iJ:'~·.,~"~:~,~~<::it~·_r",~~:.".::;::=l::;;:;:t:i;;;i:i;;D",";#~~:¥~'::';lI::;:~.~,=i,c;,;::;. I;:'~:"j;;,~.:",;:;, ,,=.;;:.:". i'i"o.CI:l'C:::=:::C:::::::C:::C:::C:::::::C:::::::C:::C:::C:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

- "ORGANIZER wanted to work with westernColorado citizen groups concerned. withenergy and other natural resource issues.Must be Willing to travel, have experienceorganizing, have worked with an4 88 a vol-unteer and enjoy diverse types of people.Some writing and speaking skills will be·helpful. Send resume to Western ColoradoCongress,P.O. Box 472, Montrose, Colorado81401or call (303)249-1978 after August I.

Clivus Mullrum compo,llng '01181is... t_u. cllemiclll-IH' andodor·'f'ee. Tl'lil prOCHlls ."'obit, th.endproduC( valuable and useful. Our~Ie", corlY"1S toilet end· kitchen"'''''Je to organic fa"llinr ""itll1>0contribution to ground... !al OrII'pollullon, Clivus ~ultrvnr. a hInd·SOme and ,..;.r,sible solution. Mly wasend you a complel(l description andInSlallation requl,amef1ll1?

.None of the tracts offered has known po-tential for oil and gas production, accordingto the BLNJ,but the agency makes $1million.a month from lottery entry fees. " -

••

classifie~selas·slfled ads cost 10 cents a word.They must be prepaid.

12-High Country News - Aug. 7, 1981

WHITE RIVER DAMThe Army Corps' of Engineers, using its

authority to issue 404 dredge-and-fiU per-mits,- wants comments on .the proposedTaylor Dam on the White River in R"i6Blanco County, Colo. The agency is prepar-ing an environmental impact statement andis required to solicit ideas on what issues theEIS should consider. For more information,or to contribute ideas: Jim Gibson, Regulat-ory Section, Corps of Engineers, 650 CapitolMall, Sacramento, Calif.' 95814.

CLASSY WATERRules for classifying surface water, in

Wyoming-as Class I will be open for publicdiscussion at an Aug. 19 hearing in Casper,'by the Wyoming Department of Environ-mental Quality. For more information con-tact John Wagner, DEQ, Water Quality Di-vision, '1111 East Lincolnway, Cheyenne,Wyo. 82002; (307) 777-7781.

FAITHFUL TALKThe National Park Service wants your ad- .

vice on what to do with the Old Faithfulhousing area in Yellowstone National Park.A 1974 master plan calls for converting thedevelopment into a day-use area, but thefine de'tails are still being worked out. Publicmeetings on the issue will be. held through-out August. Contact the park officials at P.O:Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.82190.

BLACK AMERICA"Keeping America in the Black" will be

the theme at a conference ·Oct. 27-29 inLouisville,' Ky. sponsored by Coal Age,a McGraw·Hill publication. Cost-cuttingstrategies, including new technologies; winbe the focus as co,~ferees grapple .with waysto .keep the coal industry active. For moreinformation write McGraw-Hill Conference,1221 Ave. of the Americas, Room 3677, NewYork City 10020.

OIL SHOWA three day show to educate the Hublic

about oil and gas exploration will' be heldSept. 25-27 in Cody, Wyo. The show willinclude equipment displays, literature, andtours of nearby oil fields and refineries.Sponsors are the Big Horn Basin Section of-the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and theCody County Chamber of Conunerce. Con-tact the C of C at P.O. Box 1221, Cody, Wyo.82414, or call 307-587·2297.

GAS, NATURALLYA new natural gas pipeline, to run 583

miles from Wyoming to California, has beenscrutinized by the Bureau of Land Manage-ment in a draft environmental' impactstatement. The 'line, to be bujlt by RockyMountain Pipeline Co., will cross Utah andthe southeastern corner of Nevada. Forcopies of the'study contact RMP ProjectLeader, BLM, Third Floor East, 55 Zang St.,Denver 82008. Public hearings .are being,held this week, and written comments aredue Aug. 24.

POWDER RIVER COALTwo meetings have already been held on

the Bureau of Land Management's draft en,vironmental study on leasing coal inWyoming'! Powder River Basin. But twomore are scheduled - Aug. 19 in Gillette,Wyo., and Aug. 20 in Broadus, Mont. - andwritten comments will be accepted untilSept. 17. For more information: Chuck Wil-kie, Casper District Office, 951 RanchoRDad, Casper, Wyo. 82601; (307) 265-5550.

