Meet the new environmental advocates, a diverse generation of outdoor enthusiasts and activists forging their way in the conservation movement. In this special issue, eco-minded veterans, Latinos rising, and Hopi raft guides.

Download the Digital Issue

A skipped issue, and a farewell to Bill Mitchell

Paonia, Colorado, home of High Country News, has been in the middle of a heat wave, with temperatures lurking around 90 degrees for far too long. We’re looking forward to skipping an issue, per our usual schedule, and will see you again in July! Despite the heat, Claire Goodis-Baker and Lynell Kyser of Denver stopped…

by Paige Blankenbuehler

An earned rebuke

God bless High Country News for its fearless and productive investigative reporting, as in “Justice denied” (HCN, 5/16/16). Responsible investigative journalism, perhaps above all other genres, must be precise in distinguishing between claims and evidence.  But: “ ‘They just want your money.’ What a public defender told Sue M., when asked if he could do…

by Dick Shohet

Women firefighters — not as strong but more deliberate

At least some of the hurdles faced by women in the fire service are physiological (“Trial by Fire,” HCN, 5/30/16). The larger muscle fibers of men typically provide double the strength in the upper body and about 50 percent more in the lower body. In wildfire, the gatekeeper is the “arduous pack test,” which requires…

by John Walker

Hazardous conditions

Thanks to Nathan Martin for his May 30 essay, “It’s still dangerous to be gay in Wyoming,” and the related cover story, “Trial by Fire,” by Krista Langlois. Truth be told, it’s dangerous to be gay or female most anywhere on the planet. If racism doesn’t bring us down, then homophobia and sexism might well…

by Eric Mills

It’s your land, too

A couple of weeks after a dozen or so well-armed white men and women occupied Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, announcing that they were there to help the locals “claim back their lands and resources” from the federal government, I began to wonder: Where were all the folks on the other side — the public-lands…

by Paul Larmer

Questions of preservation

The question I have yet to hear an answer to from anyone advocating for the removal of the O’Shaughnessy Dam is this: What is the plan for the Hetch Hetchy Valley after dam removal (“Under water,” HCN, 5/30/16)? My gut tells me that the Park Service and whatever corporation is running the park’s concessions would…

by Ben Wickham

Silverton needs a new vision

Jonathan Thompson’s otherwise excellent article about Silverton, Colorado’s environmental and economic woes missed a key point about the town’s economic problems (“The Gold King Reckoning,” HCN, 5/02/16). All tourist economies are not created equal, and Silverton, for whatever reason, has failed to develop tourism that can sustain the town as an alternative to past mining.…

by Tom Ribe