High Country News

Slideshow: The tiny creatures of the Great Basin

Science writer Madeleine Nash talks about the importance of the Great Basin's springs, with photos by Thomas Nash.

by Cally Carswell, Oct 13, 2009
Rantcast: The leprechaun trap

Rants from the Hill are Michael Branch's monthly musings on life in rural Nevada. In this Rantcast, Michael Branch muses on holidays and creates a leprechaun trap with his two daughters.

by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Mar 29, 2012
Reclaiming the low country

Jared Farmer speaks in praise of Utah’s neglected “low country” landscapes – places like Utah Lake.

by Jared Farmer , Sep 11, 2008
A young wolf wanders the West

OR-7, a young Oregon wolf, has logged some 1,000 miles in his journey through the West, becoming the first wild wolf seen in California since 1924.

by Tim Lydon, Feb 09, 2012
Rantcast: The silence of desert greetings

Michael Branch muses on Mary Austin, desert loners, and why the inhabitants in his arid part of western Nevada choose to limit their interactions to a few choice syllables. Rants from the Hill are Michael Branch's monthly musings on life in rural Nevada.

by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Apr 30, 2012
Audio: Big threats to small ecosystems

Freelance science writer Madeleine Nash talks to Marty Durlin about the vulnerable springs of the Great Basin, and the threats they face from invasive species and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

by Marty Durlin, Oct 09, 2009
Great Basin scientists unleash new weapons to fight invasive cheatgrass

A trio of dedicated scientists are testing out cutting-edge ways to finally turn the tide against the Great Basin's cheatgrass invasion, as the weed continues to cause devastating fires.

by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Sep 17, 2012
Prowling the back spaces of the West

Inside an abandoned Air Force base on the Nevada-Utah border, the Center for Land Use Interpretation houses a remarkable museum of the West's human landscapes.

by Michelle Nijhuis, Feb 07, 2005
Pondering change in the Great Basin

Paleontology and geology at Summer Lake, an ancient lake bed in Oregon, have shown the Great Basin's history of dramatic change

by Pepper Trail, Sep 17, 2012
On a lonely road, time rolls to a stop

The writer travels from New York to Nevada every year, just to stop on one of the state’s empty highways and listen to the endless desert silence

by Jim Harmon, Aug 02, 2004