Twenty years after its longtime mainstay, the Climax
Molybdenum Mine, closed, Leadville, Colo., is still groping for a
secure economy and a new identity.
Magazine
December 23, 2002
Twenty years after its longtime mainstay, the Climax Molybdenum Mine, closed, Leadville, Colo., is still groping for a secure economy and a new identity. Also in this issue: The Forest Service has announced a major overhaul of the forest planning process that some fear may cut out both environmental oversight and public involvement, and lead to even more legal gridlock.
Feature
Sidebar
Former Leadville miner Bob Elder decries the exploitation
of service workers who have to commute from Leadville to jobs in
the resort counties. Jim Zoller, a former miner who now works as
Leadville’s police chief, thinks that a lot of his
town’s problems
The Lake County Open Space Initiative has preserved land
around Leadville and created trails for cross-country skiing and
other recreation, but some local politicians say it’s
snatching up too much private land and water.
Essays
A plan to restore native pikeminnow and sucker to the San
Juan River in New Mexico may end up destroying a world-class trout
fishery.
A visit to the strange landscape of Utah’s Goosenecks of the San Juan reveals the chasm growing between two people.
Book Reviews
In Cities of Gold, his first historical novel, William K.
Hartmann interweaves the conquistadors of the 16th with a
contemporary murder mystery in Tucson.
Rex and LaVonne Ewing wrote Logs, Wind and Sun to share
what they learned in the process of building their dream house,
creating a book that is both informative and enjoyable.
Writers on the Range
A day spent helping Mexican immigrants apply for matricula
personal identification cards leads the writer to believe that the
influx of workers from the south is not a threat to the
West’s environment.
Heard Around the West
Bush vs. enviros; logging sequoias; election by the cards;
duct tape for wart removal & wallets; 130-year-old hot sauce in
Virginia City, Nev.; Japanese outdoor gear hits Boulder; wounded
grizzly continues to care for her cubs; and Bigfoot fraud
revealed.
Dear Friends
A town reborn; the HCN torch is passed; whoops! And see
you next year.
News
The Forest Service has announced a major overhaul of the
forest planning process that some fear may cut out both
environmental oversight and public involvement, and lead to even
more legal gridlock.
New Mexico and the Navajo Nation tackle cattle rustling;
details of Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Plan
won’t be released; "anaerobic digester" in the works to clean
up hog-farm waste; Imperial Valley farmers refuse to sell water to
San Diego, Calif.
Unconfirmed wolf sightings in Oregon are on the rise, and
wolf advocates are arguing with ranchers over how to handle the
return of the predator packs.
"Wolf No. 253," from the Druid Peak Pack in
Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley, is caught far from home when he
steps into a leghold coyote trap, 30 miles northeast of Salt Lake
City, Utah.
The new superintendent of Dinosaur National Monument in
Jensen, Utah, plans to cut nine positions in the paleontology
department and hand over future scientific work to private
contractors, much to the outrage of the scientific
community.
In Colorado, a long-dead notion to clear-cut forests to
increase water runoff is resurrected in a time of
drought.
To celebrate its purchase and renovation of the historic
Roxy Theater in Missoula, Mont., the International Wildlife Film
Festival is displaying 300 hand-painted ceramic tiles by artist
Melanie Jeffs, each representing a donation.
The landmark conference "Ranching West of the 100th
Meridian" is now available on four videotapes.
Montana Audubon has written an eight-page guide to flood
preparation, called Go With the Flow: Streams and Bank
Stabilization.
Letters
Oregon has been mis-zoned
Oregon: Love it or leave it
Cheap shots at Cheney
An ode to the Marstons
Seattle Times is not independent
Mormons don't recognize history
Ego-pumping capitalism at its best
HCN's agenda – envy and socialism
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