Prescribed burns are on hold during shutdown while logging continues.
Kylie Mohr
Kylie Mohr is a correspondent for High Country News writing from Montana. Email her at kylie.mohr@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
Osburn’s bridge to nowhere becomes a lifeline for Silver Valley’s elk
Idaho’s newest wildlife crossing didn’t need to be built. It already existed near Coeur d’Alene.
Posted inArticles
Access to public land? There’s an app for that
Tech is facilitating land access in new, and sometimes fraught, ways.
Posted inArticles
How a Utah wildfire created its own tornado
Firefighters were caught in a pyro-vortex last month on the Deer Creek Fire.
Posted inArticles
The invisible ‘giant nets’ that catch the smallest songbirds
Collaboration and tiny technology are revolutionizing the study of migration.
Posted inArticles
‘Help is not on the way’
As fire season ramps up, thousands of Forest Service firefighting positions are vacant.
Posted inJuly 2025: Seeds as Sustenance
First came the record-setting fire. Then came the record-setting floods.
‘I don’t trust the water:’ How post-fire flooding has destabilized a rural community’s drinking water.
Posted inArticles
Senate Republicans want to sell 3 million acres of public land
The majority of public land is too fire prone and far away from communities to even make sense for housing, research shows.
Posted inJune 2025: The Promised Land
How to preserve a glacier’s legacy
Artists are called to document the existence, and disappearance, of glacier.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
Bird flu finds its way into Western wildlife
The deaths of two Washington cougars suggest the virus is more widespread than thought.
Posted inArticles
Five books to help young readers understand wildfire
Age-appropriate narratives and beautiful illustrations teach children how wildfire touches people’s lives.
Posted inArticles
The Trump administration is trying to fire the ‘backbone’ of wildland firefighting
Last month’s terminations cut employees who serve critical support roles on fires.
Posted inFebruary 2025: Immigrant Stories
The power of prescribed fire
A wildfire journalist steps behind the drip torch.
Posted inArticles
Wildfires are too much for municipal water systems. In Los Angeles, firefighters tried anyway.
Water systems aren’t designed for unlimited demands during wildland-urban interface fires.
Posted inArticles
What do the deadly Los Angeles fires mean for the city’s wildlife?
Wildlife biologist Miguel Ordeñana explains how blazes push animals into the unknown.
Posted inArticles
Outgoing Bureau of Land Management director optimistic about public lands
Tracy Stone-Manning discusses the BLM’s achievements and talks about the future as we enter a new political era.
Posted inArticles
What we learned about wildfire smoke in 2024
The list of wildfire smoke’s long-term health risks continues to grow.
Posted inArticles
2024’s biggest conservation wins for the West
There were glimmers of good news across the region, from restored habitats to growing wildlife populations.
Posted inArticles
Wildfire … in winter?
Expect more fires like the fast-moving one in Malibu, scientists say.