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Departments
Tribes along the Colorado River navigate a stacked settlement process to claim their water rights
The gauntlet leaves those nations in an unjust state of limbo.
Tribes negotiate for a fairer future along the Colorado River
The Colorado River Interim Guidelines will expire in 2025, and Indigenous officials like Daryl Vigil are pushing to replace them with a more inclusive framework.
Should we clone the black-footed ferret?
From petri dish to prairie with North America’s most endangered species.
Colorado River, stolen by law
Indigenous nations have been an afterthought in U.S. water policy for over a century. That was all part of the plan.
Letters to the editor, March 2022
Comments from readers.
Let there be monarchs
Monarch butterfly numbers in California ticked up this winter, but no one is calling it a recovery.
Will we share the same dismal fate as glaciers and forests?
Two recent books look at the parallels between human, ecological and societal illness.
The digital world’s real-world impact on the environment
From data center warehouses to cryptocurrency, technology is another energy hog.
How a Tacoma gas facility started a fight over climate change, sovereignty and human rights
A Washington methane gas project is compounding a crisis of tribal consultation, pension funds and national immigration practices.
Odd twins; rescue by owl; dinosaur IPA
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Portland community leaders bring the heat to building standards
An activist collective says making buildings carbon-free is just the start.
Hate speech on the Bitterroot
How a day on the river made me question my relationship to a place I call home.
A new tundra, engineered by beavers
Once nonexistent in northwest Alaska, beavers are both benefiting from and changing a warming tundra.
Why 4 hunters in Wyoming were charged with trespassing on land they never touched
A checkerboard pattern of parcel ownership complicates public land access in the West.
Wolf hazing legalized in Colorado
Colorado wildlife officials are planning for reintroduction. A wolf pack is complicating their efforts.
The place that coal built and fire burned
Extractive industry laid the infrastructure for the suburban sprawl that fueled Colorado’s destructive Marshall Fire.
Free bird; lost-and-found bear; cowboy pride
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Letter: An important distinction
In “What you can’t see can hurt you” (November 2021), your story claims that “natural gas is far more climate-friendly than coal.” This is poorly worded as there is nothing climate-friendly about burning fossil fuels. Natural gas is simply less climate-destructive, an important distinction. Ryan Vanzo Homer, Alaska This article appeared in the print edition […]
Letter: Beautiful and informative
I just had to reach out with my compliments for the exceptionally interesting and presented article, “The nuance and beauty of the West in 2021,” (hcn.org, 1/5/22). I really did enjoy the prompt to pause this Sunday morning and journey with you through the highlights of HCN’s 2021 reportage. Each month was presented beautifully and […]
