This June, we meet a remarkable woman: Letitia Carson, who was born into slavery and yet became the only Black woman known to secure a homesteading claim, despite Oregon Territory’s strict Black-exclusion laws. Now, Black Oregonians want to preserve the homestead site — without forgetting the Indigenous people who were forcibly removed from that land. A gifted photographer looks at rural life in Colorado’s North Fork Valley. Can geothermal energy help power the West? The Canada lynx is on the move as the snow it depends on recedes. Locals are becoming community scientists to protect the Salton Sea. HCN examines Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman’s relationship with Indian Country, and we learn about making syrup from the Northwest’s bigleaf maple trees. Ohtani basketball is a Japanese American tradition in California, while queer culture flowers amid that state’s superbloom. We interview John Vallaint about Canada’s wildfires and his new book, Fire Weather. Jane Wong’s new memoir reveals how compulsive gambling tragically derailed an Asian American family — her own.
In this issue, our feature highlights a Makah artist who preserves the stories of his ancestors and their reciprocal relationship to whales. We also follow two female botanists as they raft down the Grand Canyon in an attempt to make the first recorded, botanical survey of the region. Elsewhere, a FEMA contractor’s incompetence in translating Alaska Native languages shows systemic problems. In a Colorado coal town, the discovery of a 74 million-year-old fossil brings a new kind of tourism. A team of epidemiologists in Washington prepares for climate change. In Wyoming, off-rez hunting is under scrutiny. Is the Behren’s silverspot butterfly valuable enough to save? Climate change refugia can shelter wildlife if the planet doesn’t warm too much. And finally, we check in with Debra Magpie Earling on her new novel, learn about the importance of good ice for hunting in coastal Alaska and think on the meaning of ‘new animism.’
Challenging times call for innovation, and the West is as full of ideas as it is of problems. Chronic wasting disease is killing deer and elk throughout the Rocky Mountains, and with no cure in sight, some researchers think predators might help combat its spread. In Butte, Montana, ecologists work with engineers to keep migratory birds from landing on — and dying in — the Berkeley Pit. It makes economic and environmental sense to give up fossil fuels, but the natural gas industry is fighting electrification. Now that Roe v. Wade’s gone, startups are helping rural women get reproductive care. Women hunters shoot down stereotypes while feeding themselves and their families, and dogsled races keep traditions alive in Alaska. An Indigenous protest 20 years ago helped inspire Nevada’s newest national monument, Ave Kwa Ame. Real-life Jackson, Wyoming, is not quite the refuge it seems in ‘The Last of Us.’ Grigri or gris-gris? Outdoor recreation companies borrow words but not worldviews from Black and Indigenous communities.
Western communities are complex, layered places, and that’s especially true of cities like Butte, Montana, whose hardscrabble mining history spawned social and political activism and a uniquely creative working-class culture, epitomized by “Our Lady of the Rockies,” a 90-foot-tall statue built by local men. In Long Beach, California, manicured golf courses and polluted neighborhoods co-exist in the shadow of the petroculture. Camera traps remind us that we share the world with wildlife. Railroad lines once connected most of the West’s far-flung communities — though rural Alaska prefers ice roads when its rivers freeze in wintertime. Black Americans are moving to South Phoenix in record numbers. We need renewable energy, but not at the price of green colonialism. The whitebark pine is struggling to survive. Power outages are a life-and-death matter for people with disabilities. A Wyoming family leans on luck to get by, and the personal and political overlap amid the beauty of Yosemite.
Our changing climate is already transforming the West. In this issue, we visit a shrinking Lake Powell and witness the surprisingly swift return of Glen Canyon. The disappearance of Utah’s Great Salt Lake revives Latter-day Saints’ interest in environmental thinking. California’s forests are dying. When rising sea levels and destructive tides began gnawing away at its beach, one Washington community built a berm to counter erosion. Missoula, Montana, wants to guarantee public access to a ski hill on its outskirts. Why not power the West by putting solar panels on big-box stores and parking lots? The Biden administration is reshaping land management through tribal co-stewardship of public lands. A new book, Profit: An Environmental History, neither centers the environment nor demonstrates real understanding of capitalism. Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum examines Joan Didion’s relationship with the West. A simple glass shelf can embrace a lifetime of memories, and the year-round harvest of Alaska Native foods amply fills a family’s table in the wintertime.
