The Magazine

The hardscrabble desert town of Carlsbad, N.M. –
already home to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant – is brushing
aside the fears of environmentalists and arms-control advocates in
its eagerness to host the Bush administration’s planned new
nuclear bomb factory.

Also in this
issue:Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, R, is President
Bush’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, and
some environmentalists fear he will prove little more than a
yes-man.

In Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin, a natural gas
boom is threatening pronghorn antelope and other wildlife, and some
Pinedale-area residents are beginning to fight
back.

Also in this issue: The West is
likely to be the loser under the new energy bill just passed by
Congress.

Nevada’s dirt-poor Lincoln County is rich in water,
but conservationists have reservations about Vidler Water
Company’s plans to market it, and the city of Las Vegas has
its own needs– and plans – for that
water.

Also in this issue: As drought
dries up the Rio Grande, New Mexico’s congressional
delegation goes after a court decision upholding the endangered
silvery minnow’s right to water.

Bishop, Calif., is a hot spot for the lively new sport of
bouldering, but some fear that the new generation of rock-climbers
is short on environmental ethics, treating nature as little more
than an outdoor climbing gym.

Also in this
issue:Even as wildfires blaze in Arizona and New Mexico,
and President Bush’s forest-thinning plan moves through
Congress, Western governors counsel moderation in logging and
suggest more research and collaboration.

Federal scientists are facing increasing pressure from
bureaucrats and politicians, and some are blowing the whistle on
what is happening in their agencies – among them biologist
Michael Kelly of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Also in this issue: Three Colorado towns have
won water rights for kayaking courses, making the state one of the
few that recognize in-stream water rights for recreation, and
worrying traditional water users.

A life-threatening stroke in Idaho’s Craters of the
Moon National Monument puts the author’s fight for wilderness
into perspective.

Also in this issue:
Frustrated by Utah’s anti-wilderness moves, the
national outdoor-equipment industry threatens to move its
twice-yearly giant Outdoor Retailer show out of Salt Lake
City.

Billions of dollars are being spent to fight Western
wildfires, but some scientists now believe that the big blowups
can’t be prevented, and that they may be good for the health
of the forests.

Also in this
issue:Environmentalists fear the Republican-sponsored
“Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003” – intended to
prevent wildfires – will prove anything but healthy for the
forests.

The native-seeds business is thriving, as more Westerners
realize the value of a restored and healthy rangeland, but the
current unfriendly political climate in Washington, D.C., may bring
an untimely frost.

Also in this
issue:The Clinton-era Sierra Nevada Framework is being
dismantled under the Bush administration, and California spotted
owls, denied protection as endangered species, may pay the
price.

Fueled by money from casino gambling, New Mexico’s
Indian pueblos and reservations are throwing their political weight
into the state’s water tug-of-war.

Also in
this issue:Starting in Utah, Interior Secretary Gale
Norton has slammed the door shut on new BLM wilderness proposals
and inventories and wilderness study areas.

Just as it seemed the local communities were starting to
accept the BLM’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument,
the rise of conservative national politics has helped to revive old
grudges and stir up opposition.

Also in this
issue: Conservationists say it’s too soon for the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare that wolves are no longer
endangered.

Predator control may have a small place in saving
endangered species, but it makes a lot more sense to bring back an
ecosystem’s keystone species – as can be seen in
Yellowstone, since wolves have returned.

Also in this issue:Fallon, Nev., is home to the
fastest-growing cancer cluster in U.S. history, and some
researchers suspect that the seemingly harmless metal tungsten may
be to blame.

On the coast of British Columbia, tribes, fishermen and
environmentalists are fighting the spread of Atlantic salmon farms,
which they fear could have catastrophic effects on already
endangered native salmon runs.

Also
in this issue: Westerners are becoming more concerned
about incidents of cruelty to wildlife, but laws against such acts
remain inconsistent in the region.

As the Wilderness Act nears its 40th birthday, it takes a
new kind of wheeling and dealing to protect wild lands, and
there’s no better place to see the new face of the movement
than Las Vegas, Nev.

Also in this
issue: The Border Patrol wants to erect 249 miles of
fences along the Arizona-Mexico border, and some environmentalists
are worried about their impact on desert wildlife.

Wyoming’s new governor, Democrat Dave Freudenthal,
may have a chance to turn the stagnant state around economically
and environmentally, by reducing its dependence on energy and
mineral industries.

Also in this
issue: Some residents of Los Lunas, N.M., say the planned
expansion of the wastewater treatment plant is designed to benefit
the mayor, who wants to build a subdivision.

The disappearance of the Rocky Mountain locust — which
once swarmed the Plains like a biblical plague, only to die out
entirely within decades — holds serious lessons for humanity.


Also in this issue: The
Bush administration rolls back a Clinton-era moratorium on RS 2477,
a controversial old statute that some Western counties have used to
claim designated roads in wilderness areas, parks and
monuments.

For over 30 years, the Northern Cheyenne have stood firm
against energy development and its environmental impacts, but now,
faced with crushing poverty, some are starting to think about
developing the reservation’s coal and methane resources.

Also in this issue: At
midnight on New Year’s Eve, Interior Secretary Gale Norton
astonished California by it cutting off from the “surplus” Colorado
River water it has long been using, after the state failed to come
up with promised water transfers.

Twenty years after its longtime mainstay, the Climax
Molybdenum Mine, closed, Leadville, Colo., is still groping for a
secure economy and a new identity.

Also in this issue: The Forest Service has
announced a major overhaul of the forest planning process that some
fear may cut out both environmental oversight and public
involvement, and lead to even more legal gridlock.

Eureka, Utah, unearths a toxic legacy just as its only hope for rescue, the federal Superfund cleanup program, blows away. Also in this issue: Thousands of park and forest jobs could go to
private contractors.

As Oregon cities hit their urban growth boundaries, some
say it’s time to look at the 30-year old rules that govern
development.

Also in this
issue: Congress may have turned to the right, but enviros
claim victory at the state level.

The “Real West” at the touch of an access code? A look
into the fortified rural retreats of the West’s moneyed
elite.

Also in this issue:
Hanford bomb factory’s hard-to-reach radioactive dregs might stay
where they are.