The researchers digging up mysteries of the ocean in Nevada’s desert, plus death by cop and gun control in the West. Cover illustration: Shonisaurus popularis and Californosaurus perrini, depicted by Boise illustrator Todd Marshall.
Pet the nipping pup and hide your newcomer roots: tips from a failed campaign.
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Pot dollars and range riders
News in brief.
Searching for the good fight in the Nez Perce War
A review of William T. Vollmann’s “The Dying Grass”
New clues to the past in Nevada’s desert fossils
Scientific inquiry is a process of constant revision. And revision is where the most intriguing discoveries happen.
The Corps of Discovery, after the apocalypse
Review of Benjamin Percy’s “The Dead Lands.”
A forgotten lake
I read with interest the article titled “Tenuous revival of Mono Lake” in the Nov. 23 issue. I was involved in the politics of that rescue, being friends with Rick Lehman, our congressman, and with other politicos who drove the legislation. Now that the lake is stabilized, I have tried to interest them in Walker…
The mysteries of the everyday
A writer and her family court the unknown.
A modest proposal — for mustangs
If words were bales of hay, feeding captive feral horses would be no problem (“Wild horses sent to slaughter,” HCN, 11/23/15). Presently, the government is the largest livestock caregiver in the U.S. Over 90,000 horses are either in lockups or on the Western ranges. In the meantime, one child dies every five seconds from malnutrition…
To save a pine tree, researchers fight fungus with fungus
White bark pines are dying from infection across the Northern Rockies.
Curious scientists
“Vikings’ mysterious abandonment of Greenland was not due to climate change” read the headline of a recent Washington Post story, detailing new evidence that the Norsemen’s departure from the ice-capped island in the 1300s was not spurred by rapidly cooling conditions, as many scientists had thought. New high-tech rock-dating technology has convinced researchers that glaciers…
Tools for trails
Thank you for your Nov. 9 article on guerrilla trail work. As a former U.S. Forest Service trail crew foreman, trail contractor and now fire lookout, I’ve done my share of clearing “official” trails and trying to keep others open that have been neglected. Richard Coots’ spirit is laudable. I’ve also seen the results of…
Don’t blame the greatest generation
Richard Reeves’ book Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II is a tragic story of an immoral episode in American culture, and it’s simply not necessary to compound the tale through sensationalism and historical error. The title of Eric Sandstrom’s review in the Nov. 9 issue, “The Greatest Generation…
Western nativism has a rotten odor
Back in my railroad days, we often said that something had “a bad smell.” “I smell a bad order!”— lingo for a car that was rolling wrong and needed to be removed from the train. The alarm was shouted down from the conductor up in the “angel’s seat” in the caboose, back when a person actually…
These are your state’s gun laws
In the wake of mass killings, a state-by-state look at Western gun policy.
Holiday publishing break
The holidays are approaching, and we’re taking a break from our 22-issues-per-year schedule. Look for High Country News again around Jan. 25. But new stories will be published online at hcn.org nearly every day. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for even more news. With the cold weather and short days,…
Highway injustice in Denver’s Latino neighborhoods
Poor districts have breathed I-70’s pollution for decades. Now they’re facing its expansion.
The story behind a saved cienega in New Mexico
A rancher fights to protect a restored wetland against torrential rain and other threats.
Two visions collide in Utah’s Wasatch Range
As ski resorts push for a mega-connection, backcountry skiers try to save some wild.
Latest: Arizona forest restoration project falls short
The Four Forest Restoration Initiative was supposed to be the largest such project ever attempted.
Latest: Gila River diversion inches forward
The project will start environment reviews, but it’s far from a done deal.
Why Westerners die at the hands of cops
Jack Yantis, an Idaho rancher, raised the profile of rural police brutality.