Feature

Not in our backyard

Greg Woodall and his sister, Carla, are focusing on Arizona's state school trust land in their quest to save the desert landscape around Scottsdale, Ariz., through the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

HCN babies Benjamin Chesnut Williams and Catherine Makena Edson; visitors; Ed Chaney loves home fries and sausage; new positions at HCN for Michelle Nijhuis and Rebecca Clarren.

Uncommon Westerners

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.

News

Tragedy re-ignites wildfire debate

After the Thirty Mile Fire in Washington's Methow Valley takes the lives of four firefighters, some say the fire should never have been fought.

The Latest Bounce

BPA rate increase but no extra water for salmon; Calif. coast off-limits to oil/gas exploration; Congress blocks oil/gas exploration in new monuments; Cascade-Siskiyou monument; Child Welfare League apologizes for removing Indian children in '50s-'60s.

Counties cross the yellow line

A judge rules that three Utah counties misused the 19th century statute RS 2477 when they illegally graded jeep tracks in BLM wilderness study areas and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Norton snubs grizzlies

Interior Secretary Gale Norton sets aside the Clinton-era plan to reintroduce grizzlies to wilderness in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho and Montana.

Forestry nominee: Rey of light or death Rey?

Supporters call Mark Rey, Bush's nominee for undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and the Environment, a forest management expert, but wary environmentalists liken him to Darth Vader and Machiavelli.

A 'shroom boom rises from the ashes

Last summer's wildfires cleared the ground for a boom in commercial mushroom-picking on Montana's national forests.

Indigenous group seeks citizenship

A bill before Congress will grant citizenship to Tohono O'odham Indians, whose traditional land is divided by the U.S.-Mexico border.

Logging cut short for salmon

The National Marine Fisheries Service must re-examine how logging affects endangered salmon before 24 federal timber sales can proceed in the Pacific Northwest.

Snowmobile ban stalled

The Bush administration wants to "re-evaluate" Clinton's ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Wetland degrader swims in murky waters

The EPA has taken Idaho rancher John Simpson to court for clearing debris and beaver dams out of a channel of the Salmon River, although endangered salmon have since spawned in the channel, complicating the issue.

Bush fails to defend roadless rule

Clinton's roadless plan for national forests has stalled out, caught in a Bush-era legal and bureaucratic labyrinth.

Essays

Out of the woods, blithe spirit

An Idaho writer has a humorous take on the Rainbow Tribe Gathering in the state and the horrified overreaction of politicians, ranchers, Forest Service, environmentalists and Indians.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Mark Russell gets laughs in Cody, Wyo.; Taking "north" out of N.D.; N.M. Gov. Gary Johnson flushed down toilet; Reagan on Rushmore?; "squaw" name eliminated in Idaho; wacky summer ideas; L.A. bear in backyard pool; Bush and energy subsidies.

Letters

Dave Skinner's red herrings

Lots to see in Carrizo

Fire as 'tool' an arrogant concept

Tribes doing most for salmon, feds least

Plenty of fallout from a Yucca Mountain delay

'Mormon' stereotyping not helpful

Related Stories

This land might be your land

A state-by-state rundown on state trust lands in the West gives information along with acreage for surface and subsurface area.