News In Brief

I THINK I CAN ... OR MAYBE NOT

When two Texas brothers took their trucks off road on a mountain in Silverton, Colo., they probably didn't weigh the possible costs. But now, it's turning out to be one expensive trip, because they got stuck at 13,000 feet. "They came over a ridge and ... couldn't turn back," says Lisa Richardson, a ranger for the US Bureau of Land Management. Although it's almost impossible to drive the trucks down, the federal government won't let them stay up there. So the brothers may have to hire a logging helicopter from the Northwest to lift them out - which could cost more than the vehicles are worth. Not only that, but the men also face $600 in fines.

Clinton's path to creating an environmental legacy

President Clinton may designate five more sites in the West as national monuments before his term concludes. All but three presidents since Theodore Roosevelt - Nixon, Reagan, and Bush - have used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect federal land. But few have used the power as vigorously as Clinton. A list of the 10 national monuments Clinton already has created and expanded:

Agua Fria (Arizona): Contains extensive prehistoric ruins

California Coastal: 840-mile habitat for imperiled wildlife

Canyons of the Ancients (Colorado): Has highest density of archaeological sites in the US

Cascade-Siskiyou (Oregon): Contains area with one of highest levels of biodiversity in the US

Giant Sequoia (California): Has 34 groves of sequoias trees

Grand Canyon-Parashant (Arizona): 1 million acres of canyons, mountains, and buttes

Grand Staircase-Escalante (Utah): 1.7 million acres of canyons, cliffs, and plateaus

Hanford Reach (Washington): Lies along last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River

Ironwood Forest (Arizona): Contains ironwood trees, which can live more than 800 years

Pinnacles (California): 7,900-acre expansion of rare rocks and animals species

- Associated Press

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