Magazine

January 19, 2004

The Bush administration opens up wild lands to oil and gas drilling, pulling the rug out from under two decades of citizen wilderness activism. Also in this issue: Judge Emmet Sullivan reinstates a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Feature

Two decades of hard work, plowed under

The Bush administration opens up wild lands to oil and gas drilling, pulling the rug out from under two decades of citizen wilderness activism

Matt Jenkins Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Sidebar

Energy bill would pry open public lands

If Bush’s energy bill passes, it will put major emphasis on public-lands energy development with a number of its provisions

Matt Jenkins Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

In New Mexico, a homegrown wilderness bill makes headway

In northwestern New Mexico, the Coalition for New Mexico Wilderness is working with Zia Pueblo to preserve a rugged patch of the state as the Ojito Wilderness Area

Joshua Garrett-Davis Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Proposed wilderness on the auction block

A list of the wilderness inventory areas and citizens’ wilderness proposal areas being offered for oil and gas leasing by the BLM includes lands in New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah

Matt Jenkins Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Editor's Note

Lost in the wilderness of power politics

The kind of democratic dialogue that creates viable wilderness proposals is impossible in the current wilderness of power politics

Paul Larmer Opinion Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Uncommon Westerners

Getting under the desert’s skin: Biologist Jayne Belnap

Michelle Nijhuis Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Book Reviews

Voices rising from the desert

In Writing the Southwest, editors David King Dunaway and Sara Spurgeon collect interviews with 14 Southwestern writers, and provide a CD of their voices as well

Laura Paskus Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Calendar

Staff Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Warm-water native fish are left out in the cold

A new study by a team of biologists shows little is being done to save a dozen of the Southwest’s threatened and endangered native fish species

Mitch Tobin Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Writers on the Range

Have another pig-brain/beef-blood/chicken-spine hamburger

Now that mad cow disease is here, even carnivores have to think twice before biting into a hamburger, because the odds are that it’s not really a hamburger after all

Paolo Bacigalupi Opinion Essay Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Heard Around the West

Cloning trophy bucks; glove kills polar bear; Grand Tetons in Colorado?; potato chip bombs; Monticello, Utah’s "citizens of the year"; rural Wyoming in The New York Times; Bureau of Penis Enlargement?; Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal is humble; and mother c

Betsy Marston Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Dear Friends

Many thanks for the inspirational Ed Abbey quote; Sedona board meeting and potluck coming up; How the West works; response to Robyn Morrison’s rock-climbing story; and corrections

Greg Hanscom Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

News

Yellowstone snowmobilers suffer whiplash

Judge Emmet Sullivan reinstates a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks

Scott McMillion Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Follow-up

Bush administration backs off on removing "isolated wetlands" from Clean Water Act protection; EPA’s Bruce Buckheit and J.P. Suarez leave for different reasons; Wal-Mart cracks down on protest; New Mexico vs. Los Alamos National Laboratory

Laura Paskus Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

A moment of truth for user fees

The Recreation Fee Demonstration Program is renewed until January 2006, despite mounting criticism of the program

Puanani Mench Jan. 19, 2004 From the print edition

Can skiers and snowmobilers coexist?

Dutchman Flat outside Bend, Ore., is becoming tense as snowmobilers and backcountry skiers argue over winter recreation