Feature

Arizona returns to the desert

Rampant growth in the Phoenix area and a severe drought on the Colorado River challenge Arizona's water sustainability.

Editor's Note

The best-laid plans

It’s high time Arizona realized it’s a desert, and has to share the Colorado River with six other dry Western states

Dear Friends

Dear friends

Sculptor and newspaperman Bob Wick; congrats to Paul Koberstein, Alex Pasquariello, Michelle Nijhuis, and Ed and Betsy Marston; correction

Uncommon Westerners

Colorado couple turns healthy profit from healthy beef

David and Kay James are doing a good business raising "grass-finished" beef on their ranch near Durango, Colo.

News

Peace breaks out on the Rio Grande

A groundbreaking settlement between New Mexico environmentalists and the city of Albuquerque may keep water in the Middle Rio Grande and help both farmers and endangered silvery minnows

Follow-up

Arizona Snowball ski area can make snow from treated wastewater; California battles Forest Service over logging sequoia; Bush nominates Steve Johnson to head EPA; Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., goes after southwestern willow flycatcher’s habitat

Nevada desert to be sold for debt relief

The Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act is making money from auctioning off the Las Vegas valley desert – and the Bush administration would like to get its hands on that money

BLM land sold without study

The Lincoln County Lands Bill, modeled after the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, is already selling off land, although an environmental assessment ordered by a judge was never carried out

A leak-proof fuel tank? No such thing

Diesel fuel – leaking from a massive railroad refueling depot –slips into a major drinking water aquifer on the Idaho-Washington border.

Indian tribe to share refuge with feds

The Nisqually Tribe will share management of recently purchased land in Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Washington with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Biohazard lab takes shape

A Biosafety Level 4 lab is being added to the National Institutes of Health Rocky Mountain Laboratories campus in Hamilton, Mont.

Cheese producers just say 'no' to Monsanto

The Tillamook County Creamery Association in Oregon votes to uphold its ban on the use of the artificial growth hormone Posilac in its dairy cows

'Safe dose' of rocket fuel now larger

Following a controversial study, the Environmental Protection Agency decides to raise the drinking water standards for perchlorate to a dosage environmentalists say is dangerously high

Book Reviews

The life of an unsung Western water diplomat

Silver Fox of the Rockies by Daniel Tyler tells the story of Delphus E. Carpenter, who sought peaceful resolutions to Western water problems, and helped create the 1922 Colorado River Compact

Gators, dirt and hot tubs in the Cowboy State

Annie Proulx’s new collection of short stories, Bad Dirt, celebrates and skewers the colorful characters of rural Wyoming

Seeds of Deception

Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey M. Smith takes a chilling look at "Frankenstein foods," explaining that new, genetically modified foods are not as safe as their corporate creators claim

State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security

In State of the World 2005, the Worldwatch Institute takes a hard look at important issues from nuclear weapons proliferation to renewable energy

UFOs Over Galisteo and Other Stories of New Mexico's History

In UFOs Over Galisteo, New Mexico historian Robert J. Torrez creates vivid vignettes of his state’s fascinating past

Essays

A look at the West, in the funhouse mirror

Old Westerners and New Westerners are equally hypocritical when it comes to caricaturing each other and not looking at themselves

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Remembering Hunter S. Thompson; out-of-doors Internet; Brian Schweitzer takes on D.C.; more realtors than realty in Vail, Colo.; Top 10 things about being a small-town teen; and Koko the talking ape gets nasty

Letters

Outside the movement — and inside the system

Environmentalists didn't fail Libby

Where were the unions?

Enviros need some help with public relations

Let's bury the word 'environmentalism'

The environment is about all of us

It's capitalism, stupid

Libby locals should have defended themselves

This environmentalist fought asbestos

Related Stories

What's worse than the worst-case scenario? Real life

Ten years ago, Ben Harding created a worst-case drought scenario for a U.S. Geological Survey study, but the current drought on the Colorado River may be even worse than he imagined