•

WASTED TALKThe Colorado chapter of the National

Solid Wastes Management Association willmeet Sept. 18-20 in Colorado Springs, and if-you promise not to call the stuff garbage,you're invited to attend. Contact JeanneHayes, NSWMA, 1120 Connecticut Ave.,. N.W. Suite 930, Washington, D.C. 22036.

WESTERN LAND USE"Thirteen Colonies or a New Confeder-

acy?" is the theme for a three-day conferencein Oakland, Calif., scheduled for Nov. 11-13.The gathering will cover a variety of landuse and environmental issues. It is span.'sored l>Y the Univ.ersity ofCalifornia Exten~sion, Berkeley, in .cooperation with theUCLA -Journal of Environmental Lawand Policy. Debates, lectures and panel dis-cussions will take place.Hyou think it mightbe worth your $330, contact Public Policyand Planning, Dept. WJ-4, U..of Calif. Ex-tension,' 2223 Fulton St., Berkeley, Calif.94720 or call (415) 642-1061.

BLACK HILLS SPEAKERSWant to liven up your next party or meet-

ing? The Black Hills Alliance has a list ofguest speakers who.. usually for only thecost of expenses, will be glad to come andtalk about a variety of subjects. includingenergy development in the Black Hills,uranium worker health hazards, forcedsterilization, Indian land issues and treatyrights. Contact the group at P.O. Box 2508,.Rapid City, S.D. 57709; (605) 342-5127.

TIMBER!The number of trees cut from northern

Idaho and Montana forests has declined by15 percent since 1969, new U.S. Forest Ser-vice data shows. The drop, from 2.6 billion to2.2 bIllion board feet, was accompanied by arelative shift in proportions harvested fromnational forests, state lands and privatelands, with the latter now accounting for 54percent of the total harvest. For more de-tails, contact the USFS, Northern Region,Federal Bldg., Missoula, Mont. 59807.

~SHROOMERS IN SAUTE

You bring the butter and a $30 cOurse fee,and John Gapter of the University of North-ern Colorado will meet you in Rocky Mo\Tn·tain National Park, Sept. 11-13, to tell youwhich of the park's mushrooms to sautiContact: Seminar Coordinator, Rocky Mtn.Nature Assoc., Rocky Mt~. National Park,EstesPark, Colo. 80517.

.COAL UPDATEThe latest scoop on the coal industry, re-

clamation technologies and compliance withfederal rules will be discussed at two semi-nars in-New York City, Sept. 24 and Oct. 29.The program is sponsored by INFORM, aNew 'York-based research group: and willfeature Dan Wiener, author of the group'sstudy, Reclaiming the West. 'For more in-formation: INFORM, 25 Broad St., New- York City 10004.

.~

ORGANIZING THE ROCKIESMembership recruiting and media skills

for grassroots groups and political campaignsin the Rocky Mountain region are the themesat a series of training workshops offered bythe Northern Rockies Action Group, aHelena, Mont.-based training center. Thedates: Sept. 11-12; Helena, "membersbip re-cruitment;" Oct. 1.1-12, Jackson Hole, Wyo:,"membership education," and Nov. 20-22,Denver, "media skills." Contact KathyBramer, NRAG, 9 Placer St., Helena,Mont. 59601; (406) 442-6615.

ALL ABOUT OIL ...... and gas is the title and theme for a series

of seminars sponsored by Anderson Pet-roleum Services, Inc., which says its $345workshops will give participants a com-prehensive overview of the industry, fromhow oil is formed to how its used, and everystepfn between. In Denver, the seminarswill be' held Aug. 26, Oct. 12 and Nov.' 18.Contact the firm at P.O. Box 1146, StilJwa-ter, Okla. 74074.

GEOLOGICAL DATA MINEThere's an avalanche of maps, reports and

other information rolling off the U.S.Geological Survey presses every year, andn9W, free and handy, there's "A Guide to, Obtaining Information from the USGS ,1981, " Circular 777. Contact: USGS, TextProducts Section, Eastern DistributionBranch, 604 Pickett St., Alexandria, Va.22304.

