Western Book Roundup
Idaho Bookstore Owner Dies in Car Accident
This week brought some sad news for the Idaho book community: Sun Valley Online reports that Gary Hunt, the owner of Iconoclast Books in Ketchum and the Sun Valley Mall, was killed in a car accident Saturday morning. Sun Valley Online established the blog Gary Hunt Remembrances for people to leave their messages about the man whom they describe as "a kind soul and passionate family and business man."
Also in the Roundup: Oregon native Benjamin Percy makes the long list for the Frank O'Connor Prize, Idaho's Brandon R. Schrand receives several honors, Deanne Stillman interviews Larry McMurtry, and Las Comadres launch a Latino book club to meet in Utah and New Mexico, among other states
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LET'S GET OUR WORDS STRAIGHT
Wilderness is Multiple Use
Have you ever heard somebody say they prefer "multiple use" over Wilderness? I have what seems like a thousand times, and every time I hear it, I say to myself, wrong!
So, it seems like a good time to say it out loud because the words, "multiple use" have been lost in the Wilderness.
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CLASS ACTION SUITS TO BE FILED TUESDAY IN ARIZONA, COLORADO
Public Land Owners Taking RAT, Forest Service to Civil Court
Enough is enough, say the owners of our national forests. And they may have finally found a way to spike the Recreation Access Tax or RAT.
After years of working through cumbersome administrative channels and several rounds in criminal court, people interested in reasonable and free access to their public land have dragged the Forest Service (FS) into civil court. In addition to asking for injunctions against collecting "illegal" fees while the case is being litigated and if successful the fee program terminated, the plaintiffs in the class action complaints--to be filed tomorrow morning in Arizona and Colorado--want all fee collection signs removed and all fees collected through the years under the program returned to the people who shouldn't have had to pay them.
Suffice to say, it's panic time in the FS offices back in Washington, D.C.
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2008 COMMENTS WORTH REPEATING III
The Wilderness Drought and How the Green Group Feud Keeps it Alive
Over the past two years, I've been periodically posting selections of my favorite comments from readers of my columns and articles. I plan to continue doing this, but differently. Instead of listing comments chronologically, I've edited them into general subject areas. In this case, here are a few insightful comments that came in over the past few months on several articles on the wilderness drought and the green group feud that keeps it alive and if not endless. Enjoy.
Editor's Note: For a complete list of Comments Worth Repeating, click here.
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A TECTONIC FIX LONG OVERDUE
Merge, Remake the Forest Service
Last month, the General Accountability Office (GA0) announced it was studying a plan to take the Forest Service out of the Department of Agriculture and merge it into the Department of the Interior. Predictably, this news was met with a chorus of yawns because we've heard many grandiose plans for reorganizing federal land-managing agencies. In every case, after significant wasted staff time and much stress for employees, nothing happens.
But this one wasn't a yawner for me because something like this really needs to happen. This time, let's get serious and seize this opportunity to remake the Forest Service (FS), an agency lost in the today's political landscape.
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SO SAYS THE MAN WHO MADE IT HAPPEN
Wolf Recovery Turned Out as Planned
Some NewWest.Net readers might be a bit "overwolfed," but I thought the views of the man who probably did more to return the Big Dog to the Rocky Mountain West than any other person on Earth could be interesting.
And surprisingly, to me at least, he thinks it all turned out about how he expected.
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IS THIS SO MUCH TO ASK?
More Fly-Fishing-Only Rivers, Please
Before all the non-flycasters get excited about the headline, I should say that I like all kinds of fishing, not just fly fishing, a problem that has made my life a constant struggle against poverty. In fact, I have more spinning and baitcasing rods than fly rods, and probably use them more, too.
Nonetheless, today, I'm feeling sorry for those anglers who only use fly rods. I think fisheries managers should throw them a bone by designating a few stretches of a few rivers as fly-fishing-only--especially a few rivers with steelhead in them.
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Western Book Roundup
National Poetry Month Across the Region
In 1996, the Academy of American Poets declared April to be National Poetry Month, and no one seems inclined to argue with them. Poets and poetry-lovers across the country continue to get in the spirit of things with readings and events, and our region is no exception. Check out the national poetry map on Poets.org, which fills users in on everything you'd want to know about poetry in your state, including "Poetic History," "Favorite Poems," poems about the state, readings, workshops, and more. Read on for a sampling of the many poetry-related events across the region this month. [more]
DON'T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LEGAL LOOPHOLE
A Message to Wolf Haters: Fight Trigger Itch
Here's something you probably never heard a western rancher say: "Government is a wonderful thing."
But that might be precisely what they're saying down in the coffee shops and saloons in Idaho and Wyoming because they could be thinking the federal government has accidentally given them the opportunity to shoot as many wolves as they can for the next 30 days with no consequences.
To this, I say: Don't even think about it.
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New West Book Review
No Country for Old Women: “New Stories from the Southwest”
New Stories from the Southwest
Ed. D. Seth Horton
Swallow Press, 285 pages, $16.95
Swallow Press recently published the first edition of New Stories from the Southwest. This collection, which editor D. Seth Horton drew from stories that appeared in hundreds of literary magazines in 2007, is diverse and diverting, including a variety of writing styles, taking place in Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas and the southern parts of Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and California. The thirsty, dusty landscape is a common feature, and some familiar Southwest icons turn up. It may be just a coincidence unrelated to the southwest setting of these stories, but many of them feature ailing or dead mothers, wives, and grandmothers.
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