These are challenging times for everybody who cares about the West, but High Country News sees reasons for hope in the region’s inspiring inhabitants — people like Papay Solomon, an Arizona artist whose breathtaking portraits celebrate his fellow African immigrants, and Alexander Lemons, a veteran who helped heal the trauma of his past through his work in habitat restoration. Researchers tackle new strategies to save the imperiled black abalone, and Western governments continue the energy transition despite President Trump’s opposition. Department of Energy grants help Utah prepare for coal power plant closures, while Western volunteers acquire firsthand experience in lighting and controlling prescribed fire. Indigenous immigrants are especially threatened by the Trump administration’s policies, and unhoused pedestrians are disproportionately likely to be killed on California’s highways. Elsewhere, an Alaska Native adapts to life in the city, and a poet confronts wildfire in her latest collection.

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In our first issue of 2025, instead of taking you down a rabbit hole, we hung out at a prairie dog burrow, where researchers are learning about how this underappreciated species helps sustain an entire ecosystem. In Nevada, what seemed like a good idea went up in smoke after a few non-Native investors tried to start a cannabis farm on Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone territory. Tribes in the West face a multitude of challenges, judging by Project 2025 and the plans of the incoming Trump administration. How, exactly, did voting patterns in the West break down last November? Wind energy workers organize to keep each other safe in a perilous industry, and trained resource advisors help protect parks and cultural sites from wildfires. After years of negotiating, the Northern Arapaho Tribe rejoiced when over 200 priceless cultural items were returned to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. A writer welcomes a new year with something better than resolutions.

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In HCN’s December issue, people, animals and the land itself struggle to reclaim and restore their territory. A Black family is denied access to their own property in California, raising questions about the role of land in reparations, while a New Mexico writer works to restore a forest after a devastating wildfire. The Navajo Nation fights border-town bigotry in Farmington, New Mexico, and in Denver, Colorado, immigrants launch a new rideshare co-op. Salmon reclaim waterways above the former site of the Klamath River dams, while scientists expand their knowledge of the Pacific brant, North America’s favorite goose. What do pension funds have to do with Oregon clear-cuts? Climate change is bringing extremely weird weather to the Western U.S. Exponent II, a magazine for Mormon feminists, celebrates 50 years of stirring the pot. Rez Ball is a breakthrough in basketball movies: a family-friendly Indigenous movie, made by Indigenous people. Finally, how a little-known painter of gay erotica helped blue jeans become sexy.

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This month, we explore the wheat-growing country of eastern Washington, where locals are working to restore the once-flourishing grasslands of the Palouse Prairie. We also visit an Alaska Native community on the Yukon River whose residents are determined to preserve their cultural traditions despite a seven-year ban on fishing for chinook. In Arizona, the Apache trout is recovering, largely due to the tireless efforts of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. Skagit County, Washington, is divided over how much agritourism is too much. Can New Mexico’s riverside bosque survive rising temperatures and drought? Wildfire survivors in California find healing by spending time among trees. Climate change, with its intensifying heat waves, winter storms and wildfires, is bound to start affecting electric bills. People in Carnation, Washington, are worried about the nearby Tolt Dam’s early warning system. Today’s quinceañeras are not your grandmother’s 15th birthday celebrations. Pam Houston tackles abortion in a new book, and a formerly rural Alaska Native searches for blueberries in the city.

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This month, we look at the upcoming elections from a Western viewpoint. Some Latino organizers in Washington are working on behalf of local elections, while others pursue the swing vote in Arizona and Nevada. Why are some Indigenous voters uncomfortable with the idea of voting, and with being U.S. citizens? A wide variety of downballot issues confront Westerners this year. Ten years after the notorious standoff at Bunkerville, Nevada, Cliven Bundy’s false notion of “white oppression” has become part of the political mainstream. Butte, Montana’s water supply, like that of many mountain communities, is threatened by wildfires. Nationwide, 2 million acres of state-owned “trust lands” lie inside reservation boundaries, leaving tribal members unable to access their own lands. Black Northwesterners cherish the memory of award-winning poet Colleen McElroy. The daughter of immigrants struggles to explain the idea of “invasive species” to her children, and complex ethical issues arise when an Indigenous journalist tries to write about sacred sites for non-Native readers.

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Both of September’s feature stories take us deep into the desert. The Border Patrol has an inherent conflict of interest: chasing and deporting undocumented migrants while rescuing those who get lost or injured trying to elude its agents. Artist Michael Heizer sees Nevada’s rugged desert as an empty canvas for his massive projects rather than a natural landscape and the home of Indigenous people. Portland, Oregon’s industrial hub is at serious risk from earthquakes. Venezuelan immigrants turn to social media to combat vicious stereotypes. HCN interviews Indigenous leaders about the Interior Department’s overdue acknowledgement of the damage caused by the Columbia River’s dams. How can California’s cities protect themselves from climate change-caused flooding? Scientists are studying how wildlife adapted when a landslide closed the road through Alaska’s Denali National Park. We take a close-up, colorful look at the essential but imperiled western bumblebee. Butterflies have lessons to teach about queer survival, and an iconic Western chain store goes out of business.

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Extreme weather, exacerbated by human-caused climate change, is a fact of life in the West today. This month, we look at how two Latino farm families fought to recover physically, economically and emotionally after record-breaking storms hit California in 2023. In Washington, the Yakama people are determined to restore ancestral lands polluted by nuclear weapons production at the Hanford Site. How do birds cope with wildfire smoke? Low-income, marginalized and unhoused urban residents are uniquely vulnerable to extreme heat. Eagle Mountain, Utah, tries to reconcile rapid development with wildlife migration, and the West says goodbye to a legendary mule deer. Is there enough water in the arid West to satisfy the microchip industry’s thirst? New Mexico takes a surprising lead in early childhood education. The remarkable Native leader who fought colonization and gave his name to the Little Shell Chippewa people is remembered. How do we find the right words to discuss climate change? Romance novels are for Indigenous readers, too, and blueberry-picking is an Alaska family tradition.

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This month, HCN goes bird-watching, checking up on the health of two fascinating birds. Can the Wilson’s phalarope help save Utah’s Great Salt Lake? And will the long-billed curlew find refuge on New Mexico’s ranchlands? In Idaho, the Nez Perce turn to solar power to replace hydroelectric dams and help salmon recover. The Yakama Nation supports renewable energy, but not if it’s going to destroy the tribe’s sacred sites. Who should pay when utilities are responsible for wildfire damage? Pollution is easy to create but hard to get rid of: Thousands of abandoned mines are contaminating Western rivers, and Canadian mine waste is flowing downriver into Montana and Idaho. Louis Carlos Bernal, the father of Chicano art photography, lives on through his work. California artists celebrate the beauty of the Pacific’s endangered kelp forests, while the short film Mirasol: Looking at the Sun examines how water scarcity is affecting a small Colorado farming community. In Wyoming, Nina McConigley discovers what a difference a good dog makes.

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As New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness Area — the nation’s first designated wilderness — turns 100, HCN considers how the nature — and concept — of wilderness have changed over the years. Political conflict, violence and bigotry have deep roots in the Western U.S., as the history of Centralia, Washington, reveals. A group of unhoused Californians […]

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The West is always in motion, a place of constant change and contradiction. Condos rise as dams fall: Latino immigrants journey thousands of miles to build houses for millionaires in Montana, while Northwest tribes take the lead on restoration as dams come down and the Klamath River is reborn. Throughout the West, some groups try […]

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