Legal scholars debunk arguments about how founding documents support local control of all lands.
No, federal land transfers are not in the Constitution
Posted inArticles
Did Colorado leave residents of the Raton Basin with bad water?
Regulators don’t link industry to contamination — but testing shows the pollution came after drilling.
Posted in2016
Rebellion Turns to Insurgency: Behind the Discontent in the West
Paonia, CO – Events like the January 2016 standoff at the Oregon Malheur Wildlife Refuge are becoming more commonplace in the West, amid hidden connections between the economic downturn, anti-government sentiment and a sprawling network of organizations, actors and movements. For the past six months, High Country News has been investigating this broader network, and has now issued […]
Posted inArticles
Above normal snowpack in some of last winter’s driest regions
Precipitation in recent months chips away at California drought, but the water deficit will be hard to overcome.
Posted inArticles
The surprising history of the Malheur wildlife refuge
The refuge’s creation helped support nearby ranchers.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
The rise of the Sagebrush Sheriffs
How rural ‘constitutional’ peace officers are joining the war against the feds.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
In ‘Gold Fame Citrus,’ the nascent genre of cli-fi looks to California
A new climate change novel predicts a dystopian West of sand and refugees.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Sagebrush Insurgency connections
Connecting the dots within a vast right-wing network of militia members, state and local politicians, and others.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Graphic: The hidden connections of the Sagebrush Insurgency
Where a sprawling network of actors find common cause.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
The exotic dancing boom in North Dakota goes bust
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
The BLM’s arms race on the range
The agency has armed up since 1978, but it’s still outgunned without local backup.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Sugar Pine Mine, the other standoff
How a small-time mining dispute in Oregon readied a network of militias for the Malheur occupation.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Risks and regulations
Wonderful trenchant article on the surface, but the real story lies just below ground (“Coal company bankruptcies jeopardize reclamation,” HCN, 1/25/16). The article mentioned the various methods that are used to ensure a mine site would be cleaned up in the future, i.e., surety bonds, letters of credit, cash deposits, etc. As a young bank […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Past and present in a New Mexico town famous for its pies
A review of “Pie Town Revisited” by Arthur Drooker.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Obama moves on coal and readers respond to Sagebrush coverage.
HCN.org news in brief.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Not rebels, but insurgents
The closest I ever came to understanding genuine terror was in Sri Lanka, in 2007. For five weeks, I’d been reporting on the insurgency of the Tamil Tigers, a separatist group fighting the Buddhist majority government. The insurgency had grown increasingly violent over the years, and bombings around the country had intensified. When my work […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Local measures for desperate times
Regarding your Dec. 7 feature “Good Neighbors,” I’ve never understood why Peter Kropotkin’s book Mutual Aid has been buried for over a century in favor of a “survival of the fittest” mentality. The scholars mentioned in this story would do well to look it over if they aren’t familiar with it. The American West is […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Lethal tools
Ben Goldfarb shines an even-handed light on Wildlife Services, a federal agency operating in the shadows whose purpose is “controlling” targeted wildlife species, by any means (“The Forever War,” HCN, 1/25/16). The 2014 statistics Goldfarb cited show just how effectively and quietly the agency goes about the job of killing. Its objectives reflect and remain […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Latest: Ranching family whose battles with the feds preceded the Bundys’ loses in court
So ends the legal saga of Wayne Hage and Wayne Hage Jr., who argued that their historical water rights gave them grazing rights, as well.