The Magazine

On a 10-day walk through the northwestern New Mexico
desert, the author follows an ancient road that leads him from
silent Indian ruins into noisy, modern gas fields.

Also in this issue: Land managers have been
talking about letting more wildfires burn, but the recent blowup of
the Peppin Fire near Capitan, N.M. – home of Smokey Bear
– leads to renewed talk of aggressive fire suppression.

Wal-Mart wants to build more giant Supercenter stores in
the West, but communities like Inglewood, Calif., are starting to
take a stand against the world’s largest company.

Also in this issue: Even the National Rifle
Association came out in support of a Tucson, Ariz., open-space
saving bond, which passed in a landslide despite complaints from
critics that it was just pork.

Some activists hope that the current hard times facing
both workers and the environment will resurrect the strong
alliances that once existed between greens and labor unions.

Also in this issue: NOAA Fisheries is
drafting new regulations that will allow hatchery-raised fish to be
counted along with wild salmon and steelhead, a move that
property-rights lawyers hope will take the species off the
endangered list.

The West’s environmentalist lawyers are manning the
legal barricades, as the Bush administration stealthily attacks the
nation’s bedrock environmental laws.
Also
in this issue: Arizona activists team up with Rep. Raul
Grijalva to create a small-scale wilderness proposal for the
Tumacacori Highlands.

The Bush administration is outsourcing to private
contractors jobs formerly done by employees of federal agencies,
among them the job of the Forest Service Content Analysis Teams
(CATs) – the people who receive and report the comments of
the public. The team was sacked, many say to the detriment of the
public connection, and with increased cost to taxpayers.

Also in this issue: Controversial energy bill,
to increase domestic oil and gas drilling and force federal
agencies to expedite permits for energy projects on public lands,
came back yet again, but was defeated in the Senate,
50-47.

With the Interior West almost exclusively Republican
territory, “Democrats for the West,” a coalition of leaders, have
issued a challenge to fellow Democrats to create sustainable
Democratic majorities.

Also in this
issue: While mountain lions receive bad press for what
some say is increasing aggression against humans, experts say that
humans may be the real problem. Lion killing in most Western states
is increasing, and biologists say no state has ever had a sound
population estimate for the animals. Without sound data, politics
often plays into determining hunting quotas.

As private lands become the new frontier in the
West’s wild real estate frenzy, ranchers are turning to land
trusts in places like Gunnison, Colo., to find out how to hold on
to their land and keep it open and undeveloped.

Also in this issue: California decides
to set its own new “public health goal” for perchlorate
contamination, but critics point out that it is both legally
unenforceable and lower than the previous goal.

In Arizona, a historic water deal could give the tiny,
impoverished Gila River Indian Community a path back to its farming
roots – and turn it into one of the West’s next big
power brokers.

Also in this issue:
Western ranchers rejoice when a federal court jury finds that the
nation’s largest meatpacker, Tyson/IBP, has illegally
squeezed $1.28 billion from independent cattle producers.

Wyoming’s Green Mountain Common Allotment is one of
the West’s last big, wide-open landscapes – but these
days, ranchers, environmentalists, history buffs and the BLM are
arguing over whether it’s time to start putting up fences.

Also in this issue: Nearly a decade
after Imperial Valley irrigators fought off a water grab by Texans
Ed and Lee Bass, the Imperial Valley Irrigation District buys the
old Bass property, Western Farms, and the water rights that come
with it.

A right-wing coup is under way in the nation’s
courts, which George W. Bush is stacking with anti-environmental
judges, and the impacts on Western conservation issues are not
going to be pretty.

Also in this issue:
National Park Service wilderness coordinator Jim Walters
resigns in frustration over the agency’s neglect of
wilderness, after the superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon
National Parks allows helicopters in wilderness areas.

Port Orford, Ore., is working hard to create a new kind of
community-based, sustainable fisheries management for the
over-fished ocean.

Also in this issue:
Environmentalists and immigration activists have a few doubts about
President Bush’s proposed immigration reform
policy.

The Bush administration opens up wild lands to oil and gas
drilling, pulling the rug out from under two decades of citizen
wilderness activism.

Also in this issue:
Judge Emmet Sullivan reinstates a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in
Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Mormons are often stereotyped as conservative
anti-environmentalists, but Utah activists Richard Ingebretsen and
Chris Peterson of the Glen Canyon Institute want to convince fellow
believers that it’s OK to be green.

Also in
this issue: The proposed salvage logging of the Biscuit
Fire area in Oregon’s Siskiyou Forest is one of the largest
timber sales in history, and critics say it’s not only
ecologically dangerous, but undermines the Roadless Rule.

A homegrown consensus effort called the Owyhee Initiative
is trying to save both wilderness and ranching in southwestern
Idaho – but in the polarized Bush era, consensus is often
controversial.

Also in this issue:
Federal wildlife managers admit that the massive fish
kill in the Klamath River in 2002 was caused, in part, by the
diversion of water to farmers.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is booming, revitalized by
a new era of weapons development – but the state of New
Mexico wants the lab to clean up its old Cold War-era messes before
it starts making new ones.

Also in this issue:
A 10-year-old plan to build a controversial expressway
through Petroglyph National Monument hits a “stop” sign, when
Albuquerque voters refuse to pay for it.

San Diego, Calif., adopted its groundbreaking Multiple
Species Conservation Program to protect wildlife habitat while
allowing for continued community growth – but critics say
endangered wildlife is the loser in the deal.

Also in this issue: Critics say
it’s not a coincidence that the Bush administration announces
bad environmental news – like the recent rollback of
mine-tailings limits – late on Friday afternoons, when media
coverage is sparse.

The West might still be the nation’s outdoor
playground, but the Western companies that make outdoor recreation
gear are finding greener pastures overseas.

Also
in this issue: A landmark California water deal has
Imperial Valley irrigators finally agreeing to sell Colorado River
water to San Diego, without sacrificing the Salton Sea.

The West’s big newspapers fall short when it comes
to covering today’s most important issues: the “big story”
about the environment, and the impacts on the region of growth and
development.

Also in this issue:Lea
County, N.M., is courting Louisiana Energy Services, a company that
wants to build a uranium-enrichment facility to create fuel for
nuclear power plants.

The pesticides used in orchards and farm fields in places
like eastern Washington endanger the health – and even the
lives – of immigrant farm workers.

Also in
this issue: While Congress debates whether Utah Gov. Mike
Leavitt should take over the Environmental Protection Agency, the
agency itself plows ahead in an anti-environmental
direction.

Radio shock jock John Stokes wants to scare
environmentalists away from Montana’s Flathead County, but
his bullying tactics have led instead to increased unity among his
opponents and quiet conservation progress.

Also
in this issue:The Earth Liberation Front takes credit for
vandalizing Hummers and SUVs at Southern California car
dealerships, and an SUV-owners’ group says environmentalists
are to blame.