High Country News March 19, 2012
Feature
A Colorado newspaperman fights for his valley's water
Bob Rawlings, publisher of the Pueblo Chieftain, has battled for decades to bring water to southeastern Colorado and, once it's there, to keep it no matter what.
Current
Sodbusting farmers plow up the Northern Plains prairie
The biofuels "corn bubble" and other financial incentives encourage farmers to plow up native grassland in the sensitive Northern Plains prairie potholes ecosystem; government policies don't help.
Scars of an unfinished ski area
The proposed Bitterroot ski resort in Montana remains unfinished, entangled in financial and environmental problems.
Loggers give unique Oregon ponderosa pine a lifeline
In the Willamette Valley, a rare tree makes a comeback. But is it really a victory for restoration?
A scrappy community ski hill hangs on in Colorado
In Lake City, Colo., the state's oldest ski lift is still hauling skiers up modest slopes at even more modest prices.
Street artist Jetsonorama tries a new kind of healing in Navajoland
A black physician wheatpastes gigantic photographs outdoors to celebrate the tribe and human experience.
Following the Old Spanish Trail across the Southwest
Archaeologist Jack Pfertsh looks for marks on the landscape and artifact fragments to retrace the historic route near Delta, Colo.
Editor's Note
Colorado water diversions, urban and rural
Colorado's Front Range and Western Slope communities and farms have always wrangled over the water produced high in the Rocky Mountains.
Dear Friends
HCN takes a spring break
High Country News skips an issue; update on all things digital; new board members include Rick Tallman of Denver, Sean Benton from Missoula and Wendy J. Pabich of Hailey, Idaho.
Book Reviews
Generosity of voice and heart: A review of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild describes her arduous trek along the Pacific Crest Trail as she seeks to recover from life-changing grief.
Stroke of insight: A review of Before the End, After the Beginning
Dagoberto Gilb's remarkable new fiction collection captures the lives of struggling Southwestern people.
Essays
Traveling Arizona Highways, in your dreams and on the ground
In 1960, an Illinois mailman falls in love with the desert through the pages of Arizona Highways and hands on his dream -- and a piece of Mohave County --to his son and grandson.
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