Billions of dollars are being spent to fight Western
wildfires, but some scientists now believe that the big blowups
can’t be prevented, and that they may be good for the health
of the forests
Magazine
May 26, 2003
Billions of dollars are being spent to fight Western wildfires, but some scientists now believe that the big blowups can’t be prevented, and that they may be good for the health of the forests. Also in this issue:Environmentalists fear the Republican-sponsored "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003" – intended to prevent wildfires – will prove anything but healthy for the forests.
Feature
Sidebar
We need to revise or toss out some of our fire vocabulary,
especially "wildland-urban interface," "pre-settlement condition"
and Smokey’s slogan "only you"
History and science show that the recent "catastrophic"
wildfires in the West are not really a new development
Greg and Mary Tilford, who lost their house in
Montana’s Bitterroot fires in 2000, are part of a group of
homeowners suing the Forest Service for compensation
High Country News takes a critical look at fire in the
West with stories from our redesigned print edition, a special
three-part radio series, and a newly released special
report
Editor's Note
Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, which has
experienced three major fires since 1996, can help teach the rest
of the West how to live with wildfire
Essays
The death of Lori Piestewa, a young Hopi woman killed in
combat in Iraq, has brought both grief and pride to the close-knit
Navajo and Hopi communities
Forests aren’t destroyed by wildfires; instead,
wildflowers are reborn
Conversation
Writer David James Duncan talks about his "insane passion
for rivers" and the broken hearts of Westerners
Book Reviews
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land,
a book of photographs by Subhankar Banerjee, stirs up so much
controversy in Washington, D.C., that the Smithsonian relocates an
exhibition of the images
The Paonia, Colorado-based Center for Native Ecosystems
tries to look out for the kind of endangered species often
neglected by other groups
Writers on the Range
In the Northwest, a legal decision resurrects the idea of
breaching four dams on the Snake River to save endangered
salmon
Heard Around the West
Las Vegas’ golf courses get crushed rock;
artificial-turf fairways; Wyoming as a Western "Shangri-La"; Sierra
Nevada’s "chain monkeys" becoming obsolete; license to
panhandle in Salt Lake City; protester locks self to wrong door;
and Montana upholds drink
Dear Friends
HCN’s new look!; summer interns Rosemary Winters and
Stephanie Tidwell; HCN potluck and board meeting in
Paonia
News
Environmentalists fear the Republican-sponsored "Healthy
Forests Restoration Act of 2003" – intended to prevent
wildfires – will prove anything but healthy for the
forests
General Accounting Office tells Defense Department to
clean up its mess; Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation wants wolves
de-listed, and names Peter Dart new CEO; EPA forbids its scientists
to talk about perchlorate contamination; and Energy Department will
lay
Scientists think pesticides may be killing frogs in
California’s Sierra Nevada
Catron County, N.M., landowner Charles Cooksey and the
company he hired to clear a road through a national forest are
fined for damaging archaeological sites on public land
The Wildlands Conservancy buys 600,000 acres of Southern
California desert, making the largest purchase of private land for
conservation purposes in the country’s history
In Idaho, environmentalists sue to prevent the widespread
spraying of pesticides
Industry officials say that two new regulations could mean
the end of gold-mining in California
The BLM clears the way for 66,000 new coalbed methane
wells and 5,000 conventional oil and gas wells in the Powder River
Basin of Wyoming and Montana
Letters
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