Magazine
April 16, 2007
Craig Childs lifts the rug of modern-day Phoenix, Ariz., to examine the remnants of the civilization that preceded it -- the Hohokam people, who also built a great city in the middle of the desert, and flourished until the day they ran out of water. Also in this issue: Just over the Arizona-Sonora border, Tohono O'odham traditionalists have joined environmental groups in fighting a proposed Mexican hazardous waste landfill.
Feature
Craig Childs lifts the rug of modern-day Phoenix, Ariz.,
to examine the remnants of the civilization that preceded it
– the Hohokam people, who also built a great city in the
middle of the desert, and flourished until the day they ran out of
water.
Editor's Note
Despite a relatively snowy winter here in western
Colorado, the season itself seems to have shrunk, with spring
arriving weeks earlier than it once did in a trend with ominous
consequences for the desert Southwest, particularly
Phoenix.
Uncommon Westerners
Brian Bay of Sandy, Utah, is the world champion of
grocery-store baggers, following his triumph at the National
Grocers Association Best Bagger Competition.
Essays
A teacher asks his students and the rest of us to imagine:
What would the world be like if we had the courage to use our
imaginations?
Writers on the Range
When national Trout Unlimited tried to get its Montana
branch to stay out of state stream-access issues, the Montanans
rebelled dramatically, much to Pat Munday’s
delight.
Jack Wright thinks Montanans are over-reacting to
stream-access issues; after all, from the point of view of a fish,
it’s a good thing when a rich man restores a stream, even if
he locks out trespassers.
Dear Friends
Life for interns after HCN; tell us what you think in our
annual survey.
News
Just over the Arizona-Sonora border, Tohono O’odham
traditionalists have joined environmental groups in fighting a
proposed Mexican hazardous waste landfill.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tries an end-run around
the Endangered Species Act; a leaked draft would weaken the bedrock
law by changing the regulations that implement it rather than the
law itself.
Book Reviews
In Brave New West: Morphing Moab at the Speed of Greed, Jim Stiles rips into the amenity-oriented tourist economy that has transformed his once-beloved Moab, but he offers little in the way of useful alternatives.
In Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future, Jeff Goodell reveals how
the sausage is made when it comes to the primary source of America’s electricity.
Heard Around the West
Squirrels vs. Santa Monica; Baby goes to rehab; crows and
carriers; Maricopa County is booming big-time; Julie MacDonald vs.
the Interior Department; boat horns vs. coyotes in
Oxnard.
Letters
Two Weeks in the West
Death (and life) in the Sonoran Desert; fire and drought
in the Southwest; courts rule against Bush on environmental
issues.
