Stewart Udall died last week. He loved the West and had a greater influence on the protection and enjoyment of its wild places than any person since President Teddy Roosevelt.

Udall traveled every western state, enjoyed our people, places, our political and environmental leaders. I had the great fortune...

Whenever I hear a pundit or politician West spouting about the need to transfer power from the federal government to the states, I think back to my college days at the University of Montana.

The campus is bordered on its northwest by the Clark Fork River which, in the...