Magazine
August 21, 2006
It’s not easy to wean Westerners away from their lush, traditional, turfgrass lawns, but with drought an increasing fact of life, Xeriscape gardening is finally catching on. Also in this issue: Three compromise wilderness bills have passed the House and now await Senate approval.
Feature
It’s not easy to wean Westerners away from their
lush, traditional, turfgrass lawns, but with drought an increasing
fact of life, Xeriscape gardening is finally catching on
Editor's Note
Westerners, like most Americans, are deeply in love with
their lawns – but in an time of increasing drought, the
Kentucky bluegrass is going to have to go
Uncommon Westerners
Steve Ficklin is an oil and gas safety inspector for the
Bureau of Land Management in western Colorado
Essays
A rancher recounts how oil drilling destroyed her rural
lifestyle and forced her and her husband to sell their western
Colorado ranch
A writer on a river trip through canyon country muses on
things like sand, rapids, ruins and time, as well as the joy that
comes from being outside in the company of family and
friends
Dear Friends
Matt Jenkins wins prize for Western Environmental
Journalism, and Paolo Bacigalupi wins Theodore Sturgeon Memorial
Award for science fiction short story; HCN board
meeting and potluck in Missoula; visitors; Tim McKay dies
News
Three compromise wilderness bills have passed the House
and now await Senate approval
Rural Indian communities such as Colorado’s Ute
Mountain Ute Reservation are seeing a disturbing rise in
urban-style gangs and gang-related violence
An ambitious plan to create new corridors for power lines
and pipelines will make it easier for utility companies to tap into
the West’s energy boom
Book Reviews
In the anthology There’s This
River, Christa Sadler gathers the stories of rambunctious
river rafters on the Grand Canyon’s Colorado River
Steven Radosevich writes simple, painful, personal essays
about the changing landscape of the Pacific Northwest in his new
book, Good Wood: Growth, Loss and
Renewal.
Linda Masterson’s new book, Living With
Bears, is a good-humored, practical guide to getting
along with black bears in the West
Heard Around the West
Nevada’s toad boom; Utah piranha; roadkill CPR;
Donald Rumsfeld vs. Navajo Marine; super-rich lay claim to Montana
waterway
Letters
Two Weeks in the West
Third parties can no longer challenge public-land sales to
mining companies; BLM violated NEPA in leasing Utah
wilderness-quality parcels to oil and gas companies; Divine Strake
weapons test at Nevada Test Site delayed; Congress reforms
conservation easement
Related Stories
Golf – the game that brought grass to the desert
– appears to have hit a rough patch in the West
The seven basic principles of Xeriscaping are
explained
Photo descriptions of Xeriscapers in the West
