The Magazine

Wyoming’s new governor, Democrat Dave Freudenthal,
may have a chance to turn the stagnant state around economically
and environmentally, by reducing its dependence on energy and
mineral industries.

Also in this
issue: Some residents of Los Lunas, N.M., say the planned
expansion of the wastewater treatment plant is designed to benefit
the mayor, who wants to build a subdivision.

The disappearance of the Rocky Mountain locust — which
once swarmed the Plains like a biblical plague, only to die out
entirely within decades — holds serious lessons for humanity.


Also in this issue: The
Bush administration rolls back a Clinton-era moratorium on RS 2477,
a controversial old statute that some Western counties have used to
claim designated roads in wilderness areas, parks and
monuments.

For over 30 years, the Northern Cheyenne have stood firm
against energy development and its environmental impacts, but now,
faced with crushing poverty, some are starting to think about
developing the reservation’s coal and methane resources.

Also in this issue: At
midnight on New Year’s Eve, Interior Secretary Gale Norton
astonished California by it cutting off from the “surplus” Colorado
River water it has long been using, after the state failed to come
up with promised water transfers.

Twenty years after its longtime mainstay, the Climax
Molybdenum Mine, closed, Leadville, Colo., is still groping for a
secure economy and a new identity.

Also in this issue: The Forest Service has
announced a major overhaul of the forest planning process that some
fear may cut out both environmental oversight and public
involvement, and lead to even more legal gridlock.

Eureka, Utah, unearths a toxic legacy just as its only hope for rescue, the federal Superfund cleanup program, blows away. Also in this issue: Thousands of park and forest jobs could go to
private contractors.

As Oregon cities hit their urban growth boundaries, some
say it’s time to look at the 30-year old rules that govern
development.

Also in this
issue: Congress may have turned to the right, but enviros
claim victory at the state level.

The “Real West” at the touch of an access code? A look
into the fortified rural retreats of the West’s moneyed
elite.

Also in this issue:
Hanford bomb factory’s hard-to-reach radioactive dregs might stay
where they are.

Tenacious animals like crows and coyotes have made a home
for themselves in the suburbs – and even downtown areas – of places
like Seattle and Phoenix. Can we make cities friendlier for
less-adaptable species?

Also in this
issue: Hunters turn out in record numbers as Colorado
tries to figure out just how serious the chronic wasting disease
outbreak is.

After a decade and a half without reasonable or effective
leadership,Arizona has become the West’s most incompetently run
state, its politics propelled almost entirely by growth. This
year’s gubernatorial election offers a chance for change.

Also in this issue: The
1994 Northwest Forest Plan was seen as a watershed move to balance
logging with environmental protection. But logging companies say
the plan’s controversial species-management provision has put too
much land off-limits, and now the Bush administration is moving to
relax the rules.

California’s sprawling San Joaquin-Sacramento river
delta has been mercilessly shaped by agriculture and
water-development projects. A massive $8.7 billion plan holds hope
for restoring the Delta and helping sate California’s growing
thirst, but political infighting and a lack of funding have clouded
the project’s future. Also in this
issue: In central New Mexico’s Sandia and Manzano
mountains, drought, hunting and traffic accidents have cut black
bear populations in half. But for the second year in the row, the
state’s Department of Game and Fish has extended the bear hunting
season.

For nearly a century, the Imperial Valley’s wastewater has
kept the Salton Sea alive. Now, the push to make California more
watertight may threaten this wildlife haven – and Imperial’s
agricultural economy. Also in this
issue: The San Juan Basin, on the New Mexico-Colorado
border, has long been an oil and gas hotspot. It’s about to get
hotter: A new BLM management plan could add nearly 10,000 new wells
over the next 20 years.

As a new boom in coalbed methane gas drilling hits the
West, some counties are taking on industry-friendly state
regulating agencies and demanding that gas companies listen to
local concerns.

Also in this
issue: EPA chief Christie Whitman and Idaho Sen. Larry
Craig dipped champagne glasses in Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene and
toasted the newly-created commission tasked with cleaning up mining
waste in the lake. But the Coeur d’Alene Tribe wants the problem to
be taken seriously.

The drought of 2002 has left the West blistered and burnt,
scientists predict worse to come. Have we learned anything yet?

Also in this issue: This
year’s drought has killed 10,000 cattle and ravaged the range. But
corruption and resentment over earlier attempts to control grazing
are stifling reform just when it’s needed most.

After generations of struggle, the Western Shoshone decide in a divisive election to accept land settlement payments from the federal government in lieu of the tribe’s ancestral lands, which one spanned the Great Basin.

A visit to the biggest forest fire in Colorado history — the Hayman Fire — and time spent with some of those battling it leads the author to speculate on the mystery and complexity of humanity’s relationship with fire.

The problem of controlling Africanized bees is now widespread, and some are taking advantage of the frightening invasion to earn a good living.

With 15 runs of salmon federally listed as threatened or endangered, a conservation group, Long Live the Kings, hopes hatchery reform can help save wild stocks of fish.

Wolves have been restored in the Northern Rockies, but their conflict with civilization now prompts wildlife managers to face some agonizing decisions about the animal’s future.

Inhabiting a parcel of land in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley demands a specific responsibility, according to the writer, who attempts ecological restoration on his piece of ground, to help bring back the West’s rich biological diversity.

The brine-shrimp industry of Great Salt Lake has helped put that misunderstood ecosystem under a microscope; can the lake be saved from its history of abuse and a rapidly increasing population around it?