The Magazine

Facing possible liability for California wildfires, PG&E has embraced a strategy of frequent unscheduled power outages, much to the distress of rural residents who rely on life-saving medical devices and business owners forced to shut down during tourist season. Westerners are seeing the impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, layoffs and funding cuts. Fluoride is back in the news but not always in the water. There’s good news out there: Conservationists are finding new ways to help coho salmon, and an abandoned bridge in Idaho finds new life as a wildlife crossing. On the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, a heavy metal music festival brings joy and community to Indigenous youth. Legendary Diné-Puerto Rican ballet dancer Jock Soto is inspiring a new generation of young male dancers. The wide-open “eyes” of an aspen tree are a comforting change from the merciless glare of round-the-clock state surveillance. Echoes of the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff still haunt the characters of Jess Walter’s new novel, So Far Gone.

“You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry,” an old blues song mourns, and ambitious developers and would-be homebuyers in Phoenix, Arizona, would probably agree, now that planned subdivisions have been curtailed owing to the region’s lack of groundwater. Elsewhere, affordable housing is being built in Ventura County, California, where farmworkers have long struggled to find decent housing. Like mourners at a bedside vigil, tree-lovers watch as the Oregon ash succumbs to invasive insects. Dedicated researchers are working to restore Colorado’s high-altitude peatlands. In Arctic Alaska, scientists are studying the soundscape of the ocean underneath the ice, where the songs of bowhead whales compete with the increasing noise of sea-going traffic. In such a rapidly changing world, how do we hold on to the things that shaped us? A curious rancher ponders what the world looks like through the eyes of her cattle. Westerners hoping to reconnect with nature should begin by accepting their local landscape despite its imperfections.

Old photos can give us a nostalgic, black-and-white glimpse into the world of the past. But sometimes what they don’t show is as revealing as what they do. In this issue, we highlight a little-known episode of Indigenous history, when the U.S. government decided to reduce the Navajo sheep population, ostensibly for the land’s sake. Photographer Milton Snow documented that period, and yet not a single dead animal appears in his work. Across the West, data centers devour energy and guzzle precious water, while budget cutbacks threaten Indigenous radio. What was it like to be one of the first female hotshots? Development encroaches on California’s West Coyote Hills. Can nest boxes help save the American kestrel? Western rivers are decidedly queer and often disabled, too. Julie Green’s paintings of prisoners’ last meals force viewers to acknowledge the humanity of the condemned. When calling 911 isn’t enough, community paramedic programs help vulnerable people.

If our July issue doesn’t make you want to spend time in the garden, it will certainly make you hungry for fresh produce. Our visual feature introduces readers to Second Generation Seeds, a collective that preserves Asian heritage seeds, food and culture. Gardening once brought Black families together in South Phoenix. Now, activists hope that reviving it will help restore community, create a green refuge from the heat and ease the stress of climate change. Western foods, like Westerners, are surprisingly diverse. Both landscapes and communities need clean water, but three years after New Mexico’s largest fire, ash and mud still pollute the Las Vegas area’s watershed. If we want clean water, we must preserve the West’s increasingly vulnerable wetlands. Restoring Sonora, Mexico’s grasslands will help protect North American birds. Indigenous leaders from around the world gathered at the U.N. to defend their right to make free and informed decisions. Can our fear of climate change bring us together? In today’s troubled world, scientists cannot hide behind neutrality.

HCN prides itself on delving into messy news stories, and in this issue, we do so quite literally, digging into the garbage business via a controversial proposed landfill in Oregon. Life at the Forest Service is equally messy in a different way, with biologists facing uncertainty and chaos as they prepare for the summer’s fieldwork. But there’s also good news: The Siletz Tribe plans to reintroduce sea otters to the waters off Oregon and Northern California, and a worker-owned solar co-op is bringing new energy — and not just electric — to its community. Despite all the obstacles, wolves are returning to the West, and some Western Republicans are joining with Democrats to fight proposed public-land sales. In Lisa Elmaleh’s deeply moving photographs, we come fact-to-face with the migrants struggling to cross the border and reach the “promised land.” A variety of artists are finding inspiration in the life and death of glaciers, and a pioneering lesbian photographer merged with the Earth through her artwork.

When times get hard, Westerners find ways to help out. The folks who run Bozeman, Montana’s only year-round shelter, for example, do a lot more than provide beds for unhoused neighbors on cold winter nights. In Phoenix, Arizona, and throughout the West, Spanish-language radio keeps listeners informed as well as entertained. California wildlife managers collaborate with ranchers and wolf advocates to help ease the toll predators take on livestock, and Colorado’s rural electric co-ops remain determined to go green despite funding delays. Meanwhile, Jackson, Wyoming’s residents wrestle with overtourism. In just 60 days, DOGE has managed to wreak havoc throughout the West. Tribal communities lack the resources they need to fight wildfires, and recently fired Forest Service workers mourn the end of a hard but fulfilling lifestyle. Don’t give up: We can change our climate-destroying behavior. Westerners know how to have fun, ice fishing in Alaska and cruising Albuquerque’s streets in colorful lowriders. Is there anything on Earth more absurd than a Cybertruck?

