The people trying to save a singular arts landmark face scarce funding, extreme flooding and aging adobe.
The Death Valley opera house that’s sinking back into the earth
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.
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Migrating wildlife need lots of space between houses, research shows
Sometimes a mile or more. Clustered rather than scattered rural homes could help.
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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.
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The billionaires’ club at the center of America’s public lands fight
A controversial land swap orchestrated by the mega rich could be ‘a harbinger of what’s to come’ for public lands under Trump.
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Ted Turner owned vast swaths of Western land. What happens to them now?
The media mogul had a lifelong commitment to endangered species, ecotourism and supporting rural agriculture.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
Colorado’s Arkansas Valley water confronts contamination, climate change and political drama
‘If you don’t have clean water, you really don’t have anything.’
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
The resilience of the elusive vaquita
Nature’s enduring mysteries buoy efforts to save the most endangered marine mammal on Earth.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
The facade of the Red Wind commune
There’s ongoing harm from Indigenous identity fraud.
Posted inArticles
Emails show Interior delivered new drilling permits for Burgum’s billionaire ally
Oil and gas giant Continental Resources wanted the BLM to sign off on new wells in Wyoming, despite a court injunction there. The agency obliged.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
Sam the Toucan, capybaras over coffee, Vellela vellela and a mechanical rhino
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
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Controversial gas pipeline across Navajo Nation to begin
The pipeline would eventually cross 234 miles of tribal land. The hearing initiating the project caught community members off guard.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
The plight of the pinecone cowboy
The future of Western forests depends on professional pinecone collectors. They’re slowly being starved out of existence.
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
The dark legacy of the atomic age is still playing out in New Mexico
‘We were a sacrifice zone.’
Posted inMay 2026: Pinecone Cowboys
The Earth loves in species
With the Earth under attack, love will see us through.