Feature

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

The Air Force wants to close Cannon Air Force Base, but the nearby town of Clovis, N.M., is not ready to let go of its main economic engine

Editor's Note

Boom and bust, military style

The military’s plan to close Cannon Air Force Base is being fought by nearby Clovis, N.M., a community that, like many in the West, has become spectacularly dependent on a single industry

Uncommon Westerners

His playground pulls fun hogs off the public lands

Jeremy Parriott is working with friends to create a 320-acre extreme-sports playground near Moab, Utah, to give four-wheelers and others a place to play off the public lands

News

Bedrock environmental law takes a beating

Congressman Richard Pombo’s task force tears into the National Environmental Policy Act

Follow-up

Judge Dee Benson reconsiders the Norton-Leavitt 2003 wilderness settlement; New Mexico’s Otero Mesa back on the oil and gas auction block; former NOAA administrator James Lecky accused of doctoring science in controversial biological opinion

Congress and Indians spar over lost money

Sen. John McCain proposes a way to settle the long-running scandal over missing Indian trust-account funds, but Blackfoot banker Elouise Cobell remains wary

Super-sized dam could be a cash register for California farmers

The Bureau of Reclamation has agreed to deliver more water to California’s Central Valley Project than it actually has, and is considering raising Shasta Dam to provide it

Feds oppose state's effort to empower landowners

Wyoming’s new "split-estate" law, designed to give private landowners more control over energy development on their property, hits a big obstacle – the Bush administration

Drilling leases slowed by paper jam

Assistant Interior Secretary Rebecca Watson blames environmental protests for hobbling gas drilling in the Rocky Mountains, but much of the delay comes from problems with the industry’s applications

Ferret recovery pioneer moves on

District Ranger Bill Perry, who led the effort to help restore endangered black-footed ferrets, is leaving South Dakota’s Buffalo Gap National Grassland for a job in Washington, D.C.

Island's pig problem pits animal-rights activists against conservationists

A plan to eradicate thousands of feral pigs from Southern California’s Santa Cruz Island has animal rights activists up in arms

Essays

Winnebagos: Don't fear 'em, cheer 'em

It’s time for New Westerners to get over their "Winnebagophobia."

Cano's Vision

In the little town of Antonito, Colo., a local eccentric known as Cano is using salvaged materials like beer cans, hubcaps and scrap lumber to create an extraordinary shrine called "El Castillo."

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Rowdy hymn-singers in Joseph, Ore.; pseudo-towns in suburban Phoenix; Gov. Brian Schweitzer does it right; strange neighbors in Casper, Wyo.; Code Talker Teddy Draper Sr. receives Purple Heart; Dan McKay writes purple prose; David McSwane takes on Army re

Letters

Overhauled wolf program isn't 'collaborative'

Immigration fuels Western growth

Leave sociology coverage to National Geographic

Change is good — but be careful

Bad for horn hunters, but good for wildlife

Stop picking on Pombo

Related Stories

Military Base Closures in the West

Chart of military base closures in the West