A walk through the Quinault rainforest leads to a cascade of questions.
Tom Bell
Posted inArticles
On grieving trees
For years, a young writer saw the tell-tale signs of beetle kill. And then the infestation came for the pines at her own home.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2021: No Place Like Home
Through wildland firefighting, finding a space to heal
A grieving daughter encounters solace in an unexpected place.
Posted inArticles
Of hawks and hope
In a climate collapse, a wildlife biologist turns from sadness to action.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2020: The Next West
‘Somebody has to keep people on their toes’
High Country News’ unlikely and remarkable origin story.
Posted inNovember 11, 2019: Storied Landscapes
Is development a cancer on the West’s landscape?
When your mom is battling the illness, the metaphor gets complicated.
Posted inNovember 12, 2018: Old Wests, and new
What’s special about a good-for-nothing sunflower?
In an age of extinction, a sunny, endangered flower serves as a beacon of arid lands.
Posted inNovember 12, 2018: Old Wests, and new
Reconciling wildness and the American dream
A writer finds a home in the wild landscapes of the West.
Posted inSeptember 19, 2016: Frontera Incognita
High Country News founder, Tom Bell, passes
A Wyoming rancher and self-proclaimed maverick, Bell led a lifelong conservation effort.
Posted inSupport
Remembering High Country News Founder Tom Bell
Last week the founder of High Country News, Tom Bell, passed away at the age of 92. As a decorated veteran, biologist, environmental advocate, teacher and newsman, Tom made the West a better place for all of us. We gathered Tuesday in Lander, Wyoming—the place where High Country News began—to celebrate Tom’s life. Among his […]
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
HCN founder Tom Bell to receive honorary degree
We have no idea how it happened, but March is already behind us. Our staff is still hoping for a little more snowfall before we put the skis away and break out the camping and hiking gear — though we’ve also begun shaking the dust from our packs, smearing on sunscreen and venturing onto the […]
Posted inArticles
A look back on 45 years of HCN
Continuing the tradition of in-depth, passionate coverage of the West’s defining issues.
Posted inApril 14, 2014: A landscape of surprises
A brave and unusual conservationist turns 90
Ninety years ago, on April 12, 1924, Tom Bell was born in a house owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, in Winton, Wyo., a coal-mining camp. It was an inauspicious but appropriate beginning for the guy who would start both High Country News and Wyoming’s largest conservation group. Tom’s father, Lafe Bell, worked in the […]
Posted inWotr
Our survival depends on fighting climate change
I am 88 and have seen a lot of change over the decades, but I do not think anyone living now has ever faced a more serious threat to life than the threat of global climate change. As President Obama said recently, “More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
A Hell of an Anniversary
HCN’s founder, Tom Bell, marks our 40th year with a prediction: We’re all doomed
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
High Country
Gov. Stanley K. Hathaway was criticized last week for siding with the mineral industry in Wyoming. It was not an unusual situation. I was doing the criticizing and he was doing the reacting. The governor said of me, “He hasn’t had anything good to say about this administration for six years.” In which he was […]
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
Tom Bell: outraged by the outrageous
If I were a consultant to the West’s energy and mineral companies and ranchers, and to their politicians and bureaucrats, I would give them one piece of advice: “Don’t get crosswise with Tom Bell. Early on in your ‘process’ tell Tom your plans. If he reacts with a strong no, change them. It will save […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 1989: Special issue: High Country News is 20
Tom Bell: The quiet revolutionary
In 1970, High Country News was born of Tom Bell’s passion. For five years its pages thundered with his outrage at ranchers, politicians and corporations that threatened Wyoming’s water, wild lands and animals. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/21.18/download-entire-issue