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 Elyria-Swansea neighborhood was long divided by Interstate 70, but residents fear that a project designed to reconnect the community will spur gentrification. Montana’s new laws encourage development, but will locals be able to afford the new housing? Utah’s Great Salt Lake is dying, but that hasn’t stopped the nearby industries from continuing to exploit it. Elsewhere, an unexpected encounter and a piece of jewelry spark a poet’s career, and a New Mexico lizard becomes a gay icon.
Home for the holidays
I hope you and yours are having a happy holiday season. I’m relishing being settled with family and friends. The past few months have been a whirlwind, visiting donors, hanging out with readers, spending some quality time with High Country News staffers in Paonia, Colorado, and making a special side trip to Laramie, Wyoming. When…
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Horrible holly: A festive plant runs amok
Meet the scientists and conservationists fighting to save the Northwest’s forests from an invasive plant.
![[Antedesolate: On the Western Set of Pioneer Town, California: How to Be a Black Cowboy]](https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/jasmineelizabeth-23-thumb.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1)
[Antedesolate: On the Western Set of Pioneer Town, California: How to Be a Black Cowboy]
A poem by Jasmine Elizabeth Smith.
North Denver’s green space paradox
Will a billion-dollar infrastructure project heal a Colorado community — or displace its residents?
How to not save a species
Has the speed of change outpaced the ability of environmental laws to make a difference?
Does voluntary conservation work?
Can pre-listing conservation save the last native population of Arctic grayling in the Lower 48?
The Endangered Species Act by the numbers
Half a century of wins and losses.
The Endangered Species Act’s complicated legacy in Indian Country
The landmark law has served as both sword and shield.
The epic history of the Endangered Species Act
The two-volume ‘Codex of the Endangered Species Act’ takes a long look back — and forward.
Take a toxic tour of the Great Salt Lake
Utah grapples with its future of industry around its dying inland sea.
A momentous trade illuminates what’s true
A writer hopes to prove that there’s real labor that goes into her craft.
Sagebrush Sasquatch, irritable elk and spiders that aren’t from Mars
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
How the New Mexico whiptail became a gay icon
All members of the lizard species are female and reproduce asexually through a process called parthenogenesis.
Has Montana solved its housing crisis?
A spate of new state laws will spur housing development. Will anyone be able to afford what’s getting built?