In Montana’s dying farm country, "vanguard
agriculture" is putting people back to work on the land
Magazine
December 26, 2005
In Montana’s dying farm country, "vanguard agriculture" is putting people back to work on the land. Also in this issue: Concerned citizens overflow a meeting in Delta, Colo., as a crucial deadline for protecting roadless areas in national forests nears.
Feature
Sidebar
Montana’s land-grant universities have so far shown
little interest in promoting organic agriculture
More Montana farmers are starting to raise oilseed crops
and produce their own biofuels to save on energy costs
Editor's Note
Supporting sustainable, local, organic food production is
one way to reduce our ecological impact and restore the
West’s rural communities
Uncommon Westerners
Andrea Malmberg of Wyoming’s Twin Creek Ranch uses
her gourmet cooking to put her ranch guests in touch with the land
and with the food they eat
Essays
Backcountry seasonal ranger Tony Prendergast has spent
much of the past six summers working in western Colorado’s
Gunnison National Forest
Book Reviews
In Predatory Bureaucracy, Michael J.
Robinson traces the history of the U.S. Biological Survey,
particularly its war on wolves
Gary Ferguson explores the history and culture of the
backbone of the West in The Great Divide: The Rocky
Mountains in the American Mind
In The Sum of Our Past, Judy Busk
weaves personal memoir and historical research together as she
retraces the Mormon and Oregon Trails in the modern "covered wagon"
of her van
The Pictograph Murders by P.G.
Karamesines, combines archaeology, witchcraft and murder in a
chilling first novel set in Utah
Writers on the Range
The war in Vietnam destroyed a long-lasting liberal
coalition; now, political scandals and the war in Iraq are
threatening the conservative coalition that took its
place
Heard Around the West
Evolution Amber Ale; wolves, bears and elk in Yellowstone;
Starbucks vs. Sambuck’s; cows adopt an elk; PETA vs. your
daddy the fisherman
Dear Friends
Happy Holidays from HCN; festive recipes; Juan Butron wins
award
News
Concerned citizens overflow a meeting in Delta, Colo., as
a crucial deadline for protecting roadless areas in national
forests nears
Who rewrote Park Service’s management policies?;
judge permits building of U.S.-Mexico border fence; Superintendent
David Hunsaker leaves Utah’s Escalante National Monument;
judge says Forest Service blew his ruling out of
proportion
Wyoming Game and Fish plans to test feedgrounds elk and
slaughter any that are infected with brucellosis in order to keep
the disease from spreading to cattle
Budget crunches have thinned Forest Service staffing even
as visitor numbers soar, making it hard to enforce regulations such
as trail closures
Reps. Richard Pombo’s and Jim Gibbons’
controversial proposal to sell off public lands was pulled after
both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and citizens rallied
against it
A federal judge has ordered the government to buy back
offshore oil and gas leases that energy companies say can’t
be developed, leading some to wonder if the BLM will have to do the
same with leases in potential wilderness areas
Letters
Featured stories
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