Barnard Construction’s leadership donated over $1 million to the president’s campaign. They’re among the administration’s top wall contractors.
Billions in border wall contracts are going to a Montana firm run by a Trump donor
Posted inJune 2026: River Revival
On Oregon’s McKenzie River, an unprecedented approach to restoration takes shape
A bold process aims to repair the damaged watershed.
Posted inJune 2026: River Revival
Managed retreat in Ruidoso could mean more public lands
Facing fires and floods, homeowners in Lincoln County, New Mexico, are considering buyouts designed to move them out of harm’s way.
Posted inArticles
Can resistance stop a massive data center next to the Great Salt Lake?
Utah has become the latest front in a high-stakes fight to build the infrastructure powering the A.I. boom.
Posted inArticles
Elk herd habitat near Dinosaur National Monument to open for drilling
On June 16, the feds will open Colorado’s biggest public land sale in modern history, threatening wildlife and recreation.
Posted inJune 2026: River Revival
Dredging the Columbia River at the expense of tribal and aquatic communities
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has transformed the estuary and robbed the river of sediment over the last century.
Posted inJune 2026: River Revival
On walking away from it all
The best things in life are not things but places.
Posted inJune 2026: River Revival
The climbers of HCN
Two staffers show tenacity on the wall and for our readers.
Posted inArticles
O’Keeffe Country was never O’Keeffe’s to begin with
Indigenous Tewa artists reassert their relationship with the land in a new exhibition at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
Posted inArticles
Making grazing great again?
The Trump administration looks to preserve ranching heritage, but it’s not clear it will work.
Posted inJune 2026: River Revival
When the most aggressive-seeming greenery has a softer side
In Anchorage, a writer gets to know devil’s club and her other new botanical neighbors.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
The Death Valley opera house that’s sinking back into the earth
The people trying to save a singular arts landmark face scarce funding, extreme flooding and aging adobe.
Posted inArticles
How wildfire smoke affects fertility
A growing body of research is examining the impact of wildfire smoke on the ability to conceive.
Posted inArticles
Treat water like family, not profit
Federal and state approaches to managing the Colorado River – as well as land and wildlife – reflect a lack of experience.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
Get to know the Pacific newt
From Vancouver Island newts to California’s high country newts, the toxic Taricha genus includes some unique and deadly Western species.
Posted in2026
High Country News, Mountain Journal and Montana Free Press hire Nick Mott as Report for America corps member covering environment in Montana
Mott will report from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and his stories will be available to republish for free.
Posted inArticles
The Continental Divide Trail is being militarized for the border wall
A new border wall has turned one end of the long-distance trail into a construction zone.
Posted inArticles
Migrating wildlife need lots of space between houses, research shows
Sometimes a mile or more. Clustered rather than scattered rural homes could help.
Posted inArticles
How Interior helped pushed bison off Montana’s federal lands
In an uncommon move, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum intervened in a case that involved the former legal clients of Karen Budd-Falen, one of his top deputies.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
The Southwest’s superbloom was a beautiful nightmare
A writer experienced everything in spring: supernatural plants, chronic illness and a multi-generational curse called climate change.