In challenging times, it’s good to remember that many Westerners remain determined to create a better world. In this issue, we learn about the young Montanans who successfully sued for the right to a clean environment, and we meet four young Alaska Natives fighting for conservation in the northernmost state. Westerners have always argued about how to handle wild horses, but a few are trying to solve the problem one horse at a time, training and finding homes for wild mustangs. Good intentions aren’t always enough: In Utah, a small museum built to preserve a World War II prison camp wounded the Japanese American community’s trust by mishandling a rediscovered monument. A Boise neighborhood uses zoning laws to halt a homeless shelter’s expansion, and bird flu is infecting Western wildlife. Are we on the brink of a nuclear renaissance? Museums need more Indigenous curators. Author Rebecca Nagle discusses recent Indigenous Supreme Court victories, and Nina McConigley muses on the meaning of home.

Seems like Westerners always want more. Take the already shrinking wetlands of the endangered Great Salt Lake, which a quasi-governmental agency is determined to industrialize. Or southwestern Washington’s huckleberries, which have been carefully stewarded by an Indigenous nation despite constant federal mismanagement and an influx of commercial pickers. In Oregon, a proposed plant wants to use animal fat and cooking oil to produce low-carbon diesel fuel for jets and trucks, but local farmers and conservationists remain unconvinced. Suppose you reopened a Utah coal mine and nobody wanted to work there? Public-lands tourism is outpacing mining and drilling, and Everett, Washington, just gave legal standing to the Snohomish River’s watershed. Generations of boarding schools and Indigenous teaching shaped Charles Sams, first Native director of the National Park Service. In Los Angeles, Filipino American activists celebrate their participation in recent teachers’ strikes, and a speculative film and video game imagines a different future for the city. Meanwhile, a roadrunner inspires a Southwestern writer to undertake a cosmetic makeover.

These are challenging times for everybody who cares about the West, but High Country News sees reasons for hope in the region’s inspiring inhabitants — people like Papay Solomon, an Arizona artist whose breathtaking portraits celebrate his fellow African immigrants, and Alexander Lemons, a veteran who helped heal the trauma of his past through his work in habitat restoration. Researchers tackle new strategies to save the imperiled black abalone, and Western governments continue the energy transition despite President Trump’s opposition. Department of Energy grants help Utah prepare for coal power plant closures, while Western volunteers acquire firsthand experience in lighting and controlling prescribed fire. Indigenous immigrants are especially threatened by the Trump administration’s policies, and unhoused pedestrians are disproportionately likely to be killed on California’s highways. Elsewhere, an Alaska Native adapts to life in the city, and a poet confronts wildfire in her latest collection.

In our first issue of 2025, instead of taking you down a rabbit hole, we hung out at a prairie dog burrow, where researchers are learning about how this underappreciated species helps sustain an entire ecosystem. In Nevada, what seemed like a good idea went up in smoke after a few non-Native investors tried to start a cannabis farm on Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone territory. Tribes in the West face a multitude of challenges, judging by Project 2025 and the plans of the incoming Trump administration. How, exactly, did voting patterns in the West break down last November? Wind energy workers organize to keep each other safe in a perilous industry, and trained resource advisors help protect parks and cultural sites from wildfires. After years of negotiating, the Northern Arapaho Tribe rejoiced when over 200 priceless cultural items were returned to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. A writer welcomes a new year with something better than resolutions.

In HCN’s December issue, people, animals and the land itself struggle to reclaim and restore their territory. A Black family is denied access to their own property in California, raising questions about the role of land in reparations, while a New Mexico writer works to restore a forest after a devastating wildfire. The Navajo Nation fights border-town bigotry in Farmington, New Mexico, and in Denver, Colorado, immigrants launch a new rideshare co-op. Salmon reclaim waterways above the former site of the Klamath River dams, while scientists expand their knowledge of the Pacific brant, North America’s favorite goose. What do pension funds have to do with Oregon clear-cuts? Climate change is bringing extremely weird weather to the Western U.S. Exponent II, a magazine for Mormon feminists, celebrates 50 years of stirring the pot. Rez Ball is a breakthrough in basketball movies: a family-friendly Indigenous movie, made by Indigenous people. Finally, how a little-known painter of gay erotica helped blue jeans become sexy.

This month, we explore the wheat-growing country of eastern Washington, where locals are working to restore the once-flourishing grasslands of the Palouse Prairie. We also visit an Alaska Native community on the Yukon River whose residents are determined to preserve their cultural traditions despite a seven-year ban on fishing for chinook. In Arizona, the Apache trout is recovering, largely due to the tireless efforts of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. Skagit County, Washington, is divided over how much agritourism is too much. Can New Mexico’s riverside bosque survive rising temperatures and drought? Wildfire survivors in California find healing by spending time among trees. Climate change, with its intensifying heat waves, winter storms and wildfires, is bound to start affecting electric bills. People in Carnation, Washington, are worried about the nearby Tolt Dam’s early warning system. Today’s quinceañeras are not your grandmother’s 15th birthday celebrations. Pam Houston tackles abortion in a new book, and a formerly rural Alaska Native searches for blueberries in the city.

