In the cover story for this issue, Assistant Editor Paige Blankenbuehler investigates the agricultural influences behind Colorado’s state wildlife commission that are impacting a bighorn herd in a vast wilderness. Wildlife stories abound in this issue, as grizzly bears are hunted in Wyoming and Idaho, and beavers help a desert bloom in Nevada.
A thirsty bear; salmon snafu; gastropod wranglers
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Latest: Tribes gain more leverage over Western water
A recent ruling could settle the unresolved groundwater rights of nearly 240 tribes.
Latest: Wyoming and Idaho to hold grizzly hunts
Lawsuits loom over the first hunting tags given in 44 years.
When a lie is a lie
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is trying to incite fear and hate, rather than solve complex problems.
Double down on success
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Gloria Dickie’s investigation (“Pay for Prey,” HCN, 7/23/18) into Oregon’s flawed wolf compensation program was welcome sunlight for a state that prides itself on its conservation ethic, but whose leaders have regrettably thrown wolves to the self-serving cattlemen. The…
Funds and fortitude
Cally Carswell’s article “What are we doing here?” in the Aug. 6 issue finally prompted me to write and say what I’ve been meaning to for some time. I can’t express how your publication touches and moves me. You are doing great work conveying the issues and your perspective on life in the West and…
Playing God
While I understand the frustration that Carianne Campbell of the Sky Island Alliance and Don Falk of the University of Arizona have about climate change, which produces a “moving target” for ecosystem restoration, I believe the use of nonnative plant species, particularly from outside the United States, is not ecosystem restoration (“Restoration’s crisis of confidence,”…
Political theater
I really enjoyed Elliott Woods’ detailed and perceptive account of the July Donald Trump rally in Great Falls, Montana (“Montanans sightsee at a political circus,” HCN, 8/6/18). Great piece of reporting and analysis of the spirit behind these rallies, which are nothing if not repetitive, reductive and as habit-forming to our president as any opioid.…
Photos: The elusive & iconic American mountain goat
A biologist documents the natural history and lives of the North American quadrupeds.
Agricultural interests steer Colorado’s wildlife management
Sheep grazing in the state’s largest wilderness area could endanger a dwindling bighorn sheep herd.
The beauty — and dangers — of living wild
Two new fearless memoirs deliver stories of pragmatism and boundless courage.
How beavers make the desert bloom
‘I’m always looking for ways to keep water here, and the beaver do it for free.’
A meeting of the minds in Gunnison
The editorial staff of High Country News converges to plot the future of the magazine.
See the influences behind Colorado’s wildlife commission
A powerful governing board gives agricultural interests the loudest voice.
Naming the Borderlands’ lost
In Arizona, a humanitarian crisis spurs researchers to find new ways of identifying migrant remains.
As ethics questions swirl, Zinke knows how to work a crowd
The Interior secretary woos conservatives with logging, drilling, public access.
The next Supreme Court pick could shape Indian law for decades
The highest court in the land holds legal power over tribal nations, but it lacks knowledge of tribal law.
The casualties of Trump’s trade war
How ‘America First’ often puts the West last.