In its quest to secure the U.S./Mexico border, the U.S. Border Patrol is running roughshod over huge swaths of desert wilderness with complete immunity from U.S. environmental laws. That’s what Ray Ring, a senior editor at High Country News, discovered on a recent reporting trip to the border for his feature story “Border Out of […]
Articles
Posted inArticles
Will gun control do more harm than good?
As Americans grapple with the best way to stem the tide of mass shootings that have terrorized the country in recent years, one liberal journalist and author is arguing that adding gun control laws could actually do more harm than good in the effort to make Americans safer. In his recent book “Gun Guys: A […]
Posted inArticles
Massive Colorado mudslide nearly clobbered gas wells
How much should energy developers plan for natural disaster?
Posted inArticles
Hydrocarbon inhalation added to long list of oil & gas perils
CDC investigates yet another threat for one of the deadliest industries in the nation.
Posted inArticles
The National Park Service’s diversity problem
From Yosemite to Glacier National Park to the Harriet Tubman National Monument in Maryland, the 400 parks that make up the U.S. National Park system are supposed to be the shared heritage of all Americans. Yet as Jodi Peterson reports in the current issue of High Country News, the vast majority of people who visit […]
Posted inArticles
A reluctant rebellion in the Utah desert
For ATVers at Recapture Canyon, realpolitik meets out-of-town zeal.
Posted inArticles
Will our ‘dam nation’ free its rivers?
A new film explores a growing movement to remove dams that have outlived their usefulness.
Posted inArticles
Public Record: Cliven Bundy
Court and federal documents chronicle a long history of grazing battles.
Posted inArticles
The growing concern about Arctic oil spills
New report highlights lack of preparation and gaps in understanding impacts.
Posted inArticles
Listen to HCN readers share horror stories
Sometimes when you set off across the west in search of adventure, you find a bit more than you bargained for. For our recent Travel Issue, High Country News held a “Western Travel Horror Story” contest that prompted more than 50 readers to submit stories about trips in the west that went terribly—and hilariously—wrong. For […]
Posted inArticles
Map of Colorado River pulse moving toward Sea of Cortez
Update May 16: The Colorado River has now reached the delta for the first time since the 1990s. Conservationists will study environmental effects of the pulse for years to come. Update May 13 from Karl Flessa: “Image taken Monday May 12. Tidal waters in foreground, Colorado River in background. Connection will likely take place on […]
Posted inArticles
Photos of a standoff
Armed militia members join a Nevada rancher to protest a cattle roundup from public land.
Posted inArticles
Will the Colorado River reach the Gulf of California once more?
Photographs of the historic water pulses.
Posted inArticles
The energy haves and have-nots
Will rooftop solar owners get off the grid — and leave other power users in the dark?
Posted inArticles
KDNK Radio speaks with Judith Lewis Mernit
California’s 38 million residents need energy, and since they don’t want it from coal plants, communities in the West are trying to seize an opportunity to export their renewable energy California’s way. In this episode of Sounds of the High Country, KDNK’s Eric Skalac spoke to Judith Lewis Mernit who wrote about California’s energy needs […]
Posted inArticles
Why homes are lost to wildfire
This Forest Service expert says it’s as much a sociopolitical problem as it is physical.
Posted inArticles
The future of the Sacramento Delta hangs in the balance
But few Californians seem to grasp what is at stake.
Posted inArticles
Hippos spark management debate
Nation’s most fearsome invasive species wreaks havoc on Western waterways.
Posted inArticles
Locals resist a Bakkenization of the Beartooths
South-central Montanans oppose new drilling, forewarned by fracking’s impacts in other states.
Posted inArticles
KDNK Radio speaks with writer Sierra Crane-Murdoch
In the current issue of High Country News, contributing editor Sierra Crane-Murdoch tells a sprawling tale of contamination, cancer and cover up as she tries to unravel the unsolved mystery of the Fallon, Nevada cancer cluster. For the latest edition of KDNK Radio’s Sounds of the High Country, Nelson Harvey spoke with Murdoch about what […]