How the West Won–Nature and Cities, Side by Side

A wounded piece of land can be made whole, if managed for the future by people whose capacity for wonder is limitless.

LAKEVIEW, Mont. — Just a teardrop down from the Continental Divide, in one of the most remote hideaways in the United States, is a place that should be called Hope. At 6,700 feet above sea level, Centennial Valley is high, mostly dry, and slack-jaw beautiful. The fact that there are more trumpeter swans here than people is a story that tells much about why the American West has never been more vibrant.

The big story of the West today is how the urban and the wild have produced a unique lifestyle — a new-century ecosystem. Each depends on the other.

Timothy Egan

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/opinion/timothy-egan-new-west-renaissance.html?_r=1