Documents show 15 incidents in 2014, but don’t account for the Cliven Bundy standoff.
National Park Service
Posted inArticles
Grand Canyon floods are rebuilding sandbars
But there are limits to what can be done to tweak dam management to benefit ecosystems.
Posted inArticles
Battle of the Lands: Denali wins
Readers voted in our bracket-style tournament to crown the West’s best public lands on which to recreate.
Posted inArticles
A Yosemite gathering takes on culture, race, socioeconomics in national parks
Minorities, millennials and urbanites are less likely to visit national parks than upwardly mobile, white baby-boomers.
Posted inMay 11, 2015: The Wetland Wars
The Latest: New incentives for quieter aircraft in the Grand Canyon
More commercial flights are expected this year, if they meet federal noise standards.
Posted inApril 27, 2015: Lost frontier
A defender of North Dakota’s badlands wonders if it’s time to leave
Theodore Roosevelt National Park is not immune to effects of the Bakken oil boom.
Posted inArticles
Navajo election shakes up Grand Canyon development plans
How will the tribe’s new president handle the controversial Escalade project?
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
A wanderer’s guide to Western public lands
Cow patties, extraterrestrials and binoculars can help you figure out where you are.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
On the road with America’s sightseers
A photographer looks at three decades of tourism.
Posted inArticles
Who should manage Grand Teton’s private inholdings?
A dead wolf and jurisdictional confusion in an iconic national park.
Posted inArticles
Bison to be reintroduced in Banff, new plans for Yellowstone herd
Promising developments percolate in two North American parks.
Posted inArticles
California state parks’ blueprint for a more diverse future
Plans to overhaul park system, appeal to communities of color.
Posted inArticles
An international street artist goes tagging in Joshua Tree
The latest in a string of graffiti incidents in national parks.
Posted inArticles
A murky bill for national park waterways
A Yellowstone paddling bill raises hopes, suspicions.
Posted inArticles
The technique that’s revolutionizing aquatic science
Looking for brook trout? Try environmental DNA.
Posted inArticles
For public lands, massive protections in defense bill
But not all conservation groups think the gains are worth the losses.
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
Defuse the West
Public-land employees are easy targets for a violent, government-hating fringe.
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
Roots of rebellion: A forum
Four experts discuss threats to federal public-lands employees and where we go from here.
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
Related High Country News coverage
Nevada’s ugly tug-of-war (1995) County commissioner courts bloodshed (1995) Utah counties bulldoze the BLM, Park Service (1996) Nevadans drive out forest supervisor (1999) Shoveling vs. sniveling (2000) Showdown on the Nevada range (2001) Change comes slowly to Escalante country (2003) Road warriors back on the offensive (2003) Rebels with a lost cause (2007 Sagebrush Rebel […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
Reports from the front lines
Excerpts from official accounts of threats against U.S. Forest Service and BLM employees.