High Country News

A Q&A with former Colorado National Monument head Joan Anzelmo

The retired Park Service superintendent stands by her controversial decision not to allow a major bike race in the monument, and continues to be passionate about preserving landscapes.

by Emilene Ostline, Jan 08, 2012
Blood spills over a $14 camping fee

In the wake of a confrontation over a camping fee that ended in a tourist’s death, a former park ranger remembers a frightening incident from his own career

by Jim Stiles, Oct 17, 2005
Business booster still guides national park rules

Conservationists fear that the new National Park Service management policy will reduce environmental protection at the expense of commercial interests

by Brodie Farquhar, Nov 14, 2005
The year 2011, in apocalyptic weather events

Fire and flood, snowstorms and droughts, downburst winds and desert haboobs -- 2011 brought incredibly wacky weather to the West.

by Jonathan Thompson, Dec 25, 2011
Eggstraction

A California condor chick hatches in Pinnacles National Monument, the first one born there in a century.

by Rachel Waldholz, May 09, 2010
A good ranger stands up to bad bureaucrats

National Park Service ranger Robert Danno is still being punished by the agency he loves, despite being vindicated for his work as a whistleblower eight years ago.

by Andrea Lankford, Apr 20, 2012
Paul Fritz left a unique legacy for the Park Service

The late Paul Fritz is remembered as a conservationist whose years in the Park Service reflect a man who was independent and outspoken.

by Stephen Stuebner, Jan 29, 2001
Jim Detterline to the rescue

Park Ranger Jim Detterline battles the agency he loves over its insistence that a hearing impairment makes him unfit for his job.

by Michelle Blank, Dec 10, 2007
Unnatural Preservation

Public-land managers in the era of global warming face uncomfortable choices: Do they intervene to protect dying plants and animals, or stand back and let this new version of “nature” take its course?

by M. Martin Smith and Fiona Gow, Feb 04, 2008
Xerox copiers and black helicopters

A tongue-in-cheek consideration of Colorado Republican Scott McInnis' search for waste at the Department of Interior, the closing of national parks and the Christian Coalition's involvement in both.

by Ed Marston, Jun 26, 1995