High Country News

Farmers agree to tax those who deplete groundwater

Amid drought and climate change in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, farmers vote for a new approach to rein in their overpumping of groundwater.

by Cally Carswell, Feb 25, 2013
Drought forces a new era of agricultural water conservation

Whether converting open ditches into pipelines or fallowing fields, farmers and ranchers in the West are being forced to change the ways they use water as climate-induced drought tightens its grip.

by Paul Larmer, Feb 18, 2013
Coping with two-headed fish and other effects of selenium

Researchers try to determine if unhealthy amounts of selenium are entering Western soil and water due to energy development.

by Danielle Venton, May 29, 2012
Balancing fish and farms on a Washington estuary

A restoration effort at Fisher Slough in Washington's Skagit River Delta has encouraged cooperation between farmers and environmentalists - and might even help endangered chinook salmon.

by Eric Wagner, May 08, 2012
A Colorado newspaperman fights for his valley's water

Bob Rawlings, publisher of the Pueblo Chieftain, has battled for decades to bring water to southeastern Colorado and, once it's there, to keep it no matter what.

by Matt Jenkins, Mar 26, 2012
Weighing our water options

As the rapidly growing city of Las Vegas, Nev., schemes to find more water, it reminds those of us who live outside big cities that we also need to rethink the way we use water

by Paul Larmer, Sep 19, 2005
A world built on groundwater

In Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the Great Plains, William Ashworth examines the effects of groundwater dependency in a dry land

by Matt Jenkins, Jul 24, 2006
Watch the river flow

Farmers and conservationists have reached a settlement that allows water to flow in California’s San Joaquin River, home to the Friant Dam

by Allison Gerfin, Jul 24, 2006
The Tamarisk Hunter

In the desert Southwest of 2030 Big Daddy Drought runs the show, California claims all the water, and a water tick named Lolo ekes out a rugged living removing tamarisk.

by Paolo Bacigalupi, Jun 26, 2006
Wrestling with a destiny of dryness

A Utah writer struggles with his family’s predilection to always end up living in very arid places.

by John Bennion, Nov 10, 2011