In this issue, we track the money that poured into groups involved with protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota and trace how one group spent the donations they received. Also in this issue, a look at the development of electric car infrastructure in the Interior West, and a reflection on the dramatic change the Pawnee Buttes in Colorado experienced once natural gas was found.
New adventures and new faces
As spring blooms in Paonia, more visitors come to the office.
Humanizing the Borderlands
With the publication of “Desert, Divided” and “One nation, divisible” (HCN, 3/19/18), HCN demonstrated a commitment to tell the stories of the borderlands and to embrace the region as part of the West. The correspondents and photographers humanized the daily struggles of life there, sketching portraits of communities that reveal the complexity of the border.…
Saguaro thieves; Cats in precarious spots; Trump highway
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Walls are not the answer
This piece reflects my own experiences living in Mexico and visiting both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border (“Desert, Divided” HCN, 3/19/18). You uncover what is undoubtedly an uncomfortable reality for many to face: A wall is not going to stop human migration. It is an imaginative piece of “security theater,” but a wall doesn’t address…
What we have forgotten about the vilified gray wolf
The saga of O-Six lays bare the intricacies of a familiar, parallel society in wolves.
Immigration: An uphill battle
Nature, space and human communities exist on a continuous plane — you can’t slice through it without significant collateral damage (“Desert, Divided,” HCN, 3/19/18). Unfortunately, a large number of Americans seem quite happy to accept those consequences (from a comfortable distance), believing that the result will be communities with fewer brown people or “foreigners.” My…
The Gates of the Arctic, revealed
From charging bears to glacier-carved valleys, photographs capture the real nature of the national park.
Frackin’ on heaven’s door
How many people over the centuries have loved the Pawnee Buttes, only to see them ravaged?
The border wall’s silver lining
I have owned a ranch property in Arizona a stone’s throw from Mexico for nearly 40 years. I was slack-jawed reading Brian Calvert’s latest dark editor’s note (“The great divider,” HCN, 3/19/18), this time regarding the illusion of a borderland with no border. Perhaps Mr. Calvert should visit more of what he wants to unite because…
The state of Jefferson is alive and well
A letter to the editor by Piers Strailey (“State of Dysfunction,” HCN, 3/5/18) was packed with errors about the state of Jefferson. As the co-chairman of the Plumas County State of Jefferson Committee, I will correct the record. Mark Baird never pressured the board of supervisors, as Strailey claims. Baird was asked by residents of…
Cashing in on Standing Rock
How Veterans Stand squandered $1.4 million raised around the #NoDAPL protests.
See the data behind our #NoDAPLdollars investigation
Millions of dollars were raised on GoFundMe around the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. What happened to it?
Standing Rock and accountability
Standing Rock echoed violence of the past and, for many people, awoke desire for atonement.
By the numbers: harassment in the Interior Department
Findings from the department’s survey.
Washington state bans salmon farms
An escape of non-native salmon prompted the state to shut down aquaculture.
Latest: Toxic-tinged wildlife refuge deemed safe for visitors
But conservation groups fear contamination at Colorado’s Rocky Flats still lingers.
Along the border, 500 miles of desert species
As Trump’s wall lurches forward, ‘BioBlitz’ records the Borderlands’ biodiversity.
A flurry of research illuminates snow’s foes
New studies detail how hotter temperatures, humid air and wind-blown dust can pummel the Western snowpack.
What’s quelling the anxiety of electric-car drivers?
Charging corridors will make an interior West electric-car roadtrip increasingly possible.
Harassment pervades the Bureau of Indian Affairs
One of the oldest agencies in the Department of Interior appears to have some of its worst harassment problems.
A Dreamer dreams of running for office
Over a year into the Trump presidency, reflections from a young immigrant.