Feature

A fractured party

The Grand Old Party will either find a new life – or court self-destruction – in the West today, where moderates and hard-liners are battling over conservation issues.

Editor's Note

Don't fence Western Republicans in

Some moderate Western Republicans, tired of being penned up behind rigid ideological fences, are rebelling against the hard-line elements of their party.

Dear Friends

Concert-goers and bird-watchers

Visitors en route to other adventures stop by the High Country News office.

Uncommon Westerners

'Si, se puede'

Latino activist Dolores Huerta continues to inspire and organize after 50 lively years.

News

Watch the river flow

In western Colorado, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park wins an important water claim.

Manufactured homes for the birds

Zoologist David Olson and his colleagues are trying to create artificial cacti to house the rare coastal cactus wren, whose cholla cactus habitat is being threatened by California’s recent wildfires.

Book Reviews

Dreaming of a New Deal for nature

A review of Neil M. Maher's book, "Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement," which reminds us that to succeed, an environmental policy must reckon compromise.

Essays

Home is where the guilt is

In Santa Fe, N.M., April Reese wrestles with the question of whether owning a new house is worth being responsible for the bulldozing of pinon and juniper trees.

Power of the picture

High Country News photographer Morgan Heim joins the International League of Conservation Photographers to document the gasfields and the wildlands around Pinedale, Wyo.

Letters

A pitched battle on the Klamath

Playground Politics

Denial and delusion

Passion, creativity, and science

Navajo water rights: Truths and betrayals

Two Weeks in the West

Solar flip-flops and fish stories

BLM flip-flops on solar and expedites oil and gas; Western Governors’ Association talks about energy; more fossil fuel risks; good (and bad) salmon news.

Bears saved from the 'burbs

Finding room for grizzly bears through the Montana Legacy Project.

Winning the West

The debate that won’t happen

Even though the West is supposed to be a key battleground in this year’s election, so far the presidential candidates have managed to avoid addressing Western issues.