Feature

Planting time

The native-seeds business is thriving, as more Westerners realize the value of a healthy rangeland, but the current unfriendly political climate in Washington, D.C., may bring an untimely frost

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

Two weeks to redesign launch; HCN’s April Fool’s succeeds in fooling Dubois; corrections: national monuments have been overturned

News

New forest plan leaves owls in a lurch

The Clinton-era Sierra Nevada Framework is being dismantled under the Bush administration, and California spotted owls, denied protection as endangered species, may pay the price

The Latest Bounce

Animas-La Plata dam building begins; fish appreciate removal of Washington’s Goldsborough Creek dam; 11th Mexican gray wolf killed in Arizona; lamprey denied endangered status; "stop work" order at Yucca Mountain ignored; and National Park Service critici

Tiny tribe bets its community on casino

Washington’s 194-member Stillaguamish Tribe has demolished its only village to make room for a casino, but now the casino’s financiers are under investigation, and the tribe’s gaming permit is in limbo

Nation’s largest tribe keeps casinos out

The Navajo Nation has said no to legalized gambling, but under Arizona’s new Proposition 202, the tribe may benefit from gambling on other reservations

Backcountry road deal runs over wilderness

Utah has dropped its threatened lawsuit over the control of backcountry roads, but the agreement the state made with the federal government casts a cloud over future wilderness protection

Missing Interior money: Piles or pennies?

American Indians have denounced a recent report defending the Interior Department’s trust account transactions

Farmland protection may dry up

California’s Williamson Act, a 40-year-old farmland-protection program, may be a casualty of the state’s huge budget deficit

Phelps tries to dodge bond

Phelps Dodge Corporation is at loggerheads with environmentalists and the state of New Mexico over plans to clean up the Chino Mine, an open-pit copper mine near Silver City

Historic preservation vs. tourism?

Colorado State Treasurer Mike Coffman wants to use funds earmarked for historic preservation to promote tourism instead

Book Reviews

Nevada: A diamond in the rough

Earthtones: A Nevada Album pairs essays by Ann Ronald with photos by Stephen Trimble to celebrate the beauty of an austere landscape

Healthy energy on public lands

A new report by the BLM and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory details the opportunities for renewable energy development on Western public lands

Hiking toward healing

In Crossing Divides: A Couple’s Story of Cancer, Hope, and Hiking Montana’s Continental Divide, Scott Bischke describes how he and his wife, Katie Gibson, refused to let her illness keep them from their beloved outdoors

How safe is that fillet?

A new label from the Marine Stewardship Council and a pocket guide from California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium help consumers pick out sustainably harvested seafood

Essays

To restore the West, go big and go native

It is possible for human beings to live sustainably in the West, and native seeds may help to point the way

In Iraq, there’s hope of restoring the Garden of Eden

Iraq has a chance to restore its fabled Mesapotamia Marshes, just as America could revive its own Colorado River Delta

In search of the desert manna

A journey in search of New Mexico’s fabled pinon nuts finds them falling victim to drought and beetles

Heard Around the West

Heard Around the West

Misprint confuses wolves with wives; "peace threats;" Sen. Scott McInnis denounces French-made tombstone; "Aspen Pure" water doesn’t come from Aspen; Utah mayor wasn’t kidnapped; Colorado Central spoofs real estate ads; "Chateau de Plateau;" Old Faithful

Letters

Ranches: Wildlands or scenery?

Ranches: Wildlands or scenery

Wilderness would have been better for ranchers

Wilderness would have been better for ranchers

Stay divided, and the land may fall

Stay divided, and the land may fall

There are plenty of places for bicycling

There are plenty of places for bicycling

Leave wilderness to llamas

Leave wilderness to llamas

Related Stories

On Black Mesa, the natives make a comeback

In Arizona, Peabody Western Coal is working with Navajo and Hopi Indians to reclaim its coal mines using culturally valuable native plants