Feature

A mining rush in Canada’s backcountry threatens Alaska salmon

Canadian governments back proposals for more than a dozen new mines along salmon-rich rivers that flow to the Alaska coast.

Current

BLM plans for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska

A controversial proposal for the nation’s biggest chunk of public land aims to allow energy development -- and protect wildlife.

Fighting development in floodplains

Conservationists challenge insurance program that harms salmon and other endangered species.

An underwater forest reveals the story of a historic megadrought

Scientists find a climatic archive at the bottom of an alpine lake in California's Sierra Nevada.

Reviving Custer: Re-enactment and revision at the Little Bighorn

A Custer impersonator confronts old and new racial tensions as he performs in a Battle of the Little Bighorn re-enactment in Montana.

Editor's Note

A different borderland blues

Mining in British Columbia could have big impacts on parts of Canada -- and the U.S.

Dear Friends

HCN takes a holiday break

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Paonia, Colo.

Book Reviews

Western water, in poetry and policy: A review of Dam Nation

Stephen Grace’s new book explains the intricacies of Western water policy -- in a poetic way.

A review of Last Water on the Devil’s Highway: A cultural and natural history of Tinajas Altas

The story of a waterhole that, for centuries, has kept travelers from death as they passed through the desert.

Essays

At home with the oil rigs

A California resident learns to love the tiny lights twinkling far out to sea.

Letters

Techno-eco-literacy

You get what you pay for

Scott Groene on the Washington County land bill