Magazine
February 4, 2008
Public-land managers in the era of global warming face uncomfortable choices: Do they intervene to protect dying plants and animals, or stand back and let this new version of “nature” take its course?
Feature
Public-land managers in the era of global warming face
uncomfortable choices: Do they intervene to protect dying plants
and animals, or stand back and let this new version of
“nature” take its course?
Editor's Note
A Phoenix symposium on dealing with drought and global
warming echoes the larger uncertainties facing public-land and
national park managers throughout the West.
Uncommon Westerners
Richard Halsey says Southern California’s chaparral
is not to blame for the fires that scorch the region every
year.
Essays
Writers on the Range
Dustin Heron Urban has declared war on the little black
stickers at gas stations that announce the availability of
ethanol.
Randy Udall says Colorado needs to act now to collect
severance taxes from the natural gas companies that are making a
fortune from the state.
Dear Friends
New winter interns Francisco Tharp and Evelyn Schlatter;
clarification
News
The largest wetland restoration project on the West Coast
tackles the tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay.
Nevada sportsmen, tribes and environmentalists ask the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not to renew licenses for
Hells Canyon’s dams until Idaho Power makes it possible for
salmon to survive its dams.
Book Reviews
Three new books about the West’s Indian wars –
Ned Blackhawk’s Violence Over the Land, Kingsley Bray’s
Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life, and Robert W. Larson’s Gall:
Lakota War Chief – seem to romanticize a violent
past.
Heard Around the West
Jim Stiles asks about perfect moments; rent-a-pet; Douglas
Bruce behaves like a jerk; Forest Service meeting gets nasty in
Montana.
Letters
Two Weeks in the West
A flurry of end-of-year easements saves lots of lovely
landscapes; heli-skiing wins in Utah; snow-lovers help starving
Colorado deer; a possible ceasefire on the Klamath; and bark
beetles are destroying Colorado’s lodgepole pines.
- Rich & Terry Fairbanks on Rural communities in the West need a fair shake
- on Jim Deacon, pioneering desert fish biologist, dies
- Larry Bullock on Ranch Diaries: A New Mexico cattle company is born
- Randy Piper on Bark beetle kill leads to more severe fires, right? Well, maybe
- Delaine Spilsbury on The water czar who reshaped Colorado River politics
