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  • Trashing the earth, and the truth

    Hal Herring relates the ugly story of how the Bush administration used its influence to try to kill a story about the impacts of energy development. Subscribers only

  • As Interior Turns

    During the last eight years, Bush’s Interior Department has been embroiled in enough corruption, sex and scandal to fuel several soap operas. Subscribers only

  • The sick and tired West

    The EPA under George Bush has put the health of Westerners at risk in order to make life easier for big industry. Subscribers only

  • Nonprofitable times

    Many conservation groups are feeling the pinch. Subscribers only

 

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The High Country News Miracle

High Country News founder Tom Bell

Dear Reader:

Four decades ago, I started High Country News because the West needed it. The West needed a publication that cared about its spectacular lands, waters and wildlife, its diverse communities and cultures. Today, I am proud that High Country News continues to fulfill this need with some of the best in-depth reporting in the country. But, like many nonprofits trying to do their good work in the midst of an economic recession, High Country News is struggling right now to do more with fewer financial resources. Read More ...

I know very well how challenging it can be. In 1973, a few years after I began this enterprise, we ran out of money even after my wife and I had sold our little ranch to keep the paper going. I informed readers that, short of a miracle, we would print just one more issue of the paper before we shut down.

The paper had hardly reached mailboxes before hundreds of letters, stuffed with dollars and checks, flooded the office. In the next issue, I wrote: “Each day the letters come pouring in and, as you read them, you alternate between humbly crying and joyfully cheering. People whom we have never met except through the pages of a little paper write us as they would a long-lost friend. Somehow we have created another bond between people across a far-flung land.”

The outpouring of support that year kept the presses running, and it planted the seed for the Research Fund, the reader-supported fund that, over all these years, has given High Country News the resources to pay the bills and cover the important stories that the mainstream press won’t.

So, dear reader, as this year comes to a close, I ask you to give as generously as you can to the Research Fund. High Country News has faced hard times before, and has always come out stronger -- and better -- for it. The organization will survive this economic downturn, too, and continue to produce the best magazine it possibly can. But, your donation -- of any size -- is needed more than ever. You are the miracle that has always kept this extraordinary institution strong through thick and thin.

Warmly and humbly yours,

Tom Bell
High Country News Founder
Lander, Wyoming

Donate Now!
  • Time to reform and repair politics & policy January 5, 2008 by Paul Larmer

    Time to reform and repair

    A new enviro hero shines spotlight on oil and gas mess

  • Off the grid, but not off his rocker culture & community December 31, 2008 by Emily Steinmetz and Marty Durlin

    Video: Humor in a world gone mad

    Moab's Travis Kelly makes his mark with political cartoons

  • Unclearing the air politics & policy December 29, 2008 by Keith Kloor

    (Un)clearing the air

    Westerners will breathe the legacy of Bush's BLM

  • Trashing the earth and the truth Politics & Policy December 26, 2008 by Hal Herring

    Trashing the earth and the truth

    How the Bush administration used its influence to try to kill a story about the impacts of energy development Subscribers Only

hcn today

from the Blogs

Multimedia

Politics & Policy

  • Time to reform and repair

    Paul Larmer reminds us that it will take more than a single environmental hero – like Tim DeChristopher, who cleverly sabotaged a BLM energy-lease auction – to reform the agency.

  • Obama picks a moderate

    Some are disappointed, but Rocky Barker thinks Ken Salazar is a good choice to head Interior.

Water

  • Desperate measures

    Over the years, Westerners have come up with a lot of wacky schemes to get more water.

  • Ultimate solution?

    Southern California wants to use desalination to increase its water supply, but critics think the idea needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Subscribers only

Culture & Communities

Energy

  • Stuck in the PAWGmire

    The Pinedale Anticline Working Group was supposed to give citizens input on the local oil and gas boom, but it hasn’t worked out as planned.

  • Snapshot

    The declining value of clean energy stocks reflects the credit crunch and the plunge in oil and gas prices after earlier highs.

Writers on the Range

  • Time to reform and repair

    Paul Larmer reminds us that it will take more than a single environmental hero – like Tim DeChristopher, who cleverly sabotaged a BLM energy-lease auction – to reform the agency.

  • The wild we take for granted

    Delight in the animals and places that are close to home but often ignored by us.

Essays

Book Reviews

  • Life during wartime

    In his new short story collection, Refresh, Refresh, Benjamin Percy explores the lives of people in rural Oregon during the Iraq War.

  • Fighting for forests

    In Arthur Carhart: Wilderness Prophet, Tom Wolf tells the story of a prophetic Forest Service employee and early environmentalist.

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