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Can we learn to get along — not just with people, but with other species and cultures? In this issue, one of our feature stories looks into the contentious relationship the residents of Nome, Alaska have with musk oxen – photogenic animals with a tendency to trespass and attack people’s dogs. Wolves are being reintroduced to Colorado, but how do you compensate wolf-hating ranchers when their livestock gets eaten? In our investigative feature, we found that renewable energy projects in Wash...

A nonprofit independent magazine of unblinking journalism that shines a light on all of the complexities of the West.

The Endangered Species Act turns 50 this year, so HCN devoted a special section to this landmark environmental law. These stories take a hard look at its history, successes and failures, its complicated legacy in Indian Country, and possible strategies to prevent extinction altogether. Our features tackle other challenging issues: Conservationists are fighting English holly in Northwestern forests where the beloved Christmas symbol is becoming a pesky invasive. Meanwhile, Denver’s Globeville E...

This $1.35 million ranch in Urbandale features more than 4,700 square feet with plenty of upgrades and details.

The climate crisis affects everything, from where we live to what we eat to how we deal with crime. In Washington, extreme weather and COVID-19 pushed over-strained prisons to the brink, leading some to ask: Why not let people out? In Kasigluk, Alaska, buildings are succumbing to rising sea levels and melting permafrost, but relocating entire communities isn’t easy. Eureka, California, wanted to build affordable housing in parking lots, but opponents are exploiting an environmental law to figh...

Our feature story in this issue tells the harrowing story of two Peruvian brothers who came to Wyoming to be sheepherders, only to find themselves virtual prisoners, forced to labor under abusive conditions. In an excerpt from a new book, we learn how California’s Coachella Valley reinvented itself as an Arabian Nights fantasy to market the delicious dates it grew. Wildland fire dispatchers’ jobs are exhausting, stressful and woefully underpaid; invasive smallmouth bass threaten the Grand Ca...

This month, HCN heats up with two very different fires: A genuine backcountry inferno, and the kind of political blaze that smolders and periodically threatens to blow up. Kylie Mohr follows two hikers who were caught in a Northern Cascades wildfire, while Leah Sottile looks at the “Greater Idaho” movement. Can outdoor recreation adapt to our changing climate, and why do so many white supremacists want to secede from Oregon? Elsewhere, we examine the 1872 law that governs hardrock mining, st...

This month, we take an in-depth look at life in Indian Country. HCN and ProPublica’s four-part package reveals how Colorado River Basin tribes in Arizona — including the Navajo, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Tohono O’odham — must fight for every drop of the water they were guaranteed by a 1908 Supreme Court decision. We consider the pros and cons of hunting bison just outside Yellowstone, and why Newtok, Alaska’s residents have had to wait decades to relocate while climate change destroys their...

This June, we meet a remarkable woman: Letitia Carson, who was born into slavery and yet became the only Black woman known to secure a homesteading claim, despite Oregon Territory’s strict Black-exclusion laws. Now, Black Oregonians want to preserve the homestead site — without forgetting the Indigenous people who were forcibly removed from that land. A gifted photographer looks at rural life in Colorado’s North Fork Valley. Can geothermal energy help power the West? The Canada lynx is on ...

Read Article LEWISTON — A new program for women wanting to overcome addiction is available in Lewiston and Auburn. Women for Sobriety (WFS), a nonprofit organization, has been empowering women to take charge of their lives since 1975. WFS offers a unique self-help approach to recovery, the New Life Program, which was specifically designed to address the needs or women. WFS has certified facilitators leading mutual support groups online and in person, as well as phone volunteers available for...