Feature

The anatomy of fire

A visit to the biggest forest fire in Colorado history - the Hayman Fire - and time spent with some of those battling it leads the author to speculate on the mystery and complexity of humanity's relationship with fire.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

Park City, Utah, HCN board meeting and the decision to look for a new Executive Director for the paper and other media; we're sorry we left out Wyoming Outdoor Council in coalbed methane booklet.

Writers on the Range

Life amid fire - the mundane and the macabre

A Durango, Colo., resident writes about how life goes on as the Missionary Ridge Fire continues to blaze just outside his town.

News

White River Forest plan friend to all - and to none

The final management plan for Colorado's White River National Forest has conservationists, recreationists and water users all complaining about it.

A landslide suit for salmon

An Oregon environmental coalition is suing the state saying that 20-foot-wide logging buffers besides streams do little to prevent landslides in salmon habitat.

Salty solution for Bay wildlife

California's San Francisco Bay may become the site of the country's second-largest coastal wetland restoration project, if all goes according to plan.

Big stink over factory farms

In Utah, a new law prevents counties from making factory farms criminally liable for their impacts on local communities.

The Latest Bounce

Snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton; Calif. gnatcatcher, San Diego fairy shrimp habitat protected; Pacific fishermen sue to force habitat designation for salmon; charter forest demo project bill in Colo. Legislature; Clinton roadless rule.

No ranchettes for the rest of us in Jackson

Jackson, Wyo., citizens have rejected a development planned for a ranch near the town, but the problem of where to house people in resort towns - especially working people - won't go away.

Scientists uncover a weevil gourmand

Flower-head weevils released in Colorado's Gunnison National Forest to eat invasive Canada thistles seem to prefer other thistles instead and have no impact on the weeds.

Southwest drought desiccates fish before farmers

The agreement between state and federal agencies to keep a "minimum flow" of water in New Mexico's Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers has failed to do the job in this year's severe drought.

Re-opening Glen Canyon's floodgates

Conservationists say it's time for another flood of the Colorado River through Glen Canyon Dam to restore beaches and habitat downstream in Grand Canyon National Park.

Book Reviews

A sonnet to a problem river

In "High and Dry: The Texas- New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos River," lawyer Emlen Hall considers the 1948 Pecos River Compact and how it failed to take into account the unpredictable nature of the river it sought to control.

Human wildness on the range

In "The Backbone of the World," Frank Clifford takes a thoughtful, respectful look at the complex and cranky old-timers now colliding with the New West's Lycra-clad newcomers along the Continental Divide Trail.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Honeybees trained to track explosives; golf tourney offers prize prostitutes; man shoots own manhood; 3 Mont. legislators switch Dem to Rep; gated communities not always protected; Berkeley CA to vote on java origins; Nev. drops bomb from license plates.

Letters

HCN offers bogus theories

Feedlots story falls short

Matthews wrote wet-blanket litany

Wolf killing hard to swallow

Related Stories

Prescribed burns tame the beast

Fighting fire with fire is becoming more common in the West, as the Forest Service uses prescribed burns to tackle wildfires.

The tail of a dragon?

Fire specialists fear that giant wildfires such as the Rodeo-Chediski in Arizona and the Hayman Fire in Colorado may become more common in the Rocky Mountains and Southwest.