The Magazine

A right-wing coup is under way in the nation’s
courts, which George W. Bush is stacking with anti-environmental
judges, and the impacts on Western conservation issues are not
going to be pretty.

Also in this issue:
National Park Service wilderness coordinator Jim Walters
resigns in frustration over the agency’s neglect of
wilderness, after the superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon
National Parks allows helicopters in wilderness areas.

Port Orford, Ore., is working hard to create a new kind of
community-based, sustainable fisheries management for the
over-fished ocean.

Also in this issue:
Environmentalists and immigration activists have a few doubts about
President Bush’s proposed immigration reform
policy.

The Bush administration opens up wild lands to oil and gas
drilling, pulling the rug out from under two decades of citizen
wilderness activism.

Also in this issue:
Judge Emmet Sullivan reinstates a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in
Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Mormons are often stereotyped as conservative
anti-environmentalists, but Utah activists Richard Ingebretsen and
Chris Peterson of the Glen Canyon Institute want to convince fellow
believers that it’s OK to be green.

Also in
this issue: The proposed salvage logging of the Biscuit
Fire area in Oregon’s Siskiyou Forest is one of the largest
timber sales in history, and critics say it’s not only
ecologically dangerous, but undermines the Roadless Rule.

A homegrown consensus effort called the Owyhee Initiative
is trying to save both wilderness and ranching in southwestern
Idaho – but in the polarized Bush era, consensus is often
controversial.

Also in this issue:
Federal wildlife managers admit that the massive fish
kill in the Klamath River in 2002 was caused, in part, by the
diversion of water to farmers.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is booming, revitalized by
a new era of weapons development – but the state of New
Mexico wants the lab to clean up its old Cold War-era messes before
it starts making new ones.

Also in this issue:
A 10-year-old plan to build a controversial expressway
through Petroglyph National Monument hits a “stop” sign, when
Albuquerque voters refuse to pay for it.

San Diego, Calif., adopted its groundbreaking Multiple
Species Conservation Program to protect wildlife habitat while
allowing for continued community growth – but critics say
endangered wildlife is the loser in the deal.

Also in this issue: Critics say
it’s not a coincidence that the Bush administration announces
bad environmental news – like the recent rollback of
mine-tailings limits – late on Friday afternoons, when media
coverage is sparse.

The West might still be the nation’s outdoor
playground, but the Western companies that make outdoor recreation
gear are finding greener pastures overseas.

Also
in this issue: A landmark California water deal has
Imperial Valley irrigators finally agreeing to sell Colorado River
water to San Diego, without sacrificing the Salton Sea.

The West’s big newspapers fall short when it comes
to covering today’s most important issues: the “big story”
about the environment, and the impacts on the region of growth and
development.

Also in this issue:Lea
County, N.M., is courting Louisiana Energy Services, a company that
wants to build a uranium-enrichment facility to create fuel for
nuclear power plants.

The pesticides used in orchards and farm fields in places
like eastern Washington endanger the health – and even the
lives – of immigrant farm workers.

Also in
this issue: While Congress debates whether Utah Gov. Mike
Leavitt should take over the Environmental Protection Agency, the
agency itself plows ahead in an anti-environmental
direction.

Radio shock jock John Stokes wants to scare
environmentalists away from Montana’s Flathead County, but
his bullying tactics have led instead to increased unity among his
opponents and quiet conservation progress.

Also
in this issue:The Earth Liberation Front takes credit for
vandalizing Hummers and SUVs at Southern California car
dealerships, and an SUV-owners’ group says environmentalists
are to blame.

The hardscrabble desert town of Carlsbad, N.M. –
already home to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant – is brushing
aside the fears of environmentalists and arms-control advocates in
its eagerness to host the Bush administration’s planned new
nuclear bomb factory.

Also in this
issue:Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, R, is President
Bush’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, and
some environmentalists fear he will prove little more than a
yes-man.

In Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin, a natural gas
boom is threatening pronghorn antelope and other wildlife, and some
Pinedale-area residents are beginning to fight
back.

Also in this issue: The West is
likely to be the loser under the new energy bill just passed by
Congress.

Nevada’s dirt-poor Lincoln County is rich in water,
but conservationists have reservations about Vidler Water
Company’s plans to market it, and the city of Las Vegas has
its own needs– and plans – for that
water.

Also in this issue: As drought
dries up the Rio Grande, New Mexico’s congressional
delegation goes after a court decision upholding the endangered
silvery minnow’s right to water.

Bishop, Calif., is a hot spot for the lively new sport of
bouldering, but some fear that the new generation of rock-climbers
is short on environmental ethics, treating nature as little more
than an outdoor climbing gym.

Also in this
issue:Even as wildfires blaze in Arizona and New Mexico,
and President Bush’s forest-thinning plan moves through
Congress, Western governors counsel moderation in logging and
suggest more research and collaboration.

Federal scientists are facing increasing pressure from
bureaucrats and politicians, and some are blowing the whistle on
what is happening in their agencies – among them biologist
Michael Kelly of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Also in this issue: Three Colorado towns have
won water rights for kayaking courses, making the state one of the
few that recognize in-stream water rights for recreation, and
worrying traditional water users.

A life-threatening stroke in Idaho’s Craters of the
Moon National Monument puts the author’s fight for wilderness
into perspective.

Also in this issue:
Frustrated by Utah’s anti-wilderness moves, the
national outdoor-equipment industry threatens to move its
twice-yearly giant Outdoor Retailer show out of Salt Lake
City.

Billions of dollars are being spent to fight Western
wildfires, but some scientists now believe that the big blowups
can’t be prevented, and that they may be good for the health
of the forests.

Also in this
issue:Environmentalists fear the Republican-sponsored
“Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003” – intended to
prevent wildfires – will prove anything but healthy for the
forests.

The native-seeds business is thriving, as more Westerners
realize the value of a restored and healthy rangeland, but the
current unfriendly political climate in Washington, D.C., may bring
an untimely frost.

Also in this
issue:The Clinton-era Sierra Nevada Framework is being
dismantled under the Bush administration, and California spotted
owls, denied protection as endangered species, may pay the
price.

Fueled by money from casino gambling, New Mexico’s
Indian pueblos and reservations are throwing their political weight
into the state’s water tug-of-war.

Also in
this issue:Starting in Utah, Interior Secretary Gale
Norton has slammed the door shut on new BLM wilderness proposals
and inventories and wilderness study areas.