Mine stays course in the Butte

CRESTED BUTTE – Amid the lingering snow piled to the eaves of some houses in Crested Butte, the red flags continue to flap in the breezes, and there is continued vigilance regarding what most people consider to be a major threat to the community’s existing lifestyle and tourism-based economy.

The prayer flags were strung this winter as part of the opposition to potential molybdenum mining on Mount Emmons, called the Red Lady in Crested Butte, which is located at the foot of the mountain.

The mountain contains a substantial body of molybdenum ore – described as “world class” – by the owners, U.S. Energy Corp. The company, which is based in Riverton, Wyo., obtained claims to the ore under the General Mining Act of 1872, and several years ago further obtained title to the Forest Service land above it at a cost of $5 per acre.

U.S. Energy last year enlisted Vancouver-based Kobex Resources Ltd. into an option agreement. The company invested $10 million into the proposed mine, now called Lucky Jack, before abruptly pulling out in April. An analyst had predicted the pullout, explaining that Kobex had not realized the amount of community opposition.

That opposition, through well-connected local residents, has grown to include one of the world’s largest legal firms, DLA Piper, which is said to be a heavy-hitter in Washington D.C.

“(Residents) are concerned about the economy we have built up here, which is tourism,” Mayor Alan Bernholtz told theChristian Science Monitor. “I don’t think mining and tourism mix too well.”

But a press release issued by U.S. Energy says it “stands undeterred in its resolve to advance, permit and develop Lucky Jack into a premier primary molybdenum mine that the United States can be proud of.” The company has allocated $5 million to refine estimates of costs for mining and milling. That information will be used in filing plans to the U.S. Forest Service late this year or early next.

The company remains “confident in its ability to identify and bring on board a highly qualified partner in the future,” according to the press release. An opposition leader, Bill Ronai, president of the Red Lady Coalition, told theCrested Butte News that the circumstances that caused Kobex to withdraw haven’t changed, which makes him skeptical that U.S. Energy will find a suitable partner.

Another key opposition group is the High Country Citizens’ Alliance. Bob Salter, the group’s director of mineral resources, says the proposal is one example of the “residual desire to perpetuate the consumptive culture” that he says is consuming vast amounts of healthy land, water and air.

Lake Tahoe pollution turned back

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Instead of becoming more sullied, Lake Tahoe may be regaining the clarity that Mark Twain 136 years ago described as “a noble sheet of blue ... not merely transparent, but dazzlingly, brilliantly so.”

Scientists say the lake’s clarity has actually improved since 2001 – possibly because land-use restrictions and erosion controls legislated several decades ago have been having an impact, reports theSacramento Bee.

The findings mark the most encouraging development in 40 years of monitoring the clouding of Lake Tahoe, according to Charles Goldman, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who in the 1960s was the first to foresee Tahoe’s troubles, and then take action on its behalf.

“There’s promise in these data that we’ve crossed the line,” Goldman said.

Tahoe still dazzles as when Mark Twain visited it, notes theBee, but erosion, construction runoff and air pollution have caused clarity to decline by nearly one-third since 1968, or an average loss of a foot a year.

The $500 million in federal, state and lake funds designated for cleanup in recent years has paid for roadside basins to capture runoff from lakeside highways, a major source of lake pollution.

Scientists were unwilling to say absolutely that the pollution had been reversed. But the seven-year trend is enough to raise hopes of a bluer Tahoe.

Condi to play Dvorak in Aspen

ASPEN – Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, has agreed to perform a Dvorak piece along with four other piano players who are current students at the Aspen Music Festival. She is also scheduled to speak during her summer visit on a yet-unspecified topic.

Rice, who once aspired to be a concert pianist, was a piano student at Aspen’s summer music camp in the early 1970s, when her family was living in Denver. Her first name is derived from the Italian musical expression, con dolcezza, which means “with sweetness.”

A sweet, warm welcome will not be extended her by all Roaring Fork Valley residents.

“No member of the Bush-Cheney war-crime family should be welcome here,” says James Breasted, in a letter published inThe Aspen Times. “Because our lawmakers have refused to hold these criminals accountable for their crimes, we the people should simply refuse to welcome them among us. It is our moral, ethical and patriotic duty.”

Snow recedes all over the West

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Somebody in Winter Park long ago described spring as the afterbirth of winter. That metaphor is now fully in your face in many ski towns as melting snowbanks reveal the excesses – and excrement – of winter.

In Crested Butte, that excrement has provoked an annual event called Poofest. It was scheduled for what theCrested Butte News called SaTURDay. Organizers of the event suggested that it was a civic “doodie” to seek out the dog-doos lying in alleys, streets and parks – everywhere dogs have roamed through the winter.

In Jackson Hole, Noah Brenner of theJackson Hole News&Guide reported in April that discovery of a razor peeking out of a snowbank while walking one day prompted him to behave like his dog on walks through Jackson, his nose and eyes to the ground. Among his finds: lots of gloves, and all of them for right hands.

Canmore boy fends off coyote

CANMORE, Alberta – An 11-year-old boy playing in the snow in the back yard of his home in Canmore was bitten by a coyote. He had closed his eyes and thought his brother was tickling him, but open his eyes to see a coyote, its teeth clamped on his leg, shaking it.

The boy kicked loose from the coyote, which scampered off, but the bite was sufficient to break through the snowsuit and pants he was wearing and draw blood.

Wildlife officers found and killed the coyote, which they say later was bold enough later that day to enter a person’s home. They told theRocky Mountain Outlook that the coyote was totally habituated to people, because it had been fed by people.

In December, three other children were bitten by coyotes in Canmore, two of them during a Christmas ice-skating event.

Loveland explores cat skiing

EISENHOWER TUNNEL – To keep up with the Joneses down the I-70 street, Loveland Ski Area is investigating expansion of snowcat-aided skiing.

Two nearby ski areas, Keystone and Copper Mountain, already offer cat skiing. Loveland, which is located around the eastern portal of the Eisenhower Tunnel, has changed little since 1999, when a lift was installed to the Continental Divide.

The land in question, Forest Service officials tell theSummit Daily News, has been identified since 1997 as suitable for guided skiing. Such backcountry-with-help skiing is sometimes called “backcountry lite” and in various ways has been a major theme in ski area expansions during the last decade.

The newspaper reports sharply worded conversations on forums such as that hosted by Teton Gravity Research, as backcountry skiers react to incursions of motorized users into the area, called Dry Gulch.

Severed fiber-optic strikes Mammoth

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – It was, reportsThe Sheet, the day that the Internet stood still in Mammoth. A construction crew cut a fiber-optic cable somewhere outside of town, but nobody knew that – because, of course, we now communicate and get our information from the Internet.

“For around six hours, no one could order anything on Amazon.com, students could not access Wikipedia or MySpace, and local government officials couldn’t replay the latest Obama Girl video on YouTube,” says the reporter, William Wiggins.

Phones had limited use, lines at the bank were slow, and ATM and credit cards were practically worthless.

“Many in our cashless society had to resort to using paper and coin money. Weird, huh?

– Allen Best