,

PUBLIC NOTICELarsens===f=Bicycles255 E. 2nd SI.. Powell. NY 82435

(3~) 754-5481Schwinn=Raleigh

Clivu.sMultnnnNEWS RELEASE

An environment.ally sound, water·less waste treatment system forhomes, cabins and campgrounds.Composts toilet wastesl and or-ganlc.garbage Into a rich' fertilizer,co~serving nutrients, water andenergy.

The State of Wyoming, DepartmentofEnvironmental Quality,Water Quality Advisory Boardwillmeet on Tuesday, September 8, 1981to discuss and review the annual State-EPA,Agreement. Themeeting will be held in the third floorDEQConference Room which is located"in the Equality StateBank Building, 401 West 19th Street',Cheyenne. Wyoming. Reviewwill commence at 10:00 a.m.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"PARTICIPATEIN ENVIRONMENTALDECISIONMAKING"

~:~M~:ST,\

WASTES~. •. GARDEN

.~~JFODD7

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is workingconjuctionwith the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) to develop the annual Staw-EPA Agreement. The Agreement is amechanism developed for better management of Federally fundedenvironmental programs. It is partofanetfort ~ reduce governmentpaperworkand red tape -consequently aaving the taxpayer money.

What is the DEQ Plan

For this Agreement to be a worthwhiletool for Wyoming'senvironmental programs, the followingtseuee have been identified as priorities by the State and EPA: '

Maintain and improve the effectiveness of the management of the construction grantsprogram. ~

Implementation of all State environmental permit programsto includeNPDES, Construc-tion Pennita, Underground Iqieetion Control Permits, pursue the State of Wyoming'seeaumptdcn of the 404 permitprogram.

Devel~pand 'implement a statewide program for small wastewater systems.

Jointly develop and implement a strategy to provide for Increased responsibility andactivity by State environmental end agricultUJ::alageneies, ana for significantly decreased-direct Federai involvement iJ;lday-to-day activities.

Complete Bitte; Creek and Fifteen Mile Creek projects and complete prioritization ofagriculture reI8ted non-Pointproblems and implement with avaiIa:blefunds.

Who is Affected ))y thhLPlan

'FOR INFORMATION AND NAMEOF NEAREST DISTRIBUTOR CON·TACT:.Clivus Multrum Northern Rockies,205 Meadows Rd.Whitefish, MT 59937(406) 862-3854 _~=======::=!J,

The PosfOffice will not forward second class mail. So~youdon't miss..an issue of High Country Ne.. , please notify us at least four weeks inadvance of your change of address. 'v·Send ·us a card (you can pick one up at you local P.O.) or ,send a

copy of your old label with your new addre~ below:

Date effective:, Mall to Box K, Landor WY 82520

All citizens within the State of W)'omingwhere environmental issues are of concern.

Howto ProVide YDurInformation

Ifyou have other environmental problems in mind, or alternatives to the approaches taken in theState-EPA ~reement, contact your Water Quality AdvisoryBoard representative before the Sep-tember 8, 1981 meeting. Allwritten and oral comments will be heard through your AdvisoryBoardrepresentative and will be consideredin the development of the fi~al ~greement_Name

Address

City --------- Whell! to Obtain Additional InformationSta'o-& Zip --------

The draft agreement is nowbeing completed and will be available fo~public review at all Countyseats ~nd libraries by ~~-A.~. ' • .;.. ~ ~~_ ~,,_ ' ..... ~ '. , ,

.

Aug. 7, 1981- High Country News-13

Dpinion•

Reagan's Western wisdom isreally a celluloid chimeraWhile Westerners are probably more conservative-than your average Rhode

Islander, it is not the bigmoney, big business kindofconservatismthat€alifornianReagan is used to dealing with. A Montana Congressman blocked successfully (sofar) attempts to drill for oil and gas in Montana'. Bob Marshall wilderness; theJackson Hole (Wyo.) Chamber of Commerce has gone on record as opposing oil andgas drilling in the area around Jackson.Wyoming, the same state that elected stsunchly pro-development Stan Hatha-

way as governor, also elected and.re-elected staunchly pru-wiklet-nesa congress-man Teno Roncalio. Colorado, the same state that elected arch conservative BillArmstrong to the Senate, elected and re-elected Richard Lamm as governor. a manwhose initial platform consisted of stopping the summer Olympics in Coloradobecause of the environmental damage the games might cause..- If-Ronald Reagan understands all these contradictions, he is doing a lot betterthan a number of people who have lived out here all their lives. If he thinks thatappointing corporate exploiters to sensitive positions as guardians of public landsdemonstrates an understanding of the West and the problems facing it, he is.sadlymistaken. What it demonstrates is a callous 'disregard for the unique qualities thatmake the West what it is. If Ronald Reagan understand. the West, Cattle Kate was.Queen or England. "

