High Country News August 22, 2005
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
