High Country News

High Country News is the nation's leading source of reporting on the Western United States. Through in-depth reporting, High Country News covers the West’s social, political and ecological issues.

High Country News

Responsible Escapism

LETTERS • High Country News is dedicated to independent journalism, informed debate and discourse in the public interest. We welcome letters through digital media and the post. Send us a letter, find us on social media, or email us at editor@hcn.org.

Fertile ground for housing • In Ventura County, California, affordable apartments for farmworkers are rising on former farmland.

A good sign • How words and pictures can keep bears safe.

Fen fixers • Meet the researchers restoring Colorado’s high-altitude carbon-storing wetlands.

Eavesdropping on the Arctic • Scientists are racing to understand what a changing underwater soundscape means for Alaska’s whales.

The High Roads

Thank you, readers! • Your generous and dedicated support makes these pages possible.

A season of grizzlies and get-togethers

DRIED OUT IN PHOENIX • A groundwater crisis has halted the construction of thousands more homes than previously reported.

PORTRAIT of a VANISHING TREE • Oregon ash is heading for functional extinction. How do we make the most of the time we have left with it?

EDITOR’S NOTE

Building new worlds • How do we embrace the new and still hold on to the things that shaped us?

To err is human, to forage bovine • A rancher reflects on her occupation and how other animals see the world.

Inventing habitats • Reconciliation means meeting a landscape on its own terms.

Heard Around the West • Tips about Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. Write heard@hcn.org.

IAM THE WEST