High Country News January 21, 2008
Feature
A political speech the West needs to hear
High Country News imagines – and delivers – the kind of speech about our energy future that the West needs to hear from its next president.
Editor's Note
An energy oasis in the political desert
The Interior West’s growing political voice – and its status as the nation’s energy supplier – mean presidential candidates need to see the region as more than campaign flyover country.
Uncommon Westerners
Tackling Utah’s trash
Issa Hamud, an engineer who was born in Somalia, helped Logan, Utah, create a successful recycling program.
Writers on the Range
Where do you draw the line?
Todd Wilkinson wonders what it would take to get Westerners to act against the destruction of our landscape.
News
Misplaced Jurisdiction
Law professor Kevin Washburn, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, says the justice system in Indian Country is in serious need of overhaul.
Treehuggers and treecutters unite
Environmentalists have been working with Washington foresters to keep small tree farms in business, but the treaty between the two remains a fragile one.
Book Reviews
New West, Next West
In the short stories in Last Call, Colorado writer Blair Oliver looks at the desperate suburban lives of modern-day Western men.
Madame Merian and her passion for metamorphosis
In Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, Kim Todd uncovers the life and legacy of a pioneering 17th century woman
Essays
My short tenure with a blind pigeon
Laura Pritchett reluctantly – and guiltily – agrees to take care of a blind pigeon for her mother.
Heard Around the West
Heard Around the West
Remembering Beverly Allen, an 80-something showgirl; nation’s largest Sitka spruce dies; all religions are weird to non-believers; Ted Turner vs. Nebraska; the benefits of being a resort town; growing pains in the West.
Letters
Uh, no bag of gold here ...
Take this wolf and shove it
Playing cowboy at the wolf's expense
It's back to the tofurkey
The wrongs of property rights
Two Weeks in the West
Two weeks in the West
EPA stymies California’s attempt to cut tailpipe emissions; the West is growing but not sure where its next meal or drink of water will come from; increasing amounts of ammonium – and guns – in the parks; avalanche fatalities are up.
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