Feature

The West: A New Center of Power

The West gains traction as a center of power in 2006, and nine more indicators from the midterm elections.

Editor's Note

Doing something about 'anything'

In this issue, Ray Ring offers a top 10 list on the midterm elections and reminds Westerners that the newly empowered Democrats in Congress are still not the sole arbiters of environmental policy

Dear Friends

Dear friends

HCN’s Christmas open house; Michelle Nijhuis wins another award for climate change stories; visitors; Bill Burnham dies; Jodi Peterson back from sick leave

Uncommon Westerners

Conspiring with caddisflies

A Seattle artist known only as Ferg works with tiny caddisfly larvae to make jewelry from the insects’ intricate casings

News

Destruction and discovery walk hand in hand

A new plan to steer energy development away from cultural sites in New Mexico could streamline energy development, fund archaeological research and preserve ancient sites all at once

Fed up with paying to play

Chris Wallace’s refusal to pay daily user fees on Arizona’s Mount Lemmon led to a courtroom decision that has thrown the entire future of the federal recreational fee program into doubt

Book Reviews

An encyclopedia of rivers

The huge, copiously illustrated Rivers of North America is the first comprehensive effort to detail the current state of the continent’s rivers

Crafting the everyday

Janet Finn and Ellen Crain tell the history of Butte, Mont., from the viewpoint of its women in Motherlode: Legacies of Women’s Lives and Labors in Butte, Montana.

Somewhere up the crazy river

In Upstream: Sons, Fathers, and Rivers, Robin Carey recounts a kayak journey up the Klamath River that he made with his son, Dev, and on the way explores the Careys’ troubled family history

Essays

This dog believes

An undergrown Australian shepherd mix named Pika offers advice on living in the moment despite frightening and challenging times

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Naked Frivolity in Boulder; Maverick Gaudreau celebrates 80 years in Grand Canyon; Agoura Hills, Calif., day laborers; "Metronatural" in Seattle; driven to crime in fancy cars

Letters

The evils of takings

Tender memories

RECA needs revision

Playing God in the woods

Roadless Rule provided clear direction

Forestry story lacked context

Two Weeks in the West

Two weeks in the West

Hopi and Navajo tribes settle boundary dispute; oil shale returns to western Colorado; Northern Cheyenne open coal reserves to development; judge upholds critical habitat designation for "vernal pools" in California and Oregon; red tree vole wins protecti

Sidebar

Election Roundup

Ray Ring offers a state-by-state summary of some of the more intriguing election results across the West