Issues

Expressions of rural discontent are a main theme in this issue. Our feature story examines a zealous political movement born from resentment of California’s liberal ‘resistance’ to Trump. Meanwhile, the Bundy family walks free of charges from their involvement with a standoff with federal agents. These stories find common ground in their telling of cultural disempowerment.

Jan. 22, 2018

Bear Essentials

In this issue's feature story, writer Christopher Solomon visits a rare sort of place: a bear sanctuary where humans are subordinate — assuming a role we must have played long ago. Casting aside the notion that humans are somehow above and beyond nature, this issue touches on how still-wild places can be a healing force and how we might rethink our relationship with the natural world.

Dec. 25, 2017

Scorched Earth

In this issue we examine the West's relationship with fire after a difficult wildfire season. In the wildlands of California, we look at how fire is being used as its own management tool; we also look at the mounting impacts wildfire has on watersheds in the region and on public health in Montana. We break down why Congress hasn’t provided a fire-funding fix, and in an essay, a firefighter contemplates his own mortality.

Dec. 11, 2017

Profit and Politics

This issue addresses state lands, and what could come of the West's federal lands if they were transferred to states, a tenet of the Republican party platform. Our reporters investigate how wildlife, extractive industries and recreation are managed in New Mexico, North Dakota and Utah to better understand what's at stake.

Nov. 27, 2017

Solace and Perspective

In a break from covering the news, our annual Books & Authors special issue offers perspective by taking a look at the complicated West through a different lens: literature. Essays, excerpts, author profiles, Q&As and book reviews tackle grief, oddities and hard questions.

Nov. 13, 2017

The Changing Face of Woods Work

In this issue of High Country News, long-time contributor Hal Herring explains how immigration policy and a push for cheap labor have changed the economics of forest management. Film critic Jason Asenap examines the history of non-Native directors relying on overused stereotypes of Indigenous people. In a place as complicated as the West, our understanding of what shapes it is ever-evolving.

Oct. 30, 2017

Following Ancient Footsteps

This issue looks at human migrations, both modern and ancient. The feature examines the science of human migrations, with both Pueblo people in the Southwest and archeologists working together at Mesa Verde. An Alaskan Tlingit author writes about her own migration away from her homeland, and back again. And, a hunter on public lands follows the migration of deer to find food for her family for the winter. Movement is fundamental to humans, and just one way that we’re still connected to the natural world.

Oct. 2, 2017

No Hoax

In this issue, we confront the realities of climate change as its impacts on the West begin to unfold. We explore the longer growing seasons in Alaska, the fragility of shellfish in an increasingly acidified ocean and the impact of extreme weather events on indigenous people, and what they’re doing about it. With an administration at odds with recognizing climate change, it’s even more important to see what efforts are being made at the grass roots level.

Sept. 18, 2017

The Elwha, Unleashed

In this issue, we look past the contentious symbolism of dams and see what we can learn from them. We examine the lessons learned on Washington’s Elwha River, whose dams came down six years ago, and Utah’s Bear River, where a diversion is still being planned. And we look at the surprisingly scant science behind calls to take down Glen Canyon Dam, which would be a major win for preservationists but a potential disaster for many Westerners.

Sept. 4, 2017

Rooftop Revolution

This issue delves into the forces that shape our energy system – from corporate profit motives, to the individuals with solar panels on their roofs. These decisions affect our ability to mitigate climate change, which is also touched on in this issue from the Southwest’s songbirds struggling with increased heatwaves, to volunteer firefighters battling more wildfires.

Aug. 21, 2017

Los Promotores

This issue makes visible the communities who often go unseen and unheard. The feature looks at local activists in California who, without assistance from the government, have been doggedly trying to heal their communities from toxic dumps through education and community service. The issue also covers a new species facing extinction, dams in the West and enlivened efforts to drill near national monuments.

Aug. 7, 2017

Down the Dark Mountain

This issue delves into the choices we must make as we begin to face the consequences of the Anthropocene. Reckoning with the grinding anxiety of climate change and the grief of losing our most precious species, how we cope with these fears will define us. Also, how Trump could reshape important courts, what's caused California's white shark boom, and tribal nations fight grizzly bear delisting.

July 24, 2017

Personal Pilgrimage

In our annual Outdoor Recreation issue we examine the lure of long hauls and personal pilgrimage. Something happens once we’re outdoors that touches our deeper human natures. As we encounter the wild, and recognize our own small place in it, we can’t help but be humbled and changed.

June 26, 2017

The Big Swing

In this issue, we examine the subtleties of Western politics by trying to understand why one Colorado county swung from blue to red in the last election. The county has long been Democratic, with roots in coal production and unions, yet voters in Walsenburg lost faith in professional politicians and voted for now-President Donald Trump. Also, Wyoming considers its wilderness study areas, new studies show the West's water supplies are dwindling, and urban families fight health-harming heat.

June 12, 2017

The Cost of a Comeback

In this issue, we delve into some of the strange intersections between humans and animals. Associate editor Tay Wiles introduces us to members of Nevada’s Agriculture Enforcement Unit, who ride the range investigating a spate of mysterious bovine injuries, and for our cover story, writer Julia Rosen takes us into the paradoxical world of bighorn sheep conservation that's pitted conservationists against each other.

May 29, 2017

Prison Town

In this issue, a look at Adelanto, California, and the economies it has turned to in order to survive: desert farming, then a military air base and finally an immigration incarceration center. Also, bears and tourists in national parks, some of Oregon’s houseless find a home, and oil and gas development under Colorado suburbs leads to a deadly explosion.

May 15, 2017

Change Comes to Short Creek

In this issue, our feature story explores a small corner of the region: A fundamentalist empire called Short Creek on the Arizona-Utah border that's feeling the encroaching pressure of the modern-day West. There we find uncomfortable truth — but an important aspect of the past. In the rest of the issue, we have an eye on the future: A Westerner on the Supreme Court, and solutions to endless sprawl in water-scarce Arizona.

May 1, 2017

Firestorm

This issue’s cover story takes us into towering plumes of smoke to follow the work of researchers. New studies are uncovering how intense wildfires create their own weather and move across the land — knowledge that could save lives. It's a reminder of stake: If President Donald Trump’s budget cuts hobble that research, it will harm, not strengthen, the West’s security. Plus, the growing voice of sportsmen, communities protecting immigrants, and a public-lands love affair.

April 3, 2017

The Tree Ring

In our latest issue, we take a look back on our political history: In 1983, Reagan’s pick to head the environmental Protection agency, Anne Gorsuch, led the charge to slash her own agency’s budget and relax pollution standards. Scott Pruitt, the Trump administration’s new EPA administrator, has staked out an eerily similar path. In our cover story, a Washington man at the center of a timber-poaching gang wanted to help investigators — but he probably didn't think it would backfire and lead to an investigation that would land him in jail.

March 20, 2017

Uncomfortable Corners

In this year's Travel Issue, we have tried to push deep into the unexpected, or even uncomfortable, corners of the West. These are not vacation stories, necessarily. But they are travel stories. They are as much inner journeys as outer, all prompted by the unique features of our great region, places often forgotten or ignored.

March 6, 2017