Feature

Bonfire of the Superweeds

In Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, good intentions are responsible for the introduction of exotic buffelgrass – but all the good intentions in the world may not be enough to save the desert now that this invasive and fire-prone plant is spreading

Editor's Note

Fire: Friend and foe

Recent Western fires have cleared the stage for the rampant growth of highly flammable exotic plants such as cheatgrass and the buffelgrass now invading the Sonoran Desert

Dear Friends

Dear friends

Recent visitors to Paonia include bikers, big dogs, and two Brits who are walking across the country

Two Weeks in the West

Two weeks in the West

Coal-fired power plants don’t get no respect; nuclear is nudging its way in; resort real estate is hot as plutonium

Uncommon Westerners

Sculpting a reason to love the wind

Gary Bates creates mammoth metal sculptures out of discarded junk and sets them outside to turn and spin in the wind

Writers on the Range

Living precariously with wolves and cattle

Bryce Andrews decides he must kill a wolf to maintain a tenuous balance in Montana

News

The Sultans of Spuds

Western farmers band together to form the “OPEC of Potatoes” – a farmers’ cooperative called the United Potato Growers of America

Scientists and the city

Scientists working in the relatively new field of urban ecology study cities like Phoenix, seeking to gain knowledge that will help all cities as the West gets warmer

Testing the waters

New technologies may soon be able to tap the power in Western waves and tides to generate electricity, but critics are already worried about the impacts

Essays

Old West meets Old World in Big Horn

In Big Horn, Wyo., in the shadow of the Big Horn Mountains, Westerners have been playing polo for more than a century

Heard Around the West

Heard Around the West

Disguising cellphone towers as palm trees; winery etiquette; driving drunk and outspoken in New Mexico; Idiots with guns; fat fish; stupid attorney tricks

Letters

Give Arnie and diesel their due

Today, Bozeman; tomorrow, Billings

Keeping up with the Joneses

Related Stories

The Weed-wackers

Botanist Sue Rutman has had surprising success just yanking up buffelgrass, but herbicides remain the first line of defense