High Country News

A new normal for snow

The dry 2000s means snow trackers have to adjust "normal" downward.

by Sarah Jane Keller, Feb 04, 2013
The Ghosts of Yosemite

Modern-day scientists, retracing the path of Joseph Grinnell in Yosemite National Park, document conspicuous changes in the natural world and find a culprit unimagined by biologists 100 years ago: global warming

by Michelle Nijhuis, Oct 17, 2005
In the Great Basin, scientists track global warming

Wildlife biologist Erik Beever says that as the climate warms in the Great Basin, pikas are rapidly disappearing from mountains where they formerly thrived

by Michelle Nijhuis, Oct 17, 2005
States lead charge against global warming

With the federal government dragging its feet, Western states are beginning to take action to deal with greenhouse gas emissions and global warming

by April Reese, Oct 17, 2005
Toothy nuisance moves north

Nutria, destructive beaver-like mammals from South America, are moving into the Skagit River Valley of northwestern Washington, and some believe a warming climate is to blame

by Emma Brown, Oct 31, 2005
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
Sierra Club fights Keystone XL with civil disobedience

The act will be the first of its kind sanctioned by the group’s board of directors in its 120 year history, and may push the conversation over the controversial tar-sands oil pipeline to a new level.

by Judith Lewis Mernit, Feb 18, 2013
Can animals evolve quickly enough to survive global warming?

What can rapid evolution in response to climate change teach us about managing nature?

by Michelle Nijhuis , Feb 05, 2012
Computer model slices and dices mountain climates

In Oregon's H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, scientists study climate patterns.

by J. Madeleine Nash, Oct 04, 2010
A ski town contributes mightily to paleontology

The fossils found near Colorado's Snowmass Village have a lot to teach us: not just about mastodons and mammoths, but also about the climate and ecosystem that existed tens of thousands of years ago.

by Allen Best, Nov 30, 2011