Feature

Unsalvageable

Despite angry environmentalists, rotting timber, and unenthusiastic logging companies, the Bush administration is determined to push logging on roadless land burned by the Biscuit Fire in southwestern Oregon

Editor's Note

The wisdom of the ground troops

If the folks who run the Forest Service listened to the wisdom of their people on the ground, disasters like the Biscuit Fire logging project would be less likely to occur

Dear Friends

Dear friends

Jason Nicholoff is HCN’s new development associate; visitors; Jacob Smith elected to Golden, Colo., city council; notes from readers; condolences on the deaths of Dennis Machida and Mary Dann; and goodbye to Torrey, Jodi’s dog

Uncommon Westerners

Protecting the treaty, saving the fish

Kat Brigham of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla has devoted her life to fighting for tribal fishing rights and the survival of salmon on the Columbia River

News

Congress touts 'green energy,' but bill is black and blue

The House of Representatives passes an energy bill with even more industrial pork than the Bush administration requested.

Follow-up

Ag Secretary Mike Johanns says his agency may relax ban on slaughtering "downer" cows for human consumption; California sets official, but nonbinding, goals for perchlorate in drinking water; San Juan Generating Station to cut mercury and other emissions

Gold mining proposed in historic South Passarea

A Canadian mining company, the Fremont Gold Corporation, plans to dig 200 test pits for a possible mining operation five miles from the South Pass National Historic Landmark in Wyoming, where wagon trains once traveled

Former refuge manager takes heat for saving frogs

Wayne Shifflett, former manager of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona, was charged with illegally moving a small population of imperiled Chiricahua leopard frog tadpoles, in order to save their lives when drought threatened their habitat.

Beehive state may get new wilderness — and more

In Utah, an "omnibus" public-lands bill may create several new wilderness areas near Zion National Park, but at the same time authorize the auction of federal lands for development

On the Colorado River, a tug-of-war on a tightrope

A wet winter postpones the declaration of a shortage on the Colorado River as the Upper and Lower Basin states continue to squabble over long-strategy for dealing with the region's droughts

In the Washington woods, managers face a catch-22

The Forests and Fish plan was supposed to help both salmon and the timber industry in Washington State, but clauses in the agreement may tilt it against wildlife

Cows versus condos -- Northwest style

Some say that Washington’s Forests and Fish rules could be so hard on small timber farms that the owners are likely to sell out to development, to the detriment of salmon and other wildlife

Book Reviews

Finding good grub in Mormon redrock country

In With a Measure of Grace: The Story and Recipes of a Small Town Restaurant, Blake Spalding and Jennifer Castle tell how they ended up running the Hell’s Backbone Grill in the remote community of Boulder, Utah

More than numbers: The dead of Idaho's Sunshine Mine

In The Deep Dark, Gregg Olsen tells the tragic story of the 1972 fire in the Sunshine Mine in Idaho’s Silver Valley, which took the lives of 91 men

The Guymas Chronicles

The Guaymas Chronicles by archaeologist David E. Stuart is a funny and touching memoir of the time he spent in Mexico in the early 1970s

Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music andStories of Undocumented Immigrants

In Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border, editors Nicholas J. Cull and David Carrasco describe the making of the 1977 movie Alambrista, which explored the lives of undocumented migrant workers

The Hayduke Trail: A Guide to the Backcountry Hiking Trail on the Colorado Plateau

In The Hayduke Trail, Joe Mitchell and Mike Coronella give you all the information – and motivation – you’ll need to set off on foot into the Canyon Country

Essays

Why should the Arctic Refuge matter to the ski industry?

If the United States doesn’t come up with an intelligent energy strategy, global warming could spell the end of the ski industry

The allure of the gnarled

It took a while, but the writer eventually came to see the strange, harsh beauty of the gnarled old pinon and juniper trees in Canyon Country

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Miraculous Colorado chickens; Bob Meinecke’s outdoor memories; Ann Coulter vs. Pima County; Benedictines seek brewery; too many "welfare eagles" in Homer, Alaska

Letters

Burns amendment needed for mustang management

Points to consider about buyouts

Rulison drilling may spread contaminants

Let's not ram corporations through the Grand Canyon

Related Stories

In-house wisdom, or White House meddling?

Forest Service insiders say President Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality has added new corporate-style rules to the agency’s forest-planning program