Feature

Conservationist in a Conservative Land

Rick Johnson of the Idaho Conservation League is working with Republican Congressman Mike Simpson on a wilderness bill for the Boulder and White Cloud mountains, but not everybody in "Planet Idaho" is happy

Editor's Note

Politics as a winner-takes-all game is a loser

It would be a grave mistake for President Bush to assume that his recent victory gives license for a winner-take-all power grab in the West

Dear Friends

Dear friends

Election Day; Ray Ring wins journalism award; High Country News holiday open house

News

Election Day surprises in the schizophrenic West

The same Western voters who re-elected President George W. Bush and his anti-environmental record also voted for environmental ballot measures and green-leaning candidates.

Racetrack

A short guide to the highlights of election results from contests around the West.

EPA pulls back on fish-killing rule change

The Environmental Protection Agency withdraws a proposed rule change that would have allowed fatal amounts of selenium in fish.

Freewheeling wilderness proposal irks purists

The Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act would allow mountain bikers and chain saws into a proposed Oregon wilderness

Calendar

Book Reviews

A beautiful ode to a melting earth

Gretel Ehrlich’s recent book, The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold, is an intimate "ode and lament" on global warming and the end of winter

State loopholes upset Clean Air Act

The Environmental Integrity Project has issued a new report on power plant emissions called Gaming the System: How the Off-the-Books Industrial Upset Emissions Cheat the Public Out of Clean Air

Calling all birders

The National Audubon Society’s 2004 State of the Birds report assesses worrisome population changes for 450 non-game birds

Essays

In Oregon, a lesson learned the hard way

Oregon’s famed land-use laws take a stake to the heart, thanks to voter ire and planners' failure to explain the benefits of a system that has kept strip-malls and sprawl to a minimum

Colorado voters snub coal for all things renewable

The board member of a small electric utility opines that the wind power mandate of Colorado's Amendment 37 is good for the energy industry, despite the utilities' resistance

A mountain lifts a heavy heart

An emotionally wounded writer is cheered by a visit to Mount St. Helens, even though heavy clouds obscured the volcano

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Man vs. lion; skiers vs. avalanche; Ed Bangs and wolves; Utah constitutional amendments; trigger-happy hunter in Montana; annoying off-road VW ads

Related Stories

A wilderness bill with a little something for everyone

The Boulder-White Clouds wilderness bill tries to give something to everybody, as a list of some of its provisions reveals