Feature

Finding the words

Across the West, Native Americans are working to revive vanishing tribal languages, using their elders and language-immersion schools to try to gain fluent speakers.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

HCN's wonderful senior editor, Michelle Nijhuis, moves on; visitors; unsentimental nature writing; correction on Idaho state fish.

Uncommon Westerners

Joy Belsky: 'She made us better'

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

Writers on the Range

The American West is an island besieged

An encounter with an almost-extinct Hawaiian bird leads the writer to wonder whether the West's own wildlife and cultures can survive, or whether the region is fated to become a museum instead of a living landscape.

News

Unranchers gain ground

The Arizona Supreme Court says the state land department can't deny conservation groups the right to bid on state grazing leases.

Judge puts kibosh on logging plan

A federal judge rules that the Burn Area Recovery Plan, which would log Montana's Bitterroot National Forest, must be put on hold until the Forest Service gives the public a chance to appeal.

The Latest Bounce

Utah Rep. Jim Hansen to retire; Kathleen Clarke confirmed as new BLM director; Ore. coast coho back under federal protection; Fort Irwin, CA Army training range expanded; Yellowstone ranger Bob Jackson back to work.

A neighborhood for Aspen's 'middle' class

Aspen developer John McBride's North Forty housing development aims to create a community for the ski resort's 'middle' class.

Will listing hurt the Colorado lynx?

The Canada lynx is listed as threatened, but some fear the decision not to list the Southern Rockies lynx as a "distinct population segment" will hamper its recovery chances in Colorado.

Biologists caught in the crosshairs

Seven wildlife biologists are in trouble for giving to a lab hair samples of what were supposed to be from wild Canada lynx in Washington but actually belonged to captive ones and a bobcat.

Recreation-fee foes catch an agency fumble

The Forest Service has been illegally collecting recreation fees at thousands of sites in the West, instead of the 100 places allowed under the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program.

The Steens Riviera?

Environmentalists fear the Cooperative Management Act won't protect Oregon's Steens Mountain from development, unless Congress comes through with enough money to buy up private land.

Cat trouble dogs Flagstaff

Mountain lion advocates protest the Arizona Game and Fish Department's decision to kill two lions that had followed hikers and threatened dogs on the edge of Flagstaff.

Greens bail on 'bilers

Two environmentalists leave the collaborative group working on a winter-use plan for Wyoming's Snowy Range after the group refuses to address the impact of snowmobiles on ptarmigan habitat.

Boy Scouts want new digs

Local residents and environmentalists object to a planned Boy Scout camp on the Fryingpan River in the White River National Forest near Aspen, Colorado.

Wheeling and dealing

Utah environmentalists fear a secret deal between the BLM and the governor's office will give counties control over dirt roads and trails and prevent the designation of future wilderness.

Book Reviews

Alternative development goes mainstream

A new approach called low-impact development focuses on innovative ways to manage storm water in the Pacific Northwest's urban areas.

Artists paint a Pacific Northwest history

"The Pacific Northwest Landscape, A Painted History," edited by Kitty Harmon, traces the story of the region through the artwork it has inspired over the last three centuries.

Gaining ground for the buffalo

The Great Plains Restoration Council seeks to restore ecosystems and re-establish buffalo herds in the Northern Plains.

A new vision for the BLM

A report by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council suggests reorganizing the BLM into multi-state regions less dominated by individual state politics.

Essays

A sense of wonder needs no name

Wild creatures are wonderful to encounter, even when they aren't the rare and spectacular species we long to see.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Battle Mountain, NV: "armpit of nation"; four-legged pigeon; Harry Potter ignites rage in Alamogordo, N.M.; owls not good pets for Potter fans; off-shore banking in MT; fighting the circus; water-skipping on snowmobiles not good idea.

Letters

Shaking out some salt solutions

Time to broaden the earth-protecting coalition

Wishful thinking about a corrupt institution

Montana Greens need local roots

Active Green Party left out of Montana analysis

Tango took rural reps, too

Ring misreads Montana

Montana story ignores antis' ongoing attack