The Magazine

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 […]

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 […]

Life is on the move in our April issue. Every spring, Wyoming’s mule deer navigate deserts, highways and oil and gas fields to reach their summer range, and now their travel corridors are in need of protection. Can drones help mitigate predator-livestock conflicts?  Native plant landscaping is increasingly popular, but unregulated harvesting has environmental impacts […]

Can we learn to get along — not just with people, but with other species and cultures? In this issue, one of our feature stories looks into the contentious relationship the residents of Nome, Alaska have with musk oxen – photogenic animals with a tendency to trespass and attack people’s dogs. Wolves are being reintroduced to Colorado, but how do you compensate wolf-hating ranchers when their livestock gets eaten? In our investigative feature, we found that renewable energy projects in Washington are trampling tribal cultural resources. The Samish are rebuilding kelp beds in Puget Sound, while the Northern Shoshone restore ancestral lands, hoping to someday return water to Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Wild animals sometimes adapt, even to wildfires. A geoengineering company’s “just do it” approach clashes with tribal sovereignty. If new rivers open for salmon in Alaska and Canada, will extractive gold mines follow? A one-room rural schoolhouse in Montana thrives, while cannabis growers meet boom-and-bust. A chef’s hybrid world helps inspire hybrid recipes. An essayist suggests that humans don’t have to behave like invasive species.

In this special issue, High Country News reminds Westerners that it’s not too late to create a better climate future. One feature story takes a deep dive into the Tijuana Estuary on the California-Mexico border, showing that restoration is an ongoing process that can succeed when human beings devote themselves to it, for a lifetime if necessary. Indigenous leaders bring their knowledge to the climate change discussion, and the Smokehouse Collective works to rebuild Native food networks across Alaska. An 80-year-old electric co-op commits to decarbonization, and there are steps we can take to decarbonize the grid. California’s former insurance commissioner believes insurance companies and homeowners can take a more proactive approach to dealing with risk, and a diehard proponent of cooking with gas finally changes her mind. Environmental activists and labor unions achieve solidarity, and overlooked genres of literature, including Chinese tales about kung-fu heroes, can help grow a reader’s climate consciousness.

The Endangered Species Act turns 50 this year, so HCN devoted a special section to this landmark environmental law. These stories take a hard look at its history, successes and failures, its complicated legacy in Indian Country, and possible strategies to prevent extinction altogether. Our features tackle other challenging issues: Conservationists are fighting English holly in Northwestern forests where the beloved Christmas symbol is becoming a pesky invasive. Meanwhile, Denver’s Globeville Elyria-Swansea neighborhood was long divided by Interstate 70, but residents fear that a project designed to reconnect the community will spur gentrification. Montana’s new laws encourage development, but will locals be able to afford the new housing? Utah’s Great Salt Lake is dying, but that hasn’t stopped the nearby industries from continuing to exploit it. Elsewhere, an unexpected encounter and a piece of jewelry spark a poet’s career, and a New Mexico lizard becomes a gay icon.

The climate crisis affects everything, from where we live to what we eat to how we deal with crime. In Washington, extreme weather and COVID-19 pushed over-strained prisons to the brink, leading some to ask: Why not let people out? In Kasigluk, Alaska, buildings are succumbing to rising sea levels and melting permafrost, but relocating entire communities isn’t easy. Eureka, California, wanted to build affordable housing in parking lots, but opponents are exploiting an environmental law to fight back. The danger’s not over when the wildfire ends: Debris flows can be deadly. Trucking young salmon past dams seemed like a great idea, but what happens if the adult fish can’t find their way home? Can Green River, Utah’s famous melons survive climate change? Montana ranchers come together to start their own meatpacking facilities. An Indigenous writer reflects on everything his mentors taught him. Though DACA failed Tony Valdovinos, he still pursues his dreams. Just walking through a beloved landscape can help ease the pain of grief.

Our feature story in this issue tells the harrowing story of two Peruvian brothers who came to Wyoming to be sheepherders, only to find themselves virtual prisoners, forced to labor under abusive conditions. In an excerpt from a new book, we learn how California’s Coachella Valley reinvented itself as an Arabian Nights fantasy to market the delicious dates it grew. Wildland fire dispatchers’ jobs are exhausting, stressful and woefully underpaid; invasive smallmouth bass threaten the Grand Canyon’s native fishes, and new legislation is bringing clean energy jobs to the West. You have to locate native bumblebees before you can protect them. A good snow year doesn’t mean a good snowpack if sublimation steals away the snow’s moisture, and renting in gentrified San Francisco is never easy. A writer consider Justice Scalia’s thoughts on waterways as she enjoys them; and digging around outdoor — whether for roly-poly bugs or dinosaur fossils — will open your eyes to wonder.

This month, we learn about past injustices and ongoing environmental harms. An Asian American artist and a poet revisit the 1885 Rock Springs Massacre, when white miners murdered Chinese immigrants and burned down their homes. Wildlife isn’t safe from human noise or roads, even in national parks. Who really owns the West? Toxic emissions from oil and gas wells are hurting the Navajo Nation. The Black Farmers Collective seeks to encourage Black farmers in Washington, and Indigenous healers are finding new ways to treat the lingering trauma of the boarding school era. With climate change and wildfires causing a rise in overdoses, harm reduction workers try to keep people safe during times of environmental crisis. Why build a Biosphere 2 when we can’t even take care of Biosphere 1? A trickster spirit and a mischievous bird help a young queer man accept himself, while an Asian American woman with a neurodiverse son finds a way to cope with stress and racism on a family vacation out West.

This month, HCN heats up with two very different fires: A genuine backcountry inferno, and the kind of political blaze that smolders and periodically threatens to blow up. Kylie Mohr follows two hikers who were caught in a Northern Cascades wildfire, while Leah Sottile looks at the “Greater Idaho” movement. Can outdoor recreation adapt to our changing climate, and why do so many white supremacists want to secede from Oregon? Elsewhere, we examine the 1872 law that governs hardrock mining, study the “forever chemicals” polluting our water, and learn how captive-born Mexican wolves are fostered in the wild. Can golf survive in the desert? Indian law experts discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act. Denver once bragged about being a “sanctuary city”; what happened? The Japanese American National Museum honors those who were incarcerated during World War II, and historians remember the hardworking children of Southern California’s Filipino immigrant farmers. Finally, we share the joy of late-summer salmon fishing in Alaska.

This month, we take an in-depth look at life in Indian Country. HCN and ProPublica’s four-part package reveals how Colorado River Basin tribes in Arizona — including the Navajo, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Tohono O’odham — must fight for every drop of the water they were guaranteed by a 1908 Supreme Court decision. We consider the pros and cons of hunting bison just outside Yellowstone, and why Newtok, Alaska’s residents have had to wait decades to relocate while climate change destroys their village. And we feature a profile of Larissa FastHorse, the first-known Native American woman to have a play on Broadway, as well as a witty essay about one writer’s love-hate affair with Native romance novels. Elsewhere, U.S. and Central American climate migrants are fleeing to Baja California, and public education in the West is suffering from lack of funds. Did you know that elk and other wild animals have unique regional dialects? How can we help “horse girls” hold on to their wildness as they grow up?