by Kevin Fagan
Pasted into that mountainous northeastern corner of forestland and high desert where California rubs both Nevada and Oregon, Modoc County is a proudly rugged backwater that defines what's left of the frontier way.
Locals describe it as: "Where the pavement ends, and the West begins." Not much room for hippies, beatniks and environmental city slickers here.
But that's just who the cowboys and small-town folks say will be invading come Thursday.
They're not happy about it.
A four-day "Common Ground" symposium begins that day in Modoc County's bucolic Surprise Valley, and it will present a panel of prestigious writers and scientists to discuss how to more wisely use the area's natural resources. To most ecologically minded city folks, the speakers that include Pulitzer Prize-winning Beat-era poet Gary Snyder and maverick Berkeley book publisher Malcolm Margolin would be positively exciting - as would the sessions such as "Honoring the Land and the People On It," and "Western Water Crisis."
Not to the muddy-booted, Stetson-wearing crowd, they're not.
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