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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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Features

Cholos, Logan Heights, San Diego, 1980.
Posted inJuly 2024

The father of Chicano art photography

by Elizabeth Ferrer July 1, 2024July 1, 2024

Louis Carlos Bernal saw his role
as creating art of and for the people.

Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness

As the Gila Wilderness turns 100, the Wilderness Act is still a living law

by Marissa Ortega-Welch June 1, 2024June 2, 2024

Wilderness areas are changing in profound ways — and so are our ideas about them.

Kyle Wheeler at Dancing Swallows Big Gay Bird Sanctuary and Memorial Pond in Chehalis, Washington.
Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness

Hate groups in western Washington echo the past

by Leah Sottile June 1, 2024June 17, 2024

The bigotry displayed when white supremacists disrupted a Pride celebration in Centralia repeats a pattern that dates back to 1919.

A view over Iron Gate Dam outside of Hornbrook, California, in February. The reservoir’s water level has continued to fall since drawdown began in January.
Posted inMay 2024: A River Returns

Undamming the Klamath

by Nika Bartoo-Smith May 2, 2024October 4, 2024

Tribal nations are restoring the river while reclaiming and revitalizing their cultural heritage.

New homes in Bozeman's Valley West.
Posted inMay 2024: A River Returns

Bozeman’s boom depends on immigrants but struggles to support them

by Nick Bowlin May 1, 2024May 6, 2024

One of the nation’s fastest-growing cities relies on a vulnerable population of workers to fuel its economic explosion.

Posted inMay 2024: A River Returns

How attacks on energy substations play into the hands of extremists

by Jane C. Hu May 1, 2024May 2, 2024

When the West’s electrical grid is targeted, motives tend to matter less than ensuing propaganda.

Roughly 5 miles separate the wildlife overpass just north of Daniel Junction, pictured, from the Trappers Point overpass outside Pinedale, Wyoming. Overpasses like these, along with underpasses and wildlife fences, have helped reduce wildife-vehicle collisions in the state by 80% to 90%, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Posted inApril 2024: Epic Journeys

For these mammals, migration is a means of survival

by Christine Peterson April 1, 2024May 8, 2024

Will Westerners repair a fractured landscape for mule deer, pronghorn, and elk?

Cache la Poudre River, Colorado, from the series Stillwater. Gelatin silver print, 2000.
Posted inApril 2024: Epic Journeys

Reflections on Barry Lopez

by Terry Tempest Williams April 1, 2024April 11, 2024

Terry Tempest Williams contemplates her friendship with the late author and what he left behind.

Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground

Underground seed banks hold promise for ecological restoration

by Josephine Woolington March 1, 2024March 4, 2024

Indigenous science is using natural regeneration to restore Western
ecosystems.

Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground

An ode to lesbians who showed the way

by Morgan Lieberman and Emily Withnall March 1, 2024March 11, 2024

The photography series ‘Hidden Once, Hidden Twice’ highlights women who serve as a model for others.

Posted inJanuary 11, 2024: The Creatures in Our Midst

Learning to live with musk oxen

by Megan Gannon February 1, 2024May 8, 2024

The species were introduced to Alaska’s Seward Peninsula decades ago, without local consent. Now they pose danger to life and property.

Maskwacis, Alberta.
Posted inArticles

New DNA technique could bring closure for families of missing and murdered Indigenous people

by Martha Troian and Hilary Beaumont January 31, 2024February 1, 2024

But experts say this risks DNA sovereignty.

SOURCES: USGS; Library of Congress; Flickr Creative Commons; Oregon Department of Transportation; Washington Department of Natural Resources via a public records request.
Posted inJanuary 11, 2024: The Creatures in Our Midst

Washington’s solar permitting leaves tribal resources vulnerable to corporations

by B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster January 19, 2024October 23, 2024

Tribal officials say the process threatens cultural resources and what remains of healthy Indigenous foodways.

Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024

Defending the Tijuana Estuary

by Ruxandra Guidi January 1, 2024October 4, 2024

Stewardship saved a Southern California estuary from development. Climate change is the next challenge.

Grizzly boars take turns eating a bison carcass in Yellowstone National Park.
Posted inArticles

How grizzly bear poachers are getting away with it

by Ryan Devereaux and Jimmy Tobias December 20, 2023January 31, 2024

Investigation finds that Department of Justice rarely prosecutes grizzly bear killers under the Endangered Species Act.

Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023

North Denver’s green space paradox

by Raksha Vasudevan December 1, 2023October 23, 2024

Will a billion-dollar infrastructure project heal a Colorado community — or displace its residents?

Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023

Horrible holly: A festive plant runs amok

by Steven Hsieh December 1, 2023January 31, 2024

Meet the scientists and conservationists fighting to save the Northwest’s forests from an invasive plant.

Posted inNovember 1, 2023: November 1, 2023

The climate crisis is pushing Washington’s prisons to the brink

by Sarah Sax and Christopher Blackwell November 1, 2023January 24, 2024

Why not let people out?

Infrastructure on the Akiuk side of Kasigluk, Alaska, is surrounded by water and vulnerable to flooding, permafrost thaw  and erosion.
Posted inNovember 1, 2023: November 1, 2023

Kasigluk endures the many challenges of thawing permafrost

by Katie Basile November 1, 2023January 24, 2024

Residents of the Alaska village maintain community in the face of climate change.

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

Los peligros del pastoreo

by Teresa Cotsirilos October 2, 2023April 11, 2024

Trabajadores con visas H-2A sufren en su mayoría precariedad laboral mientras sostienen a la industria ovina del Oeste de EE.UU.

Posts pagination

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People brace for impacts on land, water and wildlife after feds fire thousands over holiday weekend

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