If you can’t find a Utah peach this year, climate change may be to blame
Record-breaking spring heat followed by freezes led to 95% crop losses.
The curious comeback of Putah Creek’s salmon
All the efforts to rewild a Northern California stream leads to salmon rewilding themselves.
Do chainsaws belong in designated wilderness?
The Forest Service has approved the tools for use in some protected areas to clear neglected trails.
Bazillions of bunnies, Montecito’s ‘hog heaven,’ and pride will always prevail
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
How socialism built the reddest states in the West
The history of labor in the region gets shouted down by corporations.
Glen Canyon Dam dances with deadpool
Megadrought on the Colorado River has put the dam in a precarious position.
Billions in border wall contracts are going to a Montana firm run by a Trump donor
Barnard Construction’s leadership donated over $1 million to the president’s campaign. They’re among the administration’s top wall contractors.
On Oregon’s McKenzie River, an unprecedented approach to restoration takes shape
A bold process aims to repair the damaged watershed.
Managed retreat in Ruidoso could mean more public lands
Facing fires and floods, homeowners in Lincoln County, New Mexico, are considering buyouts designed to move them out of harm’s way.
Can resistance stop a massive data center next to the Great Salt Lake?
Utah has become the latest front in a high-stakes fight to build the infrastructure powering the A.I. boom.
Elk herd habitat near Dinosaur National Monument to open for drilling
On June 16, the feds will open Colorado’s biggest public land sale in modern history, threatening wildlife and recreation.
Dredging the Columbia River at the expense of tribal and aquatic communities
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has transformed the estuary and robbed the river of sediment over the last century.
On walking away from it all
The best things in life are not things but places.
The climbers of HCN
Two staffers show tenacity on the wall and for our readers.
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In This Issue
June 2026: River Revival
What happens when humans demand more from our rivers than those rivers can safely give? HCN dives into the problem, investigating the long, destructive story of how dredging turned the mighty Columbia — the great river of the Pacific Northwest — into a profitable shipping…
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Water
Treat water like family, not profit
Colorado’s Arkansas Valley water confronts contamination, climate change and political drama
The dark legacy of the atomic age is still playing out in New Mexico
Wildlife
Making grazing great again?
Get to know the Pacific newt
Migrating wildlife need lots of space between houses, research shows
Public Lands
The Continental Divide Trail is being militarized for the border wall
How Interior helped pushed bison off Montana’s federal lands
The billionaires’ club at the center of America’s public lands fight
Indigenous Affairs
The facade of the Red Wind commune
War, climate change and AI are at stake at the 2026 UN Indigenous forum
‘Energy dominance’ agenda sidelines tribes
Communities
O’Keeffe Country was never O’Keeffe’s to begin with
The Death Valley opera house that’s sinking back into the earth
As Roadless Rule rollback looms, grassroots hearings take root
Books
What can we learn from salt lakes?
Badger signs: An essay from Terry Tempest Williams’ new book ‘The Glorians’
Three books explore deep time and help us look forward
In the News
Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
‘Some of us are seeing it as the new nemesis, a new destructive force for habitat.’