We begin the new year facing serious problems, so in this issue we look for possible solutions. Our feature considers proposals to breach four dams on the lower Snake River, which would benefit endangered fish and Indigenous tribes, but harm local farmers and the river’s industrial users. A proposed wildfire-risk map ends in ashes in Oregon, while Indigenous women respond to innovative workshops on prescribed and cultural burning. In Colorado, scientists employ assisted migration, moving Rio Grande cutthroat trout to cooler waters. Locals fight to save black walnut trees while fending off gentrification in Northeast Los Angeles. Washington’s shellfish farmers contend with climate change, immigration crackdowns and housing. Pima County, Arizona’s medical examiner sets new standards for identifying deceased migrants in the Borderlands. What will a third consecutive year of La Niña mean for Western weather? Saudi Arabia’s ties to Arizona predate current controversies over groundwater pumping, and growing up gay in conservative Colorado Springs was even harder than you think.
This issue takes us into the Mojave Desert, reminding us that landscapes too often dismissed as wastelands have always been home to Indigenous cultures and complex ecosystems. Our feature profiles artist Kim Stringfellow, who has devoted years to interrogating the desert’s history. We visit other unique landscapes, from the Great Basin’s vanishing sagebrush sea to Montana’s alpine peaks, where a strange pink algae is hastening the already rapid snowmelt. We ask uncomfortable questions: After June’s deluge, will developers rethink plans to build in the Yellowstone River’s floodplain? Is carbon capture really a viable solution to climate change? Will Indigenous nations finally receive their share of the Colorado River? And we explore some human ecosystems, honoring the stories of Diné boarding school survivors and the hidden histories of queer folk; chatting with customers on closing day at a diner in St. George, Utah; resurrecting family traditions with homemade fruitcake and watching a new life is rooted underneath a Wyoming juniper.
In this special issue, we take an in-depth look at the future of conservation in the West. Experts agree it’s time to upgrade the environmental laws of the 1970s. Chuck Sams, the National Park Service’s first Native director, hopes to lead the agency in a more inclusive direction. Collaboration keeps political extremism at bay in Oregon, seeks to protect eagles from lead poisoning and works to preserve wildlife corridors on both sides of the Borderlands. In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a small butterfly once thought to be extinct makes a remarkable comeback, while in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, activists forge a sustainable life that reflects their multicultural heritage. On Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, Indigenous youth learn to be stewards of both the land and their culture. Science fiction needn’t be dystopian. Watch out for ecological amnesia: We can’t create a livable future unless we remember our past and pay heed to our present.
An unexpected theme runs through our feature stories - the idea of “Making Refuge” in the West - as we consider how humans and other species can work together to enhance our mutual survival. June T Sanders’ photos and Abigail Hansel’s essay celebrate a community on the Washington-Idaho border that thrives despite anti-trans paranoia and extremism, while B. Toastie teaches us about the age-old relationship between lamprey and tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest. Alliances often spring up in response to crisis: Arizona mobile home owners facing extreme heat, wildland firefighters struggling with long COVID, Westerners working to ensure access to reproductive care. The challenges can seem overwhelming, as Nevada gold miners confront a powerful corporation, Indian Country awaits important Supreme Court decisions, and Westerners worry about the upcoming midterm elections. Arianne Zwartjes' new book "These Dark Skies" doesn’t hesitate to confront modern-day brutality even as she looks for solutions. But Westerners still come together in joy, whether moose hunting in rural Alaska or discussing Native literature with Native writers in Montana.
HCN prides itself on digging deep, but this month we literally go underground, accompanying Emily Benson into a Wyoming cave, where scientists who study cave formations hope that 100,000-year-old weather data can help us understand climate change. This summer’s flooding damaged property around Yellowstone National Park, but in the long run it might refresh the ecosystem. Despite a recent Supreme Court decision, the Environmental Protection Agency can still shut down polluters. There’s money in restoring landscapes ravaged by extractive industries, while Arizona citizens hope to protect groundwater with the help of a ballot initiative. Have you ever thought the land might be better off under new management — maybe the original management? The LandBack movement has suggestions. On the Navajo Nation, Indigenous farmers like Graham Biyáál are reclaiming traditional growing techniques and preserving seeds and recipes. If Biyáál’s blue cornmeal mush doesn’t fill you up, try visiting California’s Punjabi dhabas. We also review an enchanting new short-story collection and struggle to keep up with Cassie da Costa as she runs her first half marathon.
