In Cities in the Wilderness, former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt asks: “Is it realistic to suggest expanding land protection programs in a season when the Bush administration and Congress are intent not upon expanding, but upon shrinking the reach of our environmental laws?” Babbitt’s answer is a resounding “Yes.” He continues, “History instructs […]
Books
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
A watery mystery in New Mexico
Even if you haven’t read a mystery novel since the Hardy Boys, give Rudolfo Anaya’s new book, Jemez Spring, a whirl. All in one day, Sonny Baca, an Albuquerque private investigator, works to solve the governor’s murder at the Jemez Springs Bath House and deactivate a nuclear bomb left in the Valles Caldera to blow […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Deciphering humanity’s hardware
History buffs can easily get an education alongside Western highways. Interpretive signs point out where Chief Joseph retreated, and where Lewis and Clark spent the winter. But what if you want to know what’s coming out of the smokestack in the distance? Or what gets made inside that gigantic steel structure you just passed? The […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Politics, prejudice and predators
In his new book, Predatory Bureaucracy, conservationist Michael J. Robinson leads readers through the 120-year-history of the U.S. Biological Survey. When it began in the late 1800s, it was run by biologists mostly interested in studying stuffed birds. However, political pressure from cattle- and sheep-growers transformed the benign agency into a powerhouse dedicated to predator […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
A natural and cultural history of the Rocky Mountains
The backbone of the West, the Great Divide, stretches some 1,100 rugged miles from Montana to New Mexico. It’s been the home of Native Americans, artists, miners, mountain men, preachers and charlatans, back-to-the-landers and trust funders. Each group has defined the landscape for its own purpose, leading author Gary Ferguson to conclude, “Hardly a story […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
The Sum of our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women
The Sum of our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women Judy Busk 224 pages, hardcover: $32.95 Signature Books, 2004. Pioneer women are often portrayed as strong, brazen heroines or meek, conforming housewives. Author Judy Busk looks beyond the stereotypes to find the truth of these women’s lives in a book that’s part personal memoir, part historical research. […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
The Pictograph Murders
The Pictograph Murders P.G. Karamesines 352 pages, softcover: $21.95 Signature Books, 2004. P.G. Karamesines combines pot hunting, witchcraft, and murder in a chilling first novel set on an archaeological dig in southern Utah. A sinister stranger appears in the field camp; he models himself on Coyote, the legendary Indian trickster. When Alex McKelvey, an archaeology […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Not just any book about the grasslands
In the final scene of John Price’s book, Not Just Any Land, a botanist watches buffalo moving in at an Iowa wildlife refuge and says, “There are mysteries about Iowa tallgrass only buffalo can solve.” America’s grasslands, which once stretched from the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains, are now mostly gone, but several national […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Coming home to a Montana town
A clear stream and a cottonwood tree anchor Karen Brichoux’s pensive new novel. The Girl She Left Behind tells the story of Katherine Earle, who flees the big city to return to her tiny hometown in a Montana mountain valley. Katherine had crept away from Montana with her musician fiancé as a lovestruck 18-year-old, without […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Bear
Bear Robert E. Bieder 286 pages, softcover: $19.95 Reaktion Books, 2005. From cave bears to dancing bears, totemic bears to teddy bears, this elegant little book comes lavishly illustrated with bear photos, drawings and paintings. Author Robert E. Bieder tells the history of this fascinating animal through time and across cultures; there’s a treat on […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Earth Notes
Earth Notes Edited by Peter Friederici 70 pages, softcover: $6.95 Grand Canyon Association and KNAU, 2005. Served up in two-page bites, Earth Notes is a tasty selection of tidbits about the Southwest’s canyon country. Editor Peter Friederici dishes out a smorgasbord of nicely illustrated topics ranging from heirloom plant seeds to ancient stone calendars to […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Living Within Our Means: Beyond the Fossil Fuel Credit Card
Living Within Our Means: Beyond the Fossil Fuel Credit Card Kamyar Enshayan 54 pages, softcover: $12 Congdon Printing & Imaging, 2005. Engineer and city councilman Kamyar Enshayan considers the inevitable end of the fossil-fuel joyride. Short essays ponder topics we’ll all need to grapple with — like the truth about hydrogen and ethanol and what […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Buffalo Calf Road Woman
Buffalo Calf Road Woman Rosemary Agonito and Joseph Agonito 245 pages, softcover: $12.95 Globe Pequot Press, 2005. In Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the Agonitos describe the final, tragic days of Plains Indian culture as it was being ripped apart by settlers and soldiers. This fictionalized account portrays Buffalo Calf Road Woman, who rescued her brother […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
The Ardent Birder
The Ardent Birder Todd Newberry and Gene Holtan 214 pages, softcover: $14.95 Ten Speed Press, 2005. Professor Todd Newberry and artist Gene Holtan have produced a whimsical, fun book about the “lovely madness” that possesses bird watchers. Useful tips abound: how to host a birding field trip, what gear to bring, ways to identify a […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Hear Him Roar
Hear Him Roar Andrew Wingfield 240 pages, softcover: $19.95 Utah State University Press, 2005. Puma concolor, the mountain lion, meets Homo dingus dongus, the urban dweller who is all for wild nature — as long as it’s predator-free. Set in Sacramento, Calif., this is a tensely told novel about the inevitable conflict between humans and […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Yellowstone fires still ignite controversy
On Sept. 7, 1988, author Rocky Barker stood with a fellow journalist near Old Faithful and witnessed this scene: “Coals were pelting his back and I could see fist-sized firebrands by my head. We jumped a small stream and stumbled through the forest toward safety. The entire area turned black as night and the howling […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Life — and death — in grizzly country
The popular impression of Timothy Treadwell, who died in Alaska just over two years ago, is that he was a delusional crackpot who deserved his fate: to be killed and eaten by a bear. News coverage painted him as a foolish amateur bear biologist — well-intentioned but not very bright — who paid with his […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Crossing hearts on Colorado’s plains
Laura Pritchett’s first novel, Sky Bridge, is set in “Nowhere, Colorado,” on the ranchland east of the plains town of Lamar. In this tiny place assaulted by big forces — climate change, the global economy, federal policies — teenage narrator Libby finds the prospects slim: “… all my old schoolmates are either doing drugs or […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
The native gardens of California
“I’ve always wondered why people call plants ‘wild.’ We don’t think of them that way. They just come up wherever they are, and like us, they are at home in that place.” — Clara Jones Sargosa, Chukchansi In her new book, Tending the Wild, ethnobotanist Kat Anderson examines the state of California’s “wilderness” at the […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Imperfect Pasture: A Century of Change at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Imperfect Pasture: A Century of Change at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming Bruce Smith, Eric Cole and David Dobkin 156 pages, softcover: $14.95 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Grand Teton Natural History Association, 2004. The National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyo., is either a conservation success, or, as the scientist-authors of […]