The BLM may stop notifying landowners about drilling under private land. Ranchers are alarmed
Western cattlemen are poised to lose almost all opportunity to comment on oil and gas development underneath their property.
Mining execs bought big in company stock days before Bears Ears’ cuts
House Democrats have opened an investigation for insider trading.
It’s a make-or-break year for Hood River’s pear farmers
After a dismal 2025 season, the pears being picked right now could mean the difference between solvency and bankruptcy.
In a warming world, wildflowers offer a warning
The discourse between plants and fungi changes with increasing soil temperatures, impacting meadows, nutrients and wildlife.
‘Quite frustrating:’ what it’s like to have a treaty with the United States
Heirs to the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott explain their ancestors’ wisdom and how they defend it today.
Does your dog make you safer in bear country?
What new analysis of more than 300 bear encounters shows about the notion of dogs as early bear alarms or deterrents.
Want to do something about climate change? Talk about it
Atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe explains why conversation on the topic is so important and how to take this step toward climate action.
Convocation of crows, sea-lebrity sea lions and what is that nasty smell?
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Utah is killing the Great Salt Lake
Profligate waste and perverse tax incentives are drying up the West’s largest natural body of water.
What it’s like inside Eloy’s detention center as a trans woman
Karla Saenz, a Venezuelan asylum seeker, alleges neglect and transphobia, but also found fortitude and solidarity.
‛Nada ni nadie robará mi identidad’
Una solicitante de asilo venezolana transgénero relata sus 44 días en uno de los centros de detención más mortíferos del país.
The conversations we don’t have about safety outdoors
History instructs Black Americans to fear the outdoors. But creating new memories outside will inform our future.
In Inupiaq, when the weather talks, you listen
Sila is living with us and decides for us what to do with our days.
The Spokane burns show that not even suburbia is immune to wildfire
The Old Trails Fire burned through the city’s northwest corner — an area considered outside the highest risk zone.
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High Country News Classifieds
- The Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection is seeking an Executive Director. About the role The Executive Director provides strategic leadership and day-to-day management, ensuring CSDP advances its mission, remains financially sustainable, and operates effectively. As the leader of a small, […]
The West in Perspective
In This Issue
August 2026: The Conversations Issue
Our August issue celebrates “Conversations” — exploring a variety of communication, from the unspoken interactions of flowers and fungi to the human need to discuss the complicated issues we face today. We also examine what happens when communication fails, and words are used to misinform…
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Water
Federal plan makes steep Colorado River water cuts to Arizona, California and Nevada
The clock is ticking for New Mexico to cut Rio Grande water use
Collapsing mountains in Alaska are causing massive tsunamis
Wildlife
Feds transfer grizzly bear management to states
How a Utah Republican’s quiet battle for hunting access undercut LandBack hopes
The Klamath Tribes couldn’t get federal dollars for salmon. Then the Yurok stepped in
Public Lands
What’s destroying Utah’s monuments
A ban on chainsaws in wilderness is performative, not practical
The conflict over permanent climbing anchors in wilderness
Indigenous Affairs
Deb Haaland’s vision for New Mexico comes from tradition
Tribally contested Badger Mountain solar project canceled by developer
Alaska Native communities prepare for man camps driven by new mining boom
Communities
The Chinese immigrants trafficked on New Mexico’s weed farms
Let’s go in on the American dream, together
Meet the students graduating from Montana’s smallest classes
Books
On Mount Shasta, a photographic record outlasts living memory
What can we learn from salt lakes?
Badger signs: An essay from Terry Tempest Williams’ new book ‘The Glorians’
In the News
The West’s forever fire season
How climate change makes wildfire more likely to happen all year round.