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“If the mine doesn’t go through, it would devastate us,” says Janet Oldham, who owns the landmark Flying M Restaurant and is the mayor of Panguitch, a town that capitalizes on its proximity to Bryce and other tourist spots but needs jobs a mine could bring. When Alton Coal starts digging and hauling coal in Southern Utah, it will either bring jobs to people who need them or ammunition for the environmentalists against it. Or, possibly, both.

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FEATURED PHOTO FROM NEW WEST IMAGES

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Hidden Lake, by Bill McDavid.  The natural beauty found in Glacier National Park, Montana can only be partially captured through the lens. No matter how great the image justice will never be served by reducing such magnificence to pixels on a screen.

Click here to vote for Bill’s photo in the National Geographic ‘World in Focus’ photo contest!

See more photos on the New West Images photoblog.

THE NEW WEST BLOG

Story of the American Bison Set for World Premiere

Sustenance, exploitation, conservation, and spiritual relations: The film portrays bison as the ultimate icon of wild America.

“Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison,” a documentary by Missoula-based High Plains Films and co-produced with Independent Television Service and Montana PBS, will premier at the Kansas International Film Festival next month. Showings will be scheduled in the West and it will eventually air on local PBS stations.

The film’s a major undertaking. It tells the epic story of human relations with the largest land mammal on the continent: its dominance, its loss and the subsequent quest to protect those that remain.

It recounts the near-destruction of the species in the late 19th century--from an estimated 30 million bison to a mere 23 individuals by 1885. It graphically exposes the annual slaughter of bison outside of Yellowstone National Park, where the largest genetically-pure herd remains in semi-captivity. Finally, the film explores the vision--and monumental obstacles--to restore bison to immense tracts of the Great Plains. This involves a dramatic transformation of how we understand the Great Plains, from a utilitarian world view to a fully-functional ecosystem that combines a lost culture with modern ecological science and contemporary economies, and includes the full range of original species that have been largely vanquished from the region. 

COMMUNITY BLOGGERS

A Hike in the Woods Can Be Torture

This is just one of the friendly forest creatures you'll encounter on your carefree walk in the wilderness.

It’s summer in Montana (as it seems to be in most of the U.S.), so we go outside. I spend the winter huddled in front of the TV, watching NFL and Jeopardy. Then when the snow melts I take all that bottled up aggression and trivial knowledge into the Great Outdoors and get right with Old Man Mother Nature.

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