State trust lands generate millions of dollars for carceral facilities and programs every year, largely from extractive industries like oil and gas drilling.
Agriculture
Posted inArticles
How luxury real estate benefits from Montana’s agricultural tax code
Key takeaways from our investigation revealing how expensive properties use a system meant to help farmers and ranchers.
Posted inArticles
Montana’s ag tax slashes bills for thousands of million-dollar homes
Properties classified ‘agricultural’ get a tax break despite no bona fide operations. Can lawmakers’ new proposals tighten qualifications?
Posted inJanuary 2025: The West's Most Wanted
Why the West needs prairie dogs
They’re among the region’s most despised species, but some tribes, researchers and landowners are racing to save them.
Posted inJanuary 2025: The West's Most Wanted
Legal weed entrepreneurs promised a windfall from tribal lands. Then it fell apart.
The Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone are still picking up the pieces from the failed cannabis cultivation venture.
Posted inNovember 2024: The Once and Future Prairie
Your lawn could host an endangered ecosystem
In the effort to restore the Palouse Prairie, no project is too small.
Posted inNovember 2024: The Once and Future Prairie
Is a farm that hosts weddings still a farm?
Agritourism divides a rural Washington county.
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Denver’s last slaughterhouse is on the ballot
Voters face a complicated choice between jobs, workers’ rights and animal welfare.
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Migrating birds find refuge in pop-up habitats
A program that pays rice farmers to create wetland habitats is a rare conservation win.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
What the Bundy Bunkerville standoff foreshadowed
Ten years after the impasse between the Bundy family and the BLM, the doctrine of white oppression is widely embraced.
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A mixed report for Colorado’s wolves
Nine months after reintroduction, 13 wolves now reside in the state – with more to be released in 2025.
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The California Forever debate moves underground
A billionaire-backed company will continue sowing support, while residents weigh their options.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
States own lands on reservations. To use them, tribes must pay.
How schools, hospitals, prisons and other institutions in 15 states profit from land and resources on 79 tribal nations.
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5 takeaways from our investigation into state trust lands on reservations
An investigation by High Country News and Grist reveals how public institutions benefit from extractive industries on Indian reservations.
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How carbon removal can help curb wildfires and build houses
Local governments in the Four Corners back homegrown carbon-removal projects.
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Banning concentrated feedlots is on the ballot in Sonoma
Locals worry what this could mean for a region dominated by agritourism.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
After historic floods, the safety net failed small farmers
Climate disasters are killing the largest subset of California farms. Government programs are too.
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When the dams come down, what happens to barge traffic?
Farmers and transportation experts are figuring out how to transport goods if the lower Snake River dams are removed.
Posted inArticles
When the end of the road brings a new beginning
Two accomplished new novels by Joe Wilkins and Willy Vlautin feature weathered protagonists called back from the brink.