Magazine
February 7, 2005
A personal obsession leads the author into a world of scientists, wildlife rehabilitators and eccentric artists who are fascinated by the West’s road-killed wildlife. Also in this issue: Some of the less-publicized political appointments of George W. Bush’s second term will have a huge effect on the West – particularly the people who will direct the EPA, and the departments of Energy, Agriculture and the Interior.
Feature
Personal obsession leads one woman into a world of
scientists, wildlife rehabilitators and eccentric artists who are
fascinated by the bloody relationship between wildlife and
roads.
Editor's Note
Human beings can learn a lot from our wild animal cousins,
but we need to pay more attention to them — especially to the
ones we flatten on the highways
Uncommon Westerners
Tim Faber, a carpenter, ranch hand and ‘redneck
liberal,’ devotes himself to preserving the wild landscapes
of Montana’s Missouri River Breaks
Essays
The Bureau of Land Management is handing out public-lands
drilling permits like a McDonald’s drive-through with a
hyperactive "Order Assembly Target."
Inside an abandoned Air Force base on the Nevada-Utah
border, the Center for Land Use Interpretation houses a remarkable
museum of the West's human landscapes.
Dear Friends
New interns Julie McCord and Hilary Watts; feisty HCN
board meeting in Boulder; corrections
News
Some of the less-publicized political appointments of
George W. Bush’s second term will have huge effects on the
West. Meet the people who will direct the EPA and the departments
of Energy, Agriculture and the Interior.
Anti-nuclear groups seek contract for Los Alamos National
Laboratory; California ORVs to stay off desert tortoise habitat;
factory-farm polluters immune to lawsuits; new Utah Gov. Jon
Huntsman Jr. joins property-rights law firm in fight against
mon
Frustrated Wyoming ranchers make an end-run around
legislators and oil and gas lobbies to take the split-estate issue
to the last constituency who might help them: the voters.
Klamath Basin farmers may be hit with a huge increase in
electric rates, but some say that even putting farms out of
business may not save enough water for endangered fish
California’s two largest utility companies are
encouraging farmers to switch from polluting diesel irrigation
pumps to electric ones
Scientists may have found a radioactive "hot spot" at the
former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant near Denver, soon to be
home to a wildlife refuge
A recent court ruling denying a proposed cat-litter mine
in Nevada’s Washoe County could give local communities more
control over mining projects on federal land.
Los Angeles has decided to pull out of a deal to expand a
coal-fired power plant in Delta, Utah, using the money for
renewable energy instead
Federal agencies say they’re largely powerless to
stop a massive and unpopular ski resort village planned for an
inholding in Colorado’s Wolf Creek Ski Area.
Book Reviews
In Visible Bones: Journeys Across Time in the
Columbia River Country, Northwestern writer Jack Nisbet
follows the Columbia River and its inhabitants across
time
In "The Utes Must Go!" Peter R. Decker
looks at the tragedies that resulted when fear-mongering
politicians and settlers decided to oust the Ute Indians from
Colorado and Utah in the 19th century.
The Pine Island Paradox by Kathleen
Dean Moore takes a philosophical and poetic look at islands and
rivers
In Mountain Harmonies, Howard Smith
muses on environmental philosophy as he takes readers from Glacier
National Park to New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness
Eleni Sikelianos’ California Poem
is a book full of poems, photos, collages, and wonder
Heard Around the West
Internet hunting; "step away from the helicopter";
expensive water leak; the versatile silk handkerchief; "Get Out of
Town!" in Tucson; Ray Bradbury on cars; don’t mess with
Buddha
Letters
Related Stories
Statistics from a variety of sources show the impact that
roads have on wildlife numbers
- John W Stephens on Latest: California fracking companies inject protected aquifers with wastewater
- Kent Schoberle on Ranch Diaries: A New Mexico cattle company is born
- Rich & Terry Fairbanks on Rural communities in the West need a fair shake
- on Jim Deacon, pioneering desert fish biologist, dies
- Larry Bullock on Ranch Diaries: A New Mexico cattle company is born
