Prairie dogs emerge from their burrow in a colony on American Prairie in Montana. Prairie dogs, once one of the most abundant animals on the prairie, now occupy 2% of their historic range. Louise Johns/HCN■

ON A CLOUDY FALL DAY IN 2023, Alfred Pebria and his fellow construction workers were installing a wind turbine in Solano County, California. They were trying to hoist a nacelle — a several-hundred-thousand-pound structure the size of a single-wide tr

Trump prepares to take office, Native communities are bracing for another pivot in federal policy and direction. Trump’s previous term, combined with the far-right political playbook Project 2025, offer a glimpse of what to expect: increasing oil and

Exploring the intersection of race and family in the interior rural West. MANY YEARS AGO, I did away with New Year’s resolutions. I used to make them religiously. By December, there would be a long list of goals that I would look at incredulously. Th

AROUND 1 in the afternoon at the peak of the sun, a vehicle procession led by tribal military veterans turned onto the road to St. Michael’s Episcopal Mission and began a slow approach toward a circle of buildings. I felt a warm grip as Melissa “Mill

Both Nevada and Arizona have seen thousands of Republican newcomers since 2016, including many relocating from California. Naturalized citizens constitute 14% of eligible voters in Nevada and 9% in Arizona. More than 62,000 Arizonans and 41,000 Nevad

IN SEPTEMBER 2020, as crews outside Yosemite National Park worked to contain the oncoming Creek Fire and evacuate those in its path, archaeologist Jennie Leonard was racing to protect something that couldn’t leave: the giant sequoias in the Mariposa

In 2025, during the 61st annual Milk River Indian Days, I’m going to be the women’s head flag bearer — and to me, that is major, because in my 57 years, I’ve never seen a woman in men’s regalia in charge of a big powwow like that. I started to grass

An exploration of life and landscape during the climate crisis. WE CALLED him Grandpa. We figured that he was at least 100 years old. Saguaros can grow as tall as 16 feet in a century, and Grandpa was easily four times my size, with about a dozen arm

THIS MONTH, hundreds of political electees are settling into agencies and statehouses across the country, eager to wield their fresh power and influence. Their approach to the economy, national security and the environment will determine the quality

IT WAS A SEPTEMBER NIGHT in 2020 when the fire torched the Red Mountain Travel Plaza. Residents of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Nation watched as the only gas station and grocery store for miles around vanished amid towering orange flames a

If you’re planning on scamming your auto insurance by claiming that furry-ocious bruins went full-throttle Cocaine Bear on several very expensive cars, it’s probably not a good idea to leave the bear suit you wore for the occasion — complete with mea

THE PRAIRIE DOG CAUGHT IN TRAP 69 was angry. And who could blame her? After waking up in her burrow on a mid-September morning, she’d waddled innocently outside for a breakfast of mini marshmallows and carrots, only to find herself stuck in a wire ca

In the days after the November election, I sent out a raft of emails to friends and family and readers across the country. It was my way of making sense of what had just happened and trying to sort out HCN’s role in the coming year. Some of my though

High Country News is needed now more than ever as we work to empower people who care about the West and connect the many diverse communities that call this complex and beautiful place home. Thank you for being an integral part of our community. Commu

I’VE OFTEN THOUGHT OF jeans as “sky pants,” trousers woven from cotton clouds. Jeans are the wild blue yonder above the canyons, plains and crumbling escarpments of the West. Pants to die in, as Andy Warhol once proclaimed. But also pants to live in:

KATIE LUDLOW RICH AND HEATHER Sundahl had prizes to give away. “Which founding mother from Exponent II was banned from speaking at Brigham Young University?” Rich quizzed a small, mostly female audience gathered inside a conference room at the Univer

Jade Stevens rests near Lake Putt on land in California’s Tahoe National Forest that is owned and managed by the 40 Acre Conservation League. Alexis Hunley / HCN■

The masked marauders are out in force! Batten down the hatches: An unidentified woman living in Poulsbo, Washington, had to call 911 after an army of around 100 raccoons surrounded her home. According to KOMO News, deputies came to her rescue after s

You enable us to shine a light on the critical issues of our time in a way that is insightful, fair-minded and thoughtful. When you donate to HCN, youare sharing insightful stories about the West with your neighbors, your region and your country. We

IT’S A WONDER THAT it’s taken this long for an Indigenous basketball movie to come to fruition, aside from the obvious funding issues, because the idea was ripe for the picking. Basketball is as deeply ingrained in Indigenous culture as football is t

By the time you read this, a month will have passed since the 2024 election. We all watched as the electoral maps slowly filled up with red across the West, while blue flowed down the coast and pooled in Colorado and New Mexico. Donald Trump was decl

IN A SANTA FE WALMART, through aisles flooded by fluorescent light, I hunt down 5-gallon plastic jugs, finally finding them, illogically, halfway across the store from the water-filling station. I shove my shopping cart with the sticky wheel alongsid