High Country News

California's carbon market may succeed where others have failed

The Golden State's new cap-and-trade program aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions while avoiding the pitfalls of similar attempts.

by Brendon Bosworth, Apr 19, 2013
Book review: Quilts: California Bound, California Made 1840-1940

Sandi Fox pairs full-page color images of quilts with historical narrative, excerpts from diaries, period photos and illustrations to shed light on the lives of early Californians.

by Staff, Feb 18, 2013
Giving names to smoke and fire

Why do we name fires?

by Jaime O'Neill , Sep 06, 2012
Primrose focus of legal dustup

Environmentalists and ORV groups accuse the BLM of dragging its feet over implementing a plan to protect an endangered flower in California’s Clear Creek Management Area

by Patrick Farrell, Aug 08, 2005
Feeding the deer

A rural Californian doesn't apologize for feeding the deer that hang out near his mountain home.

by Jaime O'Neill, Jan 25, 2012
Water-quality standards unfairly burden rural communities

The plight of a small water and sewer association in rural Mora, N.M -- caught in a tangle of federal and state clean water rules it can’t afford to meet -- echoes experienced by other rural communities around the West.

by Judith Lewis Mernit, Dec 20, 2011
Painting for progress

Artist Joan Hoffman pours her love of wilderness into her paintings, and uses her art as a way to fight for the environment

by Jennie Lay, Mar 20, 2006
Heard around the West

Dirk Kempthorne and luxury RVs; The Farmer Wants a Wife, maybe; no rules (or bras) at Sturgis; look before you pee; hard-working Washington pot-growers; Arizona’s biggest marijuana farm; with defense lawyers like this one, who needs a prosecutor?; and big bird with a bad grip

by Betsy Marston, Sep 04, 2006
California's high-speed rail is slow to gain speed

The U.S. continues to trail the rest of the world in high-speed rail development, as California's long-planned bullet train is delayed yet again.

by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Nov 27, 2011
Heard around the West

"Pit bulls with flippers" in Newport Beach; mountain lion problems; Lewis the Cat; don’t try this on the highway; Fighting Sioux fight for sports team name

by Betsy Marston, Jul 24, 2006