August is hot, and so are the stories in this issue, which examine the West’s fiery future from a variety of angles, discussing how communities can work together to reduce fire risk; climate change and our “forever” fire season; recovery after devastating wildfires; and the weird underground fires that ignite in coal seams and sometimes cause raging aboveground wildfires. Elsewhere, we see the impacts of climate injustice in industrialized Wilmington, California, where residents fight cancer and other serious illnesses. What’s the one weird trick oil companies use to dodge those annoying cleanup costs? Just don’t pay them. We interview longtime HCN contributor Leah Sottile, whose new book shows how extremist beliefs can destroy the lives of ordinary people. In the mood for fresh air? Take a hike with the “School of New Art Geographies,” which brings together artists and scientists to do creative fieldwork in the Sonoran Desert. And enjoy our preview of the Utah Museum of Fine Art’s groundbreaking multimedia exhibition, “Air,” which opens our eyes to something we often take for granted.
Life in the West can be pretty confusing. Poaching is always a serious crime, unless you’re a non-Native hunter on the Wind River Reservation. Salmon tastes great, but it’s not all that healthy when farmed fish escape in a fragile ecosystem. Do you know what color your hydrogen is? It’s hard to fish on the Arkansas River when wealthy landowners and the state of Colorado keep yelling, “Get the hell off my lawn!” Raising healthy families isn’t easy in West Eugene, Oregon, when you live next door to a toxic industry. Tribes have a chance to reclaim Willamette Falls — *if* they can somehow work together. LiDAR, a laser mapping technique, teaches researchers about deadly landslides and inspires Daniel Coe to create extraordinary art. The U.S. will never heal its relationship with the land until it heals its relationship with the land’s Indigenous people. Elsewhere in this issue, we listen to new podcasts, read Elvia Wilk’s Death by Landscape, and wander around Wyoming in search of meadowlarks.
Can we learn from past mistakes? That’s the underlying question this issue, where we revisit the misery of last summer’s “heat dome” from inside a state prison in Walla Walla, Washington. The scars of Cold War nuclear testing endure, as shown by Emmet Gowin’s photos of the Nevada Test Site and a powerful essay by Terry Tempest Williams. With drought emptying Lake Powell, Glen Canyon Dam’s days as a power source may be numbered. Can rare-earth metals like tellurium help solve our energy problems and boost the economy of Grants Pass, Oregon? A “Wildlife Welfare Check” brings good as well as bad news, Western teens are fighting climate change in the courts, and the Yurok Tribe is returning giant condors to the California skies. We meet the Navajo Nation’s first economist, and science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson talks about the High Sierra. Laureli Ivanoff prepares her grandmother’s summer greens dessert, and a young writer searches for identity in rural Utah.
In this issue, we examine habitat connectivity through the eyes of two very different California residents: P-22, the mountain lion that found an unlikely home in LA’s Griffith Park, and Miguel Ordeñana, who has spent his life studying urban wildlife. Can a wildlife crossing help P-22 and LA’s other wild inhabitants? We ponder how place names connect human beings to landscape and consider how Russia’s war in Ukraine might affect the Western U.S. Recently appointed BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning talks about her beleaguered agency, which has too often failed to protect the lands it manages. A California sheriff’s enthusiasm for policing environmental crimes sparks accusations of xenophobia from Hmong Americans. A Cherokee professor dissects the popular series ‘Yellowstone,’ and Vauhini Vara talks about her novel, ‘The Immortal King Rao.’ A young writer questions parenthood amid climate change, and a runner seeks access to public spaces in developed neighborhoods. This issue welcomes poetry back to HCN ’s pages and features a stunning portfolio of Richard Misrach’s extraordinary new photographs.
In HCN’s first-ever “Archives Issue,” we examine the West through a variety of historical lenses. In one of our features, we meet a New Mexico woman who always wondered how her family got from rural China to Albuquerque. We rummage through natural archives, from ice cores, tree rings and pack rat middens to parasite burrows in thousand-year-old oysters. We see Oklahoma through the eyes of the first female Native American photographer and learn about LGBTQ+ life in LA from the 1970s onward. We visit archives devoted to specialized subjects: Idaho’s Black history, Rocky Mountain skiing, beer making in Oregon and everyday life in the pandemic. We also ask uncomfortable questions: Who is buried in the unmarked graves at a former Indigenous boarding school? And when is a cliff dwelling not a cliff dwelling? (Spoiler: When it’s in Manitou Springs, Colorado, and its stones were taken from a faraway ruin and reassembled to create a kitschy tourist trap.)
