NAME: Randy Lewis VOCATION: Professor of microbiology MARRIED: To his high school sweetheart CURRENT FUNDERS: National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Air Force BREAKTHROUGHS: Sequenced genes for several Rocky Mountain arachnids, including cat face, garden, wolf, jumping, and brown widow spiders. KNOWN FOR: Wearing gray or tan Wranglers. FAVORITE TIME OF DAY: Lunch. “It’s […]
Politics
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Driven to fight
A retired BLM special agent finds herself battling the very agency she once worked for
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Busy as a Buchmann
NAME: Stephen Buchmann HOMETOWN: Tucson, Arizona AGE: 53 VOCATION: Pollination ecologist FAVORITE INSECT: Bees, especially the genus Centris, which can be seen visiting paloverde blossoms in the Sonoran desert. FAVORITE HONEY: The honey from the lady bee, “Xunan Kab,” a stingless bee kept by the Maya of southern Mexico. MOST STINGS IN A DAY: 200-300 […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Taking the conservation movement to task
Tired of discussing the alleged death of environmentalism? Fear not: Why Conservation is Failing and How It Can Regain Ground is no dirge, but a complex and cogent analysis of the American environmental movement. University of Illinois law professor Eric Freyfogle claims that “The conservation cause … is stymied less because of its disciplined opponents […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Two weeks in the West
This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang, but a whimper
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
A wolf’s life
NAME: B7 WEIGHT AT RELEASE: 74 pounds AT DEATH: 97 pounds ESTIMATED WEIGHT IN HIS PRIME: 120 pounds RELEASED: Indian Creek, Idaho, Jan. 20, 1995 ESTIMATED AGE: 13.75-14.75 years old ORIGINAL PACK: The Oldman River, Alberta KNOWN FOR: Being the last of the 29 wolves introduced into the U.S. from Canada in 1995 EMBARRASSING FACTS: […]
Posted inWotr
Selling peace on the street in Flagstaff, Arizona
I sat with a friend and her son outside the post office in Flagstaff, Ariz. The building has been there half a century; we felt as though we had been there eons. There was an icy mountain wind and an occasional icy stare. We were encouraging people to send George Bush a half-cup of rice […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Battling over ballast
The zebra mussel’s aptitude as an invader is rivaled only by its skill as a lobbyist. In 1990, while the mussels’ mischief on the Great Lakes reached its height, Congress passed a law aimed at regulating ballast water — the water, hauled by empty ships for stability and balance, that is also the mussels’ most […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 2007: One nation, under fire
One Nation, Under Fire
Illegal drugs and immigrants pour across an open frontier. The government responds with helicopters and ATVs. And the once-quiet desert homeland of the Tohono O’odham Nation becomes a nerve-wracking police state.
Posted inFebruary 19, 2007: One nation, under fire
New Mexico’s water rebel
Name: Bill Turner Fond Childhood Memory: Listening to the Lone Ranger radio show: “Good will prevail.” Coffee or Tea: Coffee, black, in a to-go cup with a few cubes of ice Resume Excerpts: Firewall riveter for Navy S2F submarine-hunter aircraft (1958); Peace Corps volunteer and geologist in Cyprus (1963-1964); New Mexico natural resources trustee (1995-2003); […]
Posted inWotr
Forget political labels, let’s think for ourselves
I recently filled out a survey from an environmental group but got stumped by the question about my political affiliation. The right of the scale was labeled “conservative” and the left side was ‘‘radical.’’ I bristled. Compare the two words: Conservative has a pleasant root, conserve, as in not squandering money or resources. Radical evokes […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Red Feather builds homes and communities
NAME Red Feather Development Group HOMETOWN Bozeman, Montana FOUNDED IN 1994 FOUNDED BY Rob Young NOTED FOR Building straw-bale homes on Indian reservations across the West. In recent years, Red Feather has focused on Hopiland in Arizona, and the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana. FAVORITE FOOD Pop-Tarts. Legend has it that the two-dimensional pastries fueled […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Fill ‘er up with moonshine
Name Chris Myles Age 51 Vocation A chronic volunteer, he’s studying to become a paramedic and makes homemade classic guitars. Known for Attempting to distill homebrewed ethanol On what brought him to Silverton “The blue skies here are like nothing I’d ever seen before. You get clear days in the Midwest but there is always […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Salmon Justice
An interview with U.S. District Judge Jim Redden, who’s given uncooperative federal agencies clear warning: Submit a viable salmon restoration plan for the Snake/Columbia River Basin, or face the possible breaching of four major dams.
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
History of a decline
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Salmon Justice.” Pre-European settlement: The Columbia/Snake River Basin produces between 10 million and 16 million salmon, making it the most bountiful salmon spawning ground in the world. 1933: President Franklin Roosevelt authorizes Bonneville Dam about 40 miles east of Portland, Ore., the first major […]
Posted inWotr
Get out of Iraq now
I’m a retired Air Force colonel and a teacher, and over the years I?ve taught a great many people about the military, sometimes starting out with a quote from Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer Abroad”: “I asked Tom if countries always apologized when they had done wrong, and he says ‘Yes, the little ones does.’” That […]
Posted inWotr
Dick Cheney was right
President Bush’s idea that voluntary corporate efforts can stop climate change is wrong, and it’s wrong because Dick Cheney was right. That paradox, along with a new Congress and many progressive Western governors, may outline a path to a real climate policy in 2007. The vice President famously called most conservation measures “a personal virtue” […]
Posted inDecember 25, 2006: Confessions of a Methane Floozy
Tequila-fueled tunes
Name Roger Clyne Age 38 Vocation Front man for the Tempe, Arizona, band Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. The Peacemakers are made up of Clyne, P.H. Naffah on drums, Steve Larson on guitar, and Nick Scropos on bass. Also markets his own brand of tequila. Known For The band’s high-energy live shows and Southwestern sound. […]
Posted inWotr
Democrats are still an endangered species in the West
Since last month’s midterm elections, Democrats have fallen all over themselves trumpeting their party’s gains in the Mountain West as the harbinger of a new political landscape. Many have suggested that the GOP now amounts to little more than a regional party with scant appeal outside the South. But a reality check is in order […]