High Country News June 26, 2006
Feature
The Tamarisk Hunter
In the desert Southwest of 2030 Big Daddy Drought runs the show, California claims all the water, and a water tick named Lolo ekes out a rugged living removing tamarisk.
Editor's Note
HCN looks to the future
In a special summer reading issue, HCN dishes up a science fiction story that imagines life in the Southwest in 2030 or so, when "Big Daddy Drought" is in full stride, and California claims all water
Dear Friends
Dear friends
HCN takes summer break; new high school intern Abbie Rodriguez and marketing intern Jessica Bellows; spring visitors; online survey; clarifications
News
The hazy days of summer ... and winter, spring and fall
With the Interior West’s national parks facing an increase in haze and air pollution, Rocky Mountain National Park is working with government agencies to improve air quality
The Latest Bounce
California Rep. Richard Pombo wins Republican primary against Pete McCloskey; Washington’s "Forest and Fish Report" protects logging companies that inadvertently harm salmon; Wyoming’s Martin’s Cove tones down the religious stuff
How a tiny owl changed Tucson
The cactus ferruginous pygmy owl has been removed from the endangered species list, but Tucson area leaders say they plan to continue the desert conservation efforts put in place to help the very rare bird
Land deal, New Mexico style
In booming Albuquerque, N.M., the former Atrisco Land Grant – now the Westland Development Corporation – wants to sell land to developers, but not all the land grant heirs are pleased with the prospect
Saints speak out against nuclear waste
The Mormon Church has issued a statement opposing a planned nuclear waste storage site not far from Salt Lake City, Utah, on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation
Energy workers, union members protest drilling
In Wyoming, oil and gas workers and the Wyoming AFL-CIO have joined environmentalists, ranchers and homeowners in protesting the sale of energy leases in the Wyoming Range of Bridger-Teton National Forest
War on (eco) terror extends to the West
Four people charged with arson in the 1998 Vail ski resort fires in Colorado are among 13 defendants indicted in Oregon and accused of "domestic terrorism."
The wild, wild weather
Whatever the cause, the weather in the West this last year has been wild and wacky
Book Reviews
Climate-change clues — in tropical glaciers
In Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World’s Highest Mountain Ranges, mountain climber and physicist Mark Bowen follows researchers who are finding clues to climate change in high-altitude tropical glaciers
Nuestra America
In Translation Nation, Hector Tobar looks at the new Latino immigrants and examines the way the immigration experience has changed in America
A season of love — and secrets
In his new novel, The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig explores the emotional life of settlers in Marias Coulee, Mont., in 1909
One war that's worth the fight
In his memoir, Walking It Off, wilderness activist Doug Peacock tries to make sense of a life spent dealing with war, fighting for wilderness, and coping with cantankerous friends like the late Ed Abbey
Waiting for the tide
In The Highest Tide, Jim Lynch’s debut novel, a 13-year-old boy in the Pacific Northwest begins finding all kinds of strange sea creatures, and wonders if "maybe the earth is trying to tell us something."
Heard Around the West
Heard around the West
Cell phone rudeness; Boy Scouts East & West; cockroach fashion accessories; bra-shopping with "the girls"; Black Gold Cattle Company Testicle Festival
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