Feature

Here lies the Rio Grande

The last issue of the "Imagine a River" series on the Rio Grande examines how the river has become the "Rio Wimpy," running out of water twice before it reaches the Gulf of Mexico.

A river on the line

A journey down the Lower Rio Grande through Texas and Mexico finds a sometimes-waterless river that faces a host of environmental, agricultural and human problems.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

An educational journey down the Rio Grande; top books about Montana; visitors; misspellings.

Writers on the Range

How does snow melt? A test for all Westerners

With each flood of newcomers to the Interior West, specialized knowledge of place and culture is both lost and gained.

Attention, wolves: I'm what's for dinner

In the extremely unlikely event that any wolves reintroduced to Colorado began eating people, the writer says he would gladly volunteer to serve as a meal.

The Eucalyptus: Sacred or profane?

The writer says that California's much-prized eucalyptus trees are really overgrown, fire-prone weeds that would be better off in their native Australia.

News

Cheney picks former aide to oversee parks, BLM, wildlife

The Bush administration picks Wyoming resident Paul Hoffman to run the BLM as assistant secretary of the Interior for fish, wildlife and parks.

Predator politics gets ugly in Idaho

Under pressure from ranchers, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and other conservatives, Rod Sando resigns from his position as director of Idaho's Department of Fish and Game.

The Latest Bounce

Salvage logging plan for Montana's burned Bitterroot forest meets approval; Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad line approved; experimental program would kill coyotes to save sage grouse in Idaho and Utah; Steven A. Williams new director of USFWS.

Condor program laden with lead

Endangered condors reintroduced in the West are dying, many from lead poisoning caused by the bullets in the carcasses they feed on.

Battle brews over a wilderness mother lode

Activists are fighting a copper and silver mine planned for underneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in Montana.

Will bulldozers roll into Arizona's Eden?

Anti-grazing activist Joe Feller is leading the fight against BLM-approved projects in Arizona's Arrastra Mountain Wilderness that include an improved access road to a rancher's inholding.

Scouts (dis)honor

Tucson, Ariz., development foes are upset by a plan to sell land that was given to the Boy Scouts by a local rancher 30 years ago.

Buyout for bears

Defenders of Wildlife and the Wyoming Wilderness Society are paying an Idaho sheep rancher to move to a different grazing allotment, so that grizzly bears can safely live on the original allotment.

Moose-slinging ends

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources' plan to use helicopters to relocate moose on Interstate 80 is halted when one of the helicopters crashes, killing three.

Dunes shifts toward park status

Residents of Colorado's San Luis Valley are pleased at the prospect of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument adding the neighboring Baca Ranch and becoming a national park.

Entrepreneur shovels trouble

Archaeologists are appalled at Anasazi Digs, a family-owned business near Monticello, Utah, that plans to sell the right to dig and keep artifacts from prehistoric ruins on private land.

Groundswell for a monument?

Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt startles environmentalists with his suggestion for a new national monument on the San Rafael Swell.

Essays

Greens join 'Let's derail a judge' game

Environmentalists adopt the conservative strategy of working to derail the nomination of federal judges whom they fear could harm their cause.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Guns a-plenty in Utah; dangerous tweezers; diplomatic liquor flows into Utah, along with ambitious hookers; Salt Lake hikes up rents; Colorado's reborn "Mountain Gazette"; tumbleweed problems in eastern Washington.

Letters

A great read, but does it compute?

Includes Randy Udall's reply

If you want to save it, buy it

'Finding the words' a spear to the heart

Pasayten not ugly: HCN slant is

Band-aid environmentalism

Related Stories

What is poisoning border babies?

Terrible birth defects among newborns in the Lower Rio Grande Valley may be caused by agricultural and industrial pollution, but no one knows for sure.

Running for cover on the Rio Grande

Refuges such as the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge are among the few scattered fragments of habitat left in Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley.