In our July feature Correspondent Leah Sottile shows how good plans go awry with her feature on how a locally supported rails-to-trails project in Yamhill County, Oregon, got derailed by politics. In Arizona, landscapes sacred to Indigenous people are sacrificed to mine valuable minerals. In California, a rural community has waited years for safe drinking water, while farther north, the drought-stricken Klamath River’s salmon are dying for lack of water. Meanwhile, lockdown-weary Americans are overusing — and often abusing — Western parks and public lands. But it’s not all bad news: Stella Kalinina’s photographs reveal industrial sites being turned into public green spaces. We also interview two women who organize farmworkers, and review “Fireline,” a podcast that takes a fresh take at wildfire, and a book, Lisa Wells’ “Believers,” about people determined to live good lives despite the reality of the climate crisis.
Uncertain water supply
Thanks for Sarah Tory’s story on Phoenix’s water-depletion myopia, “Uncertain water supply” (June 2021). Tory did a great job of summarizing the history comprehensively, yet comprehensibly. That’s talent. I live in Phoenix and fear for the future. Phoenix is built out, but the main industry, just beyond Phoenix’s borders, remains housing development, even though the…
Bittersweet departures and celebrations
We wish a wide-ranging journalist well and give gratitude over our final 50th anniversary event.
Wrong, illegal, and the agency knows this
I read with great interest the June 2021 article, “The Fire Next Time” by Carl Segerstrom. Similar events have occurred on the national forests and grasslands in Texas. The Forest Service everywhere is trying to avoid doing required environmental analysis. This is wrong, illegal, and the agency knows this. Megafires are not stopped by thinning, prescribed…
We are water
With drought being the new normal, how are we to live?
How a trail in rural Oregon became a target of far-right extremism
To understand the state’s urban-rural divide, start by looking at Yamhill County’s proposed walking trail.
Best wishes
I’ve been an on-and-off subscriber and occasional contributor to High Country News for so many years I’ve lost track — roughly 25. I just received the June issue, along with a sticker saying it is my last one and that I need to renew. I opened it to read your inaugural Editor’s Note (by Editor-in-Chief…
Exceptional
Your efforts bring me such a tingly kind of joy. Every issue is out of the park! You are the mythical exceptional American. Thanks. Jon HermanRoslyn, Washington This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Exceptional.
Far afield
When I first subscribed to your magazine, I was ready to put on my boots to explore Colorado and adjacent states and write to Washington, D.C., regarding matters pertaining to wilderness. As time has gone by, your magazine has gone so far afield from your original purpose that I no longer agree with your mission.…
Keep going
I’ve been reading High Country News since I fought fires in Wyoming in 1977. HCN looks better than ever, with great photos of the Atascosa and its plant life — as well as the LA River (both May 2021), and your articles are as smart as ever and more wide-ranging (i.e., culturally diverse). Keep it…
Not renewing
It is with a bit of remorse that I have to tell you that I will not be renewing my subscription this fall, thus ending my continuous subscription of 38 years. While I understand some of the journalism changes you have made, I find myself reading fewer articles in High Country News. I regret the…
The Fire Next Time
It was with great interest that I read the June issue of HCN, especially the article about the Salmon-Challis National Forest (“The Fire Next Time”). We lived there for eight and a half years (’77 to ’85), when I worked as a range specialist for the Bureau of Land Management for four-plus years and then…
The wisdom of trees
Thank you for another excellent issue, and especially Claire Thompson’s book review (“The wisdom of trees,” June 2021). As a retired national park ranger-naturalist, with two forestry degrees, I’m painfully aware of the split within the forestry community. Trees are finally getting some recognition, and not just as homes for the cute fuzzy aboveground beasts…
Reclaiming LA
Communities in Los Angeles are turning industrial sites into pockets of green.
Morning eavesdropping; rivergeddon; condor camping
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
How will humans live through ecological collapse?
In ‘Believers,’ Lisa Wells profiles ordinary people who want to lead less destructive lives.
Crowds swarm the public lands
Land managers and gateway communities struggle to keep up.
The incarcerated women battling wildfires
In ‘Breathing Fire,’ Jaime Lowe uncovers the benefits and drawbacks of California’s inmate fire program.
Oil and gas behemoth ExxonMobil shaken by shareholders
Three new directors appointed to company’s board could steer a transition to renewables.
How to live with fire
Wildfire needs new narratives. The podcast ‘Fireline’ is a start.
Mining for lithium, at a cost to Indigenous religions
In western Arizona, the push for EVs threatens the Hualapai Tribe’s religious practices.
A hallucinogenic toad in peril
How a Sonoran Desert species got caught up in the commodification of spiritual awakening.
Ongoing fish kill on the Klamath River is an ‘absolute worst-case scenario’
Unprecedented drought in the Klamath Basin leaves communities wondering how they will make it through the summer.
Farmworker organizing in Washington is undoing discriminatory labor policies
‘The pandemic elevated the fact that farmworkers are killing themselves to keep our food system intact.’
‘I’m scared of getting sick from the water’
Some rural California communities have waited nearly a decade for state regulators to repair their tainted drinking-water systems.