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Manufactured homes for the birds

Zoologist David Olson and his colleagues are trying to create artificial cacti to house the rare coastal cactus wren, whose cholla cactus habitat is being threatened by California’s recent wildfires.
Power of the picture

High Country News photographer Morgan Heim joins the International League of Conservation Photographers to document the gasfields and the wildlands around Pinedale, Wyo.
Dear friends

High Country News intern program, Paonia, Colorado, Andrea Appleton, Rob Inglis, Emily Steinmetz
Tribes make a controversial deal on salmon

Rocky Barker says four Northwestern tribes stopped fighting the federal government over dam-breaching on the Snake River largely because they could read the political writing on the walls.

More Letters

Concert-goers and bird-watchers

Visitors en route to other adventures stop by the High Country News office.
Power of the picture

High Country News photographer Morgan Heim joins the International League of Conservation Photographers to document the gasfields and the wildlands around Pinedale, Wyo.
Watch the river flow

In western Colorado, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park wins an important water claim.
Dewey Bridge: In memoriam

Jim Stiles remembers Utah’s historic Dewey Bridge, which was destroyed by a fire recently.

$A fractured elephant$ politics & policy July 21, 2008 by Ray Ring
A fractured party

Will the GOP find new life in the West's green politics?
flora & fauna July 21, 2008 by Joseph Sorrentino
Manufactured homes — for the birds

PVC pipe and barbed wire masquerade as cholla
water July 21, 2008 by Rob Inglis
Watch the river flow

The Black Canyon wins a water claim
culture & communities July 21, 2008 by Rebecca Clarren
'Si, se puede'

Dolores Huerta continues to inspire after 50 years

Bears saved from the 'burbs

Finding room for grizzly bears through the Montana Legacy Project.
Power of the picture

High Country News photographer Morgan Heim joins the International League of Conservation Photographers to document the gasfields and the wildlands around Pinedale, Wyo.
Manufactured homes for the birds

Zoologist David Olson and his colleagues are trying to create artificial cacti to house the rare coastal cactus wren, whose cholla cactus habitat is being threatened by California’s recent wildfires.
A fractured party

The Grand Old Party will either find a new life – or court self-destruction – in the West today, where moderates and hard-liners are battling over conservation issues.
Solar flip-flops and fish stories

BLM flip-flops on solar and expedites oil and gas; Western Governors’ Association talks about energy; more fossil fuel risks; good (and bad) salmon news.
Home is where the guilt is

In Santa Fe, N.M., April Reese wrestles with the question of whether owning a new house is worth being responsible for the bulldozing of pinon and juniper trees.

More hcn today

Heard around the West
Battle of the bag bans

Wealthy Colorado towns race to eliminate disposable bags.
The GOAT Blog
The many faces of rural America

Four types, ranging from the affluent to the impoverished.
Heard around the West
Drivers with attitudes

Bumper stickers may correlate with road rage.
Heard around the West
Moe's great escape

A pet chimpanzee makes a break for freedom.
Heard around the West
Add Mormon flare to your closet

Polygamous wives sew a new future.

Slideshow: Wild horses go wanting

BLM auction draws few bidders
Slideshow: Ultra runner Nikki Kimball

Anne Sherwood's photos of ultra runner Nikki Kimball, who finds sublime summits and hellish depths in 100-mile endurance contests.
Slideshow: A geologist's story

Faye Geiger, who worked as an exploration geologist at the Lisbon Valley Mine in Utah, talks about her experience.
Video: Wolves in Paradise (excerpt)

An excerpt from a documentary telling the story of ranchers and wolves in southwest Montana

The debate that won’t happen

Even though the West is supposed to be a key battleground in this year’s election, so far the presidential candidates have managed to avoid addressing Western issues.
A fractured party

The Grand Old Party will either find a new life – or court self-destruction – in the West today, where moderates and hard-liners are battling over conservation issues.

Watch the river flow

In western Colorado, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park wins an important water claim.
Taos' return to the acequias

38 years of meetings and a price-tag of $120 million formalize old agreements

More Water

'Si, se puede'

Latino activist Dolores Huerta continues to inspire and organize after 50 lively years.
Unlikely alliance?

In most of the West’s complicated environmental problems, so-called “unlikely alliances” between greens and their opposite numbers are really not that unlikely after all.

Power of the picture

High Country News photographer Morgan Heim joins the International League of Conservation Photographers to document the gasfields and the wildlands around Pinedale, Wyo.
A little regulation can be a very good thing

Jim Spehar says proposed new regulations won’t harm western Colorado’s oil and gas industry and may do a lot to help the rest of the region’s economy survive the current boom.

More Energy

Don’t call plugging wolves hunting

Derek Goldman criticizes Wyoming’s policy that allows wolves to be shot on sight.
We thought we were safe

Gordon Gregory watched the house he’d spent four years building go up in flames, then had to flee a rental home when another fire bore down on him and his family near the smoky town of Paradise.

Power of the picture

High Country News photographer Morgan Heim joins the International League of Conservation Photographers to document the gasfields and the wildlands around Pinedale, Wyo.
Home is where the guilt is

In Santa Fe, N.M., April Reese wrestles with the question of whether owning a new house is worth being responsible for the bulldozing of pinon and juniper trees.

More Essays

Dreaming of a New Deal for nature

A review of Neil M. Maher's book, "Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement," which reminds us that to succeed, an environmental policy must reckon compromise.
Solo journeys, life lessons

In the nine essays gathered in her new book, Hiking Alone, poet and artist Mary Beath celebrates nature from the point of view of an independent woman.