They say that a lie, if repeatedoften enough, eventually gains currency over..thetruth. ~ne th'!.1cis heing repeated quite often these days is that "Ronald Reaganunderstands the West." This foolishness ought to be nipped in the bud.This "understanding the West" stuff is spoken solemnly in the' halls of Congress

and reprinted in the great Eastern newspapers without so much as a dissentingwhisper. Sotto voce, then, let us ask: exactly whose West is it that Reagan andcohorts understand? Not the one we live in.Perhaps the current administration is getting away with this because the West is

so little understood by the great unwashed masses infesting both coasts. If theythink about the Rocky Mountain West at all, it is probably of a trip to Yellowstone,snow-covered peaks and vague images of, cowboys who look like Gene Autry orSteve McQueen. Ronald Reagan, a B-movie cowboy ifthere ever was one, stands upand says, "I understand the West': and the folks at home, say, "Oh yeali, didn't I seehim in 'Cattle Qu~en of Montana' with Barbara Stanwyck?"Reagan's appointment of the likes of James Watt, Anne Gorsuch, et. aI., does not

indicate an understanding-of'the West, While there is no question that these peoplerepresent a certain constituency from the ROCKi~s,they are not in the mainstreamof Westerners. This will no doubt come as a surprise to Reagan and Watt, whoseidea of an extremist is Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (D·Colo.), and who are fond

I, of labelling all opposition as envirorime~tal obstructionism. -DSW

reporter'S notetiooK •through their own checking account,was $3,000, funded by the school dis-trict.From tatting doileys to making

stained glass, "IIJY life as a cowboy" tomemories of war-tom Europe, the peo-ple and skills which capture the stu:dents' interest vary as history itself.There's Shorty Hamidy, owner.of theOak Creek Hamidy Hardware; Wayneand Helen Light, community pillarswho also raise foxes; J.e. Trujillo, rodeocircuit rider; M-eGregor, a now defunctcal mining town. In each there's a storythat the students, after the style ofau-thor Studs Terkel, strive to let tell it-.selfMcKelvie insists his role is limited to

that of driver, running errands andshuttling students-to and from inter-views. He is-alsodabbling in promotion,however, and has helped start similar'programs in Basalt, Greeley and Pue-blo, Colo., as well as Lander, Wyo., andAnchorage, Alaska. "Out of the clas-sroom and into the community," he exp-lains in ;. sentence. And he's proud ofthe three or four students who he feelswere inspired by the class to go on tocollege.The students? Alternately nonchal-

ant and excited, their verdicts arethumbs up. "I've learned how to putouta magazine," says Katherine Knight,16, matter-of-factly. "It's a fun class,easy (grade) if you. work hard," says. Jerry Hollingworth, 16. "I was nerv-ous," says Richard Gilbert, also 16, "buty-o~ask pretty basic questions, on theirphilosophy of life and .stuff It's more .like a conversation."'"On the wall of Room 16, for inspira-

tion, is a mosaic of class-related photosand old magazine covers, and (or theprofessional discipline, there's ;l newsclipping about the Washington Post'sJanet Cooke.And when it's done? "That's my arti-

. cle," says Gilbert, pointing. "Mymagazine," again pointing. "I'rn, proud."

by Michaef Moss

• STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo.Several springs ago, there was a knockon Eleanor Bliss's door. The now80-year-old woman opened it to twostudents from the local high school.Awkward and nervous, they-carried

in camera, tape recorder and a list ofquestions. Seated in her living room, forhour. they simply listened and ab-sorbed.Blank tapes now filled, the pair re-

turned to Roo"in 16, where, amidstmuch classroom frolicking, the tapesw~re transcribed, edi ted, cut and pastedinto a smoother narrative. A fewnamesand dates were transposed. Some ofEleanor's words were misinterpreted.The photos weren't smashing., But there it was, weeks later, thestory of a woman who emigrated here inthe 1920s - her travels, her skills, herlife, all in her words - gracing a sectionof the latest issue of the students'magazine, Three Wire Winter.Eleanor was delighted. 'The students,were proud. .Collecting oral history is an adven-

ture. The rewards are extraordinary inthe Rocky Mountain region, wherechange; has occurred so quickly thateven the next oldest generation holdsfascinating tales: It's even more specialwhen young people ani involved."How to talk to people. That's the les-

son they learn. And to be interestedenough to want to know," saysEleanor's friend Dorothy Whither. anative Staamboater who was once alsofeatured in the magazine. ,The program here in Steamboat

