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High Country News

High Country News

A nonprofit independent magazine of unblinking journalism that shines a light on all of the complexities of the West.

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Posted inArticles

Washington’s controversial cap-and-trade program, explained. Really.

by Natalia Mesa March 20, 2024March 19, 2024

It’s hailed as the strongest in the nation, but will it reduce carbon pollution equitably?

Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground

An ode to lesbians who showed the way

by Morgan Lieberman and Emily Withnall March 1, 2024March 11, 2024

The photography series ‘Hidden Once, Hidden Twice’ highlights women who serve as a model for others.

Posted inApril 2024: Epic Journeys

Is it cowboy poetry if it’s not written by a cowboy?

by Meg Bernhard February 28, 2024March 22, 2024

An event protesting the cowboy poetry festival faces questions of growth and authenticity.

Grant Davis walks back to his tiny home at Colorado Village Collaborative’s Native-Inclusive Safe Outdoor Space in Denver, Colorado.
Posted inMarch 2024: Fertile Ground

Can affordable housing for Indigenous communities work?

by Raksha Vasudevan February 27, 2024February 28, 2024

The question looms large as Denver breaks ground on its first affordable housing project for Indigenous people.

The “It’s the Climate” sign was first hung on July 20, 1920, to promote the temperate weather of Grants Pass.
Posted inArticles

How a small town with limited resources is planning for climate change

by Claire Carlson February 22, 2024February 21, 2024

Oregon’s Grants Pass is known for its climate, and its sustainability plan aims to keep it that way.

Posted inArticles

Wild ice: A training ground for rural skaters

by Luna Anna Archey February 8, 2024April 24, 2024

On the Western Slope of Colorado, frozen reservoirs and rivers offer interesting terrain for skating.

A black bear in the Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.
Posted inJanuary 11, 2024: The Creatures in Our Midst

A bear hunt illuminates the complexities of a marriage

by Laureli Ivanoff January 30, 2024February 1, 2024

Will the gift of a significant harvest be individual or shared?

Posted inJanuary 11, 2024: The Creatures in Our Midst

The Northwestern Shoshone are restoring the Bear River Massacre site

by Brooke Larsen January 29, 2024May 8, 2024

The tribe is reclaiming their gathering place and returning water to the Great Salt Lake.

The West Dock Causeway is part of the oil and gas infrastructure on Alaska’s North Slope. Gravel is a prized commodity for the oil and gas industry. [
Posted inArticles

Alaska is short on gravel and long on development projects

by Emily Schwing January 26, 2024February 1, 2024

The state’s North Slope communities need rocks, and they’re hard to come by.

Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024

Climate Vigil aims to channel prayer into action

by Rebecca Randall January 1, 2024January 31, 2024

Christians in eastern Oregon fight for a safe climate as a human — and moral — right.

Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024

How kung-fu heroes can grow our climate consciousness

by Jenny Liou January 1, 2024January 31, 2024

‘It’s an intentional alignment with a certain kind of underground resistance.’

“The Beginning of the End” is a quilt by Diné quiltmaker, Susan Hudson, which speaks to the legacy of Indian boarding schools in the United States and Canada (where they are known as “residential schools”).
Posted inArticles

Washington works to reconcile its history of Indigenous boarding schools

by Shana Lombard December 12, 2023January 31, 2024

An all-Indigenous committee will identify the state’s responsibility of rectifying harm caused to boarding school survivors and their descendants.

The author casts for trout with this tenkara rod on a creek in southcentral Alaska.
Posted inArticles

An angler goes ever farther upstream with tenkara

by Matthew Komatsu December 4, 2023January 31, 2024

How a centuries-old Japanese method of fly-fishing awoke a strong connection to hāfu lineage.

Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023

North Denver’s green space paradox

by Raksha Vasudevan December 1, 2023February 1, 2024

Will a billion-dollar infrastructure project heal a Colorado community — or displace its residents?

Posted inDecember 1, 2023: December 2023

How the New Mexico whiptail became a gay icon

by Miles W. Griffis November 27, 2023February 1, 2024

All members of the lizard species are female and reproduce asexually through a process called parthenogenesis.

An artist’s rendering showing one possible location for the chorizo shaped sculpture that will honor Tucson's shared Mexican and Chinese heritage.
Posted inArticles

A sausage fusing Chinese and Mexican cultures is spicing up Tucson

by Reia Li November 16, 2023January 31, 2024

The Chinese Chorizo Festival is excavating buried histories of immigrant solidarity.

Freeskier Lily Bradley in the new ski film, “People Like Us.”
Posted inArticles

Pro skier Lily Bradley disrupts mountain culture in new queer ski film

by Ollie Hancock November 2, 2023January 31, 2024

In ‘People Like Us,’ LGBTQ+ skiers take center stage.

Posted inNovember 1, 2023: November 1, 2023

Beauty is always bigger than the pain

by Laureli Ivanoff November 1, 2023January 24, 2024

A writer finds what she needs on a snowy walk through a cherished and familiar landscape.

Infrastructure on the Akiuk side of Kasigluk, Alaska, is surrounded by water and vulnerable to flooding, permafrost thaw  and erosion.
Posted inNovember 1, 2023: November 1, 2023

Kasigluk endures the many challenges of thawing permafrost

by Katie Basile November 1, 2023January 24, 2024

Residents of the Alaska village maintain community in the face of climate change.

Posted inNovember 1, 2023: November 1, 2023

What Montana’s independent ranchers need to survive: customers

by Susan Shain October 31, 2023February 22, 2024

Small-scale processing is on the rise, but ranchers still need buyers’ buy-in.

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