The nation’s energy dominance falters
Trump is killing clean energy, and it’s not even helping fossil fuels.
Proposed Wyoming oil and gas leases overlap wildlife corridors
BLM lease sales planned for next summer land along migration paths. Public comments accepted through Nov. 17.
Truly grasp what Typhoon Halong did to western Alaska
This is not only a climate emergency. It is a cultural one.
Inventing habitats
Reconciliation means meeting a landscape on its own terms.
Interior is failing to conserve national parks
Leaving parks open during a shutdown neglects the mandate of future enjoyment.
Phoenix subdivision builds move ahead, despite water concerns
The first crack in the area’s suspension on new housing that relies on groundwater appears.
Want fluoride in the water? Too bad.
Across the West, lawmakers are skipping over the will of voters and yanking fluoride.
Sen. Mike Lee’s new bill permits ‘tactical infrastructure’ in wilderness areas
The Border Lands Conservation Act gives the Department of Homeland Security the power to waive myriad federal laws, including the Wilderness Act, under the pretense of border security.
More than 2,000 jobs could be cut at Interior during shutdown
Research, wildlife and conservation are in the crosshairs.
Ventura County is turning former farmland into affordable housing for farmworkers
This California county has some of the nation’s strictest protections for agricultural land, but developers are using a new exemption to house people who work the land.
Watching the Oregon ash vanish
The emerald ash borer is killing the native tree. How do we make the most of the time while it’s still here?
Montana’s Chinese past isn’t past
A forgotten Chinese cemetery reveals how Missoula buries its past — and why the present is so familiar.
A season of grizzlies and get-togethers
We’ve filled our time with gatherings and awards.
The rural West’s increasing health care costs haunt the shutdown
Health insurance costs are skyrocketing, and federal tax credits that make it more affordable are expiring.
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High Country News Classifieds
- Program Overview The Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment (GWC) at the University of Colorado Law School invites applications for the next GWC Water Law Fellow – an early-career attorney eager to make a difference in the […]
In This Issue
October 2025: Limits to Growth
“You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry,” an old blues song mourns, and ambitious developers and would-be homebuyers in Phoenix, Arizona, would probably agree, now that planned subdivisions have been curtailed owing to the region’s lack of groundwater. Elsewhere, affordable housing…
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Water
The dried-out subdivisions of Phoenix
What do fens do? Make peat, store water and help combat climate change
The joyful responsibility of cutting fish
Wildlife
The ‘bear’ necessities of good sign design
In a changing Arctic, how much noise is too much?
Osburn’s bridge to nowhere becomes a lifeline for Silver Valley’s elk
Public Lands
What we stand to lose if national monuments fall
Shutdown causes ‘confusion’ across the Forest Service
Visiting public lands during the shutdown? Be polite and prepared
Indigenous Affairs
What inspires Indigenous ballet dancer Jock Soto
Tribal governments fend off the worst of the impacts of the shutdown
How tribal educators are navigating budget challenges
Communities
What the government shutdown means for public lands
What makes a community activist optimistic
‘How many bricks of colonization do we sit under?’
Books
Denver’s storied tradition of sex work, then and now
How to become a bird
A hotshot’s search for belonging among the flames
In the News
Geothermal: Hot or not?
This old, abundant, relatively clean energy source has barely been tapped.