High Country News

(Don't) Let it burn

A "temporary" policy change requires Forest Service firefighters to put out fires they might have let burn in previous years, for fear of them raging out of control.

by Emily Guerin , Sep 02, 2012
Notes from a wildfire refugee

When wildfire forces locals to flee their beloved Colorado homes, people begin to talk more openly than they used to about climate change.

by John Calderazzo, Jun 27, 2012
Fire and ancient forests belong together

Matthew Koehler says that fire and old-growth forests are longtime allies, not natural foes.

by Matthew Koehler, Jan 15, 2009
This is the time to make land management make sense

Ed Quillen has suggestions for how to fix the West by consolidating the federal land agencies and charging people to build in Stupid Zones.

by Ed Quillen, Dec 22, 2008
Change we could believe in

How to fix the West by consolidating land agencies and charging people to build in Stupid Zones.

by Ed Quillen, Dec 22, 2008
Can the Forest Service get back on track?

Recovering integrity and efficiency after President Bush leaves office.

by Chris Wood, Nov 06, 2008
Trapped by fire on a mountain lookout

Dixie Boyle recalls the Trigo Fire, which came unnervingly close to the lookout she staffed in the Manzano Mountains of New Mexico.

by Dixie Boyle, Sep 24, 2008
All along the watchtower

Andrew McNair, who works weekends at a computer in Olympia, Wash., is not your typical Western fire watcher.

by Eric Wagner , Sep 02, 2008
Fire, fire everywhere

Despite the growing threat of Western wildfire, most of us are still pretending it will go away if we just ignore it.

by Jonathan Thompson , Sep 02, 2008
A Wyoming forest yearns to burn

Bill Sniffin warns that Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest is ready to go up in flames.

by Bill Sniffin, Aug 06, 2007