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High Country News

High Country News

A nonprofit independent magazine of unblinking journalism that shines a light on all of the complexities of the West.

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HCN has covered the lands, wildlife and communities of the Western U.S. for more than 50 years. Get to know the West better by signing up to receive HCN’s on-the-ground reporting and investigations in your inbox.

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Infographic

California Proposition 4 will continue to help fund projects related to climate change, including beach restoration projects like this one in San Clemente.
Posted inFebruary 2025: Immigrant Stories

The climate fight endures

by Jonathan Thompson February 1, 2025January 31, 2025

Despite a hostile administration, local governments in the West recognize the need to
continue the energy transition, and they have plans.

Posted inArticles

Montana’s ag tax slashes bills for thousands of million-dollar homes

by Nick Bowlin and Eric Dietrich January 6, 2025January 6, 2025

Properties classified ‘agricultural’ get a tax break despite no bona fide operations. Can lawmakers’ new proposals tighten qualifications?

Voters fill in ballots on Election Day 2024 on the campus of the University of California Santa Barbara.
Posted inJanuary 2025: The West's Most Wanted

Who voted in the 2024 election?

by Erin X. Wong January 1, 2025December 31, 2024

Many Democrats stayed home, while independents swung to the right.

People wading in Lake Manly at Badwater Basin after a wet winter, Death Valley National Park, California.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations

2024 was a year of wacky Western weather

by Jonathan Thompson December 1, 2024December 2, 2024

When assessing the region, not much was normal but climate change.

Powerlines stretch over a Southern California neighborhood.
Posted inNovember 2024: The Once and Future Prairie

How the climate is changing your energy bill 

by Erin X. Wong November 1, 2024December 4, 2024

Wildfires and winter storms are costing utilities and families.

An unhoused woman pushes her belongings down the street in Scottsdale, Arizona. An Arizona initiative could force local governments to crack down on unhoused people or risk losing property tax revenue.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote

The downballot issues driving the West’s 2024 elections

by Jonathan Thompson October 1, 2024September 30, 2024

From climate and public lands to shifting political allegiances, the region faces critical choices at the ballot box.

The living roof of the H2 Hotel in Healdsburg, California, both cools the building and mitigates rainwater runoff.
Posted inSeptember 2024: When Migrants Go Missing

What happens when a concrete jungle becomes a ‘sponge city’

by Jonathan Thompson September 1, 2024August 30, 2024

Engineering for flood resilience can address storms heightened by climate change.

Posted inSeptember 2024: When Migrants Go Missing

Get to know the western bumblebee

by Sarah Trent September 1, 2024August 30, 2024

Bombus occidentalis may soon be the West’s new face for insect conservation.

Dusk in Phoenix during July 2023, when the city saw 20 straight days of extreme heat.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods

The inequity of heat

by Jonathan Thompson August 1, 2024August 1, 2024

Extreme heat doesn’t discriminate; the ability to escape it does.

The Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana, filled with acidic, heavy metal-laden water after the mine closed in the 1980s. It’s now a Superfund site.
Posted inJuly 2024

Abandoned mines cover the West

by Jonathan Thompson July 1, 2024July 15, 2024

Their legacy is destruction and pollution of lands and waters.

Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness

Water inequality on the Colorado River

by Jonathan Thompson June 1, 2024June 14, 2024

A new accounting reveals deep disparities in Western water consumption.

Posted inMay 2024: A River Returns

The West remains cattle country

by Jonathan Thompson May 1, 2024June 14, 2024

Livestock has indelibly altered the region’s land, water and air.

The Palen solar site on BLM land in Riverside County, California.
Posted inApril 2024: Epic Journeys

The great solar build-out

by Erin X. Wong April 1, 2024April 3, 2024

Public-land managers ponder where to allow utility-scale solar projects

Posted inApril 2024: Epic Journeys

What’s going on with natural gas exports?

by Jonathan Thompson April 1, 2024April 1, 2024

The U.S. is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, but President Biden just paused new permits.

Posted inArticles

Disaster disparities in the West

by Natalia Mesa March 4, 2024March 1, 2024

The risk of climate catastrophe is complex, but people of color often face ‘unnatural hazards.’

Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground

The West’s hazardous highways

by Jonathan Thompson March 1, 2024September 16, 2024

America’s car culture kills people
and wrecks communities.

Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024

12 not-so-easy steps to decarbonize the grid

by Jonathan Thompson January 1, 2024February 6, 2024

Electrifying will make a difference if that power comes from clean sources.

Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023

The Endangered Species Act by the numbers

by Jonathan Thompson December 1, 2023May 8, 2024

Half a century of wins and losses.

Posted inOctober 2, 2023: The Dark Side of the Sheepherding Industry

New legislation is creating a clean-energy project pulse

by Jonathan Thompson October 2, 2023January 24, 2024

Will the manufacturing renaissance finally displace fossil fuels?

Posted inSeptember 1, 2023: Food Justice

Who owns the West?

by Jonathan Thompson August 29, 2023May 8, 2024

Increasingly, land is shifting into the hands of billionaires.

Posts pagination

1 2 3 … 17 Older posts

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