Items by Dustin Solberg

Resurrected memories of a prison camp
"Snow Country Memories: Interned in North Dakota," a new exhibit at the North Dakota Museum of Art, brings to life the World War II-era Fort Lincoln Internment Camp and the people who lived there, like poet Itaru Ina
Gardening old-style with my great-uncle Alfred in Seattle
The other day my great-uncle Alfred gave me a handful of the year's green beans, dried and ready for planting next summer. "Give them something high up to grow on," he told me. "They'll grow 7 feet tall."
Working among the West's newcomers
New Western immigrants - illegal or not - often work hard in odd places, following the American dream.
Save land now
A Montana Coalition hopes to buy 1,800 acres in the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area from Plum Creek Timber Co.
A Lewis and Clark revival hits the Northwest
A revival of interest in explorers Lewis and Clark raises questions about how to handle increased tourism on the National Historic Trail through Montana - as well as questions about how the history should be told.
Taylor Ranch sells
The remaining 54,000 acres of Colorado's Taylor Ranch - called La Sierra by the Hispanic locals - have been sold to Western Properties Investors, and no one is sure what the fate of the land will be.
Reviving a refuge
California's Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge has been managed to benefit agriculture, not wildlife, critics say, but if water is given to the wetlands before it goes to irrigation, that could change.
A disaster puts spotlight on pipeline safety
The explosion of a gasoline pipeline in Bellingham, Wash., which killed three people, leads the Olympic Pipe Line Co. to withdraw its plan to build the Cross Cascade Pipeline.
Old growth by the numbers
Idaho environmentalists dispute the Clearwater National Forest's claim to have fulfilled a pledge to set aside 10 percent of the forest in old-growth reserves.
Court puts gas in private hands
The Supreme Court rules that coalbed methane gas in southwestern Colorado does not belong to the Southern Utes, even though the tribe owns the coal from which the methane is extracted.
The Wayward West
NW Forest Plan not saving owls; logging planned for beetle-infested forests in Wash. and Idaho; Canadian company to drill for oil on Blackfeet Reservation; Montana press secretary Andrew Malcolm to work for Bush campaign; Navajo Nation sues Peabody Coal.
As salmon decline, feds draw the line
In Washington's Methow Valley, irrigation ditches are bone dry because the National Marine Fisheries Service has shut off their water to protect salmon in the Methow River and its tributaries.
Dreaming the prairie back to life
Gary Greff hopes to turn his small town, Regent, N.D., into a tourist mecca through the "Enchanted Highway," a series of giant metal sculptures he is erecting along the 30-mile road that links Regent to the interstate.
The disappearing farm
On the Great Plains, some beleagured farmers are pinning their economic hopes on local cooperatives, such as a pasta-making factory in Leeds, N.D.
Miners sneak a rider onto an appropriation for war
The Interior Dept.'s use of a close reading of the 1872 Mining Law to stop the Crown Jewel mine in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington is overturned by a rider tacked on to an appropriations bill in Washington, D.C.
All about salmon
The report "A Snapshot of Salmon in Oregon" explains the complexities of saving salmon.
The feds poke a hole in the 1872 Mining Law
Battle Mountain Gold's plans to mine Buckhorn Mountain in Washington's Okanogan Highlands hit a snag when the Interior Dept. realizes that the mine's "waste-rock" piles will sprawl over more land than the 1872 Mining Law allows.
Speaking out for God's forests
The Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation unites Christians and Jews in the struggle to save old-growth forests and end commercial logging on all public lands.
The Wayward West
Idaho Watershed Project wins right to bid on state grazing leases; Colo. state attorney general plans to fight Gary Boyce's plan to export San Luis Valley water; Idaho Dept. of Fish & Game tries to get house in order; Montana corrals 60 stray bison.
Now, salmon in the backyard
The listing of salmon and steelhead under the Endangered Species Act is forcing communities like Bellevue, Wash., to take action to protect fish habitat.
The Wayward West
No refuge for prairie dogs in Baca County, CO; Zortman and Landusky gold mines reclamation; pipe bomb for Forest Guardians in Santa Fe; legislation fails to derail Mont. anti-cyanide initiative; judge says Yellowstone broke law in bio-prospecting deal.
The Wayward West
Purple coneflower protected on N.D. state lands; federal agency says bison pose no risk to Mont.'s brucellosis-free status; endangered listing of salmon and steelhead will impact urban Seattle; Colo.'s Oil & Gas Conservation Committee may favor industry.
Chaos reigns in Idaho wildlife agency
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission, created to oversee the state Department of Fish and Game, is under attack for supporting the breaching of four Snake River dams to help endangered salmon.
Putting grass back
A booklet, "The Mortenson Ranch: Cattle and Trees at Home on the Range," profiles one family's attempt to restore the land on their working ranch.
The long road to wilderness begins here
Environmentalists cheer and critics vow to fight U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette's 1.4 million-acre wilderness bill for western Colorado.
The Wayward West
Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. closes its polluting pulp mill; critics say USFS's moratorium on road-building not enough; Costilla County, Colo., sues Taylor Ranch; mountain plover may be listed as endangered; hunting rules for snow and Ross geese.
An entrepreneurial spirit
Yan Saeteurn, who was born in Laos and now lives in Redding, Calif., has built a life brokering matsutake mushrooms in the Oregon woods.
It's our tradition
In her own words, Hoopa Valley Tribal member Sherlette Colegrove describes the Indian approach to harvesting plants and mushrooms.
Freedom of the woods
In his own words, mushroom harvester Bill Knight describes and defends his trade.
Uncommon Bounty
Western Indian reservations and former logging towns are among economically depressed communities seeking to cash in on the new market for gourmet and medicinal plants, but some worry that the boom of "wild crafting" plants may not be entirely benign.
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