Oregon allocated $10 million for the 2024 wildfire season. It cost more than $350 million.
Kylie Mohr
Kylie Mohr is a correspondent for High Country News writing from Montana. Email her at kylie.mohr@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.
Posted inArticles
How New Mexico is ‘building a forest’ by solving a seedling shortage
A Q&A with the New Mexico Reforestation Center director about what it takes to replant a burn scar post-wildfire.
Posted inApril 2026: Inside the Attack on Public Lands
Wildfires transform soil, turning a nutrient into poisonous chromium-6
New research shows how severe blazes create a carcinogen and how long it might persist.
Posted inArticles
Why mycorrhizal fungi networks need more protection
Scientists say the West’s hidden biodiversity warrants more attention.
Posted inArticles
Why intentional fires can still be safe during this dry spring
Land managers are finding pockets of cool, wet conditions, allowing them to safely reduce future fire risk.
Posted inArticles
Utah’s new study aims to kill ‘as many cougars as possible’
Critics say the state’s attempt to boost ungulate populations lacks scientific grounding and transparency.
Posted inFebruary 2026: The Recording Artists
Colorado wolves are on the move
Almost two years after reintroduction began, at least one wolf has ventured outside the state.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Get to know the western spotted skunk
‘The stench kind of permeates everything’: What it takes to study a stinky, secretive skunk
Posted inArticles
Shutdown causes ‘confusion’ across the Forest Service
Prescribed burns are on hold during shutdown while logging continues.
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
Osburn’s bridge to nowhere becomes a lifeline for Silver Valley’s elk
Idaho’s newest wildlife crossing didn’t need to be built. It already existed near Coeur d’Alene.
Posted inArticles
Access to public land? There’s an app for that
Tech is facilitating land access in new, and sometimes fraught, ways.
Posted inArticles
How a Utah wildfire created its own tornado
Firefighters were caught in a pyro-vortex last month on the Deer Creek Fire.
Posted inArticles
The invisible ‘giant nets’ that catch the smallest songbirds
Collaboration and tiny technology are revolutionizing the study of migration.
Posted inArticles
‘Help is not on the way’
As fire season ramps up, thousands of Forest Service firefighting positions are vacant.
Posted inJuly 2025: Seeds as Sustenance
First came the record-setting fire. Then came the record-setting floods.
‘I don’t trust the water:’ How post-fire flooding has destabilized a rural community’s drinking water.
Posted inArticles
Senate Republicans want to sell 3 million acres of public land
The majority of public land is too fire prone and far away from communities to even make sense for housing, research shows.
Posted inJune 2025: The Promised Land
How to preserve a glacier’s legacy
Artists are called to document the existence, and disappearance, of glacier.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
Bird flu finds its way into Western wildlife
The deaths of two Washington cougars suggest the virus is more widespread than thought.
Posted inArticles
Five books to help young readers understand wildfire
Age-appropriate narratives and beautiful illustrations teach children how wildfire touches people’s lives.