The May issue takes us into little-known landscapes, from the Atascosa Highlands of Arizona, where a photographer and an ecologist are documenting biodiversity, to the concrete channels of the Los Angeles River, where people who lack housing fish and attempt to get by. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Chicano community wants an urban wildlife refuge to remain a haven for locals, while in Denver, second-graders say wolf reintroduction will be nothing short of “amaaaazing!” We provide some background to the “firearms frenzy” in the West, and an incarcerated person in San Quentin, California, describes his experience with overcrowding and COVID-19. Prominent U.S. institutions are finally acknowledging how much they profited from Indigenous lands, but fine words alone won’t undo the damage. Meanwhile, the descendants of enslaved people still fight for a place in the Cherokee Nation. We review Going to Trinidad by Martin J. Smith, the story of a pioneering Colorado surgeon and his transgender patients, and talk to geographer Diana Livermore about her pursuit of climate justice. And we check out the quirkier side of the region in our regular Heard around the West column.

Magazine cover: May 1, 2021: Beauty and Biodiversity in the Borderlands

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A reconciliation

Thank you for your heart-warming article, “A reconciliation,” on the tribes reclaiming the National Bison Range (February 2021).  Anna V. Smith drew me right into the landscape, the people and the issues with her excellent writing style. The article also gave me hope that a few of the massive wrongs vested upon our Native peoples are…

by Steve Jesseph

Did James Plymell Need to Die?

Just want to say how much it means to me that HCN covered Plymell’s death (“Did James Plymell Need to Die?” March 2021). The story was barely covered at the time, and that never felt right. Your coverage got the real story, which is about the intersection of an imperfect human life with the efforts…

by Daniel Dietz

High and Dry

In response to “High and Dry” (March 2021), I agree, our water crisis in the West is terrifying.  However, to me, what’s truly terrifying, is that we’ve known this for decades. HCN does a wonderful job of reporting on the crisis, yet we never change. We continue to use far too much water, mainly because we are…

by Julie Smith

Ignorance is no excuse for murder

Stories can make you feel sadness, frustration, exhilaration. Leah Sottile’s “Did James Plymell Need to Die?” made me angrier than I can remember feeling after reading any story. The graphic showing Plymell’s officer contacts reveals 47 incidents from 2012 to 2019. And the officers involved in the Taser attack claimed they did not know Plymell?…

by Richard Trout

Joan Didion’s frontier

I have read Alex Trimble Young’s review of  Let Me Tell You What I Mean twice now  (“Finding meaning on Joan Didion’s frontier,” February 2021) and cannot find any relevance to the usual subject matter of High Country News, which in itself has diverged so much from the original news information of the West. Thanks…

by Carolyn Shaw

Life After Coal

I write in appreciation of Jessica Kutz’s piece about the end of the Navajo Generating Station and the Navajo Nation’s struggle for control of its energy (“Life After Coal,” February 2021). I really enjoyed the calm, in-depth exploration of the whole story. It has strong resonances here in Australia, where Indigenous peoples have nothing like…

by Jackie Clark

Racism against Asian Americans

Jane Hu’s article about the cowardly attack on her enraged me (“The long Western legacy of violence against Asian Americans,” hcn.org, 3/5/21). I was a teenager growing up in Southern California during World War II, but was unaware of the anti-Japanese American feelings, probably because my parents were able to separate our fellow citizens from…

by Tom Neff

The next mining boom?

Thirteen years ago, I was fortunate enough to live and work with my spouse in a remote region of Nevada near the Ruby Mountains. I’m not sure I saw a single person besides my partner during the entire field season. I have yet to return to this spot and now, after reading your recent article…

by Ether Kell