The story of Libby, Montana, where hundreds have died from
mining pollution, raises questions about the environmental movement
itself.
Magazine
February 21, 2005
Soul Searching environmentalists fear they've become isolated and ineffective, but the story of Libby, Montana, and its dying residents, shows that the movements missteps are only part of the story.
Feature
Sidebar
A timeline traces the decline of logging, the rise of
environmentalism, and the slow asbestos poisoning of Libby,
Montana, by its vermiculite mine
Editor's Note
The recent controversy over "The Death of
Environmentalism" illustrates the importance of reaching across the
rural West’s cultural divide
Uncommon Westerners
Sister Joan Brown of Albuquerque, a Franciscan, believes
Christianity needs to go beyond the doors of the church and into
the natural world
Essays
A Northwestern family finds itself in the midst of heated
controversy over ecology and economics when it has to decide how to
manage its timber farm
Book Reviews
In Sandstone Seduction: Rivers and Lovers,
Canyons and Friends, Katie Lee takes readers on a
breathless boat ride through her exhilarating life
David Carle’s Introduction to California
Water is an ambitious field guide to the incredibly
complicated world of California water
The Basket Maker by Kate Niles is a
searing novel of incest and compassion set in the modern
Southwest
In The Meat You Eat, Ken Midkiff
reveals the ugly underbelly of industrialized meat
production
Of Chiles, Cacti, and Fighting Cocks: Notes on
the American West is a fine collection of Frederick
Turner’s deft essays on the region
Writers on the Range
Even though the river is their livelihood, most river
guides oppose the Park Service’s plan to increase the number
of boats allowed in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon
Heard Around the West
Avalanches galore in the San Juan Mountains; a monstrous
monster home in Jackson; "inattention blindness" on the highway;
nice millionaires join the Yellowstone Club; exotic career day
advice in Albuquerque; dog survives eagle snatching
Dear Friends
Fighting the good fight in Wyoming; remembering Jeff Limerick, Beth Williams, Tom Thorne and Ellen Meloy; good-bye to Wild Earth magazine; corrections
News
New Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer has a wildly ambitious
plan to solve Yellowstone’s problems with wandering bison and
the brucellosis threat
Court orders the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department to
comply with Endangered Species Act; Office of Inspector General
finds EPA’s new mercury emissions standard to be
"compromised"; J. Steven Griles leaves Interior Department for
lobbyist job
Invoking NAFTA, a group of Texas farmers and irrigation
districts sues Mexico over the Rio Grande’s water
An inholding in California’s Mono Basin National
Forest Scenic Area may soon be the site of a resort-home
development
The Arizona Snowbowl ski area wants to use
Flagstaff’s treated wastewater for snowmaking, but 13
American Indian tribes, who regard the San Francisco Peaks as
sacred, are fighting the plan
The state of California is suing the U.S. Forest Service
for approving a new management plan that more than triples logging
in the Sierra Nevada
Environmentalists on both sides of the border are up in
arms over a Canadian coal company’s plans for an open-pit
mine north of Montana’s Glacier National Park
Arizona rancher and investment banker Jim Chilton wins a
$600,000 judgment for libel against The Center for Biological
Diversity
Opinion
Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at
the Department of the Interior and HCN's Editors enjoy a lively
exchange
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