Items by Louise Wagenknecht

The last best-paid place in the West
The writer recounts a mountain man’s political conversion in Oregon
A ‘nature girl’ remembers a dying lumber town
An ardent conservationist remembers her childhood in a California timber town that cut itself out of existence
The year it rained money
A Forest Service employee talks about the intoxicating influence and "cargo cult" side effects of Forest Service firefighting money on small Western towns like hers.
Spinning back the bison
The writer spins shed bison wool from a bison ranch into rich and beautiful yarn, and muses about the wild bison that once roamed her part of the West.
Dressed for success
Disparate worlds collide in the second-hand clothing stores the writer buys her wardrobe from.
Grizzlies and the male animal
The anti-grizzly hysteria shown by local men at a Salmon, Idaho, meeting on bear reintroduction is filled with ironies for a woman who has always had to be wary of large "predators."
Keep America green: Hire an illegal alien
A Forest Service employee remembers the hard work of illegal aliens in planting trees in the Klamath National Forest.
Dance with a cow, and the cow will lead
A former range con reconsiders the conflict of interest that arises when rangers who want to be cowboys are put in charge of public-lands grazing.
Pride and Glory of firefighting is hard to resist
Pride and Glory of firefighting is hard to resist
Former firefighter Louise Wagenknecht says the rush at firefighting is as powerful as any drug.
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