After a record low two years ago, this season’s substantial Sierra snowpack highlights the variability of winter weather in the West.
Winter snows bring spring flows
Posted inArticles
Congress is running out of time to repeal Obama orders
An effort to rescind the methane rule could fizzle.
Posted inArticles
California isn’t accounting for this major emitter
Even though large reservoirs emit methane, the state doesn’t off-set their impact.
Posted inMay 1, 2017: Change Comes to Short Creek
Who will pay for unsexy repairs in national parks?
Congress discusses how to prioritize the Park Service’s maintenance backlog.
Posted inArticles
Week in review: April 7
Trump helps controversial water project in Mojave; EPA cuts; DAPL doubts.
Posted inArticles
West Obsessed: What drives explosive wildfires?
High Country News staff discusses science behind increasingly devastating blazes.
Posted inArticles
Oregon youths get another chance at learning outdoors
Outdoor School tries to give children common ground on conservation.
Posted inArticles
What happens when all the animals are gone?
We are heading for a time when wildlife no longer exists.
Posted inArticles
A conversation with Obama’s top Interior lawyer
A look at how the department has changed its relationships with tribes, and at legal battles on the horizon.
Posted inMay 15, 2017: Prison Town
A tribe wins rights to contested groundwater in court
A major federal court decision acknowledges that tribes have priority rights to groundwater — and could limit how much other users can take.
Posted inMay 1, 2017: Change Comes to Short Creek
How environmentalists could do more for Bears Ears
On issues of industrial recreation, green groups say too little.
Posted inArticles
What the West was like before the EPA
The agency’s legacy isn’t perfect, but the region’s air and water are cleaner now than they once were.
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
Zinke’s Interior takes shape; Big Rec’s big move; solar shift
HCN.org news in brief.
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
You can’t take politics out of the West
Our editor-in-chief responds to recent criticism.
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
Why coal has declined
In “Overdosed” in the Feb. 20 issue, the author writes, “Federal regulations and the low cost of natural gas have combined to create the worst economic climate for coal in decades.” While this sentence is true, it is also misleading. The real economic issue for Craig is not just the decline in coal demand, but […]
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
The story of Hig and Big Guy
Regarding Anna V. Smith’s recent story about Oregon’s Valley of the Giants (“Growing pains,” HCN, 3/6/17), long, long ago my boss, Guy Higginson, supervised a group of BLM foresters. I was one of them. The Bureau of Land Management back in the 1970s was a timber-producing machine, and we O&C foresters pulled the levers. In […]
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
Spring’s skipped issue, and corrections
Raven wordplay: Corvus, Corvax and Corax.
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
Kill bill; What’s sprouting from Hell’s backbone?; Mojave NIMBY
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
Inside the firestorm
New technology allows scientists to see the forces behind the flames.
Posted inApril 3, 2017: Firestorm
Falconry birds aren’t pets
As a 55-year-old lifelong raptor enthusiast with 12 years of professional raptor work under my belt, I enjoyed seeing a ferruginous hawk on the cover (“Now you see her,” HCN, 3/6/17). As a licensed falconer of over 30 years, though, I take exception to the author’s statement that “ferruginous hawks, however, are not popular pets […]