Magazine
September 18, 2006
Mountain bikers are finally winning respect, along with increased access to trails, but a growing breed of gonzo riders with heavy, fast, high-tech bikes — and a thirst for riding in wilderness — could threaten all that. Also in this issue: National pundits say the nation’s political parties are moving toward the extremes, but in the West, Republicans — unhappy with some far-right politicians — seem to be heading back to the middle.
Feature
Mountain bikers are finally winning respect, along with
increased access to trails, but a growing breed of gonzo riders
with heavy, fast, high-tech bikes -- and a thirst for riding in
wilderness – could threaten all that.
Editor's Note
As enjoyable as mountain biking is, bikes simply
don’t belong in the wilderness, partly because the faster you
travel through a place, the smaller – and tamer – that
place begins to seem.
Uncommon Westerners
Albuquerque photojournalist Jaelyn deMaria has devoted the
last few years to documenting the pilgrims who come to the shrine
of Monte Cristo Rey on the United States-Mexico border near El
Paso.
Essays
The author remembers a long-ago hike up Pikes Pike with
her mother, who later died having no memory of that hike, or of her
daughter.
Writers on the Range
Two trends are almost as dangerous as the idea of directly
selling off the public lands: land transfers done in the name of
economic development, and the outsourcing of jobs in the federal
land-management agencies.
California’s decision to tackle global warming is a
sign that the West is finally growing up enough to realize that it
is not an "exceptional" place, entirely detached from the rest of
the modern world.
Dear Friends
New fall interns Fletcher Jacobs and Evan Tea; remembering
Sierra Club’s Larry Mehlhaff; visitors.
News
National pundits say the nation’s political parties
are moving toward the extremes, but in the West, Republicans
– unhappy with some far-right politicians – seem to be
heading back to the middle.
Even Montanans critical of Sen. Conrad Burns admit
he’s a genius at bringing home the pork – a fact that
may make it harder for his Democratic challenger, Jon Tester, in
the November election.
Even as Oregon tries to deal with the chaos of Measure 37,
which overturned the state’s old land-use regulations, "The
Big Look," an attempt to revive and re-create planning laws, is
quietly under way.
The nation may be intrigued by the contest between
incumbent Republican Rep. Heather Wilson and New Mexico Attorney
General Patricia Madrid, but the New Mexicans who will actually
vote in the election seem fairly disinterested.
A new breed of land trusts seeks not merely to preserve
undeveloped landscape, but to keep it in agricultural use –
particularly in organic farming.
Although many rural Nevadans are unhappy with Las
Vegas’ plans for a giant groundwater project, the six other
states that rely on water from the Colorado River are hoping the
Nevada project goes ahead.
Book Reviews
In Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an
American Iconoclast, David Petersen assembles some of the
correspondence of Western writer Edward Abbey into an eminently
readable but ultimately unenlightening collection.
Heard Around the West
Pretending to be an illegal immigrant; Olympia’s
gangsta raccoons; advice on selling Bibles door-to-door; peculiar
– and pricey – ads in Colorado; Snakes on the Ground
are scaring folks in Arizona.
Letters
Two Weeks in the West
Bush cuts EPA library budget; BLM admits failure to
protect air quality and wildlife around Pinedale, Wyo., gas fields;
California announces perchlorate limits for drinking water; Grand
Junction, Colo., passes ordinance against drilling
Percentage of federally owned land and wilderness in
Western states
Acres leased for drilling in the West
