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Essays

  • The trouble with the Endangered Species Act is us

    The Endangered Species Act isn’t broken; we just don’t like to enforce it

  • Fishering

    In a part of Oregon where everybody says there have been no fishers for years, the writer stumbles across one of these rare and beautiful animals

  • In hunting camp, the closet is closed

    A "gay, wolf-loving, tree-hugging former Marine" writes about Brokeback Mountain, elk hunting, and his own lifelong experience with shame and prejudice

  • Waiting for Rain

    The hurricanes in the Gulf and New Mexico’s endless drought lead the author to wonder why it is human beings refuse to take nature seriously

  • The many problems of Richard Pombo

    California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo is having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year

  • Living with the ghosts of the Indian Wars

    Montana’s "Custer Country" is a region haunted by the ghosts of the Indian Wars, where towns are still named for the so-called "heroes’ responsible for massacres such as Wounded Knee

  • The unbearable triteness of skiing

    Being a non-skier in a skiing-obsessed state like Utah is a lot like being a vegetarian in a slaughterhouse

  • What’s the NRA’s beef with roadless areas?

    A hunter and member of the National Rifle Association is angry at the way the group puts gun ownership above roadless areas, wildlife, and hunting

  • Backcountry Ranger

    Backcountry seasonal ranger Tony Prendergast has spent much of the past six summers working in western Colorado’s Gunnison National Forest

  • Scandal and war fracture conservative coalition

    The war in Vietnam destroyed a long-lasting liberal coalition; now, political scandals and the war in Iraq are threatening the conservative coalition that took its place

  • Vine Deloria Jr.: Writer, scholar and inspired trickster

    Vine Deloria Jr., author of Custer Died for Your Sins, is remembered as a witty, impassioned and iconoclastic writer, historian, and teacher, who fought for Indian peoples and their right to self-determination

  • Alvin Josephy: A gentle, graceful advocate for sovereignty

    Writer and historian Alvin Josephy is remembered as a good friend to Indian people, especially the Nez Perce Tribe

  • Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist

    Accessible trails for wheelchair users should be a part of new wilderness legislation

  • ‘Death is stingless indeed and as beautiful as life’

    Writer and activist Michael Frome looks back on more than 80 years of a life filled concern for the environment and social justice

  • In Washington, the most outrageous sins are legal

    Given the incestuous nature of politics and lobbying in Washington, D.C., and the corruption inherent in the gambling industry, the rise of an opportunist like Jack Abramoff was all but inevitable

  • The day they close the pass

    As mountain towns get more accessible and lively, even in midwinter, the author relishes the way his tiny, remote town slows to a stop once the mountain pass highway is closed for the season

  • Are we ready to learn the lessons of fire and flood?

    Sen. Larry Craig’s suggestion that New Orleans’ 9th Ward be restored as a wetland may represent a newfound respect for the power of nature and the limits of the human ability to control it

  • The end of something really big

    The chance to see a huge dead whale draws "carcass tourists" to the California coast

  • In Bush's Supreme Court, who's on first?

    Newly confirmed Chief Justice John Roberts may not be the umpire he claims to be, but he could be worse: a counter-revolutionary, like Judge Janice Rogers Brown

  • Inside the fall

    A writer celebrates finding happiness and finding herself, as she romps with her children in the beautiful season of autumn

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