The Magazine

In Montana’s Madison County, Reid Rosenthal uses
conservation easements to help the land — and make his
investors rich.

Also in this issue:
Facing severe budget cuts, the Forest Service is selling off
property, and considering closing some recreation sites it
considers too expensive to maintain.

Despite angry environmentalists, rotting timber, and
unenthusiastic logging companies, the Bush administration is
determined to push logging on roadless land burned by the Biscuit
Fire in southwestern Oregon.

Also in this
issue: The House of Representatives has just passed an
energy bill that is even more outrageously friendly to industry
than the Bush administration had requested.

Colorado citizens voted last November to increase their
state’s reliance on power from the wind and sun, but King
Coal still rules the state, and the White House seems determined to
keep it on the throne.

Also in this
issue: Utah has finally convinced the Department of
Energy to move the Atlas uranium mine tailings pile from its site
just north of Moab, where the tailings are leaking into the
Colorado River.

Scientists are struggling to understand winter in the
West: the effects of the unusual weather on water and wildlife, and
whether the changes are linked to global warming

Also in this issue: Recently released e-mails
show that federal employees falsified information about the safety
of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

Tough economics, drought, and increasing clashes with
other public-lands users are leading some ranchers to consider
taking the “golden saddle” – a check from conservationists in
exchange for their grazing permits.

Also in this
issue: Two researchers say that the “Sustainable Slopes”
program, touted by the National Ski Areas Association as a sign of
the industry’s environmental responsibility, is little more
than “greenwashing.”

Rampant growth in the Phoenix area and a severe drought on
the Colorado River challenge the sustainability of the Central
Arizona Project.

Also in this issue: A
groundbreaking settlement between New Mexico environmentalists and
the city of Albuquerque may keep water in the Middle Rio Grande and
help both farmers and endangered silvery minnows.

In 1969, the Atomic Energy Commission exploded an
underground nuclear bomb in western Colorado; today, the site of
Project Rulison is attracting natural gas drillers.

Also in this Issue: David Tenny of the
Department of Agriculture has used his discretionary powers to
alter the master plan for Colorado’s White River National
Forest, lessening its protections for water and wildlife.

Soul Searching environmentalists fear they’ve become
isolated and ineffective, but the story of Libby, Montana, and its
dying residents, shows that the movements missteps are only part of
the story.

A personal obsession leads the author into a world of
scientists, wildlife rehabilitators and eccentric artists who are
fascinated by the West’s road-killed wildlife.

Also in this issue: Some of the less-publicized
political appointments of George W. Bush’s second term will
have a huge effect on the West – particularly the people who
will direct the EPA, and the departments of Energy, Agriculture and
the Interior.

The study of tree rings opens a window into the
West’s distant past, and warns us that the region’s
future may be dangerously hot and dry. Also in
this issue: As the Colorado River Basin enters its sixth
year of drought, the seven states that rely on the river for water
are forced to work together on a new plan for water use.

Under increasing political pressure from the Bush
administration and its appointees, some agency scientists are
finding it difficult to keep both their jobs and their integrity.

Also in this issue: The omnibus
appropriations bill just passed by Congress contained more than a
few anti-environmental riders, but not all of them survived for the
president’s pen to sign.

HCN lays out the West’s 10 most critical issues and the
paths toward positive results on everything from energy development
and drought to federal agency practices and endangered species.

Also in this issue: A judge rules
against a plan to salvage-log old-growth forest from the Timbered
Rock Fire in Oregon, and some say the ruling could affect other
proposed fire sales in old-growth forests.

Rick Johnson of the Idaho Conservation League is working
with Republican Congressman Mike Simpson on a wilderness bill for
the Boulder and White Cloud mountains, but not everybody in “Planet
Idaho” is happy with the bill.

Also in this
issue: Many of the people who supported George Bush, a
president with an anti-environmental record, also voted for
environmental ballot measures and green-leaning
candidates.

A new generation of fire managers works with fire, rather than just fighting it. Also in this issue: Ski bums try to survive in Ketchum, Idaho; the Sierras get a conservancy, and a river gnaws away at a tribal reservation

Aspen, Colo., and other mountain resort towns burst with
wealthy baby boomers’ second, third and even fourth homes. But for
much of the year those houses sit empty, and the towns are turning
hollow

Also in this issue: The Bush
administration halts three gas wells on Montana’s Rocky
Mountain Front, and tosses a few more election-year bones to
environmentalists and hunters.

Stewart Udall and his brother, Mo, were conservation icons
in the 1950s and ‘60s, but their sons – Rep. Tom Udall
of New Mexico and Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado – face a harder
fight in today’s Congress, where Democrats are the minority
and conservation has become controversial.

Also in
this issue: The Bush administration’s new salmon
plan treats dams as a natural part of the landscape, and sees a
recovery plan as more important than actual species
recovery.

The battle over Northwestern old-growth forests is raging
again, but behind the scenes, some locals are trying to make
peace.

Also in this issue: In Wyoming,
Gov. Dave Freudenthal tries to put the brakes on the oil and gas
leasing rush, but the drilling frenzy continues across the
West.

Wamsutter, Wyo., is a boomtown these days, but the town is
struggling to be a real community, instead of just a barracks for
the natural gas industry.

Also in this
issue: In Colorado and elsewhere in the West, the fear of
West Nile Virus brings the controversy about spraying pesticides to
a boil.

In Sierra Vista, Ariz., a partnership of developers, environmentalists and government agencies is trying to keep the San Pedro River alive, while at the same time allowing for continued growth in this burgeoning Sunbelt city. Also in this issue, Assistant Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett wants Congress to give the Bureau of Land Management increased incentive to sell off more public lands.

For all the heroism of their achievement, Lewis and Clark
would not have survived long without the help of the many Indian
peoples they encountered in the West. The Bush
administration says governors have 18 months to ask the Forest
Service to protect roadless areas in their states, but the states
will have to pay for the costly and complex petition
process.