The People of the West

Wid Tanaka, born and raised in Shoshone, Idaho, has coffee with his friends on a Saturday morning at the Valley Co-op, Shoshone. Photo by Nils Ribi, March 6, 2010

Spring fly fishing on the pond above Kilpatrick Bridge, Picabo, Idaho. An angler enjoys the peace and serenity of uncrowded waters in the West.

On a hot late June day, a hiker crosses a snow field during a hike up Table Mountain in Idaho.

At the end of a long day of contract archaeology on the White Sands Missile Range, south of Alamogordo, NM, May 1987

With Mount Challenger for company, Paula Ogden-Muse picks huckleberries for breakfast in North Cascades National Park. Photo by Jeff Muse.

Kid's Ranch Rodeo in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming.

A perfect spotlight in Neon Canyon, a tributary to the Escalante river in southern Utah.

Toward the end of a hot, dry day spent rounding up cattle on the 100 Ranch near Carrizozo, New Mexico. Photo taken from horseback with a Nikon N90s.

At the 100 Ranch near Carrizozo, New Mexico

A pristine summer's morning at 14,000 feet: heading off Mt. Blanca to summit Mt. Ellingwood, Colorado's Sangre De Christo range

Wrangler and little cowboy at the HF Bar Ranch, Wyoming.

A Quileute fisherman stands on the banks of the Quileute river on a blustery February day. La Push, Washington.

Pat Shaver (Natural Resources Conservation Service), Rick Miller (Oregon State University), and Al Winward (Rocky Mt. Research Station, USFS, retired) discuss vegetation dynamics on the sagebrush sea.

My nephew gets permission to join his older cousins up the hill. Washington Park, Douglas, Wyoming.

My son watching elk, listening to them bugle, and wondering how they make that incredible sound... Estes Park, Colorado

Just a day old, proud new mom is excited to show baby what he has to look forward to... Boulder, CO

Through the Sustainable Prisons Project in Washington State, inmates at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center propagate plants for the prairies of South Puget Sound. Photo by Benjamin Drummond.

a burley pickup hauling a trailer and back dropped by a grand Great Plains thunderhead

The Sherwins Working Group was an independent, community-based body of stakeholders that developed a preferred alternative for safe and environmentally responsible public access for the Sherwin Area located south of the Town of Mammoth Lakes. The group was comprised of approximately 30 community members who met numerous times in late 1009 to tackle this complex project; they represented a broad spectrum of recreation, business, and agency interests from the area. The process was professionally facilitated and was supported by the Inyo National Forest, Town of Mammoth Lakes, and the Mammoth Lakes Trails and Public Access Foundation.

Monster storm hit the Southern Sierra Nevadas, providing ideal conditions for skiing the Mono Craters. This shot was taken as we skinned back up for the last run of the day.

Blue Barney and myself

Horses Sooner and Boo checking out my pockets.

Cattle being moved near Cortez, Colorado

Grandsons playing in Fall Creek, Lane County, Oregon

A long ago backpack trip in the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area, California.

Local Custer impersonators at the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn near Crow Agency, Montana. Ranger Michael Stops looks on in the background.

A couple of cowpokes at Cabot's Pueblo, Desert Hot Springs, CA on 6 Jun 09

Alien encountered in the Cadiz Dunes near Twentynine Palms, CA

A lonesome windmill and decaying homestead keep vigil over the eastern plains of Wyoming.

Thundersnow makes it's way west across the Wind River basin in west central Wyoming.

A USFS fire crew still working after a long night on the fireline.

Same place, same time, year after year.

People of the west love their dogs and their dogs love them. Here Kim Nalen and Maddy ski the Wood River Trails near Hailey, Idaho.

For 100 years, firefighters have occupied the forests of the West. In 2007, nearly 1,600 worked for over three weeks to stop the Castle Rock Fire from burning the resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho.

Two anglers giving the trout a rest while they take some time to enjoy the beauty of the Madison River near Varney Bridge (Ennis, MT), with Sphinx Mountain (Madison Range) in the background in May 2009.

A long winter in Saint Mary, Montana sometimes means snowmobiling with your best buds. And sometimes finding your best buds mean crossing that fine line between isolation and insanity.

Young cowhand at Cabot's Pueblo, Desert Hot Springs, June 2009. Photo by Joe Ross, 29 Palms, CA.

Bob, a WW2 veteran, began packing mules with the Forest Service in his mid-70s. He stopped doing it full time after a few years. But now in his 80s, he still goes out on occasion with the mule trains.

George Whitten, Jr., who raises organic grassfed beef on his San Juan Ranch in Colorado's San Luis Valley, observes cattle at a stockmanship workshop sponsored by the Quivira Coalition at the Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

Flauschink Crested Butte is an end of the ski season polka party, parade and an honor to be crowned King or Queen.

This photo represents the potential symbiosis of competing interests for our limited water resources in the west - agriculture and recreation can co-exist.

Guy Glosson, Certified Educator in Holistic Management, teaches low-stress livestock handling at a Quivira Coalition workshop on the Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico. Herding techniques will be used to get livestock to the right place, at the right time, for the right reasons -- facilitating rangeland restoration.

Grand County Search and Rescue: an all-volunteer non-profit organization providing four-season backcountry emergency services in Colorado.