High Country News May 18, 2009
Feature
The Rise of the Minotaur
Bull riding explodes from its rural Western roots to become a modern spectacle along the lines of NASCAR.
Dear Friends
Of moose and mandolins
High Country News reader and EPA scientist Elaine Lai worked with Native peoples in the Alaskan Arctic on a climate change witness program.
Two Weeks in the West
Sci-fi conservation
Enviros create force-fields around national parks. Also: Recovery Act funds are coming to BLM lands in the Western states.
Uncommon Places
Science under glass
Researchers are using Arizona’s Biosphere 2 to study how plant communities affect the movement of water.
Book Reviews
The bizarre intersection of humanity and nature
The short stories in Laura Chester’s Rancho Weirdo revolve around the unexpected interactions of middle-class people with nature.
Western water in the age of climate change
In Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West, James Lawrence Powell examines the impact of climate change on the West’s future.
Essays
Time to breathe
Stargazing and geology satisfy the spiritual needs of a Utah writer and teacher.
Letters
The rest of the story
New urbanists
Open season on white males?
It's a dam mess
Gimme wheels
Salmon simplification
Ken Olsen responds
How it Works
Bring in the cows
Ecological consultant Stuart Weiss believes that carefully managed grazing could help save a rare California butterfly from extinction.
Focus
Paddling toward shore
The Suquamish Tribe is resurrecting the old ways of Northwestern Indians – particularly their traditional canoe journeys – to improve the health of its young people.
