The Cobell case paid mineral royalties long due to tribal members.
Sarah Tory
Sarah Tory is a journalist based in Colorado. Previously, she was a correspondent for High Country News.
Posted inArticles
For the first time in a decade, Alaskan oil heads for Asia
Amid energy boom in lower 48, Alaska looks to sell its oil overseas.
Posted inArticles
Colorado’s river economy worth $9 billion
Outdoor recreation businesses say state water plan must do more to protect rivers.
Posted inArticles
Depression era photos from your hometown
A new Yale project allows viewers to explore 175,000 images by county.
Posted inArticles
Diversion plans for the Gila would have major impact, critics say
Small and medium-sized flows could be most affected.
Posted inArticles
Ruling green lights temporary nuclear waste storage
With no central underground depository, above-ground casks will have to do.
Posted inArticles
New Mexico delays controversial Gila vote
Many unanswered questions remain about proposals to divert the state’s last undammed major river.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
The Latest: Ruptured tailings pond spills waste in Canada
Backstory In the remote northwestern corner of British Columbia, next to Alaska, plans for large mining and hydropower projects have sounded alarm bells on both sides of the border. Critics, mostly environmentalists and tribes, warned that Canada’s resource rush threatens rivers that support a vital wild salmon fishery in both countries, and that the race […]
Posted inAugust 18, 2014: Alaska's Uncertain Food Future
A Taxonomy of Landscape
A Taxonomy of LandscapeVictoria Sambunaris, essay by Natasha Egan, short story by Barry Lopez. 126 pages with 36 page booklet, hardcover: $60. Radius Books, 2014. To create A Taxonomy of Landscape, Victoria Sambunaris traveled America’s interstates and backroads alone for months with a 5-by-7-inch wooden field camera, driven, she says, by “an unrelenting curiosity to […]
Posted inAugust 18, 2014: Alaska's Uncertain Food Future
How much water goes into your food?
Growing everyday food items requires a surprising amount of water.
Posted inGoat
Poll shows strong Latino support for conservation
Max Trujillo caught the conservation bug during childhood summers spent with his father hunting, hiking and camping in the wilderness of northern New Mexico. In the years that followed, Trujillo noticed that many Hispanic families were out enjoying the woods, but they weren’t involved in the mainstream environmental movement. “As a community, we’re grossly underrepresented, […]
Posted inGoat
Critics see GOP wildfire bill as attack on environmental protections
Forests and grasslands are smoldering across vast areas of Oregon and Washington, scorching homes and habitat in what may turn out to be a particularly gnarly fire season. Although nationally the season has been quieter than usual, intense fires have been burning in the Pacific Northwest and parts of California, and the West Coast is […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Women in Western legislatures
Which states are lagging and which lead the way?
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
New kids in town
Well, they’re not exactly kids, but HCN is pleased to welcome two new interns to our Paonia, Colorado, office for six months of journalism boot camp. And we’re also delighted that Krista Langlois, our extraordinary editorial fellow, is staying for another six months. Growing up in Toronto, new editorial intern Sarah Tory devoured books on […]
Posted inGoat
Colorado water users gird for first statewide plan
Last year, 14 years into a regional drought, forecasts predicted that as many as 2.5 million Coloradans could be without sufficient water supplies by 2050. And yet the state still had no official plan to deal with its looming water crisis. In response to the troubling situation, Governor Hickenlooper issued an executive order: Colorado needed […]
Posted inGoat
This hummingbird’s survival hinges on precipitation, new study shows
Every year, the rufous hummingbird – a tiny fire-colored ball of feathers that weighs just three grams – flies up to 3,900 miles from its winter home in Mexico all the way to Alaska. At about three inches long, the rufous takes one of the longest migratory journeys of any bird its size. Over the past several […]
Posted inGoat
Lake Mead watch: At lowest levels since 1937
For almost two decades, the white band of mineral deposits circling Arizona’s Lake Mead like a bathtub ring, has grown steadily taller, a sign that America’s largest manmade water source is in deep trouble. This week it fell to its lowest level since 1937, when Hoover Dam was completed and the reservoir filled. The record-setting […]