High Country News August 17, 2009
Feature
From Corn to Cabernet
A burgeoning wine industry could provide a welcome economic boost to Colorado's Western Slope.
Current
A slow-moving disaster
As bark beetles ravage Rocky Mountain forests, communities like Granby, Colo., have to adjust to a radically different landscape.
Brushed aside
On Washington's Olympic Peninsula, the once-lucrative floral greens industry is floundering as its immigrant workers face deportation.
Editor's Note
How yuppies killed, and saved, the family farm
Western Colorado is seeing an unexpected agricultural revival, thanks in part to affluent outsiders creating a market for local food and wine.
Dear Friends
Hikers and bikers
Hikers and BMWers visit; Sonoran Institute's Western lands report; HCN interns are on the move.
Book Reviews
The spirit of the place
In The Wild Marsh, Montana nature writer Rick Bass takes us through four seasons in his beloved Yaak Valley.
Desperate people
In the short stories collected in The Mechanics of Falling, Catherine Brady describes fragile people whose precarious lives are unraveling.
Essays
The dictionary reader
What kind of person spends the whole summer stuck inside a cabin reading the dictionary?
Perspective
Mission critical
With global warming threatening the planet, even environmentalists are looking more kindly at natural gas.
Evidence
Chilling forecast
Warming temperatures may put an end to the stone fruit and nut harvest in California's Central Valley.
Two Weeks in the West
Affirmative actions
Three recent Obama nominations draw flak from environmentalists.
Focus
Cigarette wars
The late activist Alison Gottfriedson was one of many Indians who saw selling tax-free cigarettes as an act of Native sovereignty.
Sidebar
But is it any good?
Colorado wines are getting increasing respect these days, at least from the folks who work at HCN.
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