Springs began six years ago, inspiredby the successful Foxfire project inthe Appalachians, which this year willgross over a million dollars from a vari-ety ofpublications and products, wholly

But perfection is held to berelati ve; thestudents hold the helm.The latest,' and 14th, issue was re-

searched, written, edited,' illustrated,designed, assembled, promoted, mar:"keted, and accounted for by 29 student-staffers. A print run of 1500 was distrr-buted this spring to 450 subscribers and'a host of local shop distributors. Thecost, again managed by the students

produced and managed by people under19 years of age.Steamboat Springs High School

teacher Bill McKelvie added his owntwist by gearing, his program to unde-rachievers - students who for variousreasons are uninspired by traditionalclasswork: That, he admits, has ac-counted for some screwups, such asleft-out paragraphs or reversed pages.

\

t , •

14-High Country News - Aug, 7, 1981

Fee snarls mustang plan

DJinianNWF takes a careful look,at JamesWatt1s 'InteriorIt led TV news broadcasts and made front page headlines all over the

country: "Nation's 'largest conservation organization calls fa)' resignation ofJames,Watt,"For both-obvious and subtie reasons, the recent call for...W~tt'sresignation

by the National Wildlife Federation has put the first real dent in the InteriorSecretary's pro-development armor.For one thing, the NWF is big: it boasts-a.S million members and suppor-

ters, far, more than any other conservation group.For another, it is conservative. Over twice as many of its members: voted for

Ronald Reagan as ~oted for Jimmy Carter in 1980. While it espouses censer-vation,-its members are in many cases avid hunters, supportersof the Na-tional Rifle Association and Republican. This is Reagan's backyard.-Last, the 'NWF took its time and did a careful job, instead of shooting from

the hip. Its report on Watt's first six months is a detailed, footnoted dissec-tion of Watt's policies on parks, strip mining, wildlife, wetlands, water"resources, endangered species and more.Patrick Parenteau, director of the NWF's Resources Defense Division, said

a dozen people contributed'tothe report.which was six weeks in the making.It includes a detailed analysis of Watt's budget cuts (reductions at the Officeof Surface Mining of 26 percent; planning, permit review and biologicalservices cuts at the Fish and Wildlife Service of 20 percent; and a drop in theBureau of Land Management's wilderness review 'budget of $7.F'rrrilfion, toname a few), and everything from offroad vehicle policy (Watt shifted theburden of proof that ORV's do.or don't cause harm to public lands from vehicleoperators to the agencies) to his moratorium on parkland acquisition.The Interior Secretary tried to laugh it 01T, lumping the NWF with the other

"environmentalist" .groups that he ridicules as" arrogant and elitist. ButWatt's own arrogance and lack of humility are what have him in trouble, andeven old friends like Sen. Alan.Simpson (R-Wyo.) are talking with furrowedbrow about his "image" problem.The problem is much greater than image. Congratulations to the -NWF for'

doing their homework before they flexed their political muscle. Anyone who '.is slill taking a "wait-and-see" attitude towards Watt should write the NWFfor a copy of the study: what they will see in these pages is an InteriorSecretary taking radical and irrevocable steps against natural areas and theenvironment. -GOG

•

,

@)1978, GR'C6 SIPLE

by Marjane Ambler

Few questions split the East and theWest as much as wild horses. The issuepolarizes otherwise rational people. Onone side are the horse lovers. They per-

guest editorialceive their opponents as grass-stingyranchers who see a wildhorse asjust somany cans of Al po,On the other are the ranchers and

wildlife groups cancer-ned about over-grazing ..They sax the sentimental cityfolk see 'wild horses as Fury- or Flicka-like pets. Even within the ranks ofwild-life 'groups, field representatives differwith their own Washington, D.C., staffson how .wild horses should be managed. 'Only someone who considers cock

~fights.great sport would choose to throwthe two groups at each ether's throatsunnecessarily. But that is exactly whatInterior Secretary James Watt did thissummer when he announced a fee in-crease for adopting wild horses andburros. Starting October.I the Bureauof Land- Mangement will charge $200for a horse - up from about $25 - and$75 for a burro that is adopted. This feewill partially cover the costs to thegov-ernment of'rounding up and holding theanimals.No one could say the horse lovers and

the wildlife adv.ocates have becomegreat buddies or that up until now theAdopt-a-Horse program is working per-fectly, There are problems. The BLMisn't .getting the horses off the rangefast- enough to suit ranchers, nor is itchecking up on- the' adopted horses andburros to be sure' they are cared for'properly-A few of the new owners have. become disenc-hanted and either aban-doned their horses or returned them.Red tape has delayed fillingrequests byas much as two years. "However, there are hopeful signs.

