The Magazine

An environmentalist who owns royalty interest in New
Mexico oil and gas wells heads down to the San Juan Basin to talk
to rancher Tweeti Blancett, driller Tom Dugan and others about the
moral complexities inherent in Americans’ energy use.

Also in this issue: Kern County,
Calif., is trying to prevent Los Angeles sludge from entering the
county, where it is used to fertilize farmland, and the resulting
stink is raising all kinds of questions about how we handle human
waste.

Former Park Service supervisors Bill Wade and Ron
Arnberger formed the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees to
defend the national parks from what they see as the Bush
administration’s ill-conceived changes.

Also in this issue: Six decades after Friant Dam
killed off the San Joaquin River’s spring-run chinook, the
Natural Resources Defense Council and the Friant Water Users
Authority are working with the federal government to restore both
the fish and the river.

Among the top 10 lessons gained from the 2006 midterm
elections is that there can be no doubt now of the West’s
rising importance as a center of political power.

Also in this issue: A new plan to steer energy
development away from cultural sites in New Mexico could streamline
energy development, fund archaeological research and preserve
ancient sites all at once.

The Peregrine Fund has mastered the art of breeding
aplomado falcons and other endangered birds of prey, but critics
say the organization is blind to the importance of wildlife
habitat.

Also in this issue: A recent
court ruling on the ceremonial killing of eagles by American
Indians collides with the Endangered Species Act, possibly sending
the issue to the Supreme Court.

In northern New Mexico, the innovative Collaborative
Forest Restoration Program is bringing Hispanic loggers and Anglo
environmentalists together to work on creating healthy, sustainable
forests and rural economies.

Also in this
issue: Boosters of a Western primary hope it could give
the Interior West a greater voice in the politics of Washington,
D.C.

In Oregon, a revolutionary community alliance is working
to put water – and steelhead trout – back into the
Deschutes River.

Also in this issue: A
federal judge has reinstated President Clinton’s roadless
rule protecting forests in the Lower 48 states, but the decision
seems to have only confused the issue of forest management and is
likely to end up back in court.

The Crested Butte News, a successful
independent newspaper in a small Rocky Mountain town, has come full
circle and is once again owned by a chain.

Also
in this issue: The North Coast Journal
has been published in Arcata, Calif., for almost 18 years by Judy
Hodgson, a journalist who believes in stirring the pot.

Mountain bikers are finally winning respect, along with
increased access to trails, but a growing breed of gonzo riders
with heavy, fast, high-tech bikes — and a thirst for riding
in wilderness — could threaten all that.

Also in this issue: National pundits say the
nation’s political parties are moving toward the extremes,
but in the West, Republicans — unhappy with some far-right
politicians — seem to be heading back to the middle.

As the global warming threat increases, nuclear energy
enjoys a renaissance, but the industry’s own checkered past
hints that nuke power will be neither easy nor cheap.

Also in this issue: The BLM’s decision to
lease land for energy exploration in the watersheds of Grand
Junction and Palisade, Colo., reveals the way oil and gas leasing
works.

It’s not easy to wean Westerners away from their
lush, traditional, turfgrass lawns, but with drought an increasing
fact of life, Xeriscape gardening is finally catching on.

Also in this issue: Three compromise wilderness
bills have passed the House and now await Senate approval.

The science behind endangered species is extremely
complicated, as seen in the clash between biologist Rob Roy Ramey
II and geneticist Tim King over whether Preble’s meadow
jumping mouse in Colorado is truly a legitimate subspecies
deserving protection.

Also in this
issue: New Mexico and other Western states are eagerly
vying to get into the movie business, offering film companies an
assortment of tax breaks and financial incentives.

The Western states are home to a stealth campaign by
libertarians who – under the guise of reforming eminent
domain – are out to destroy all land-use planning through
“takings” ballot initiatives.

Also in this
issue: Even as Western states debate the best way to look
after their roadless areas, logging, drilling and mining are
already happening on some formerly protected lands.

In the desert Southwest in 2030, with “Big Daddy Drought”
in full swing and California claiming all the water, a “water tick”
named Lolo ekes out a rugged living removing tamarisk.

Also in this issue: With the Interior
West’s national parks facing an increase in haze and air
pollution, Rocky Mountain National Park is working with government
agencies to improve air quality.

Phoenix, Ariz., is determined to disprove the idea that
the West will someday run out of water and that every boom has to
come to an end.

Also in this issue:
Newly appointed Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has a chance to
use his deal-making abilities to bring change to the way Western
public lands are managed.

In his determination to cling, however hopelessly, to
Utah’s past, Canyon Country Zephyr founder
Jim Stiles has taken on miners, ranchers, developers, mountain
bikers and – most recently – some of his fellow
environmentalists.

Also in this issue:
“Divine Strake” — a proposed weapons detonation at the Nevada
Test Site — has stirred up fears of radioactive contamination
and the possibility of a new nuclear arms race.

This special issue of High Country News
takes an on-the-ground look at the human landscape of illegal
immigration in the West.

An unusual grassroots coalition of citizen activists stops
a coal-fired merchant power plant from being built in Idaho’s
Magic Valley.

Also in this issue:
Despite the promises of the Healthy Forests Act, the Bush
administration has proposed sweeping cuts to community fire
programs in the West.

Four years after President Bush launched his Healthy
Forests Initiative, the Western woods are abuzz.

Also in this issue: “Nevada style” wilderness
bill comes to Utah and Citizens unite against gas field chaos.

A native New Mexican tries to understand the heroin
epidemic that is destroying the Hispano community of the Espanola
Valley,

Also in this issue: Interior
Secretary Gale Norton’s decision to resign prompts a look at
Interior’s conservative counterrevolution during her tenure,
along with its unintended consequences.

With all the formerly cool, “undiscovered” small towns now
caught up in the New West’s booming real estate frenzy,
it’s getting hard to find an affordable place to call home.

Also in this issue: A working group of
23 experts convened by the nonprofit Keystone Center could not
reach consensus over how to reform the Endangered Species
Act’s critical habitat provisions.