Feature

Taking Liberties

The Western states are home to a stealth campaign by libertarians who – under the guise of reforming eminent domain – are out to destroy all land-use planning through "takings" ballot initiatives

Editor's Note

November Surprise

Ray Ring’s cover story on the libertarian stealth campaign to put "takings" initiatives on Western ballots is the biggest untold political story of the year

Dear Friends

Dear friends

Summer editorial retreat, global warming booklet is here, lots of summer visitors

Uncommon Westerners

Raul Grijalva relishes a good fight

Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva loves fighting for old-fashioned liberal causes like immigration rights, the environment, unions and strong social programs

News

As states ponder protection, roadless forests unravel

Western states debate the best way to look after their roadless areas even as logging, drilling and mining move in on formerly protected lands

The Latest Bounce

New Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne junks Gale Norton’s controversial Park Service proposal; New Mexico’s Nantac Mexican wolf pack killed; Justice Department removes Judge Royce Lamberth from Indian trust case

Failing Bay-Delta may take a living fossil with it

Even as raising sturgeon for caviar takes off in the San Francisco Bay-Delta area, the region's wild sturgeon are in serious trouble, along with the rest of the Bay-Delta’s ecology

Saving open land — a taxing problem

In Missoula, Mont., and other Western communities, activists search for the winning formula to pass new open-space bonds in November

Falcon's future rests on a definition

Endangered aplomado falcons already in New Mexico may lose protection under a controversial Fish and Wildlife Service plan to release captive-bred birds as a "nonessential experimental population."

Watch the river flow

Farmers and conservationists have reached a settlement that allows water to flow in California’s San Joaquin River, home to the Friant Dam

Book Reviews

The merry — and meditative — farmer

In Blithe Tomato, Mike Madison writes engagingly about working the land on a small farm in California’s Central Valley

A world built on groundwater

In Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the Great Plains, William Ashworth examines the effects of groundwater dependency in a dry land

Dust in the wind

In his new book, The Worst Hard Time, Tim Egan interviews survivors to tell the story of the great American Dust Bowl on the southern Great Plains in the 1930s

Essays

Dems contract case of self-delusion — or not

The Democratic bloggers on the netroots seem to be prone to wildly optimistic self-delusion – and then again, maybe they’re not so crazy after all

Prey at the waterhole

The experience of watching a mountain lion is utterly transformed when the watcher realizes he is the one being watched

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

"Pit bulls with flippers" in Newport Beach; mountain lion problems; Lewis the Cat; don’t try this on the highway; Fighting Sioux fight for sports team name

Letters

HCN: Not just for wackos

Lunch with a blockhead

The not-so-green saints

New Mexico's greatest shame

SUWA's on the right track

Kempthorne: foot soldier

Che Guevara was no saint

Related Stories

'I call (regulations) land stealing ...'

Dorothy English weighs in on the pros – and cons – of Oregon’s Measure 37

'It's clear out of control ...'

Bill Roses weigh in on the pros – and cons – of Oregon’s Measure 37

'I kick myself for being so naive...'

Ted Schroeder weighs in on the pros – and cons – of Oregon’s Measure 37

Takings campaigns around the West

A detailed graph sums up the status of the current "takings’ initiative campaigns in six Western states

'Great recreation value ... and great economic value...'

Jim Miller weighs in on the pros – and cons – of Oregon’s Measure 37

'I hope other states don't do this ...'

Renee Ross weighs in on the pros – and cons – of Oregon’s Measure 37