The cowboys hired by the BLM arerounding up the horses in-rec9rd num-bers: With the addition offive distribu-tion facilities, all collected animals-arebeing adopted, and requests have beenreceived for 35,000 more horses,

After 10 years of battling, the differ-ent factions had gone to their corners towatch how the new program wouldwork when fully implemented.Then the Interior Department an-

nounced that it would increase fees andindicated that any horses that can't beplaced will be killed. BLM offices wereimmediately flooded with phone ralls,and newspapers filled with letters pro-testing the slaughter of the all-American animal.Few seemed to remember that Con-

gress sanctioned killing excess horses'in 1971 when it passed the Wild andFree Roaming Horse and Burro Act-The Public Range Improvement Art ofJ978 reiterates this policy. The hOI'8(':"must be rounded up. Not only has Con-gress mandated it, but at. least.one courthas set a deadline. Any further slow-down in the roundups would undeub-tedly prompt more lawsuits. -But if anything interferes with plac-

ing the remaining44,OOO excess horsesthat still roam on public lands, horseswil'l be killed, and the correspondinguproar will be. deafening.While it is too soon to be sure, the fee

increase is expected to reduce the de-mand for wild horses. With holdingfacilities filled to capacity at the pres-ent rate of adoption, the BLM will notbe able to hold the unwanted horsesindefinitely. And by law they cannot besold or given away, except for adoption.The backlash iflarge numbers ofwild

horses are 'killed could be devastatingto.,!he current delicate 'political equilib-rium. Groups that have backed awayfrom the fray would be back in themedia,' Congress and the Courts,Subsidizing the Adopt-a-Horse prog-

ram is expensive. But losing the tenu-ous public support for ~ild horse man-agement of some kind would be moreexpensive. The war that Watt is, in thename of budget balancing', instigatingcould -Vli!ry well hurt some of -his fa-vored' constituents, the ranchers, bydamaging the rangeland resource he ISsup:posed to be protecting.

-,

Marjane Ambler is a former manag-ing editor of HeN, She is. presently afreelance-writer living in Lander.

litlersSEMASIOLOGY LESSON

Dear HCN,I am a devoted fan of High Country

News and always expect the best fromyour paper. I have been disappointedtwice in the past month. The followingis taken directly from the AmericanHerftage Dictionary of the EnglishLanguage:"replete adj. 1. Plentifully supplied;

abounding. Used with with ...2. filled• to satiation: gorged. Usage: Repletestresses great abundance. It is not theequivalent of complete or equipped(with), for which replete is often used,loosely.Please consider this in relation to the

enclosed excerpts. frorn the June 12,1981, and June 26, 1981, editions ofHigh Country News.

...That's what's printed on ournew Tvshirts, replete with ourmountain goat ...

...But by 1984, the new townwill sport 7,200 housing units, 'including houses with passivesolar heating. a shoppingcenter replete with super.market, a school. .•

A minor mistake, but it grates. There.are those who would consider this evi-dence of the diminished capabilities ofenvironmentalists in general.Otherwise, completely satisfied.

ManeArc

MEDIA IN THE SADDLE

Dear HCN,Your appeal for the integrity of the

-Washakie Wilderness was very impres-sive; so was the photograph of thebuttes, and Iwas glad to find out thatletters even from people who had neverset foot there, much less heard of it be-fore, could help, considering what is atstake for the entire Wilderness system.Writing letters in .defense of natural

areas that I have known has always feltvery artificial against the memory ofthe actual experience, but since thethreatening- technological heavy-han-. dedness always seemed to me an exten-sion of the importance of writing- andsymbols, the rationale for me was writ-ing about experiences in the outsid-e-world that would destroy that ebsessiveimportance -which is why Ifound thatJ. Soisson's article has to be taken witha rather large grain of salt.He was very perceptive on the dan-

gers of the environmental movement'sembrace of media; but every form ofexpression, mechanized or not, hascome under the same attack: photo-graphy by Susan Sontag, OnPhotography, among others, andscores of linguists and critics ha ve dis-sected the- ambiguities of writing andlanguage itself, and Melville's MobyDick also explores the problems ofknowing through language. All ofwhich would leave the movement very'little with which to decently express not

