Brent Davis thinks he grows the tastiest tomatoes. For four generations, his family has farmed and ranched near the eastern shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, 45 minutes north of Salt Lake City. He ...

Seems like Westerners always want more. Take the already shrinking wetlands of the endangered Great Salt Lake, which a quasi-governmental agency is determined to industrialize. Or southwestern ...

This article appeared in the March 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “‘Rights of nature’ laws take root in the West.” ...

Farmers, tribes and environmental advocates in rural Oregon raise alarms about the empty promises of biofuels.

Amal Ahmed is a freelance journalist based in southwest Washington. She’s previously covered environmental and climate policy from Texas. Sign up to receive High Country News ’ email newsletters and ...

In the months before the Navajo Generating Station closed, many observers prognosticated economic doom for nearby Page, Arizona, population 7,500 or so. The plant employed 463 full-time, high-wage ...

Laurel Flores Fantauzzo is the author of the young adult novel My Heart Underwater and the nonfiction book The First Impulse. Sign up to receive High Country News ’ email newsletters and get ...

Copies of the original plan still exist, one of which sits in the Los Angeles Public Library, where it fell into the hands of the artist and video game designer Alice Bucknell. For Bucknell, the plan ...

Male roadrunners’ colors become accentuated during mating season. In fact, in many bird species, males are the showiest, sporting iridescent, delectable colors, blooming tail feathers, and, in the ...

HCN has covered the lands, wildlife and communities of the Western U.S. for more than 50 years. Get to know the West better by signing up to receive HCN’s on-the-ground reporting and investigations in ...

Jenny Qi is the author of Focal Point, winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. Sign up to receive High ...

HCN has covered the lands, wildlife and communities of the Western U.S. for more than 50 years. Get to know the West better by signing up to receive HCN’s on-the-ground reporting and investigations in ...