As this highly anticipated election draws ever closer, High Country News takes a look at how the campaign season has been affecting parts of the West. Portland, Oregon’s political landscape was rocked when federal troops brought tear gas to the #BlackLivesMatter protests, but it’s anyone’s guess how, or whether, the turmoil will affect the upcoming mayoral election. In Nevada, young canvassers are working to get out the Latino vote, while a decades-long battle over the Las Vegas Pipeline finally comes to a peaceful conclusion. Our feature story from Grand Junction, Colorado, the new headquarters of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, considers how the presidential candidates’ competing energy goals will impact the West’s economy and public lands. Elsewhere, we examine census data showing how rural counties benefit from counting incarcerated individuals in the counties where they’re imprisoned instead of the ones where their homes are located. In Indian Country, the disrupted census count is likely to leave tribal nations underrepresented and underfunded, while in Alaska, 11 tribes are pushing for a better environmental consultation process. Finally, we review Ruthie Fear, a new novel that confronts gentrification in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, and White Utopias, a nonfiction book about cultural appropriation at festivals like Burning Man.
Energy dominance or climate action: Trump, Biden and the fate of public lands
In Grand Junction, Colorado, the presidential election is a choice between two distinct energy futures.
An inaccurate census has major implications for Indian Country
Indigenous people are frequently undercounted, undermining political power and representation.
11 Alaska Native tribes offer new way forward on managing the Tongass
The proposal comes after a failed consultation process of ‘one way communication’ over the Tongass National Forest.
Sage advice
The ecological and ethical problems of ‘smudging.’
When ‘usual residence’ is a prison
Census method of counting prisoners distorts demographics.
A New West
After reading Alex Carr Johnson’s piece (“Now that you’ve gone West, young man,” September 2020), I wonder, “What now?” What does it mean — to Johnson and similarly enlightened people — to understand that you live on land unfairly taken and that you are not entitled to? To me, a Native person, I worry that…
A playground to East Coasters and urbanites
This is true for every mountain town that has become a playground to East Coasters and urbanites: The workers serving the upper class cannot afford to live in the towns they work in (“A West in flux,” September 2020). Meanwhile, the second- and third-homeowners seem oblivious to how their choices fuel climate change, housing shortages,…
A West in flux
I’m basically a climate refugee from Texas looking to settle somewhere in rural Washington or Oregon (“A West in flux,” September 2020). I recognize that Texas will likely be too hot to inhabit within my lifetime. So these trends are concerning to me because I already cannot afford any kind of reasonable acreage or homesite…
Narrowing NEPA
One result of the Trump administration’s insidious policy changes to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, is the Bureau of Land Management’s use of so-called “vegetation treatment” programs (“Narrow NEPA,” September 2020). These environmentally destructive efforts involve stripping natural lowland forests, shrublands and grasslands using chaining, mowing, masticating, herbiciding and burning. The areas…
Democracy is fraying in the West, too
Why your vote matters this election above all.
Policing the police
Thank you for your excellent article, “Experts in de-escalation,” July 2020, explaining how Eugene, Oregon, has been able to avoid unnecessary policing. This story needs to be sent to every mayor in every city in the country. The program you wrote about, CAHOOTS — Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets — should be a blueprint for…
Radiating from the core
I appreciate Betsy Marston echoing my concerns (“A little paper with clout,” September 2020) about HCN as stated in my letter to the editor last month. She encapsulates my feelings by saying: “Sometimes I don’t get why we do a story, because I want it to connect to the land and everything that goes on.…
HCN mourns the passing of Norman Harry
Leader of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe was known for his lack of pretense.
Refuges under seige
Regarding “A wildlife refuge under siege” (September 2020): Anyone who has read Marc Reisner’s book Cadillac Desert (1986) knows that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation don’t give a damn about environmental impacts or accurate numbers. Caleb Efta, via social media This article appeared in the print edition of the…
High Country News in the ’70s
The HCN community reflects on the ‘Me Decade.’
App astray; mockingbirds avenged; junk shot
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
A turning point in Nevada
Lessons from the Sanders campaign.
Is spiritual growth possible without confronting whiteness?
In ‘White Utopias,’ cultural appropriation at festivals like Burning Man goes under the microscope.
Young and politically empowered in Arizona
Latino canvassers push to get out the vote.
Former California prisoners may become professional wildfire fighters
Amid a raging fire season and pandemic, the Western U.S. seeks experienced fire crews to battle its conflagrations.
Will Portland’s summer of unrest reshape city politics?
November’s election will test how protests shift political power.
Killing the Vegas Pipeline
Nevada’s attitude toward water is changing.
COVID-era lessons from homeschool
Don’t be terrified. Be ready.
Tribal nations face continued voter suppression
A new book explains barriers at the ballot box.
When home is next to an oil refinery
All I knew about Wilmington, California, was poverty, so I long hid my connection to it.
In a small Montana town, there’s a thing with feathers. Hope? Not so much.
Maxim Loskutoff’s debut novel explores the fraught history of the Bitterroot Valley.
What sewage can tell us about the spread of COVID-19
More cities are testing wastewater, but a poor federal response keeps efforts scattered.
Federal boots on city streets
With Congress gridlocked and courts restrained, public opinion confronts authoritarian tactics.