Hal Herring

Seeing the Big Picture in the American West

Sarah Smith — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:31:11 -0500

Toxic Petroleum Sludge Headed for Colorado's South Platte River

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:44:20 -0500

by Hal Herring

A flyfisherman hunting late-season carp on Colorado's Sand Creek has discovered a plume of "black gunk" spilling into the water, and EPA clean-up officials are on-scene trying to stop the petroleum sludge from contaminating the South Platte River.

EPA Emergency Response Manager Curtis Kimbel, quoted in the Denver Post, said the "gasoline-like substance" contained the carcinogenic chemical benzene, and was migrating from SunCor Energy's refinery, underground beneath land owned by the Metro Wastewater, and "daylighting" at Sand Creek.

Here's a link to the fishermen's full story, complete with his acount of how difficult it can be to get a response to a threat our waters.

Day Three: Exploring Idaho’s Clearwater Basin

Online Editors — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:41:39 -0500

by Hal Herring

Hansen Meadows is about five miles away. We’re on a fairly level trail that skirts the toe of mountains that wall the north side of the valley. Gary Peters is leading on his mule, pointing out some of their hunting country as we travel. The creek is far away, but we can hear it sometimes through the harsh jumble of deadfall and obstacle course of thimbleberry, fireweed and young lodgepole.

Day One: Exploring Idaho’s Clearwater Basin

Online Editors — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:00:58 -0500

by Hal Herring

Best Wild Places: Clearwater Basin, Idaho

Online Editors — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:31:39 -0500

by Hal Herring

Few feelings in life can match it when you are going out there.

The narrow trail unfolds before you, cut into a steep sidehill that descends down—down a half-mile into a thicketed creek bottom, where through breaks in the willows and head-high elderberry and nettle, you can see the creek, tumbling whitewater and bits of long, green pools where you know the cutthroat trout have never seen a fly or a bait. The trail goes on and on, and around a bend, still high above the valley, there’s a long roll of last winter’s snow on the ridge far above you.

The view opens out. Forever.

Why I Think The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act Is A Good Idea

Online Editors — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:35:51 -0400

by Hal Herring

“I truly believe that the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage proposal is one of the most thoroughly thought out plans I have ever seen. It doesn’t offend anyone or any group in any way. It truly leaves one of the world’s grandest remaining landscapes intact for future generations to experience and enjoy.” -Roy Jacobs, hunter from Pendroy.

Have you ever driven south along the Rocky Mountain Front from Babb, Montana, with Chief Mountain towering from the plains, the peaks and snowfields of Glacier Park staggering off to the west? Or drift down the near-empty highway, pulling over to glass for grizzlies in the distant aspen thickets bonsai’ed by fierce wind, cold temperatures, snow and summer’s parching heat? You can stop in Browning for gas and a Coke before travelling across the ether-clear Badger Creek to the Two Medicine River. Then you can head to the willow-enclosed Dupuyer Creek, passing the signs beckoning you westward at every washboard turnoff -- Swift Dam, Blackleaf Canyon, Ear Mountain, Teton River, Sun River. It's a country vast enough for a lifetime of exploring and then some.

New Protections for America's Duck Factory

Sarah Smith — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:32:50 -0400

by Hal Herring

Part of the wonder of waterfowl hunting is the wild nature of the birds themselves: tough, wary birds that come from so far away, headed south to places unimagined. The flocks of mallards and gadwalls whirling over your decoys in Missouri or Tennessee began their lives on austere prairie potholes, lakes gouged out by glaciers in times when, although we were still duck hunters, we were wearing hides instead of Gore-Tex and toting atlatls instead of Berettas, Brownings and Mossbergs.

That pothole region of North and South Dakota is now called America’s duck factory, producing up to 50% of our waterfowl in the short, beautiful northern summers. And, thanks to the efforts and money of waterfowlers, and the commitment of prairie landowners, a tremendous effort is underway to protect those wetland resources using a new model of land conservation.

Special Report: Roadless Rule Upheld

Dave_Maccar — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:00:38 -0400

by Hal Herring

Every one of us who loves to hunt, and who appreciates living in a nation where the rule of law protects that we which we cannot protect by our own efforts, has something to celebrate today. On October 20th the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The ruling could not come at a better time: this is opening weekend for us here in Montana, and in every state across the nation, hunters are sighting in, checking packs and tree stands, sharpening knives and greasing up boots, getting ready for or already immersed in the greatest and most intense time of the year.

The ruling upholds a law that powerful special interests in the timber, mining, and energy arenas sought to overturn (please check out the attached document with a list of the groups who sued to overturn it). These special interests did not oppose the Roadless Rule because there were tremendous supplies of minerals or timber, or energy on the lands in question, or because there were not already millions of miles of trail open. These interests opposed the Roadless Rule because (as we have seen with the theater-of-the-absurd “debate” over reducing federal deficits by cutting the miniscule amounts invested in conservation) they oppose, on ideological grounds, any questioning of the monarchical rule of unquestioned development and the dominion of the few, no matter the costs.

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership And The $1 Trillion Question

Sarah Smith — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:42:01 -0400

by Hal Herring

This morning, I received a press release from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership about a new study defining the economic benefits and effects of outdoor recreation, conservation, and historical preservation efforts in our country. It reports that “the great outdoors and historic preservation generate a conservative estimate of more than $1 trillion in total economic activity and support 9.4 million jobs each year. “

I hope people will take the time to actually read and ponder what is revealed here. So much of it, if we think about it, is common sense-- we all know (or are) someone who owns or works in an outdoor store, or as a guide or outfitter, or who has recently bought a boat or upgraded fishing tackle or guns. The money is there, it’s moving through the economy, and it is dependent on having healthy and protected lands and waters to use that tackle or shoot those guns (imagine the miniscule percentage of the economy in France, or China that is generated from hunting and fishing- then look at the US figures in the linked study).

What Do You Really Believe In?

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:45:25 -0400

by Hal Herring

I’ve flown this part of Colorado before, but the country here always boggles my mind. Bruce Gordon, the nomadic pilot of EcoFlight, banked the little single prop plane into a wide turn over the Roan Plateau, the breathtaking Roan Cliffs falling away to the muddy Colorado River and the old town of Rifle. The big plateau of the Roan itself, where I've been lucky enough to walk the giant aspen groves and fish the little shaded creeks for cutthroats, fell away below us, a public lands country of hidden waters, bugling bull elk and big muley bucks. And natural gas. Every year more roads are built along the ridges of the plateau, more big well pads appear, more pipelines, and more crew- and service-trucks are on the roads. There is an 80,000 acre “exclusion area” that can be seen from the plane, the only expanse left of the Roan that looks even remotely like it used to, and that is slated for development too. But this is not a blog about the Roan Plateau, or even energy development. It is a blog that asks a single question that I honestly hope that some reader will be bold and thoughtful enough to answer. What do you really believe in?

Let me explain. Several years ago, I reported for Field & Stream and other publications on energy leasing and the conflicts that the massive scale of energy extraction would have on big game herds across the West. Well, that conflict has been upon us for years now. Recent reports from the drilling area around Pinedale, Wyoming (Upper Green River) show the once grand mule deer herd is down, not just by the 46 percent reported last year, but by 60 percent. As former U.S. Bureau of Land Management biologist Steve Belinda, who now works on energy issues for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and others, said recently, “I try to imagine if we had presented the energy development plans for that area in, say, 2003, and just said, ‘here’s how we are going to do it, and we’ll be giving up at least 60 percent of the big game resource here to accomplish it.’