❶ January Issue
Why the West needs prairie dogs, Christine Peterson
They’re among the region’s most despised species, but some tribes, researchers and landowners are racing to save them.
❷ February Issue
A veteran transforms a legacy of violence into a campaign for restoration, Alexander Lemons
How a former Marine found a road to repair.
❸ March Issue
The true cost of the huckleberry industry, Josephine Woolington
The Kamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation has wanted an end to commercial picking of a critical cultural resource for years. Finally, the Forest Service is expected to make a decision.
❹ April Issue
The horses and mules that moved mountains and hearts, Shi En Kim
Forest Service stock animals are indispensable to trail work on public lands in the West. Trump’s radical upheaval is accelerating the death of a unique way of life.
❺ May Issue
The toll of Bozeman’s housing crisis, Nick Bowlin
At the small city’s only emergency shelter, demand is higher and the work is harder than ever.
❻ June online exclusive
Inside Utah’s PR campaign to seize public lands, Partnership with Public Domain, Jimmy Tobias
Utah used actors, AI, stagecraft and NDAs as it sought to sway public opinion and take control of 18.5 million acres of federal public land.
❼ July Issue
Beneath the blazing sun, Black Phoenix sows community, Partnership with Capital B News, Adam Mahoney
Climate change is creating a mental health crisis in Phoenix. A budding movement in the desert might solve it.
❽ August Issue
Native languages need radio, which is at risk of being lost, Chad Bradley
With the Trump administration cutting funds for public media, Indigenous radio struggles to preserve and grow endangered tribal languages.
❾ September Issue
How an immigration raid reshaped meatpacking — and America, Partnership with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, Ted Genoways, Esther Honig and Bryan Chou
In 2006, large-scale ICE raids in Greeley, Colorado, and elsewhere, triggered massive changes to the meatpacking workplace that continue reshaping the center of the country.
❿ September Issue
The Rio Grande’s pecan problem, Partnership with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, Jeremy Miller
How Big Ag is threatening New Mexico’s water supply.
⓫ October Issue
The dried out subdivisions of Phoenix, Tony Davis
A groundwater crisis halted the construction of thousands of homes and pitted affordability against environmental concerns.
⓬ November Issue
Want flouride in the water? Too bad, Leah Sottile
Across the West, lawmakers are skipping over the will of voters and yanking fluoride.
“The work of your magazine and all who contribute are providing a vital service to the transformation that is ongoing in today’s world. No other magazine could replace the work you all do, and the unique niche that you are providing to serve the evolutionary shift to a new, more balanced, enlightened culture.”
— Scott Chausse | Paonia, Colorado
Awards & Recognition
HCN picked up 10 awards from the Indigenous Journalists Association, including:
HCN Associate Editor Anna V. Smith and Maria Parazo Rose, a reporter and spatial data analyst, won first place for “best coverage of Indigenous communities” for an investigation into state trust lands on reservations. It was part of a larger collaboration with Grist that also won this year’s Richard La Course Award — a high honor.
Staff writer B. “Toastie” Oaster won third place in the “Best environmental coverage” category for their reporting on climate and environmental obstacles faced by Indigenous communities in the Northwest, and second place for best editorial for a thoughtful piece about the challenges of describing a sacred site without sharing sensitive information.
Paul Robert Wolf Wilson’s images of tree sitters in Oregon earned him the Best News Photo prize. Other photography awards included an Indigenous celebration of Hanford, fish camps on the Yukon River, a Native-led native plants movement, and a group that is creating a gathering place for Alaska.
HCN contributors won top honors for longform magazine writing — one for a piece about a new DNA technique that could bring closure for families of missing and murdered Indigenous people, and the other for a story about tribes’ role in decommissioning dams on the Klamath River.
Real Impact: Indigenous Affairs Editor Sunnie Clahchischiligi was elected incoming board president of the Indigenous Journalists Association this year.
How Our Stories Are Shared
HCN deepens our impact by offering much of our content for re-publishing in other media outlets for no cost. Here are just a few newsrooms that shared our reporting in 2025:
Buckrail, Truthout, Grist, Undark Magazine, Canary Media, Native News Online, Environmental Health News, Alaska Beacon, Cascade PBS, Mother Jones, Colorado Times Recorder, Sierra Magazine, Vox, National Parks Coalition, WyoFile, the Arizona Mirror, the Navajo-Hopi Observer and many, many more.
Collaborations
HCN often collaborates with other newsrooms, sharing both editorial and funding resources so that we can extend our reach and delve deeply into complex issues. In 2025, we partnered with a number of outstanding newsrooms:
We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the December 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Stories with Impact.”
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
