Our changing climate is already transforming the West. In this issue, we visit a shrinking Lake Powell and witness the surprisingly swift return of Glen Canyon. The disappearance of Utah’s Great Salt Lake revives Latter-day Saints’ interest in environmental thinking. California’s forests are dying. When rising sea levels and destructive tides began gnawing away at its beach, one Washington community built a berm to counter erosion. Missoula, Montana, wants to guarantee public access to a ski hill on its outskirts. Why not power the West by putting solar panels on big-box stores and parking lots? The Biden administration is reshaping land management through tribal co-stewardship of public lands. A new book, Profit: An Environmental History, neither centers the environment nor demonstrates real understanding of capitalism. Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum examines Joan Didion’s relationship with the West. A simple glass shelf can embrace a lifetime of memories, and the year-round harvest of Alaska Native foods amply fills a family’s table in the wintertime.
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‘Cultivating a community is like a garden’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
What does the nation’s commitment to tribal co-stewardship mean for public lands?
The Biden administration’s policies signal a shift in lands management, but a sea change is yet to come.
Letters to the editor, February 2023
Comments from readers.
For Friendship
A poem by Julie Carr.
Can capitalism be overcome?
A history of environmental exploitation fails to imagine an alternative.
Making HCN a home for visual journalists of all backgrounds
Visuals Editor Roberto ‘Bear’ Guerra talks about efforts to diversify High Country News’ journalism.
Water makes the rules
Political wrangling over climate change must concede that water obeys its own.
Tending a remnant of home
How a glass shelf connected a woman to what mattered most.
Glen Canyon revealed
What comes next for Lake Powell?
Armed bots, an HOV Grinch and bikes for all
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
In a warming world, California’s trees keep dying
That could doom the state’s plan to fight climate change with the help of nature.
This Washington experiment could rebuild eroding coastlines
In 2016, David Cottrell dropped $400 worth of rock on Washaway Beach to see what would happen. Now engineers are watching, too.
Save public lands: Put solar on Walmart!
Parking lots and big-box store roofs could generate oodles of clean power.
Missoulians nearly lost access to their beloved community ski hill
Now they’re rallying to ensure public access to the recreation hotspot.
LDS environmentalists want their institution to address the Great Salt Lake’s collapse
Advocates call for healing the rift between scripture and politics.
Foods harvested throughout the seasons make up a wintertime meal
An Inupiaq writer describes the fellowship and delight of a Native supper.
A Los Angeles exhibit reverse-engineers Joan Didion’s writing
‘What She Means’ attempts to re-create the Western writer’s world.