An activist collective says making buildings carbon-free is just the start.
Oregon
Posted inArticles
Will the EPA partially close a Wyoming coal plant that’s one of the nation’s largest polluters?
The decision affects the local economy and air quality — and could create an opening for renewable energy.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Free bird; lost-and-found bear; cowboy pride
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
The dizzying scope of abandoned mine hazards on public lands
As many as 500,000 abandoned mine features litter federal land, many posing environmental or physical safety hazards that especially threaten Native communities.
Posted inArticles
Western workers fight for better conditions
Ski patrollers, grocery clerks and teachers organize for fair wages and support for their jobs.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Tribes call out Oregon’s reckless gaming regulation
Using horse-racing laws, a shadowy state agency and a billionaire push for a private casino that threatens tribes’ self-sufficiency.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
A new Northwest anthology finds both terror and magic in the darkness
‘Evergreen: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest’ explores landscapes and life from the Inland Northwest to the Pacific.
Posted inArticles
Backroads backstrap
A law allowing Wyomingites to harvest roadkill goes into effect in 2022.
Posted inArticles
A federal drought relief program left southern Oregon parched
For two decades, the Bureau of Reclamation incentivized farmers to pump water faster than the resource could recover, despite warnings from its own scientists.
Posted inDecember 1, 2021: Visions of Wildness
Rekindling with fire
An Indigenous writer reclaims her relationship with fire in the landscape of her ancestors.
Posted inArticles
Books on the West we think you might like
Some brand new, some from the shelves, some for the kids and some for you.
Posted inDecember 1, 2021: Visions of Wildness
How heat waves warp ecosystems
After the Northwest ‘heat dome’ this summer, scientists look for signs of ecological ruin — or resilience.
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
The hidden fires
Keeping honest about what we burn and why.
Posted inArticles
Home after fire: A new housing model aims to give kids stability
Wildfires often hit low-income, minority families the hardest. Talent, Oregon, offers a home-grown solution to the displacement that follows.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
Collecting seeds to restore prairie grasslands
‘These youth are going to be able to take ownership of healing the land at Fort Belknap.’
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.
Posted inArticles
Why investing in libraries is a climate justice issue
For vulnerable communities, libraries are increasingly becoming a refuge in times of disaster.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
What rebuilding from wildfire looks like
A photographer intimately documents how families are recovering one year after the Almeda Fire.