In this issue, Westerners struggle to cope with the effects of our nation’s politics and policies. Our feature story delves into how right-wing extremists, responding to pandemic recommendations, are causing public health officers to step down across the West. Meanwhile, families who can’t afford skyrocketing rents are camping year-round on public land and often finding it’s not easy. The sparks are flying between utility equipment and climate change. But there’s also good news: Oregon families are rebuilding houses — and lives — after last year’s fires, while St. Johns, Arizona, decided its at-risk youth needed a youth center more than juvenile detention. In north-central Montana, Aaniiih and Nakoda youth reclaim their heritage by restoring the prairie, while elsewhere in the state, volunteers remove fences that impede migrating wildlife. Jason Asenap reflects on the need for more Indigenous critics to discuss Indigenous films and TV series, and a Washington writer wonders if nature can mend the growing political fractures in her tiny community.

Tyrus Brockie, a member of the Aaniiih Tribe, collects seeds on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana as part of a grasslands restoration partnership between the Fort Belknap Indian Community and the Bureau of Land Management. Credit: Tailyr Irvine/High Country News

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A Hostile Country

Very well done! Many thanks (“A Hostile Country,” September 2021). Before your description, I was not fully aware of the obstacles wolves encounter heading south from Wyoming. It explains why there have been so few in Colorado. In contrast, they have done well west of the Yellowstone/ Wyoming/Idaho area where they were reintroduced back in…

by David McCord

Casitas against displacement

Great story on accessory dwelling units, or ADUs (“Casitas against displacement,” August 2021). You covered different approaches and dug into the up- and downsides. Not saying that’s unusual for HCN, but just wanted to pass on my compliments. Jim Hight Buena Vista, Colorado This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the…

by Jim Hight

Derailed

I was pleased to see “Derailed,” the piece on the Yamhelas Trail project (July 2021). Leah Sottile did a very nice job on the whole sad, sordid mess. It is mind-boggling how such a positive project, popular (except for a select few), could get derailed (pun intended) by said select few. What is all the…

by Craig R. Busskohl

Fish kill on the Klamath

Anna V. Smith’s report on the Klamath River fish kill in the July edition (“Ongoing fish kill on the Klamath River is an ‘absolute worst-case scenario,’” July 2021) mentions the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which failed to pass Congress. The report failed to note that, if it had become law, it would have locked in…

by Felice Pace

Our greater selves

Before reading Maggie Doherty’s review (“The making of our greater selves,” September 2021), I had just been listening to a podcast called Telling Our Twisted Histories. The show, hosted by Kaniehtiio Horn (Mohawk), seeks to “decolonize our minds” by setting the record straight about Indigenous history, culture and thought. I haven’t read Douglas Chadwick’s Four…

by Zoé Edgecomb

Rewilding is a two-way street

Thank you for vindicating my suspicions that deer read the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (“Rewilding is a two-way street,” July 29, 2021). Will re-up my subscription. Wendy WolfsonIrvine, Colorado This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Rewilding is a two-way street.

by Wendy Wolfson

Sucked dry

Killing the land, pumping the aquifers dry, disturbing the entire ecosystem … for what?  Maybe 25 years before it is abandoned because there is nothing left!?  This was the most depressing and disturbing article (“Sucked Dry,” August 2021); it was all I could do to finish it. We will end up destroying ourselves, guaranteeing we will…

by Donna Buessing