Brian Calvert

When John Boehner, Republican speaker of the House, announced in September that he was resigning, he affirmed a basic political reality of our time: Uncompromising hijackers have fractured his party and turned Congress into a mean-spirited, ineffectual mess. “We got groups here in town, members of the House and Senate here in town, who whip […]

It was bound to happen. Regardless of the cynical denialism of some politicians, climate change is now entering our lives in very real ways. This is especially true in the West, a region clearly defined by its environment and natural resources. In this issue, almost without our knowing it, the climate crept into nearly every […]

On a Friday afternoon in July, a wildfire sparked on Southern California’s Cajon Pass. The brush was dry and the winds were strong, speeding the fire toward Interstate 15 and its weekend traffic. Those who saw it later described what followed as surreal: flames shooting into the air, cars on fire, and semis on fire, […]

Mining made the West, sparking the gold and silver rushes that populated the mountains and shaping the way water is shared, public lands are managed and mineral wealth flows into corporate coffers. It created boomtowns, coal towns and ghost towns. Mining has driven the economy and despoiled the environment ever since the earliest days of […]

When I started work at High Country News last May, I volunteered to oversee the January special issue, the one currently in your hands. Aside from the general notion that it should include ideas about the West’s future, with an educational underpinning, I was given free rein to come up with the theme, solicit the […]