How light rail could transform Phoenix, the man who invented floating island to revive an ecosystem, and the tough questions that crude-filled trains raise in the Pacific Northwest.
Latest: Bison transferred to Fort Peck Indian Reservation
Disease-free animals from Yellowstone get a new home.
Latest: New air quality requirements for Utah oil & gas
Operators must install low or no-bleed valves on tanks to curb venting into the air.
Less name-calling
“Bad Medicine” makes some valid points, but it turns me cold when it starts out with name calling, specifically “ultra-right” and later in the article “ultra-conservative.” Simply disagreeing with the author’s point of view seems to make people extreme, in the author’s opinion. If you want to draw people towards your point of view, then don’t call them inflammatory names. At best, it…
In the footsteps of a roving genius
Photographs and an interview from high peaks of the Alaska Range.
Selfies with bears, a stolen train in Wyoming, a loose bull and more.
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Social work blues
Review of ‘Fourth of July Creek’ by Smith Henderson.
Solace at the end of Homer Spit
When I quit my job and joined a pilgrimage of heartbroken dreamers staggering toward Alaska.
Spending at windmills
About two-thirds of Utah’s legislators are tied to banking, insurance, land title, development, real estate or other firms that would benefit from the transfer of lands to the state (“Bad medicine,” HCN, 10/27/14). Utah’s Legislature is over 80 percent Republican, with highly gerrymandered districts to ensure that the 30 percent or so of Utahns who…
State the obvious
I can’t decide if High Country News is part of the problem or not (“House of Misrepresentatives,” 10/27/14). You seem to be deathly afraid of offending Republicans; every time you publish something like this, it’s always “Congress” doing it, never “Republicans in Congress.” At least you used the “R,” and I noticed it’s all “R”s.…
For climate activists, a bright spot in a dismal election
Environmentalists in the Pacific Northwest may lead the way.
Talking with kids about grizzlies
A volunteer educator reflects on teaching kids about conservation, and learning from them.
A poetic search for a lost father
Review of ‘Crow Blue’ Adriana Lisboa.
Trains carrying oil raise tough questions in Northwest
As crude oil rail shipments increase, residents fear derailments and explosions.
Blue-eyed boy
Chuck Bowden’s thoughtful side is what I will always remember (“Charles Bowden’s Fury,” HCN, 10/13/14). Arriving with the newspapers on my Sedona porch some 25 years ago, just when sunlight was sneaking through early morning clouds, was an unexpected visitor. Standing there was a hefty man, ruggedly handsome, in a windblown sort of way, dressed in…
Light rail enters the West’s most sprawling metropolis
New transportation sparked a renaissance in Denver. Can it do the same for Phoenix?
Can biomimicry tackle our toughest water problems?
With floating islands and other inventions, eco-entrepreneur Bruce Kania thinks so.
Flocks of visitors
Readers visit from Albuquerque, Santa Fe, North Carolina and more.
Gifts — and memories — for the ages
HCN staff and board members on their favorite green holiday gifts.
I hear the train a comin’
I’m not a city person. I live just outside a small town of less than 2,000 souls, and I like its gritty, two-block downtown, where you see your neighbors every time you pick up the mail or buy some dog food; I like the quiet so deep that you can hear the wingbeats of ravens…