High Country News

Heard Around the West

Counseling councilmen; a very virtual “virtual” fence; Arizona vs. college students; trapped in a CT scan; trophy land; smelling like a dog; paying taxes with skis.

by Betsy Marston, Oct 29, 2007
Northwest Forest Plan timeline

A brief history of the Northwest Forest Plan

by Nathan Rice, Apr 29, 2013
The gray area: a conversation with artist Renee Couture

An Oregon artist reinterprets the region's timber wars.

by Sierra Crane-Murdoch, May 10, 2013
How the amount of fish you eat impacts water quality

Idaho is updating its standards for water pollutants based on how much fish residents eat.

by Sarah Jane Keller, Apr 15, 2013
Wolves: The debate is seldom rational

The great Western wolf debate is as emotional as ever.

by Wendy Beye, Jul 27, 2010
'Ghost fleet' in search of a final resting place

Newport, Ore., decides the environmental and financial risks are too great to allow Bay Bridge Enterprises, a ship-recycling firm, to dismantle decommissioned military vessels at Yaquina Bay

by Elizabeth Grossman, Feb 20, 2006
Under the radar

Homeless families aren’t found only in urban areas. They’re also struggling to survive in the rural West, as shown by the story of Barbara Trivitt and her two children, who lived in a Jeep in Coos Bay, Oregon, this fall.

by Emma Brown, Jan 22, 2007
A family of criminals and killers

In All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families, Rene Denfeld tells the disturbing story of Portland’s teen runaways, charting the path that took one of them, Danielle Marie Cox, from honor student to convicted murderer.

by Stephen J. Lyons, Jan 22, 2007
A quest for the world’s finest pinot noir

Brian Doyle’s new book, The Grail, lives up to its lively subtitle as it describes “a year ambling and shambling through an Oregon vineyard in pursuit of the best pinot noir in the whole wild world.”

by Heidi Andrew, Feb 19, 2007
A timber town learns to care for the forest

Lakeview, Ore., survived the drop in the timber economy by learning to take care of its forests

by Greg Hanscom, Sep 27, 2004