Feature

High Noon for Habitat

In Riverside County, Calif., the conflict between the Endangered Species Act’s critical habitat rule and the West’s booming, sprawling, growth-driven economy comes to a head

Editor's Note

The difficulties of cohabitation

Despite its problems and failures – many of them arising from the conflict between the United States’ growing population and our declining wildlife habitat – the Endangered Species Act is a necessary law

Dear Friends

Dear friends

Welcome, Lillian Jane Lawrence (Laura Paskus’ daughter); Jonathan Thompson new HCN editor; HCN intern program; William Kent of Moab dies; photo caption correction

Uncommon Westerners

Dr. Sharon and the lion hunters

Small-animal veterinarian Sharon Senezcko has become a fierce advocate for South Dakota’s mountain lions

News

Colorado River states reach landmark agreement

The seven states of the Colorado River Basin have come to a groundbreaking agreement that, among other things, will allow cities such as Las Vegas to lease water from out-of-state farms during times of drought

The Latest Bounce

Grazing fees to be cut; Russian drill rigs coming to Colorado; new power plant on Navajo Nation gets big tax break; Washington may become sixth Western state with renewable energy standards

Tribe brings on the tourists

The Hualapai Tribe has ambitious plans for Grand Canyon West, a tourist destination on its remote reservation bordering the Grand Canyon

'Ghost fleet' in search of a final resting place

Newport, Ore., decides the environmental and financial risks are too great to allow Bay Bridge Enterprises, a ship-recycling firm, to dismantle decommissioned military vessels at Yaquina Bay

Downwinders say fallout study numbers don't add up

A controversial study says only a fraction of cancer cases can be attributed to nuclear fallout in the U.S.

BLM rolls back environmental review

The BLM adds 11 new categorical exclusions to the National Environmental Policy Act that will make it easier for salvage logging, grazing and energy exploration

Southwestern farmers, lawmakers seek solutions to worker shortages

The Western Growers Association says its farmers need another 20,000 workers to harvest this winter’s crop, and President Bush endorses the idea of a guest-worker program to make it easier for migrant workers in the U.S.

Book Reviews

Stalking the boojum in the Sonoran Desert

Sonoran Desert Plants: An Ecological Atlas is a revised and expanded edition of a classic botanical guide

Just where is that home on the range?

A View from the Inland Empire, a new collection of essays from Stephen J. Lyons, is an honest account of coming to — and later leaving — the West, and in the process learning about home and heart and family

Under Ground: How Creatures of Mud and Dirt Shape Our World

Science writer Yvonne Baskin’s new book, Under Ground, takes an intriguing look at the planet’s soils and sediments and their strange inhabitants

Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes and the Trial that Forged a Nation

Coyote Warrior by Paul VanDevelder highlights the experience of Raymond Cross, a Mandan/Hidatsa attorney who fights for his tribe’s rights

Essays

The many problems of Richard Pombo

California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo is having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year

Waiting for Rain

The hurricanes in the Gulf and New Mexico’s endless drought lead the author to wonder why it is human beings refuse to take nature seriously

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Child-friendly in Salida; new ranchers sell out at a high price; hot real estate in ski country; water fights in L.A.; Bill Richardson’s photograph; "BioWillie."

Letters

Wilderness fashion police

Editorial an exercise in hypocrisy

Larmer's generalizations unfair

Roadless areas are for elitists

The NRA has it wrong

Related Stories

Critical Habitat: The Inside Story

A behind-the-scenes look at the struggle over critical habitat reveals the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be an agency at war with itself