Magazine
August 19, 2002
The drought of 2002 has left the West blistered and burnt, scientists predict worse to come. Have we learned anything yet? Also in this issue: This year's drought has killed 10,000 cattle and ravaged the range. But corruption and resentment over earlier attempts to control grazing are stifling reform just when it's needed most.
Feature
Record-breaking heat and drought are frying the West, and
scientist John Harte of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in
Gothic, Colo., warns that this summer is only the kick-off for what
global warming is likely to bring.
Drought is having catastrophic impacts on the Navajo
Reservation, but past history and current politics keep grazing
reform from happening.
On the Walla Walla River In southern Washington and
northern Oregon, local farmers and environmentalists have avoided a
drought-sparked water war with collaboration and innovative
irrigation reform.
Mercilessly hot conditions in the drought-stressed West have aggravated infestations of bark beetles that attack several species of trees -- but perhaps the best response to the epidemic is to do nothing at all.
In the drought-stricken West, water cops, singing
governors and giant walking raindrops are just some of the odd
measures spawned by water-conservation campaigns.
Essays
At the Burning Man Festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, an eccentric city is created and then destroyed, and lives are sometimes changed along the way.
Writers on the Range
Living with drought in cities such as Denver, Colo., has
its challenges.
Dear Friends
Drought story brings rain; here's to our readers;
visitors; HCN bids a fond farewell to staffers Anne Miller and
Marion Conger Stewart.
Conservationist Mardy Murie's 100th birthday will be
celebrated with a special gathering at the Murie Center in Moose,
Wyo.
News
The Forest Service blames environmentalists for this
summer's catastrophic Western wildfires, and although Greens reply
that the agency is actually at fault, the push for more logging is
growing in Congress.
Endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow; Park Service
deliberating about snowmobiles; Thomas Slonake's resignation from
Indian Trust Accounts forced; Organization of American States'
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Mary and Carrie
Dann.
Tension is rising between Mexico and the U.S. over the
little water left in the drought-stricken Rio Grande.
The planned Joshua Hills development in Southern
California could hurt neighboring Joshua Tree National Park and the
Coacella Valley Preserve, the only remaining home of the endangered
fringe-toed lizard.
Firefighters are worried that a lawsuit filed against the
Forest Service, blaming the agency for the loss of homes near
Connor, Mont., may make it harder to use backfires to fight
wildfires.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs rescinds the official federal
status of the Chinook Indian tribe.
A draft policy released by the National Marine Fisheries
Service in July does little to resolve the controversy over whether
hatchery salmon and steelhead deserve equal protection with wild
fish.
In California, the International Mountain Bicycling
Association is leery of a new proposal to designate two and half
million acres of wilderness in the state.
Heard Around the West
Hotchkiss, Colo.; Santa Fe finds bright spots in drought;
"Aspen - The Sitcom"; speeding and religion in Idaho; benefits of
clear-cuts; organic lunches in California schools; biking to work
in Flagstaff; Julia Child in Aspen.
Letters
Perspective
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is in hot
water over his attempt to appeal-proof a controversial thinning
project in his home state, but the situation is more complicated
than his gleeful Republican opponents admit.
Sidebar
In drought-stricken northern New Mexico, ranchers are
pushing to open the Valles Caldera National Preserve to livestock
grazing.
As Nevada's Walker Lake gets smaller and saltier, the
Paiute tribe, local farmers and the BLM wrestle over water rights
and wonder how to keep the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout
alive without destroying the area's economy.
At Roosevelt Lake in Arizona, endangered southwestern
willow flycatchers are actually thriving as the water level drops
and willow and tamarisk take over.
