Sagebrush Rebellion flareups cooled off after Bundy arrests but the standoff’s effects ripple out.
Idaho
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How to share a dammed river
Boaters are joining wildlife advocates, farmers and power companies to parcel out each cubic foot of Western rivers.
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States propose scaling back safeguards for grizzlies
New information surfaces about how Idaho, Wyoming and Montana would manage the bears after a delisting this fall.
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The land transfer movement’s great public-lands hoax
Idaho has sold off 40 percent of its state lands. Why would it do any different with formerly federal lands?
Posted inMay 16, 2016: Grizzly Face-Off
As delisting looms, grizzly advocates prepare for a final face-off
The Yellowstone grizzly population is poised to lose its endangered status, leaving protection in the hands of the states.
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Science trumps politics for wolverines
A court ruling may force wolverines onto the endangered species list, and open the door for other animals threatened by climate change.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
A photographer turns his lens on small-town bliss
A new exhibit in Denver, Colorado, looks at happiness in the rural West, focusing on Bliss, Idaho.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
Latest: Wyoming drafts a Yellowstone grizzly management plan
The plan could eventually include regulated hunting of the bears.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
Menace at the edge of sanctuary
In “The Animals,” a wildlife rescuer faces his ugly past.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Latest: Courts backs domestic sheep reduction near Idaho’s Hells Canyon
An Idaho court upheld a 2007 plan intended to protect bighorn sheep.
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Western states struggle to reform recreational streambed mining
Recent bills to change suction dredging regulations faltered in Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
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Should this national monument become a national park?
An Idaho town hopes changing Craters of the Moon to park status will boost its economy.
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Sieges like the Oregon standoff turn the rural West into a political stage
The armed protesters occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon have indicated that they will leave if the locals so desire. Well, it’s time for them to go: Harney County residents, who just held a huge community meeting about this invasion, seemed to heartily agree that they want the vigilantes to pack their […]
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In Idaho, rancher buyouts take a big step forward
Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains seem like an unlikely place for the beginning of a positive shift in public-land management. They gleam high and cold above the seemingly endless sagebrush plains of southern Idaho, one of the most conservative states in the West. Yet it was here last year that Republicans worked with environmentalists to plant […]
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
Why Westerners die at the hands of cops
Jack Yantis, an Idaho rancher, raised the profile of rural police brutality.
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How Arrowrock Dam is supporting corporate farming
Water runs uphill toward money from Arrowrock Dam on the Boise River, where the Bureau of Reclamation first pioneered high-rise concrete dams that transformed the face of the West. Thanks to Arrowrock, the wealthiest 10 percent of its water users control 75 percent of the water. Mostly large corporations, they pay about a dime for […]
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Are nonprofit models an answer for small ski areas?
As climate and economic challenges mount, some community ski hills find a new path.
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Mapping fish die-offs in warming waters
Help High Country News identify trouble spots for West Coast fish runs.
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Idaho and BLM flout conservation laws for fallen officers
On May 13, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the federal Bureau of Land Management tried to honor two fallen Idaho wildlife officers in a most unfortunate way: They did so by violating federal conservation laws. The story begins back in 1981, when two Idaho conservation officers, Bill Pogue and Conley Elms, were […]
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Five Western waterways worse than the orange Animas
Colorado’s Animas River has gotten the most attention — but it’s hardly alone.