Magazine
October 31, 2005
Elaborate marijuana gardens created and managed by Mexican drug lords are turning California’s public lands into a dangerous, illegal, industrial-style landscape. Also in this issue: The Forest Service’s claim that a recent court order would suspend routine activities – such as cutting Christmas trees or picking mushrooms – has been dismissed by the judge as the agency’s attempt to blow the issue out of proportion.
Feature
Elaborate marijuana gardens, created and managed by
Mexican drug lords, are turning California’s public lands
into a dangerous, illegal, industrial-style landscape
Editor's Note
The same solitude that attracts nature-lovers to the
West’s public lands attracts lawbreakers as well –
particularly a growing number of Mexican
marijuana-growers
Uncommon Westerners
Chef John Sharpe has created a gourmet restaurant in the
desert town of Winslow, Ariz., far from his birthplace in the misty
green landscape of England
Essays
Newly confirmed Chief Justice John Roberts may not be the
umpire he claims to be, but he could be worse: a
counter-revolutionary, like Judge Janice Rogers Brown
The chance to see a huge dead whale draws "carcass
tourists" to the California coast
Dear Friends
Luther Propst joins HCN board;
visitors; HCN wins awards; clarifications and
corrections
News
The Forest Service’s claim that a recent court order
would suspend routine activities – such as cutting Christmas
trees or picking mushrooms – has been dismissed by the judge
as the agency’s attempt to blow the issue out of
proportion
Whistleblower Earle Dixon’s complaint denied;
Colorado moose has chronic wasting disease; Colorado wind power
gets cheaper than traditional electricity; court nixes
BuRec’s 10-year Klamath River plan
The Land Trust Alliance hopes its new accreditation
program for land trusts will forestall the passage of federal
legislation designed to end the abuse of conservation
easements
Air pollution from oil and gas drilling is on the increase
in the Rocky Mountain West, and environmentalists and energy
companies are trying to prevent it from getting any worse
Nutria, destructive beaver-like mammals from South
America, are moving into the Skagit River Valley of northwestern
Washington, and some believe a warming climate is to
blame
Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff is using the
recently passed Real ID Act to bypass environmental, safety and
labor laws in order to build a giant border fence south of San
Diego
The Forest Service wants to create a new type of
"categorical exclusion" to make it easier for oil and gas drilling
projects to be approved without environmental study or public
input
The BLM’s failure to plug security holes in its
computers, especially those dealing with Indian trust fund
accounts, means that most of the agency’s Web sites have been
closed to the public for the past six months
Book Reviews
Two recent guidebooks – Mike Coltrin’s
Sandia Mountain Hiking Guide and The
Field Guide to the Sandia Mountains by Robert Julyan and
Mary Stuever – are excellent guides to the trails and
histories of the mountains outside Albuquerque
Bill McKibben’s new book, Wandering Home, is a
hopeful account of a leisurely hike across northeastern America, as
relevant to the West as it is to the East
In Tony Hillerman’s Navajoland,
Laurance D. Linford provides an obsessively detailed guide to the
world of Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee Navajo
mysteries
Recovering the Sacred, by environmental
and Indian rights activist Winona LaDuke, examines the struggle of
American Indians to reclaim their sacred sites and
beliefs
Cougar Management Guidelines collects
current cougar research into a set of guidelines for managing these
secretive and increasingly rare big cats
Heard Around the West
"Endangered Feces" T-shirts; troublesome T-shirts on
airlines; renaming places in Oregon; outhouse races in Reno;
rent-a-cave in Idaho; Parade of Homes vs. Parade of Wealth in
Jackson
