Feature

Democrats kick back

An introduction to the special election issue says that voting should be less predictable in the West this year.

The politics of growth

Almost every major election in Arizona is up for grabs this year, along with a rash of ballot initiatives, and some observers hope the state can pull out of its headlong rush into uncontrolled growth and development.

Dear Friends

Lassoing the West's polital winds

Tim Egan speaks at HCN Seattle board meeting; Ed Marston steps aside; correction; Betsy Offermann obituary

He sees the society behind the scenery

Interim HCN publisher Paul Larmer remembers his first encounter with retiring publisher Ed Marston, and considers what he - and the paper - have gained under Marston's aegis.

Writers on the Range

What's in a name? Just ask Dwayne or Trucklene

An encounter in a bar with a guy named Dwayne causes a writer named Mary Lou to ponder the hidden meanings lurking behind first names in the West.

News

Forest protection under the knife

The Bush administration bows to pressure from the logging industry to revise the Clinton-era Northwest Forest Plan.

Wildlife Service bows to home builders

Under pressure from the home-building industry, the Fish and Wildlife Service drastically trims critical habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog.

The Latest Bounce

San Gabriel Watersheds Study Act passes House; Sisters' cattle removed from BLM land; Gold mine resurrected for land sacred to Indians; Utah Rep. Jim Hansen makes deal to sell site to Mormon Church; and Mont. Gov. says miners are "true environmentalists."

Albuquerque is dragged into Rio Grande fight

The city of Albuquerque, N.M., is fighting a judge's order that says city water must be released from reservoirs into the Rio Grande to save the endangered silvery minnow.

Dead fish clog the low-flowing Klamath

Thousands of steelhead and chinook and coho salmon have died in Northern California's Klamath River, and conservationists blame the Bush administration's decision to lower river flows.

Conversation with a cowboy conservationist

Cowboy poet, rancher and environmentalist Wally McRae talks about the romance of the range and the hard reality of things like coal development in Montana.

Book Reviews

Peer pressure

The Web site of PEER - Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility - features a report on increasing violence against National Park Service employees, along with other topics.

The coalbed methane super-prime

The Rocky Mountain Mineral Foundation is holding a two-day conference on "Regulation and Development of Coalbed Methane."

Research, Lake Mead style

A floating laboratory called Forever Earth prowls Nevada's Lake Mead, doing scientific research and working with academic and environmental groups.

Native Waters

In Native Waters: Contemporary Indian Water Settlements and the Second Treaty Era, scholar Daniel McCool explores the current struggle by tribes to finally get the water they have long been promised by treaty.

Have you ever seen the cranes?

In New Mexico, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge celebrates its annual Festival of the Cranes in November.

Essays

A crossed heritage in the modern West

How did the Republican Party cease being the party of conservation, and why do Westerners continue to give it their support?

Heard Around the West

Heard Around the West

Utah leads in bankruptcy and stupid chili-roasting laws; Jackson Hole Guide fact-checks New York Times; new mascot - Reddy the Squirrel - wants to replace Smokey Bear; Boulder vs. starling control; and Forest Service workers vs. fee demo program.

Letters

What were the governors thinking?

Don't beat up Bush, get personal

Indians are more than "special interest" group

Save water, drain Lake Powell

Related Stories

Around the West, the hot races to watch

HCN takes a state-by-state look at the most important elections coming up in the West.

Montanans may take back their dams

In Montana, Initiative 145 would undo the deregulation of power in the state, allowing citizens to take back control of hydroelectric dams.

New Mexico Greens lose steam

The recent decline in support for the New Mexico Green Party seems to have no effect on the hopes of its candidates or the anxiety of the state's Democratic party, which sees the Greens as spoilers.

Utahns could kill radioactive dump

In Utah, an initiative that would triple the cost of disposal at Envirocare's radioactive waste dump in Tooele County and it from taking hotter wastes is being fiercely fought by the company.

State's big nuke waste fight takes a hit

A federal judge has struck down a series of Utah laws meant to block a planned high-level nuclear waste storage facility on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation.