Magazine
A Weird and Perfect Wilderness
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November 28, 2016

This issue examines the value of the West’s open spaces, its public lands, and its rich natural and cultural resources. In such places we find solace, as well as common values across cultural and political divides. In our cover story, Kate Schimel, the magazine’s digital editor, visits a “wilderness for weirdoes,” asking what it means to love such a place, Correspondent Sarah Tory takes us to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where a piece of Americana, 12,000 years in the making, is crumbling rapidly away and essayist Peter Friederici examines our complicity in the realities of climate change.

Feature

How to love a weird and perfect wilderness
How to love a weird and perfect wilderness
A desolate Oregon landscape offers lessons on the modern wild.

Editor's Note

Essays

Hope in a post-nature society
Hope in a post-nature society
A writer seeks answers from Lake Powell.
The captivating magic of a dry, dusty text
The captivating magic of a dry, dusty text
An encyclopedia-style book published in 1933 offers surprising perspective.

Book Reviews

See photos of a journey down the Old Rio Grande
See photos of a journey down the Old Rio Grande
Through the lens of the people who lived near and were shaped by the river.

Writers on the Range

Trump’s promises are empty when it comes to energy
Trump’s promises are empty when it comes to energy
Will laid-off energy workers get their jobs back? No. Regulations have nothing to do with this bust.

Heard Around the West

Armed and amorous, women’s pay and rogue bears
Armed and amorous, women’s pay and rogue bears
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.

Dear Friends

Current

In Arizona, reptile poaching made easy
In Arizona, reptile poaching made easy
Why some wildlife crimes are difficult to prosecute.
Latest: Bilingual Park Service intern lands fulltime job
Latest: Bilingual Park Service intern lands fulltime job
In the nick of time, Nancy Fernandez achieves her goal.
Latest: Feds plan sagebrush survey
Latest: Feds plan sagebrush survey
The data could provide a blueprint for science-based decisions.
Alaska’s gas pipeline dreams
Alaska’s gas pipeline dreams
A decades-long plan to deliver the state’s gas reserves to the market remains in purgatory.
Could land speed racing fade from Bonneville Salt Flats?
Could land speed racing fade from Bonneville Salt Flats?
Utah’s changing landscape casts doubt on the future of a sport.
How Ammon Bundy got acquitted in Oregon
How Ammon Bundy got acquitted in Oregon
At the Malheur trial, Bundys were acquitted, but what will happen in Nevada?
Election 2016 roundup, Greens prepare for battle, Latino voters turn out
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