High Country News June 21, 2004
Feature
Following the Ancient Roads
On a 10-day walk through the northwestern New Mexico desert, the author follows an ancient road that leads him from silent Indian ruins into noisy, modern gas fields
Editor's Note
A chance for redemption
The lead essays in this issue find both darkness and hope in the times we live in, and in the reminder that all civilizations – including our own – eventually crumble and fall
Dear Friends
Dear friends
HCN’s summer break; potluck in Carbondale, Colo.; HCN’s ad policy, real estate ads and special land-trust ad section; reader response; thanks for May fund-raiser in Salt Lake City; clarifications and corrections
Uncommon Westerners
Fighting for the Rocky Mountain Front: Montana rancher Karl Rappold
Montana rancher Karl Rappold is determined to save his beloved Rocky Mountain Front from development by the oil and gas industry
News
As fire season ignites, Smokey Bear's legacy lingers
Land managers have been talking about letting more wildfires burn, but the recent blowup of the Peppin Fire near Capitan, N.M. – home of Smokey Bear – leads to renewed talk of aggressive fire suppression
Follow-up
Judge rules citizens can petition to have "candidate" species listed as endangered; genetically engineered salmon eat regular salmon; genetically engineered corn planted in Colorado; Energy Department plans to ship weapons grade plutonium and enriched ura
Oil money rules in the West's mini-Middle East
Two Democratic governors – Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming and Bill Richardson of New Mexico – find themselves caught between the money that comes from the energy industry and the environmental impacts of oil and gas development
Lame-duck governor moves deadlocked wilderness debate
Utah Gov. Olene Walker announces county-by-county discussions planned to break the impasse in the state’s long fight over wilderness
Proposal for Lassie's lumber mill has enviros barking
A plan for a resort development at the old Broughton Lumber mill in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area has some Washington environmentalists worried
Mining town gambles on a road to riches
The rivalry between two Colorado gambling towns has led Central City to begin building a new highway to draw visitors directly to its casinos rather than to those of its more successful neighbor, Black Hawk
High-stakes logging plan gets go-ahead
The large-scale salvage logging planned for the Biscuit Fire area in southern Oregon and Northern California marks the first time logging has been approved on land previously protected by the Roadless Rule
Mining law claims mountain
Crested Butte, Colo., residents are angry that the BLM has sold the mining giant Phelps Dodge 155 acres at the top of Mount Emmons – the town’s beloved "Red Lady" – for about $5 an acre
Debate rages over firefighting airplanes
Citing safety concerns, the federal government has canceled contracts for 33 privately owned large air tankers, usually used to fight Western wildfires
Border Patrol wants motorized access to wilderness
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to give the Border Patrol regular motorized access to more than 330,000 acres of wilderness along the Mexican border
Book Reviews
Avedon at Work in the American West
Laura Wilson describes the time she spent roaming the West with photographer Richard Avedon in the early 1980s in her book, Avedon at Work in the American West
Perspectives on change — climate change
Charles Wohlforth looks at climate change in Alaska from two cultures’ viewpoints, when he talks to scientists and to the Inupiaq people in The Whale and the Supercomputer: On The Northern Front of Climate Change
Food on every plate, art on every wall
In A More Abundant Life: New Deal Artists and Public Art in New Mexico, Jacqueline Hoefer explores the wide range of public artworks created in the state in the 1930s, under Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration
How agriculture ate the earth
In Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization, Richard Manning goes after modern agriculture with a vengeance
Essays
As dams fall, a chance for redemption
Visits to three Western dams – California’s doomed Matilija Dam, the unfinished Elk Creek Dam in Oregon, and the Southwest’s giant Glen Canyon Dam – lead the author to consider the fact that sooner or later, every dam crumbles
Revenge of the old-timers: The beavers are back
The sight of a beaver swimming past a barbecue leads to speculation on the role the animal played in the settling of the West, and the current conflicted views New Westerners have about living with wildlife
Heard Around the West
Heard around the West
Firefighting fisherman; Denver’s dangerous principal; peregrine falcons and bridges; San Francisco’s parrots; jaguar gets the finger in Albuquerque
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