The Western Confluence: A Guide to Governing Natural Resources Matthew McKinney and William Harmon 297 pages, softcover $30, hardcover $60. Island Press, 2004 Authors McKinney and Harmon look at the West’s endless tug-of-wars over water, land use, fire management and wildlife — issues, they say, best resolved through collaboration, negotiation, or consensus. That’s not easy, […]
Communities
Posted inWotr
Montana’s Marlboro men get ready to bite the dust
I’m a sucker for the cowboy. My bookshelves sag under the weight of Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry novels. I have spent summer wages on Ian Tyson CDs and Willie Nelson concert tickets. My favorite Clint Eastwood film is Unforgiven, not Million Dollar Baby. But even I was surprised when the 2005 Montana Legislature drew […]
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
Skiing, or wheeling and dealing?
New resorts smell a lot like real estate bonanzas
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
A mountain of books becomes a library of the land
Names Jeff Lee and Ann Martin Vocations Bookseller and graphic artist Home Base Denver, Colorado Claim to Fame Founders of the Rocky Mountain Land Library She says “This is just Jeff’s kind of project. I go day to day, he has the big vision.” “To really know the West, to be at home here,” says […]
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA California’s Highway Patrol sees a lot of silly stuff, like the guy crouched down in an open trunk, gamely trying to hang on to lawn chairs, or the driver in the carpool lane pretending that a life-size doll of “SpongeBob SquarePants” was a passenger. Officer Rob Rusconi says he watched a driver struggle to […]
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What the West needs is an honest discussion
Life was much simpler when I viewed the battle to “save” the West through a black-and-white lens. As a young environmentalist, it was easier to condemn my adversaries’ beliefs without scrutinizing my own. And it was easier to attack my adversaries when I didn’t know them. I have agonized over this for years now. At […]
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If Pedro needed help, I would have given it
Last September, while on an early morning walk with my dogs, I spotted an orange knapsack on a steep west bank of the Santa Cruz River here in Rio Rico, Ariz. I also saw two baseball caps lying near the water’s edge. I waded across the foul-smelling river and opened the orange knapsack. Inside, I […]
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Bumper stickers are a serious thing
I have two bumper stickers on my truck, and one I’d like to add if I could find it. The sticker I’ve had the longest is also the best, making Gary Snyder’s poem, “Jackrabbit eyes all night, breakfast in Elko,” seem wordy. Some of you will recognize it: SILT HAPPENS. It was, for years, the […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Santa Fe Hispanic Culture: Preserving Identity in a Tourist Town
Santa Fe Hispanic Culture: Preserving Identity in a Tourist Town Andrew Leo Lovato, 160 pages, hardcover $24.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. As author Andrew Leo Lovato writes, Santa Fe is not only a “city of ancient traditions” but one of “invented traditions” — in other words, it’s a true tourist town. “It is […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life
Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life Theda Skocpol, 384 pages, softcover $24.95. University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. Harvard University professor Theda Skocpol wants to know where all the volunteers have gone. Americans today are less likely to join volunteer groups than at any other time in the past, and the ubiquitous […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
The Far East yearns for the wild West
When my friend Kevin passed through my home state of South Dakota on a cross-country road trip a few years back, I did the decent thing as a host and took him to see Mount Rushmore. Why pass the ninth or tenth wonder of the world and not at least stop by? Still, it’s one […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Heard around the West
THE GREAT PLAINS The Week magazine celebrated Elsie Eiler, 71, of Monowi, Neb., as the most powerful person in her town. She’s also the only person in her town. When her husband died last year, the population halved. But Eiler said she’s not leaving: “I like it here.” Too bad many others don’t appreciate freedom […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
The last happy agency biologist — and other April Foolery
Public servant decides it’s time to put his feet up and relax
Posted inWotr
How not to fix conservation easements
One of the most useful, cost-effective methods of conserving land in America is in serious crisis. A series of scandals has revealed major abuses of conservation easements — a legal tool increasingly used to protect private land from development by compensating landowners for development rights. It is true that some landowners who donate easements to […]
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Can the New West rescue an old town?
First came the Thai restaurant, then the jazz nightclub. Pretty heady stuff for a dead railroad town with a population of 1,900 in the far northern reaches of California. There’s a sense of anticipation, of wondering what will happen next. Along with our fancy restaurant and a couple of art galleries, we’re starting to attract […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Gators, dirt and hot tubs in the Cowboy State
Readers will recognize the collection of colorful characters in Proulx’s latest installment of Wyoming fictions. The 11 stories in Bad Dirt feature trailer types, Eastern transplants, local roughnecks, and eccentric elders, living in a zero-sum economy of extractive plunder that would make native son Dick Cheney giddy with pride. In “Wamsutter Wolf,” mountain man wannabe […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security
State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security The Worldwatch Institute, 237 pages, softcover $18.95. W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. The Worldwatch Institute’s latest annual report offers insight into issues from nuclear weapons proliferation to renewable energy. In a chapter on water, researchers provide examples in which locals and religious organizations, as well as water […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
UFOs Over Galisteo and Other Stories of New Mexico’s History
UFOs Over Galisteo and Other Stories of New Mexico’s History Robert J. Tórrez, 160 pages, softcover $16.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. A retired state historian, Tórrez creates vivid vignettes of New Mexico’s past. He enlivens his accounts of arranged marriages, water disputes and stagecoaches with historical photos and documents. The book also contains […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
A look at the West, in the funhouse mirror
Life was much simpler when I viewed the battle to “save” the West through a black-and-white lens. As a young environmentalist, it was easier for me to condemn my adversaries’ land ethics and beliefs when I was unwilling to honestly scrutinize my own. And it was easier to attack my adversaries when I didn’t know […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Heard around the West
COLORADO Whatever else you think about Aspen — wondering exactly when it ceased to be the rough mining town it once was, or marveling at the sight of men wearing fur coats so long they look like bears walking — there was always the presence of writer Hunter S. Thompson in nearby Woody Creek to […]