Feature

The forgotten North Cascades grizzly bear

As grizzly bear populations in the Rockies rebound, the great bruins face extirpation in the North Cascades. Can they hang on until the feds fund recovery?

Behind the scenes in the lives of captive wolves

Captive wolves and wolf-dog hybrids are kept all over the West for various purposes, often in poorly regulated facilities.

Editor's Note

Why do people yearn to possess wolves and other wild animals?

Human beings seem to have an insatiable desire to own or at least manipulate wild animals.

Dear Friends

A fall crop of visitors

High Country News gets lots of visitors; Paolo Bacigalupi's HCN sci-fi story "The Tamarisk Hunter" is in a new anthology; Utne Reader honors visionaries, including some of HCN's friends.

Uncommon Westerners

Daniel Marlos shares his knowledge and love of the insect world

In Los Angeles, self-trained entomologist Daniel Marlos helps others learn about the crawly things he loves through his website: What's That Bug?

Book Reviews

Meditations on craft: A review of What I Learned at Bug Camp

Sarah Juniper Rabkin's new essay collection is the intriguing, wide-ranging What I Learned at Bug Camp: Essays on Finding a Home in the World.

Reluctant assassins: A review of The Sisters Brothers

Patrick DeWitt's new novel, The Sisters Brothers, describes the lives of two 19th-century hit men in a work of modern Western noir.

Essays

Hunting deer on a mountain bike

Two friends go on a fossil-fuel-free deer hunt using mountain bikes.

Letters

Firefighting at fault

In the weeds

Montana's dirty underbelly

Forgotten Fossils

Current

Feds attempt to speed complicated process of building power lines

The Obama administration's electrical transmission permitting agencies are cooperating to speed grid updates and fast track clean energy projects, as demand for power grows.

Energy succeeds where housing developers can't

As the West's housing boom fades, natural resource extraction surges, and a defunct housing development on the east side of Colorado Springs, Colo., may soon face drilling by Ultra Petroleum.

Clean air regulations protect park views by targeting coal plants

The Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to reduce haze from air pollution near national parks and wilderness; some coal-fired power plants are cleaning up their act and others will shut down.