Essays
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It's time for the public to pay up
User fees for Western recreationists on public lands are overdue and will create an incentive to protect these lands from exploitation.
by Terry L. Anderson, Oct 13, 1997 -
Keep America green: Hire an illegal alien
A Forest Service employee remembers the hard work of illegal aliens in planting trees in the Klamath National Forest.
by Louise Wagenknecht, Sep 15, 1997 -
Will Wyoming warm to wolves?
A Montana conservationist travels to Wyoming to talk about wolves to often-hostile Wyomingites.
by Steve Thompson, Sep 15, 1997 -
The buffalo underground: Now it can be told
A bison which found refuge in Vickie Dyar's barn in West Yellowstone, Mont., was protected and fed by her last winter, to save it from the notorious slaughter of escaped Yellowstone bison considered at risk for brucellosis.
by Mark Matthews, Sep 15, 1997 -
An Idaho daily breaches the Northwest's silence over tearing down dams
The Idaho Statesman goes out on a limb with editorials suggesting that four dams on the Snake River - Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor - be torn down to help the recovery of endangered salmon.
by Susan Whaley, Sep 01, 1997 -
At war with a bunch of mice: Confessions of an ex-pacifist
After a neighbor dies of hantavirus, a California pacifist grapples with whether - and how - to destroy the deer mice that carry the disease.
by Andy Selters, Aug 18, 1997 -
On being wrong
A writer looks back ruefully at what went wrong with a one-time utopian, back-to-the-land community in Oregon.
by Alison Clement, Aug 18, 1997 -
How the writer learned that he is not very spiritual
A stroll through Sedona, Ariz., the West's New Age center, shows that enlightenment is there for the finding - if you have enough money.
by Stephen J. Lyons, Aug 18, 1997 -
The West may not be literary, but it's littered with reading matter
A cross-country bicycle trip through the West reveals quirky and sometimes enigmatic road signs everywhere.
by Douglas Warren Johnson, Aug 18, 1997 -
Boise pushes on its river, and the river shoves back
Boise, Idaho, realizes that its beloved river needs room to flow, and that riverfront development may have to be controlled.
by Guy Hand, Jun 23, 1997 -
Uh, oh - the glaciers are growing
The unusually high snowpack in Montana this winter may actually be a sign of global warming.
by Steve Thompson, May 26, 1997 -
Moving in, as the snow moves on
The springtime movement of birds and mammals in northwest Wyoming leads the author to speculate on the meaning of travel and coming home.
by Ted Kerasote, May 26, 1997 -
Coyote vigils
A Catholic environmentalist considers coyotes and the Creator during a retreat at a Trappist Monastery in the mountains.
by Diane Sylvain, Apr 28, 1997 -
Choose not to go boldly outdoors
The writer suggests that Westerners start a sabbatical for the land - letting it rest entirely sometimes from hiking and other recreation.
by Dyan Zaslowsky, Sep 16, 1996 -
Lessons from a rampaging river
The flood and fire that hit Grand Forks, N.D., when the Red River rose, raise a hard question: Why must communities face catastrophe before people come together as a "we"?
by Asta Bowen, Jun 09, 1997 -
Yellowstone's "geyser guy' was one of the park's best friends
An elegy for Yellowstone's "geyser guy," Rick Hutchinson, profiles a geologist who loved the park so deeply that his friends still feel his spirit there.
by Michael Milstein, Apr 14, 1997 -
Yellowstone's "geyser guy' was one of the park's best friends
An elegy for Yellowstone's "geyser guy," Rick Hutchinson, profiles a geologist who loved the park so deeply that his friends still feel his spirit there.
by Michael Milstein, Apr 14, 1997 -
Venison is not an option
A Boulder, Colo., resident humorously describes his attempts to co-exist with the deer that invade his garden.
by Evan Cantor, Mar 03, 1997 -
What happens when two tree-huggers meet a tentful of hunters
A close encounter between a tribal biologist, a self-described "tree-hugger" and a tentful of hard-drinking hunters leads to surprising communication as each side overcomes its stereotypes.
by Colin Chisholm, Mar 03, 1997 -
When it's 25 below and dropping
Life at 25 below in towns like Livingston, Mont., is made bearable by things like poker, polar fleece and Portabello mushrooms.
by Scott Mcmillion, Feb 17, 1997
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