First, a heartfelt thank-you to all who have contributed to our spring fund drive — and a quick nudge to get in on the action if you haven’t done so already! In a year when journalism is under attack and an administration in Washington is spreading chaos, your notes and contributions renew our sense of purpose. We’ve said it before, but it’s absolutely true: The West has never needed High Country News more.
Fair-minded reporting by journalists with a deep understanding of the people and places they cover is like a miracle drug for our communities. Research has shown that it can reduce polarization, increase civic engagement and decrease government waste and corruption. HCN’s journalism gives readers a sense of agency and empowers them to become a part of the conversation about the West they want to see and how we might achieve it.
With that in mind, we have renewed our efforts to put HCN in the hands of more people who care about this region. Our latest initiative is called “Roots & Range,” and we need your help to get it going. Here’s how it works:
We’re asking HCN readers to identify friends and colleagues who should be HCN readers, but aren’t. Sign up, and you become an HCN ambassador, giving gift subscriptions — at half the normal price — to people you know who are active in your communities, involved in like-minded nonprofits, or able to help support HCN financially. Think:
• Leaders at your local conservation group or environmental justice organization
• Members of your town or tribal council or county commission
• Employees or board members of your local community foundation
• Or just folks you think should be reading HCN
If you’re interested, go to the Roots & Range page on our website at hcn.org/outreach-partner. We’ll make it easy for you, and, to show our appreciation, we’ll send you free HCN swag like mugs, hats, stickers, as well as discount codes that you can share with friends and an early heads-up about upcoming events.
Farewell, beloved board members
The list of people who have served on HCN’s board of directors over the years is a truly remarkable one. It includes community and conservation leaders, scholars, award-winning authors and journalists and two current Western state governors. And now, with a lot of gratitude and a little sadness, we’re adding four more names to that list.
John Belkin leaves us after more than a decade on the board, years in which we saw leadership changes and a doubling of HCN’s budget. A former congressional staffer, he served as town attorney for Crested Butte, Colorado, and now practices law over the hill in Basalt. John was of particular help when it came to thorny legal questions. He helped us through one dispute by advising this writer to control his penchant for pointed prose: “Avoid the poison pen,” he said. Always extremely busy with his day job and raising two young boys, he often took calls while riding his mountain bike.
Dina Gilio-Whitaker and Andrea Otáñez are both stepping aside to write books, but we’re keeping them on tap as advisors to help with special projects.
An educator and scholar, Dina (Colville Confederated Tribes) lectures on American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos. She already has several books to her name, including As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock and Who Gets to Be Indian? Ethnic Fraud and Other Difficult Conversations About Native American Identity. Dina is also a surfer and has much to say about the sport’s Indigenous roots.
Andrea got her start in journalism at the Salt Lake Tribune and later worked at the Seattle Times. She’s now a teaching professor at the University of Washington and has developed curricula in Chicano studies, Latinx representation in media and the ethical imperatives of journalism in a diverse society. A student describes her on “Rate My Professor” as “knowledgeable, experienced, cool” — a judgment with which we fully concur.
Finally, happy trails to Wendy Fisher, the longtime executive director of Utah Open Lands. We’ll always be grateful for her wicked sense of humor and knack for summing up big messy conversations with a simple, enlightening turn of phrase. After a wide-ranging strategic planning meeting in Seattle in 2023, Wendy concluded that HCN is more than a magazine: “We’re in the business of building community.” We’re grateful that she and the rest of our departing board members will always be part of that community.
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 May 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Help us reach more people who care about the West.”
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