High Country News August 20, 2007
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
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
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
Related Stories
The Weed-wackers
Botanist Sue Rutman has had surprising success just yanking up buffelgrass, but herbicides remain the first line of defense