This month, we look at the upcoming elections from a Western viewpoint. Some Latino organizers in Washington are working on behalf of local elections, while others pursue the swing vote in Arizona and Nevada. Why are some Indigenous voters uncomfortable with the idea of voting, and with being U.S. citizens? A wide variety of downballot issues confront Westerners this year. Ten years after the notorious standoff at Bunkerville, Nevada, Cliven Bundy’s false notion of “white oppression” has become part of the political mainstream. Butte, Montana’s water supply, like that of many mountain communities, is threatened by wildfires. Nationwide, 2 million acres of state-owned “trust lands” lie inside reservation boundaries, leaving tribal members unable to access their own lands. Black Northwesterners cherish the memory of award-winning poet Colleen McElroy. The daughter of immigrants struggles to explain the idea of “invasive species” to her children, and complex ethical issues arise when an Indigenous journalist tries to write about sacred sites for non-Native readers.

Both of September’s feature stories take us deep into the desert. The Border Patrol has an inherent conflict of interest: chasing and deporting undocumented migrants while rescuing those who get lost or injured trying to elude its agents. Artist Michael Heizer sees Nevada’s rugged desert as an empty canvas for his massive projects rather than a natural landscape and the home of Indigenous people. Portland, Oregon’s industrial hub is at serious risk from earthquakes. Venezuelan immigrants turn to social media to combat vicious stereotypes. HCN interviews Indigenous leaders about the Interior Department’s overdue acknowledgement of the damage caused by the Columbia River’s dams. How can California’s cities protect themselves from climate change-caused flooding? Scientists are studying how wildlife adapted when a landslide closed the road through Alaska’s Denali National Park. We take a close-up, colorful look at the essential but imperiled western bumblebee. Butterflies have lessons to teach about queer survival, and an iconic Western chain store goes out of business.

Extreme weather, exacerbated by human-caused climate change, is a fact of life in the West today. This month, we look at how two Latino farm families fought to recover physically, economically and emotionally after record-breaking storms hit California in 2023. In Washington, the Yakama people are determined to restore ancestral lands polluted by nuclear weapons production at the Hanford Site. How do birds cope with wildfire smoke? Low-income, marginalized and unhoused urban residents are uniquely vulnerable to extreme heat. Eagle Mountain, Utah, tries to reconcile rapid development with wildlife migration, and the West says goodbye to a legendary mule deer. Is there enough water in the arid West to satisfy the microchip industry’s thirst? New Mexico takes a surprising lead in early childhood education. The remarkable Native leader who fought colonization and gave his name to the Little Shell Chippewa people is remembered. How do we find the right words to discuss climate change? Romance novels are for Indigenous readers, too, and blueberry-picking is an Alaska family tradition.

This month, HCN goes bird-watching, checking up on the health of two fascinating birds. Can the Wilson’s phalarope help save Utah’s Great Salt Lake? And will the long-billed curlew find refuge on New Mexico’s ranchlands? In Idaho, the Nez Perce turn to solar power to replace hydroelectric dams and help salmon recover. The Yakama Nation supports renewable energy, but not if it’s going to destroy the tribe’s sacred sites. Who should pay when utilities are responsible for wildfire damage? Pollution is easy to create but hard to get rid of: Thousands of abandoned mines are contaminating Western rivers, and Canadian mine waste is flowing downriver into Montana and Idaho. Louis Carlos Bernal, the father of Chicano art photography, lives on through his work. California artists celebrate the beauty of the Pacific’s endangered kelp forests, while the short film Mirasol: Looking at the Sun examines how water scarcity is affecting a small Colorado farming community. In Wyoming, Nina McConigley discovers what a difference a good dog makes.

As New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness Area — the nation’s first designated wilderness — turns 100, HCN considers how the nature — and concept — of wilderness have changed over the years. Political conflict, violence and bigotry have deep roots in the Western U.S., as the history of Centralia, Washington, reveals. A group of unhoused Californians […]

The West is always in motion, a place of constant change and contradiction. Condos rise as dams fall: Latino immigrants journey thousands of miles to build houses for millionaires in Montana, while Northwest tribes take the lead on restoration as dams come down and the Klamath River is reborn. Throughout the West, some groups try […]

Life is on the move in our April issue. Every spring, Wyoming’s mule deer navigate deserts, highways and oil and gas fields to reach their summer range, and now their travel corridors are in need of protection. Can drones help mitigate predator-livestock conflicts?  Native plant landscaping is increasingly popular, but unregulated harvesting has environmental impacts […]