High Country News

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
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
A long walk into hope

Bill McKibben’s new book, Wandering Home, is a hopeful account of a leisurely hike across northeastern America, as relevant to the West as it is to the East

by George Sibley, Oct 31, 2005
Utah's ancient Lake Bonneville holds clues to the West's changing climate

In Utah, scientists are exploring the site of a long-vanished inland sea called Lake Bonneville to understand the West's past - and future - climate.

by Douglas Fox, Nov 07, 2011
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
Religious leaders shouldn't duck their responsibility

Western religious leaders need to speak out more strongly on the dangers of climate change.

by Tim Lydon, Feb 06, 2011
Greens need to occupy the Occupy movement

Today's activists need to get more involved in protesting the environmental profiteering that is destroying our planet.

by Tim Lydon, Dec 15, 2011
INNOVATE, Part I

Westerners have a knack for new and innovative thinking, as this special issue of HCN shows.

by Ray Ring, Tom Beal, Emily Underwood, Terray Sylvester, Sarah Gilman, Mar 09, 2009
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