Small farmers struggle as ag titans wheel water for profit.
California
Posted inDecember 1, 2021: Visions of Wildness
An owl army, a tire-less elk and a minor coup attempt
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
‘Our food from this land’
A new Native American restaurant plates a contemporary take on precolonial gastronomy.
Posted inArticles
Ozone pollution is on the rise in the West
Wildfires, oil and gas drilling, vehicle emissions, and climate change all combine to create more days with unhealthy levels of the colorless, odorless gas.
Posted inArticles
Judge rejects a Trump-era water contract in a win for tribes in California
A bid to benefit agribusiness has stalled again, leaving the Hoopa Valley Tribe hopeful that the next contract follows the law.
Posted inArticles
Visualizing the aquifers that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border
For the first time, scientists have mapped out the groundwater the two countries share.
Posted inArticles
150 years ago, 19 Chinese Angelenos were murdered in California
In October 1871, a frenzied mob was responsible for one of the largest lynching in Western U.S. history.
Posted inArticles
Wildfire smoke pushes migrating birds hundreds of miles out of their way
‘I was glued to my computer for days, trying to figure out what these birds were doing, because it was so clearly, obviously, not normal.’
Posted inNovember 1, 2021: The Radioactive Waste Next Door
Hmong Americans in Northern California fight wildfire — and distrust
Wary of local authorities, a community forms an ad-hoc firefighting force to defend its property.
Posted inArticles
How arson factors into California’s wildfires
While it may grab headlines, the actual sparks are much more complex.
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Black entrepreneurs built beach havens in California. Racism shut them down.
The hidden history of Santa Monica’s Black coastal enclaves.
Posted inArticles
How the U.S. legal system ignores tribal law
Elizabeth Reese, Stanford Law School’s first Native American professor, discusses the intentional marginalization of tribal legal structures.
Posted inArticles
California oil spill contaminates restored wetland
The Talbert Marsh is refuge to at least 90 species of shorebirds, and now it’s slicked with oil.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
A recovered sum; a bear with a job; a loss of goofy trees
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
Where do public lands factor into the homelessness crisis?
As the housing crisis in the West deepens, more unhoused people are making a home outside.
Posted inArticles
The public lands that kept us sane
In honor of National Public Lands Day, High Country News staff reflect on access to spaces across the West.
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After the Palisades Tahoe name change, where is the Washoe Tribe looking next?
‘This whole thing, it’s decent. It’s a decent thing to do.’
Posted inArticles
California Farmworkers Union fights to vote by mail in union elections
For a largely unorganized sector, expanded voting access would be a huge win.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
Fuel for the electrical fire
Utility equipment sparks blazes, but climate change stokes them.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
In Arizona, a radical change in juvenile detention
How a rural town transformed a juvenile facility into a safe space for teens.