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Two weeks in the West

Development threatens inholdings in national parks and forests; a few wilderness bills move through Congress; oil and mining booms in the West; W.R. Grace sets up trust for its victims; Homeland Security dodges enviro laws for border barriers; coal power

by Sarah Gilman, Apr 28, 2008
Leave it alone

Archaeology is, or at least ought to be, about more than just picking up artifacts to gather dust on the shelves of crowded museum storerooms.

by Jonathan Thompson, Apr 28, 2008
Pillaging the Past

Craig Childs explores the fine line that separates archeology from grave-robbing in the American Southwest.

by Craig Childs, Apr 28, 2008
Heard Around the West

No smoking onstage in Colorado; a really rotten trick; wheat field in the Big Apple; it’s hard to charge a dead man with a crime; Brian Schweitzer and Montana just say no to Homeland Security.

by Betsy Marston, Apr 14, 2008
Tough sledding

Kate Krautkramer ponders the ramifications when her 7-year-old son abruptly tells his best friend that he doesn’t believe in God.

by Kate Krautkramer, Apr 14, 2008
Lines in the sand

The essays in Gary Paul Nabhan’s Arab/American celebrate the landscape, culture and cuisine of two great deserts: The Middle Eastern lands from which his ancestors came and the Sonoran Desert he now lives in.

by Evelyn Schlatter, Apr 14, 2008
A life of words and wilderness

Rick Bass’ memoir, Why I Came West, describes how his 20-year struggle to save Montana’s Yaak Valley held him hostage, preventing him from concentrating on writing the short fiction that he loves.

by Eric Peterson, Apr 14, 2008
A hard winter makes you think

Rhonda Claridge describes a hard winter in the high mountains and points out that one seldom-acknowledged effect of climate change could be harder winters in some parts of the world.

by Rhonda Claridge, Apr 14, 2008
A Montana rancher stands his ground against subdivision

An 86-year-old lifelong rancher named Vernon Gliko is donating his entire 1,800-acre Montana ranch as a conservation easement.

by Ray Sikorski, Apr 14, 2008
The leasing protest game

Conservationists can file formal protests when the BLM wants to auction off public land to energy companies, but the differences between regional management plans and styles make the protest game little more than a crapshoot.

by April Reese, Apr 14, 2008
Cougars in chaos

Washington’s cougar population is in serious trouble, and some trace recent problems back to a 1996 ban on hunting the big cats with hounds.

by Liza Gross, Apr 14, 2008
Two weeks in the West

Despite a cold winter, the West is still warming; the Southern Nevada Water Authority has wild ideas about water; renewable energy is on a roll, but expensive Western resorts are not; neglected Forest Service roads make a mess in the Pacific Northwest.

by Sarah Gilman, Apr 14, 2008
The hazards of the leasing game

Protecting environmentally sensitive Western lands from the current oil and gas frenzy is a challenge to the conservationists who file protests with the BLM.

by Paul Larmer, Apr 14, 2008
Taking to the Trees

After conquering rocks, trails and mountains, weekend warriors have found a new hobby: Climbing the West’s big trees.

by Morgan Heim, Apr 14, 2008
Heard Around the West

Spring is around the corner, even in Wyoming; toilet-to-tap without a “yuck” in Orange County; Utah lawmakers say the craziest things; how nonprofits deal with stress; pink poodle kerfluffle in Boulder; and pterodactyls in Washington.

by Betsy Marston, Mar 31, 2008
The legacy of the 10th Mountain men

Peter Shelton spends a day skiing and reminiscing with the veterans of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division.

by Peter Shelton, Mar 31, 2008
Thinking like a fish

The essays in Chad Hanson’s collection Swimming with Trout celebrate the wonder of water and its mysterious inhabitants.

by Irene Wanner, Mar 31, 2008
Reasons to stay

In Charlotte Bacon’s novel, Split Estate, a damaged New York family seeks refuge and renewal on a Wyoming ranch.

by T.K. Dalton, Mar 31, 2008
The loneliness of the redneck environmentalist

Drew Pogge is caught between two cultures: the redneck good ol’ boy gearheads of his youth, and the holier-than-thou environmentalists of his present.

by Drew Pogge, Mar 31, 2008
A message to our grandchildren

Environmental pioneer Stewart Udall and his wife, Lee, ask their grandchildren to be “steadfast enemies of waste.”

by Stewart and Lee Udall, Mar 31, 2008