Our March issue confronts some of the West’s greatest challenges, from extinction, fire and the climate crisis to the best way to manage our remaining resources. Our feature story takes a long, thoughtful look at efforts to clone the black-footed ferret, perhaps North America’s most endangered mammal. In Alaska, beavers are thriving where they’ve never been before and transforming the tundra. We bring you a package of stories about the rapidly shrinking Colorado River and how Indigenous people seek more inclusion in its fate, alongside their water rights. In Portland, Oregon, activists demand affordable, carbon-free housing. Our facts and figures shows what happens in cyberspace has real-world environmental impacts. Was the fire that ravaged communities in Boulder County, Colorado, a product of the region’s coal-mining past? In Tacoma, Washington, the Puyallup Nation fights a methane gas project it was never consulted about. Four hunters were charged with trespassing in Wyoming, despite never touching private land. New memoirs draw disturbing parallels between climate change and illness. And two essayists ponder painful questions: How do parents deal with climate grief? And why does violent language still echo through the West’s most peaceful landscapes?
This month's feature story looks into how Western farmworkers bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change, doing back-breaking labor in triple-digit temperatures. In response, activists in Washington are charting a new path to climate justice. This story is accompanied by the powerful artwork by farmworkers and their allies. Elsewhere, we meet Iniko, the baby condor that became a celebrity, and we learn to love the Pacific lamprey, a species that outlived the dinosaurs but needs human help today. In Oregon, a non-Native developer is attempting to open a gaming operation that threatens tribal sovereignty. Hydrologist Phoebe Suino talks about the Rio Grande and Indigenous water rights, and the "green metals" that power our electric vehicles spark a not-very-green mining boom. Ben Goldfarb ponders the deeper meaning of the film "Don’t Look Up," and a writer wonders whether the only thing standing between Butte, Montana, and gentrification is the fascinating but deadly Berkeley Pit. Laureli Ivanoff's column, "The Seasons of Uŋalaqłiq," makes its debut, and Tiffany Midge takes charge of "Heard around the West."
In the first issue of 2022, you’ll meet some hardworking Westerners, from the Indigenous women determined to preserve New Mexico’s Rio Grande, to the Nevada gold miners employed by a mega-corporation that cares as little for its workers as it does for the land it bulldozes. In Puget Sound, the Swinomish Indian Community shows that eelgrass and aquaculture can coexist, while Wyoming wonders whether Natrium nuclear reactors can take the place of coal. We ask uncomfortable questions: Why did the National Park Service bury its own study on sexual harassment inside the agency? And will the “green energy revolution” stomp on Indigenous values the way the fossil fuel industry has? In California, there’s reason to doubt Big Ag’s insistence that expensive canal repairs will help marginalized communities. We’re still suffering from 2021’s extreme “weather whiplash.” Native Americans need a better platform than Facebook, and corporations should quit exploiting Indigenous sacred places. A new anthology, Evergreen, celebrates the Northwest, and HCN bids a fond farewell to Betsy Marston, whose final “Heard around the West” column rounds out this issue.
In our final issue of 2021, we dive into controversies, from the fight over putting a wind farm next to a Japanese American incarceration camp, to a report on how income inequality is transforming the West. Lack of housing makes life difficult for Jackson Hole-area workers, while an Indigenous activist questions how much Biden’s Bears Ears proclamation accomplished. Our features tackle two subjects that often divide HCN’s own readers: Wild horses and cattle ranching. On the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, Indigenous people wonder if wild horses and buffalo can coexist, and we learn about modern-day ranching’s crazy economics when a Washington rancher tries to cheat the big meatpackers and win. Was the Northwest’s summer heat dome a “stress test” for wildlife, or a massacre? There’s even some good news: Activists are unionizing the big environmental groups, we visualize a healthy Klamath River, and an Indigenous writer reclaims her culture’s relationship with fire, while Rick McIntyre tells an inspiring story in his book, The Redemption of Wolf 302.
