In an ambitious partnership with ProPublica, we revisit a topic that has occupied High Country News since our earliest days as a black-and-white tabloid — livestock grazing on the nation’s public lands. Forget romantic visions of lonesome cowboys; federal grazing programs today benefit a very, very wealthy few, leaving taxpayers and the landscape to shoulder the costs while small ranchers still struggle to get by. Tribes are using gaming revenue to strengthen reservation economies and tribal sovereignty. An Indigenous craftsman teaches archery and bow-making in Oregon, while in Northern California, crews race to harvest wild Christmas trees for the holidays. The Cascades frog returns to Lassen Volcano National Park after an almost 20-year absence, and we learn about the secret life of the western spotted skunk. Nearly 40 years after anti-gay activists and a gun-toting sheriff shut down the Gay Rodeo Finals, the riders celebrate their return to Reno, Nevada. Even in the depths of wintertime Alaska, light and love endure.
Cascades frogs vanished from Lassen Volcanic National Park in 2007. Now, they’re back.
With careful site selection and antifungal baths, scientists are staging a frog comeback in the park.
Winter solstice is a time for planting seeds
At the turning of a season, a writer finds a sense of possibility.
Inside California’s wild Christmas tree harvest
Each winter, migrant crews climb into the Sierra to cut wild silvertip firs, a fragile tradition now imperiled by wildfire, climate change, and tightening immigration laws.
‘It is quite difficult to maintain a Colorado Christmas tree farm’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Going bananas in Portland, any portabella in a storm, and squirrels gone wild in California
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
How the gaming economy helps tribes navigate shifting policies
Tribal sovereignty and prosperity are tied to gaming’s sovereign source of income.
Get to know the western spotted skunk
‘The stench kind of permeates everything’: What it takes to study a stinky, secretive skunk
How ranchers accused of breaking the rules dodge oversight
Elected officials interfere with agency efforts to protect the land.
Congress made it easier to ignore grazing’s harm to public lands
Federal law requires agencies to review the environmental impacts of grazing, but government employees allege the system is riddled with loopholes.
The wealthy profit from public lands, and taxpayers pick up the tab
Roughly two-thirds of grazing on Bureau of Land Management land is controlled by just 10% of permit holders.
How we reported Free Range, our grazing investigation
Data and analyses used in the stories.
Ars Poetica
A poem by Valencia Robin.
Journalism is made by humans, not machines
The humanity behind the words.
HCN’s journalism is having on-the-ground impact
Our communities are at the heart of our work.
HCN 2025 impact report
Our top stories from the year that resounded across the West (and beyond).
Letters to the Editor, December 2025
Comments from readers.
Reno’s Gay Rodeo is back
Nearly 40 years after an armed sheriff, anti-LGBTQ activists and a judge’s order shut down the Gay Rodeo Finals, this year the riders came home.
He makes bows — and bow makers
Joshua Hood is decolonizing traditional bow-making and archery education from his Portland backyard.