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

Know the West.

The illusion of discovery

CONTRIBUTORS

ON THE COVER

LETTERS

Climate change is changing public health • In Washington, a new team of epidemiologists is preparing for a hotter, smokier future.

Emergency services, lost in translation • A FEMA contractor’s incompetence in Alaska Native languages highlights a systemic problem.

Counting on Walter • How a dinosaur is redefining a rural coal town.

Who gets a say in tribal treaty hunting? • In Wyoming, everybody wants influence over off-rez hunting — and nobody’s happy.

Watching a species disappear • What does it take to save a beleaguered butterfly in a world still learning to value insects?

Scarlet Paintbrush

Seeking sanctuary • Climate change refugia can shelter wildlife as the planet warms.

Thank you, readers! • Your generous and dedicated support makes this magazine possible.

Staying plugged in

The Artist and the Harpooner • In Micah McCarty’s art, the past and future are one, and the whales never left.

Tenacious Specimens • A survey of the Grand Canyon’s plants by the first non-Native women to run the river — and survive.

The many ways to see a story • Acclaimed Indigenous author Debra Magpie Earling returns with a new novel.

The spirit of the Rillito • ‘New animism’ seeks a connection to nature’s pulse.

Good ice • The first spring harvest relies on a still-frozen ocean.

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

#IAM THE WEST