The fire — the largest in New Mexico’s history — burned 341,725 acres, and it’s been a significant blow to the remote agricultural communities affected by it and an already precarious way of life.

In July 2014, a few hours south of Farmington, “Indian rolling” in Albuquerque left two dead. “Anti-Indianism in New Mexico has a particular flavor,” said Melanie Yazzie. In 1880, an intoxicated ...

As Exponent II became a leader in Mormon feminist thought, it posed an existential threat to a church where men are viewed as the heads of the household and holders of the priesthood. “What Exponent ...

This steep slope in Oregon’s Coast Range is littered with ruddy dead branches and freshly cut stumps, but at least it offers sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean. Until recently, the view was blocked ...

Daniel O’Neil is a freelance journalist who reports on forestry and other environmental issues in Oregon and Washington through words and photos. He lives on the north Oregon coast. Sign up to receive ...

Carolina Hotchandani is the author of The Book Eaters, the 2023 Perugia Press Prize winner. She is an Assistant Professor of English in Omaha, Nebraska. Sign up to receive High Country News ’ email ...

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 ...

185,000 acres Combined extent of the Pack Trail and Elk fires in western and northern Wyoming as of Oct. 21, when Pack Trail was 62% contained and Elk only 48%. The blazes broke out in September, ...

Pacific brant breed along coastal Arctic and subarctic mudflats, but climate change and fossil fuel development are shrinking many of those areas. In 2023, U.S. officials estimated there were 108,000 ...

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 ...

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 ...

If you want to maximize biodiversity — now recognized as intimately connected to climate warming — you need to preserve and increase your native grasslands (“ Prairie Revival ,” November 2024). That’s ...