Uncommon Westerners

Saving a sacred lake: Zuni activist Pablo Padilla

Zuni Tribe member and law student Pablo Padilla helped lead a triumphant fight against a coal strip mine planned near Zuni Salt Lake in New Mexico, a site sacred to Native Americans

Getting under the desert’s skin: Biologist Jayne Belnap

Joy Belsky: 'She made us better'

Oregon range ecologist Joy Belsky is remembered with admiration by friends and opponents alike.

'Scholarship, sainthood and simplicity'

Frank C. Craighead Jr. is remembered as a famous grizzly bear authority, an environmentalist and a writer who lived consistently with his principles.

The Rio Grande's unsung diplomat

Rafter and river advocate Steve Harris tries to work with local farmers to preserve the Rio Grande in New Mexico.

Integrity and passion

Arizona biologist and teacher W.L. Minckley is remembered as a man of integrity and passion.

A local heroine

Chemist, zoologist and former local pharmacist Theo Colborn visits Paonia with a TV crew to be filmed for an episode of "Superteachers: Wisdom for the Future," part of a Japanese public television series.

The sublime delight of backtracking

For 20 years, David Bertelsen has been in love with the same five-mile trail up Finger Rock Canyon north of Tucson, keeping track of its animal and plant life and watching out for the well-being of a fragile landscape.

A journalist, and much more

Writer and organic farmer Donella Meadows is remembered as a journalist, and much more.

How to draw a duck

Biologist Betsy Whitehill is remembered for a vibrant, loving life that included teaching Alaskan schoolchildren how to draw ducks.

Don Ewy is no timber beast

Environmentalist, logger and HCN reader Don Ewy wonders who vandalized the bulldozer he used to selectively log trees in the North Fork State Forest in Colorado.

Paul Fritz left a unique legacy for the Park Service

The late Paul Fritz is remembered as a conservationist whose years in the Park Service reflect a man who was independent and outspoken.

Remembering an establishment revolutionary

Remembering the late John Sawhill, president of the Nature Conservancy, whose unique blend of environmental fervor and ability to schmooze with the rich helped to make his group the nation's largest conservation organization.

Floyd Dominy: An encounter with the West's undaunted dam-builder

An interview with legendary BuRec director Floyd Dominy reveals a man proud of the dams and water supply projects he built throughout the West - especially Glen Canyon Dam and its "most wonderful lake in the world, Lake Powell."

Farewell, Marc Reisner

With the recent untimely death of Marc Reisner, the West loses a man of independence and integrity, as well as a writer whose book "Cadillac Desert" helped to change the nation's view of Western water and water projects.

He's worried about weeds

A profile of Forest Service botanist Steve Monsen describes his battle with squarrose knapweed, which is infesting the western part of Utah, where Monsen has spent his life.

The beauty of self-reliance

Bike-shop owner Portia Masterson meets Paonia bike-cop Neal Schwieterman.

The last Celtic warlord lives in New Mexico

A profile of Catron County, N.M.'s lawyer, Jim Catron, reveals a man steeped in Celtic and cowboy mythology, and uncompromising in his anti-government fervor.