Karen Budd-Falen’s family ranching operation agreed to sell water rights to the company developing the controversial Nevada lithium project.
Top Interior Department official has ties to Thacker Pass lithium mine
Posted inArticles
Water across the West at risk as Trump targets national monuments
A new study found that about 83% of water passing through public lands uses monument designation for its only protection.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
How the gaming economy helps tribes navigate shifting policies
Tribal sovereignty and prosperity are tied to gaming’s sovereign source of income.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Get to know the western spotted skunk
‘The stench kind of permeates everything’: What it takes to study a stinky, secretive skunk
Posted inArticles
National parks aren’t just for tourists. They’re an essential home for wildlife.
Pick up this new book on Yosemite for the photos but stay for the captivating animal stories.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
How ranchers accused of breaking the rules dodge oversight
Elected officials interfere with agency efforts to protect the land.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Congress made it easier to ignore grazing’s harm to public lands
Federal law requires agencies to review the environmental impacts of grazing, but government employees allege the system is riddled with loopholes.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
The wealthy profit from public lands, and taxpayers pick up the tab
Roughly two-thirds of grazing on Bureau of Land Management land is controlled by just 10% of permit holders.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
How we reported Free Range, our grazing investigation
Data and analyses used in the stories.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Journalism is made by humans, not machines
The humanity behind the words.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
HCN’s journalism is having on-the-ground impact
Our communities are at the heart of our work.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
HCN 2025 impact report
Our top stories from the year that resounded across the West (and beyond).
Posted inArticles
The mystery of wildlife and a world beyond our understanding
Science is essential to managing wildlife populations, but there are limits to what we know.
Posted inArticles
The big data center buildup
An AI server farm tsunami threatens to overwhelm the West’s power grid and water supplies.
Posted inArticles
Western climate litigants keep fighting
After disappointing losses in Alaska and Montana, an Indigenous-led climate case is making strides in New Mexico.
Posted inArticles
The West’s vanishing porcupines
Scientists are racing to figure out why porcupines are disappearing from their former stomping grounds.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Reno’s Gay Rodeo is back
Nearly 40 years after an armed sheriff, anti-LGBTQ activists and a judge’s order shut down the Gay Rodeo Finals, this year the riders came home.
Posted inArticles
Will this threatened frog stop drilling near Denver?
Northern leopard frogs were found near the site of what would be one of state’s largest fossil fuel operations.