Feature

Salmon Justice

Judge Jim Redden has given the Bush administration an ultimatum: Submit a viable plan for salmon restoration, or face the possible removal of four dams on the lower Snake River.

Editor's Note

Schooling, fish

Judge Jim Redden is right to push the Bush administration on salmon restoration, but fish may end up faring as poorly in courtrooms as San Francisco’s schoolchildren did after well-intentioned decisions on busing.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

New winter interns Erin Halcomb and Michelle Blank; HCN wins Utne press award; Crystal Zevon visits; corrections.

Uncommon Westerners

Fill 'er up with moonshine

Chris Myles plans to fuel his vehicles with homebrewed ethanol, made in a still he built at his home in Silverton, Colo.

Writers on the Range

How the Indians were set up to fail at bison management

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, not the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, is to blame for alleged management problems at the National Bison Range in Montana.

Why operation of wildlife refuges shouldn't be privatized

The debacle on the National Bison Range is a prime example of why the management of wildlife refuges should not be privatized.

News

Under the radar

Homeless families aren’t found only in urban areas. They’re also struggling to survive in the rural West, as shown by the story of Barbara Trivitt and her two children, who lived in a Jeep in Coos Bay, Oregon, this fall.

Man Camp

In Western Colorado, where the energy boom is stretching the resources – and social fabric – of local communities, some companies have turned to portable dormitories to ease the housing crunch.

Book Reviews

A family of criminals and killers

In All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families, Rene Denfeld tells the disturbing story of Portland’s teen runaways, charting the path that took one of them, Danielle Marie Cox, from honor student to convicted murderer.

How to be #1 in the world and still be a loser

Giles Slade’s new book, Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, is a fascinating intellectual history of how marketers demolished the American tradition of thrift.

Essays

The great wilderness compromise

Both sides of the contentious debate over a proposed Idaho wilderness bill invoke Howard Zahniser, father of the Wilderness Act -- and both sides have a point.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Do-it-yourself ski areas; “ecosexuals”; “prescription dog” comes home; Utah’s Radium Stadium; illegal immigrants build fence to keep themselves out; it’s a long way from Sydney, Australia, to Sidney, Mont.

Letters

Just don't toss it in the recycling bin

One Christmas gift that won't be returned

Winning hearts and minds — in the National Park Service

Maybe they shouldn't shoot them all

The return of the (non) native

Born to be feral

Two Weeks in the West

Two weeks in the West

Snow and drought plagues West; governors tackle global warming; Big Coal gets bigger; Navajos protest power plant; stadium in former shipyard; Colorado easements cost taxes; wildlife crosswalk; zebra mussels arrive; skiing and snowboarding

Related Stories

History of a decline

An illustrated timeline charts the appearance of dams on the lower Snake River and the resulting decline of salmon, along with the so-far-inadequate response of the federal government.