Browse High Country News issues

Bighorn sheep and longtime sheep ranchers face off in Hells Canyon, where a legal battle over public-lands grazing could cause ripples across the West.

As population growth and climate change stress the region’s water supplies, Westerners think hard about recycling their effluent, although some worry about the possibly harmful endocrine disrupters found in cleaned-up effluent.

Pete McGrail believes the volcanic basalt that underlies the Columbia River Basin may hold a cure for global warming: carbon sequestration.

In Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, good intentions are responsible for the introduction of exotic buffelgrass – but all the good intentions in the world may not be enough to save the desert now that this invasive and fire-prone plant is spreading.

Westerners have always been deeply in love with their firearms, and gun-shop owners like Ryan Horsley are determined to make sure that nothing comes between them

Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to save the planet through hydrogen power, but critics say the notion is just hot air

The group Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has helped to protect a lot of Western land and wildlife – while doing its best to kill off as many predators as possible.

Monsanto’s genetically modified Roundup Ready alfalfa may take over the West, as the company re-engineers the world to conform to its business plan.

The brutal murder of a Japanese tourist shines an unwelcome spotlight on the social problems plaguing Arizona’s beautiful but troubled Havasupai Reservation.

Prescott and the Verde Valley fight out the future of one of the West's last free-flowing streams. Also in this issue: New Mexico looks to build its border industry by attracting suppliers for Mexican manufacturers across the border in Juarez.

Tiny Vilas, Colo., thought it was a great idea to open an online school and enroll at-risk students from far-away Denver – but neither the students nor the school district ended up scoring well at report card time. Also in this Issue: Global warming spurs calls for new dams in the West – but where will the water come from to fill them?

Craig Childs lifts the rug of modern-day Phoenix, Ariz., to examine the remnants of the civilization that preceded it -- the Hohokam people, who also built a great city in the middle of the desert, and flourished until the day they ran out of water. Also in this issue: Just over the Arizona-Sonora border, Tohono O'odham traditionalists have joined environmental groups in fighting a proposed Mexican hazardous waste landfill.

Without a college degree, work on the oil and gas fields is the best job you can get in the rural West – unless, of course, it kills you. Also in this issue: Thirsty Santa Fe, N.M., considers an innovative law requiring all new buildings to install rainwater-harvesting systems.

Migratory beekeeper John Miller hauls his hives back and forth across the West, pollinating everything from almonds to apples, but a nasty little parasite called the varroa mite and the mysterious, deadly Colony Collapse Disorder are making life much harder for him and his buzzing business partners.

Quagga mussels – an extraordinarily prolific and costly invasive species – have appeared in Lake Mead, and no one is sure how to keep these unwanted newcomers from infesting the West. Also in this issue: Condor 134’s harrowing experience with lead poisoning exemplifies these endangered birds’ greatest challenge – which some advocates hope to ease by banning lead bullets in California.

The Sonoran Desert homeland of the Tohono O’odham Nation has become a nerve-wracking police state, caught in the crossfire between drug and immigrant smugglers and the U.S. Border Patrol. Also in this issue: The Forest Service has overhauled its cumbersome forest-planning process, but many experts say the agency may have gone too far.

Water efficiency has long been touted as a silver bullet for the West?s water problems, but too much efficiency can cause problems of its own, especially in the fragile Colorado River Delta. Also in this issue: In Idaho and Wyoming, old eminent domain laws allow private entities to condemn landowners? property ? as Peter and Judy Riede discovered when J.R. Simplot Co. announced plans to expand its phosphate mine and build a road across their ranch.

Judge Jim Redden has given the Bush administration an ultimatum: Submit a viable plan for salmon restoration, or face the possible removal of four dams on the lower Snake River. Also in this issue: Homeless families aren’t found only in urban areas. They’re also struggling to survive in the rural West, as shown by the story of Barbara Trivitt and her two children, who lived in a Jeep in Coos Bay, Oregon, this fall.

An environmentalist who owns royalty interest in New Mexico oil and gas wells heads down to the San Juan Basin to talk to rancher Tweeti Blancett, driller Tom Dugan and others about the moral complexities inherent in Americans’ energy use. Also in this issue: Kern County, Calif., is trying to prevent Los Angeles sludge from entering the county, where it is used to fertilize farmland, and the resulting stink is raising all kinds of questions about how we handle human waste.

Former Park Service supervisors Bill Wade and Ron Arnberger formed the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees to defend the national parks from what they see as the Bush administration’s ill-conceived changes. Also in this issue: Six decades after Friant Dam killed off the San Joaquin River’s spring-run chinook, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Friant Water Users Authority are working with the federal government to restore both the fish and the river.

Among the top 10 lessons gained from the 2006 midterm elections is that there can be no doubt now of the West’s rising importance as a center of political power. Also in this issue: A new plan to steer energy development away from cultural sites in New Mexico could streamline energy development, fund archaeological research and preserve ancient sites all at once.

The Peregrine Fund has mastered the art of breeding aplomado falcons and other endangered birds of prey, but critics say the organization is blind to the importance of wildlife habitat. Also in this issue: A recent court ruling on the ceremonial killing of eagles by American Indians collides with the Endangered Species Act, possibly sending the issue to the Supreme Court.

In northern New Mexico, the innovative Collaborative Forest Restoration Program is bringing Hispanic loggers and Anglo environmentalists together to work on creating healthy, sustainable forests and rural economies. Also in this issue: Boosters of a Western primary hope it could give the Interior West a greater voice in the politics of Washington, D.C.

In Oregon, a revolutionary community alliance is working to put water – and steelhead trout – back into the Deschutes River. Also in this issue: A federal judge has reinstated President Clinton’s roadless rule protecting forests in the Lower 48 states, but the decision seems to have only confused the issue of forest management and is likely to end up back in court.

The Crested Butte News, a successful independent newspaper in a small Rocky Mountain town, has come full circle and is once again owned by a chain. Also in this issue: The North Coast Journal has been published in Arcata, Calif., for almost 18 years by Judy Hodgson, a journalist who believes in stirring the pot.