Feature

Searching for pasture

Lyle McNeal revived the Churro sheep, a dying breed, and helped the Navajos who once depended on them, but now the professor is locked in a bitter battle over the sheep and other issues with Utah State University, which once supported the project.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

Bill Hedden vs. Moab uranium tailings; HCN's business manager Janet Kauffman and accrual accounting; visitors; Don "Shorty" Wood dies; HCN's adopt-a-library.

Uncommon Westerners

Not your average beauty queen

A profile of 24-year-old Rachel Benally shows a vibrant young woman whose family life is in bright contrast to the often-grim statistics about youth problems in the Navajo Reservation.

News

Montana burns game farm elk

At the Kesler Game Farm near Philipsburg, Mont., 89 elk are destroyed because they have chronic wasting disease, and some Montana authorities fear game farms are helping to spread the deadly, mysterious disease.

The Wayward West

Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt backs West Desert Wilderness Bill; Jon Marvel wins Idaho grazing leases; John McCain's environmental doubletalk; Grand Canyon forests partnership logging plan OK'd; dams won't be built on Wyo.'s Dry Fork of Little Bighorn River.

Yellowstone wolves are here to stay

The 10th Circuit Court overturns a controversial ruling and decrees that the 300 transplanted wolves in Yellowstone National Park were not illegally reintroduced.

Mountain of mine waste may move after all

The controversial pile of uranium tailings next to the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, may finally be moved.

Political war continues over bison herd

Despite federal pressure, Montana refuses to budge on its policy of killing bison that stray from Yellowstone National Park, out of fear they may carry brucellosis.

Judge rules on Indian money mess

Federal Judge Royce Lamberth says he'll personally oversee the Interior Department's attempt to untangle the billions of dollars owed to Indians but mismanaged and misplaced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Incinerator unsafe, says former Tooele manager

A former manager at the Army's chemical weapons incinerator in Tooele County, Utah, says he was threatened with firing if he talked about the plant's environmental problems.

Protesters raised the right questions

After the World Trade Organization protests ended in Seattle, Wash., questions remain about global trade, environmental issues and the way the world is changing.

Off-road riders told to stay on the road

Throughout the West, off-road vehicles of all sorts are facing new regulations about where they can and can't go on public lands.

Book Reviews

A pilot's-eye view of the West

Michael Collier's new book, "Water, Earth and Sky: The Colorado River Basin," combines his beautiful aerial photos of a remarkable landscape with well-chosen words.

Cooling the waters

The EPA orders the Potlatch Corp. pulp mill in Lewiston, Idaho, to cool its wastewater and reduce its pollution of the Snake River.

Six Billion Downstream

The 18th annual Public Interest Environmental Law conference will be held Marsh 2-5.

Wallace Stegner Lecture Series

The Wallace Stegner Lecture Series features writer Terry Tempest Williams on March 30.

Land Use Conference

The 9th annual Land Use Conference, hosted by the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute at the University of Denver, will be held March 9-10.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Cows on the way out; "cowlettes" for ranchettes; "nice-guy" cattle herding; "deep ecology" as religious cult; Aspen's "Noxious People Board"; BLM law enforcement problems; Whitefish, Mont., and Y2K sneakers.