Meet the men on trial for profiting off the Southwest’s drought in the latest issue of High Country News. Plus, the architects redesigning L.A. and the attorneys general taking things into their own hands.
Water hustle
Did one of Nevada’s top water regulators try to cash in on the drought?
A subtle love in small-town Colorado
A review of Kent Haruf’s new book, ‘Our Souls at Night.’
We cannot be trusted with guns
In Brian Calvert’s Oct. 26 essay, “Growing up with guns,” the accompanying photo and the context that it suggested led me to expect a far different conclusion. Yet, as I read on, I found that we largely agreed. His experiences, and his resulting observations, were much like mine. I long ago concluded that “we are…
Coal on the verge of bankruptcy and drilling on sacred land
Hcn.org news in brief.
Why are Western attorneys general going rogue?
Attorneys general sue the federal government, despite state governors’ objections.
High Country News: The reopening
The third in a series celebrating our 45th anniversary.
You are on Indian Land: A provocative look at contemporary art
A multimedia exhibit at the Museum of Northern Arizona
Latest: Investigation proves wild horses were sent to slaughter
Management of the West’s wild horses have proved controversial for decades and spawned rumors of maltreatment.
You can’t legislate intelligence
It seemed appropriate to receive and read HCN’s Oct. 26 issue on Saturday, Oct. 24 — officially designated as “United Nations Day.” I loved Elizabeth Wyatt’s crafty piece, “The trash without, and within” — as she writes: “ ‘Throwing away’ just may be the dominant fiction of American consciousness.” She hits close to the heart…
Latest: National Park Service intervenes in Alaska predator hunting
BACKSTORYIn Alaska, federal and state officials have long clashed over the management of wolves and bears in national parks and preserves. State law requires sustaining abundant caribou and moose populations for food security, a goal that often entails killing off predators, while the federal 1916 Organic Act mandates keeping healthy populations of all wildlife species.…
Let it burn
Within the “Fall board meeting” note in the Oct. 12 edition, you mention “150 HCN fans” who “sparked a lively discussion on how climate change, fire suppression and exurban development have encouraged repeated megafires in our region.” The premise behind the statement, i.e., that Western wildfires are getting larger and more intense, is not supported by…
On the unease of violent people
Review of T.C. Boyle’s ‘The Harder They Come.”
How a plan to save southeastern Colorado went off the rails
Heritage tourism offered a way out of economic doldrums. Why did it go wrong?
Remembering friends, current and past
The founder of Great Old Broads for Wilderness has passed away.
The desert and the sown
“Aridity, more than anything else,” Wallace Stegner once wrote, “gives the Western landscape its character.” Though we sometimes forget it, we can never escape this fact. This issue of High Country News offers us a chance to check in on that essential piece of our nature, one that is shaped, for better or worse, by…
The life of a once-lost dog
Aging takes its toll on creatures both human and canine.
The “perfect wolf” and the cognitive complexity of crows
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
The tenuous revival of Mono Lake
Its defenders won a long fight over water with Los Angeles. Now, drought is raising new questions about its future.
Could Los Angeles design its way to water independence?
A pair of architects are reinvisioning the city’s relationship with water, starting with storm runoff.
The view from the top of the food chain
Today I hiked along a forest trail near my home. Squirrels scolded, a raven croaked. I moved steadily on. Startled at my approach, a deer bounded away, labored up the loose soil of the steep little canyon, and disappeared. I barely paused. There was nothing there for me to fear, nothing for me to attend…