On a 10-day walk through the northwestern New Mexico
desert, the author follows an ancient road that leads him from
silent Indian ruins into noisy, modern gas fields
Magazine
June 21, 2004
On a 10-day walk through the northwestern New Mexico desert, the author follows an ancient road that leads him from silent Indian ruins into noisy, modern gas fields. Also in this issue: Land managers have been talking about letting more wildfires burn, but the recent blowup of the Peppin Fire near Capitan, N.M. – home of Smokey Bear – leads to renewed talk of aggressive fire suppression.
Feature
Editor's Note
The lead essays in this issue find both darkness and hope
in the times we live in, and in the reminder that all civilizations
– including our own – eventually crumble and
fall
Uncommon Westerners
Montana rancher Karl Rappold is determined to save his
beloved Rocky Mountain Front from development by the oil and gas
industry
Essays
Visits to three Western dams – California’s
doomed Matilija Dam, the unfinished Elk Creek Dam in Oregon, and
the Southwest’s giant Glen Canyon Dam – lead the author
to consider the fact that sooner or later, every dam
crumbles
Book Reviews
Laura Wilson describes the time she spent roaming the West
with photographer Richard Avedon in the early 1980s in her book,
Avedon at Work in the American West
Charles Wohlforth looks at climate change in Alaska from
two cultures’ viewpoints, when he talks to scientists and to
the Inupiaq people in The Whale and the Supercomputer: On
The Northern Front of Climate Change
In A More Abundant Life: New Deal Artists and
Public Art in New Mexico, Jacqueline Hoefer explores the
wide range of public artworks created in the state in the 1930s,
under Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration
In Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has
Hijacked Civilization, Richard Manning goes after modern
agriculture with a vengeance
Writers on the Range
The sight of a beaver swimming past a barbecue leads to
speculation on the role the animal played in the settling of the
West, and the current conflicted views New Westerners have about
living with wildlife
Heard Around the West
Firefighting fisherman; Denver’s dangerous
principal; peregrine falcons and bridges; San Francisco’s
parrots; jaguar gets the finger in Albuquerque
Dear Friends
HCN’s summer break; potluck in Carbondale, Colo.;
HCN’s ad policy, real estate ads and special land-trust ad
section; reader response; thanks for May fund-raiser in Salt Lake
City; clarifications and corrections
News
Land managers have been talking about letting more
wildfires burn, but the recent blowup of the Peppin Fire near
Capitan, N.M. – home of Smokey Bear – leads to renewed
talk of aggressive fire suppression
Judge rules citizens can petition to have "candidate"
species listed as endangered; genetically engineered salmon eat
regular salmon; genetically engineered corn planted in Colorado;
Energy Department plans to ship weapons grade plutonium and
enriched ura
Two Democratic governors – Dave Freudenthal of
Wyoming and Bill Richardson of New Mexico – find themselves
caught between the money that comes from the energy industry and
the environmental impacts of oil and gas development
Utah Gov. Olene Walker announces county-by-county
discussions planned to break the impasse in the state’s long
fight over wilderness
A plan for a resort development at the old Broughton
Lumber mill in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area has
some Washington environmentalists worried
The rivalry between two Colorado gambling towns has led
Central City to begin building a new highway to draw visitors
directly to its casinos rather than to those of its more successful
neighbor, Black Hawk
The large-scale salvage logging planned for the Biscuit
Fire area in southern Oregon and Northern California marks the
first time logging has been approved on land previously protected
by the Roadless Rule
Crested Butte, Colo., residents are angry that the BLM has
sold the mining giant Phelps Dodge 155 acres at the top of Mount
Emmons – the town’s beloved "Red Lady" – for
about $5 an acre
Citing safety concerns, the federal government has
canceled contracts for 33 privately owned large air tankers,
usually used to fight Western wildfires
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to give the
Border Patrol regular motorized access to more than 330,000 acres
of wilderness along the Mexican border
Letters
- The White Sands discovery only confirms what Indigenous people have said all along
- Hmong Americans in Northern California fight wildfire — and distrust
- The Gadsden flag is a symbol. But whose?
- How tribal leaders want Chuck Sams to lead the Park Service
- Wildfire smoke pushes migrating birds hundreds of miles out of their way
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