The agency’s legacy isn’t perfect, but the region’s air and water are cleaner now than they once were.
People & Places
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
A roadmap for nomadic love
One couple’s story of a long-distance relationship across the landscape.
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
What should a community do to protect its immigrants?
A conservative county in Colorado grapples over a new political reality for its refugee and immigrant residents.
Posted inArticles
California’s desert wildflowers burst into bright ‘super bloom’
Following the ideal combination of rain, sun and wind, blossoms abound.
Posted inArticles
West Obsessed: Travel stories, far and wide
The staff of High Country News discuss the places that make us feel small.
Posted inArticles
The dog turds lurking on our trails
A poop awareness campaign unleashed a lot of anger — some of it unexpected.
Posted inArticles
Invade, steal water: The plant spreading in Utah’s wetlands
Battling a nonnative reed to protect Great Salt Lake bird habitat.
Posted inMarch 20, 2017: The Tree Ring
HCN gets an editor-in-chief
Managing Editor Brian Calvert steps into a new role.
Posted inMarch 20, 2017: The Tree Ring
Untethered existences; Tacos in traffic; movin’ on up in Seattle
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Don’t squander your daylight savings
A writer takes a stand against daylight saving time and argues you should, too.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
An expedition through the Edgelands
This landscape isn’t always beautiful — but that’s what makes it loveable.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Cowboys with surfboards
How Hanalei, Hawaii, reflects small Western towns.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Go North, young woman
In a place no one can see you, you can see yourself more clearly.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Growing up in timber country
A writer returns to the old-growth forest of her youth.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
The Yaak Valley’s ‘Dirty Shame’
In the infamous Montana saloon, a lesson about home in harsh places.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Together we pause
Sometimes we need to stop — to think about the ways we wreak havoc in the world.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Wait — this land is my land?
A Southerner revels in the access of Western federal lands.
Posted inMarch 6, 2017: Uncomfortable Corners
Your uncomfortable Western corners
Readers respond with unique encounters and uneasy revelations in the region.
Posted inArticles
Planes, pits & snowmobiles: how scientists get good data
A day in the field as researchers wring water data from Colorado’s snowpack.
Posted inArticles
Jordan Downs’ toxic legacy
A public housing project in Los Angeles seeks to redevelop without a proper cleanup.