. 'Iso much the secret wel springs of erno-tion set off by our singular and collec-tive contacts, good or bad, with the-'l; :f',.~ f" ~'"

•• - }; J - J ":, ~ , ,'" '" \ -'.', -••,

, .j

natural "real" world, but to translatetho distance between a remote Westernvalley and a river and the electricitythat lights up the TV in such a way thatit is plain to understand that it is muchcloser than the mileage ... Media, especially its moremechanized forms"playsWith familiar-ity and distance either through exoti-cism - the far away - or (swift andusually painful) transgression of this. familiarity, and the potential throughdoses of realism to close or bridge thilgap.I think that any effort in the past by'

the movement to use media to bring intofocus the natural world or alternativetechnologies has been very useful to usand to it. One ofmy secret pet dreams i~the return of the cowboy movie - likeAutry's "Back In the Saddle Again."Forget the technology - as kids whatdid we know? I have a hunch that theirinfluence took turns that nobody at thetime would have anticipated.(As a reminder, "Back In the Saddle

Again" put Gene Autry and the ran-chers' against the owners of a coppermine which was polluting" a river andkilling all the cattle, at least in the be-ginning of the story.)

Jacqueline WolffHollywood, Calif.

A VOTE FOR VIDEO

Dear HCN,Over the years I've read a great many

things in HeN with which Idisagreed,but until John Soisson's guest editorial(HCN, 7-10-81) I had never read any-thing which made me feel embarrassed.The editorial made me· realize whysome people, while environmentaliststo the core, will have nothing to do withenvironmental. organizations and re-sent being tagged as an environmen-talist. ..The people whom Soisson sees as. the"technocratic aristocracy" are not "theenemy." The simplistic generalizationof the former phrase and the attitudeimplied in the second ate not what theenvironmental movement needs.- The environmental message is, asSoisson points out, "one of values."However, it is simply wrong to implythat all of our values and teclinologvare diametrically opposed, and to savthat television, in particular, can't "doethics any good at all" because it dealsonly with "slick packaging and simplis-tic -pbraseology.Y'I'elevisicn can do aworld of good if we use it correctly. In-deed, the subtle, subjective nature ofthe soft format of the television mes-sian message. Television can't andshouldn't be a substitute for' a directexperience of the natural environment;'but it can be a medium for getting peo- 'ple interested in that experience or-forreminding them of its "pleasures andimportance... Ifail to understand Soisson's seeming I

objection to the medium itself. What,. after all, is the real difference betweena television ad or program which tries',to point out the beauty and spiritualityof the natural ~nvironmeni and amagazine ad, an outdoor film, or' theSierra Club Calendar?The natureof'video technology is em-

phatically not to "move toward cen-tralization." Anyone with any' know-ledge of the medium can tell you that

Aug. 7, 1981 - High Country News-15

just the opposite is true: cable, the de-creasing cost and increasing availabil-ity of video equipment, emerging com- \munity video networks, etc. are leadingus in the direction of a verydecentralized technology.The, choice is not a simplistic one be-

tween-technology and nature, as Sois-son would 'have us believe. The choice isnot between "druids" on one side and"the iron glacier" on the other. Rather;-the challenge is to reconcile love of thenatural environment with the humaneuse of technology, and those at the lead-

ing edge of the environmental move-ment - not those stuck in the cliches ofthe past -'- realize this.Letmejust-urge HCN to avoid simple

polemics in the future (or at least re-strict them, like this one, to the letterscolumn.)

Bruce WebendorferMadison, Wise,,,

When you're talking about energy,you're talking about the West.

. Montana coal feeds'Minneapolis rush hours.C;olorado water buzzes blenders in L.A. Wyom-ing yellowcake keeps the lights on in Portland,. Our enil'gy cycle begins in the Rockies; in-telligent talk about it begins with High CountryNews .

........................................... '.' .High Country News

Regional n~wsfor a na~ionalaudience.

Your life touches the Westno matter where you live. Subscribe to HeN: $15 per yearfor 25 Issues.

Name .Address .City: ;; .State ............................... Zip .......