Feature

Power on the loose

Electric utility deregulation and California's energy crisis hold promise and peril for the rest of the West, as conservationists seek to ensure that new energy systems are both efficient and easy on the land and water and air.

Backyard power struggle

Some locals on southwestern Colorado are fighting an electric utility's plans to upgrade the power line that runs between Nucla and Telluride.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

Remember the Alamo (intern updates); 2000 index; hellos from visitors; goodbye to Janet Kauffman.

Uncommon Westerners

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.

News

Roadless plan slides to safety

At the very last minute, the Clinton administration releases its final version of the national forest roadless plan.

The latest bounce

It's now a crime to kill or harm threatened salmon; enviros say Puget Sound Energy harms salmon nests; tribes sue to protect salmon; new and cleaner snowmobiles tested; BLM uses helicopters to round up cattle on Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Monumental changes

The Clinton administration announces seven new national monuments, six of them in the West, three days before George W. Bush takes office.

Service leaves endangered species in limbo

Environmentalists fear that a listing freeze at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - which the agency blames on a much-reduced budget - will lead to a host of endangered species going extinct.

Landowners could get gas relief

Four bills in the Colorado state Legislature promise to give landowners more rights in the regulation of methane gas development, but some activists remain skeptical.

Park Service bans Jet Skis

Settlement of a recent lawsuit filed by Bluewater Network may eliminate personal watercraft from the entire parks system by 2002.

Weirdness abounds in Washington

His choices of Gale Norton for Interior Secretary and John Ashcroft for Attorney General show that George W. Bush has already abandoned bipartisanship.

Swift fox may lose the race

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has dropped the swift fox as a candidate for endangered species listing.

A slow comeback for Mexican wolves

Reintroduced Mexican gray wolves are continuing to die along the Arizona-New Mexico border, and environmentalists blame ranchers for the latest deaths.

Montana, feds find common ground for bison

Environmentalists say the new Yellowstone bison management plan put together by Montana and the Park Service won't really help the bison much.

Ski area arms race dirties the water

Environmentalists would like to overturn the Forest Service's decision to let Colorado's Arapahoe Basin Ski Resort start snowmaking.

From hardware to software

The wilderness movement owes much of its beginning to a man few people remember: a one-time Montana rancher and hardware store owner named Cecil Garland.

Book Reviews

Agency will try to track trails

The BLM has released a new plan for managing off-highway vehicle use on public lands across the country.

X-rated on the rocks

"The Serpent and the Sacred Fire: Fertility Images in Southwest Rock Art," by Dennis Slifer, takes a look at the sexual imagery of much Southwestern rock art.

Beyond the white noise

"The 2000 Directory of People of Color Environmental Groups" gives information on over 600 organizations in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Tagging a protest

The AZ NoFee Coalition is protesting the user fee demonstration program in the Red Rock area of Coconino National Forest in Arizona.

Essays

Rearranging the grid

High Country News' publisher discusses his years on the board of the Delta-Montrose Electric Association, and the surprising common ground that has developed between the electric co-op and environmentalists like himself.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Anti-environmental jargon; carless in Seattle; homeowners vs. hikers on trail near Seattle; better cow-herding through electricity; sagebrush seed rustling; half.com, Ore.; learning from moose poop.

Letters

Greens failed grassroots miserably

Dobb's argument is troubling

Salmon for barbecue hardly the issue

More than advertising

'Burma Shave' rhymes inspire

Let's ban second homes

Related Stories

Wind power spins into the energy mainstream

The largest wind farm in the world is being constructed on the Oregon-Washington border near Walla Walla, Washington.