Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
A friend to crows, a foe of climate change and a scourge on man buns.
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A look back on 45 years of HCN
Continuing the tradition of in-depth, passionate coverage of the West’s defining issues.
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A pumpjack is not a coal mine
Eight things you need to know about coalbed methane mining.
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Jeb Bush outlines plans to limit federal control of Western lands
The presidential hopeful would move Interior Department from Washington to the West.
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To save Washington’s Yakima Basin fish, just add water
A drought plan in one of the West’s most forward-thinking watersheds reconciles salmon and agriculture.
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Farmers team up with Humane Society on behalf of animals
Like all farmers and ranchers, Kevin Fulton has experienced his share of tough days at work. But he does everything possible to make sure that his animals – goats, sheep, cattle and chickens – never have to experience more than one bad day themselves. “If we can provide an environment where our animals only have […]
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Five lessons for Indian Country from the Canadian elections
A record 54 indigenous candidates ran in this election, but still occupy just three percent of the House of Commons.
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Mexican wolves seem targeted for extinction
This fall, for the second time, the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission rejected a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to release two adult Mexican wolves with pups, and up to 10 captive-born wolf pups, into the Mexican Wolf Recovery Area in southern Arizona and New Mexico. An important part of the release, which […]
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Two oil-boom soap operas, then and now
How ‘Blood & Oil’ in today’s Bakken and ‘Dynasty’ in a 1980s Colorado match up.
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Public-land transfer proponents may have violated lobbying laws
Colorado puts the American Lands Council on “notice” for ethical missteps.
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Why are the feds sticking with a racist name for a Washington lake?
Update from HCN staff, Oct. 23, 2015: Two days after this piece was published, the National Park Service reversed its decision and recommended that the U.S. Board of Geographic Names change the name of Coon Lake to Howard Lake, Glenn Nelson reports. “We recognize that our previous decision on this issue overlooked relevant information, and […]
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Ranch Diaries: Remote ranching and vet care in the 21st century
When crisis hits, help comes in unconventional ways.
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Legal challenges over Exxon Valdez sputter to an end
Lingering oil remains and ecological monitoring will continue. But Alaskans are moving on.
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Is this climate change-battered conifer migrating northward?
Scientists in Alaska are mapping what may be the tip of yellow cedar’s expanding range.
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Researchers find an answer to invasive cheatgrass
Will this native bacteria finally thwart one of the most invasive weeds in North America?
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How Arrowrock Dam is supporting corporate farming
Water runs uphill toward money from Arrowrock Dam on the Boise River, where the Bureau of Reclamation first pioneered high-rise concrete dams that transformed the face of the West. Thanks to Arrowrock, the wealthiest 10 percent of its water users control 75 percent of the water. Mostly large corporations, they pay about a dime for […]
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Congress tries to speed up contentious post-fire logging
New legislation comes despite science showing timber salvage harms essential wildlife habitat
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Can studying morality help Yellowstone’s wolves and bison?
Sociologist Justin Farrell plumbs the spiritual depths of environmental struggle.
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Environmentalists on both sides of the border eye Canadian election
Our neighbor to the north has taken an aggressively anti-climate, pro-pipeline tack. But the upcoming election could change that.
Posted inOctober 12, 2015: The Rise of Lisa Murkowski
The self in perpetual motion
A review of “Spirit Bird: Stories” by Kent Nelson.