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.
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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.
Utah’s coal mines can’t find enough workers • A mine reopened, but no one seems to want these jobs.
‘Rights of nature’ laws take root in the West • Thanks to voters in Everett, Washington, the Snohomish River watershed now has legal standing.
Tailpipe dreams • A low-carbon diesel plant promises to reduce greenhouse gases, but is it a solution?
Sunday Morning in Woh Hei Yuen 和 喜 园
The rise of the recreation economy • Public-lands tourism outpaces mining and drilling in much of the West.
The Indian education of Charles Sams • How generations of boarding schools and Indigenous teachings helped shape the first Native director of the National Park Service.
Thank you, readers! • Your generous and dedicated support makes these pages possible.
After 35 years, farewell to an indefatigable art director • Cindy Wehling leaves an unmatched legacy of art and design, writ large across hundreds of issues of High Country News.
Industrial Revolution • A quasi-governmental agency is pushing development around the already at-risk Great Salt Lake.
The Berry Fields • The Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation has been harvesting huckleberries for millennia, despite Forest Service mismanagement and commercial picking.
Filipinos that strike • An oral history archive gathers some of the voices behind the recent LA teacher strikes.
Welcome to Next LA • A speculative fiction film and video game tap the city’s lost history to render a different kind of future.
Mojave makeup tutorial • Wherein a roadrunner inspires our columnist to adorn himself with earthly pigments and serve a look.
Heard Around the West • Tips about Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. Write heard@hcn.org.
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