People brace for impacts on land, water and wildlife after feds fire thousands over holiday weekend
Career employees told HCN they were unsettled by the termination email sent by HR, which cited ‘performance issues.’
Urban wildfires shouldn’t surprise us
Southern California is jolted into a new reality.
Los incendios urbanos no deberían sorprendernos
El sur de California se ve sacudido a una nueva realidad.
Days before Trump took office, Interior approved oil and gas leases for land bought during 2019 public auction
Company can begin to issue plans for drilling near Chaco Canyon buffer zone on Navajo Nation allotment.
The Indian education of Charles Sams
How the first Native director of the National Park Service drew from a legacy of federal boarding schools and Indigenous teachings.
The possibilities of climate grief
A journey through the heart of despair to find what’s on the other side.
These states use stolen Indigenous land to fund prisons
State trust lands generate millions of dollars for carceral facilities and programs every year, largely from extractive industries like oil and gas drilling.
Reenvisioning the image of immigration
Artist and refugee Papay Solomon juxtaposes European painting with African ancestry.
A veteran transforms a legacy of violence into a campaign for restoration
How a former Marine found a road to repair.
The climate fight endures
Despite a hostile administration, local governments in the West recognize the need to continue the energy transition, and they have plans.
Bringing black abalone back from the brink
To save the species, researchers translocated the endangered California mollusk.
The power of prescribed fire
A wildfire journalist steps behind the drip torch.
How do we raise our children in a time of wildfire?
The poet Rachel Richardson learns, through writing and motherhood, to defy fear.
A writer finds freedom in being unapologetically Indigenous
On strengthening roots in a new place.
Most Popular Stories
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- WHAT WE CAN ACHIEVE TOGETHER Based in Phoenix, AZ, the Associate Director of Development (ADoD) for Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) works closely with the State Director, Director of Development, development team and program leaders to plan, implement, and coordinate […]
In This Issue
February 2025: Immigrant Stories
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…
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Water
EPA takes unprecedented step to remove uranium waste from the Navajo Nation
Wildfires are too much for municipal water systems. In Los Angeles, firefighters tried anyway.
The Biden administration weighs in on Colorado River management
Wildlife
Orcas à la mode, totally tubular sea pickles and bloodthirsty squirrels
The importance of ‘Being Caribou’
We must protect our sacred lands
Public Lands
AI on public lands and Biden’s environmental legacy
Trump’s nominee for leading Interior attempted to rip up rules governing public lands
The EXPLORE Act is a blueprint for bipartisan conservation legislation
Indigenous Affairs
‘This is about power’: Indigenous immigrants face a second Trump administration
‘Esto se trata de poder’: Los inmigrantes indígenas se enfrentan a una segunda administración de Trump
Tribal objects returned to the Northern Arapaho Tribe
Communities
Many renters are struggling after fleeing LA County wildfires
What happens after Utah’s coal-fired power plants close?
With so many displaced by fires, Los Angeles County can’t accurately measure homelessness
Books
Who’s against wind development in ‘The Crazies’?
Culture that impacted our sense of the West
The radical act of sharing Native literature
In the News
The Forest Service is cutting its seasonal workforce and public lands will suffer
Temporary employees warn that important work will go undone all over the country.