High Country News

Breakdown

California's Westlands irrigation district wants to blame the tiny and endangered Delta smelt for its water troubles, but the real culprit is simply long-term drought.

by Matt Jenkins, Jan 11, 2010
A future of big fires and tiny bugs

A second-generation forest ranger considers how fire prevention and climate change are affecting the forests he once roamed with his father.

by Frank Carroll, Apr 17, 2012
The San Francisco Peaks will never be the same

An abandoned campfire is apparently to blame for the inferno now consuming the mountains outside Flagstaff, Ariz.

by Robyn Slayton-Martin, Jun 29, 2010
Why the Southwest is burning

This season’s wildfires are caused by three things: Climate change-induced drought, bureaucratic blindness and old-fashioned human folly.

by William deBuys, Jun 30, 2011
L.A. Bets on the Farm

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California – the West’s most powerful water agency – uses a shrewd blend of Wall Street tactics and rural diplomacy to keep the water flowing to L.A. and its environs.

by Matt Jenkins, Nov 12, 2007
Two weeks in the West

A look at the recent California wildfires details how much they’ve cost so far and how many acres were burned, especially in the expanding wildland-urban interface.

by Christine Hoekinga, Nov 12, 2007
Two weeks in the West

Recent elections in the West show support for land-use planning and “convergence politics”; hunting declines in the West, but Satan keeps busy in Idaho, causing divorces.

by Ray Ring, Nov 26, 2007
Two weeks in the West

Two weeks in the very arid West means dry ski slopes, destructive wildfires, unending drought and unhappy bears; timber mills are victims of housing collapse; costs of carbon dioxide and its removal.

by Jonathan Thompson, Dec 10, 2007
Planning for uncertainty

A Phoenix symposium on dealing with drought and global warming echoes the larger uncertainties facing public-land and national park managers throughout the West.

by Paul Larmer, Feb 04, 2008
Two weeks in the West

Quagga mussels hit the jackpot in Nevada; Lakes Mead and Powell are in trouble; lots and lots and lots of snow – and a few ambitious ski resorts; and Colorado is building a vegetated overpass for wildlife on I-70.

by Jonathan Thompson, Mar 03, 2008