Magazine
May 1, 2006
An unusual grassroots coalition of citizen activists stops a coal-fired merchant power plant from being built in Idaho’s Magic Valley. Also in this issue: Despite the promises of the Healthy Forests Act, the Bush administration has proposed sweeping cuts to community fire programs in the West.
Feature
An unusual grassroots coalition of citizen activists stops
a coal-fired merchant power plant from being built in Idaho’s
Magic Valley
Editor's Note
California has a lot to teach the Interior West –
particularly about clean energy and water conservation
Uncommon Westerners
Astronomer Perry Walker uses his stargazing tools and
skills to work with the oil and gas industry to prevent air
pollution in Wyoming
Essays
The Set America Free Coalition is a new organization that
brings together liberals and conservatives to try to reduce
America’s dependency on imported fossil fuels
A long solitary hike through an empty, pristine desert is
interrupted by a close encounter with an F-16 fighter
plane
Dear Friends
Katie Lee and other visitors; where do you get your news?
farewell, Philip Hyde; notes from readers; missing pages in
HCN?
News
Despite the promises of the Healthy Forests Act, the Bush
administration has proposed sweeping cuts to community fire
programs in the West
Mining company allowed to dump waste into Alaskan lake;
Colorado split-estate bill unravels; Arizona’s Oak Flat may
become a copper mine
In Montana, the American Prairie Foundation and the World
Wildlife Fund are working together to create a genuinely wild bison
herd, one free of cattle genes
Amateur gold prospectors are invading the West’s
publicly owned streams, and environmentalists say the hobby’s
popularity threatens fish and the environment
Elko County, Nev., has made an agreement with the Forest
Service to end the long-running fight over a dirt road in Jarbidge
Canyon on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
Executives from six of the nation’s largest energy
companies have asked federal lawmakers to set mandatory caps on
greenhouse gas emissions
The United Farm Workers has signed a contract with
agricultural labor-supply company Global Horizons protecting the
rights of guest farmworkers
Book Reviews
Live! From Death Valley is John
Soennichsen’s "love letter to an ill-tempered mistress,"
California’s Death Valley
In Chasing Spring: An American Journey Through a
Changing Season, nature writer Bruce Stutz follows spring
from New York to Alaska, examining the surprising changes that
global warming is bringing
In Preserving Western History, editor
Andrew Gulliford has put together "the first college reader to
address public history in the American West."
Heard Around the West
Composting roadkill in Montana; Army mules for Afghanistan
in Wyoming; obsolete Earth First! Bumper stickers; 100-year-old
retiree dies; Butte’s new tourist attraction is a
pit
Letters
Related Stories
In their own words, some of the Magic Valley citizens who
fought the Sempra coal plant describe the uprising and how they got
involved in it
Led by California, Western states are encouraging the
energy industry to move toward cleaner coal technology
- Larry Bullock on Ranch Diaries: A New Mexico cattle company is born
- 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
