This month, the U.S. Justice Department will argue for a chance to retry Cliven Bundy and his supporters for their armed standoff with federal officers in 2014, following a mistrial two years ago. Lately, one of Cliven’s sons, Ammon, has been traveling around the West, looking for a place to spark another conflict, “an eager, strike-anywhere match,” as HCN Correspondent Leah Sottile writes. The Western United States is full of flashpoints, and in this issue we re-examine many of them.
From Nevada, Editorial Fellow Kalen Goodluck reports on the Pyramid Lake Paiute’s reintroduction of bighorn sheep to tribal land from which the animal had been absent for nearly a century. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who has already derailed dozens of environmental protections, is now targeting one of the nation’s most important laws, the National Environmental Policy Act.
As High Country News moves into its 50th year, we hope to show readers the Western U.S. in full, so that anyone who lives in the region (or watches it from afar) will understand it better. As editor-in-chief, I hope that we can help you make meaningful decisions about this unique place, and that we’ll inform, inspire and challenge you to act on its behalf. It is our aim to reintroduce you, again and again, to this complicated West.
Brian Calvert is the editor-in-chief of High Country News.
Email him at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. Follow @brcalvert
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Reintroductions.
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