This issue takes us into Western communities that are facing serious challenges. In White Mesa, Utah, the nation’s only active uranium mill wants to import radioactive waste from overseas over the fierce objections of its next-door neighbors, the Ute Mountain Utes. Meanwhile, in Shasta Vista, California, cannabis-growing Hmong Americans defied evacuation orders to fight wildfires because they don’t trust the hostile county they live in. Climate change threatens Hatch, New Mexico’s famous green chiles, as well as the snow that sustains Rocky Mountain ski towns (among other things). We look into why reducing methane emissions matters. Still, wildfire experts see reasons for hope, and some communities are coming together: When Alaska’s Yukon River saw dismal salmon runs, other Native villages helped feed hard-hit communities. Black and Native communities are discussing their complex relationship, and Chuck Sams might become the first Native American to lead the National Park Service. Finally, archaeologists are starting to realize that Indigenous people have been around longer than academics have, after all.
WYOMING CLIMATE ORGANIZER
Job Title: Wyoming Climate Coordinator Reports to: Energy and Climate Policy Director Type of Work: Full-time, hourly, but willing to consider part-time Classification: Non-exempt Start...
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Colorado West Land Trust seeks a Director of Development to lead the organization's fundraising efforts. Western Colorado is home to Colorado's fruit and wine industry,...
DIRECTOR - COLORADO WILD PUBLIC LANDS
NON-PROFIT DIRECTOR If you are looking for meaningful work, this is the opportunity to join a small and exciting nonprofit organization led by an engaged...
EDITORIAL INTERN - INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS DESK
High Country News is seeking an intern to serve on its award-winning Indigenous Affairs Desk. The Indigenous Affairs Intern will dive deep into important stories...
COMING TO TUCSON?
Popular vacation house, everything furnished. Two bedroom, one bath, large enclosed yards. Dog-friendly. Contact Lee at [email protected] or 520-791-9246.
NATURAL RESOURCE CONSERVATION MANAGER
Central Colorado Conservancy is an accredited land trust and community-based conservation organization based in Salida, CO. Our mission is to protect the land, waters and...
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Areas of Responsibility: The Development Director collaborates with the Executive Director, other HEAL Utah staff, board, and supporters to continue building one of Utah's most...
DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT SPECIALIST
Position Summary Western Resource Advocates (WRA) is hiring an organized and creative Digital Engagement Specialist to join our Marketing and Communications Team. The Digital Engagement...
92 ACRE EASTERN WASHINGTON GEM
Welcome to Lost Creek Sanctuary... a true hidden gem in the heart of the Palouse. 1900 square feet, the main house is warm and charming,...
WEEKLY NEWSPAPER FOR SALE
Vibrant, financially successful 1,100 print run, community-focused subscription newspaper in beautiful Pacific Northwest Washington seeks owner/s. It is time to retire. Now, your Norman Rockwell-like...
STAFF ATTORNEY - WILDLANDS AND WILDLIFE PROGRAM
Job Opening Announcement: Wildlands and Wildlife Program Staff Attorney Reports to: Wildlands and Wildlife Program Director Location: Pacific Northwest, ideally in Eugene, Oregon, Portland, Oregon,...
HEAD OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The Head of Project Management will oversee our project execution to ensure that we are providing our partners around the world with the field data...
LEGAL DIRECTOR
Trustees for Alaska is the only nonprofit environmental law firm founded and based in Alaska. We are seeking a Legal Director, full-time based in Anchorage....
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The Fund for People in Parks seeks leader to identify, develop, fund, and facilitate high-impact projects in western National Parks. Remote position with some travel....
GRASSROOTS REGIONAL COORDINATOR
Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a women-led national grassroots organization that engages and inspires activism to preserve and protect wilderness and wild lands. The...
GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY MANAGER
Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a women-led national grassroots organization that engages and inspires activism to preserve and protect wilderness and wild lands. Position...
GRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP DIRECTOR
The Grassroots Leadership (Director) oversees the training, guidance, and support of volunteer Broadband Leaders. (Broadbands are women-led grassroots chapters, with 40+ across the country.) They...
FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT NEEDED
We would like to invite you to participate in a 60-minute focus group to help us enhance the New Mexico Courts website (https://www.inside.nmcourts.gov/). Our aim...
