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Jason and Sara Hogan keep distance from each other outside their home in Crested Butte South, Colorado. Sara, a physical therapist, is pregnant with the couple’s first child.

‘We run towards problems, not away from them.’ As COVID-19 closes in, a rural...

In early March, Dr. Jason Hogan realized what was about to happen: The new coronavirus had infiltrated his community, and it was going to...
On average, rural areas in the West actually have more hospital beds per person than urban areas.

Crowded cities and lonely country: See your county’s hospital bed capacity Custer County, Colorado,...

Editor's Note from High Country News: The data here does not include all medical facilities and is a baseline look at hospital capacity based...
Machinery sits idle in May at the Van 4 mine, the subject of a July court decision ruling that it must be shut down and cleaned up. (Photo by Mark Olalde/Center for Public Integrity)

While ‘zombie’ mines idle, cleanup and workers suffer in limbo Instead of paying to...

This investigation was produced in collaboration with High Country News, The Center for Public Integrity and the Ohio Valley ReSource. The sound of metal banging against metal broke the...

How Bureau of Land Management employees really feel about moving West Leaked audio from...

When it comes to the relocation of the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters, acting Director William Perry Pendley, a self-proclaimed “sagebrush rebel,” is just...

Colorado farmers fight to save their water and their community’s future ‘We can either...

One day in mid-July, Colorado state engineer Kevin Rein stood before a packed room of farmers and ranchers and admitted that he might be...
Kelsey Persyn, a Rocky Mountain National Park ranger, teaches a bear education program. Persyn utilizes props and the help of eager young volunteers to teach visitors the difference between black and grizzly bears. (Photo by Andria Hautamaki)

Close encounters with the bear kind The very places that attract visitors and newcomers...

At the height of the tourist season at Rocky Mountain National Park in 2018, a plump black bear ambled into the lobby of the...
Connie Hanson holds a handful of what Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors told her were the cremated remains of her son, Frederick “Rick” Hanson. Connie Hanson believes it’s burnt trash, including wires and battery casings. (Luna Anna Archey/High Country News)

‘None of this happened the way you think it did’ For years, the clients...

Last summer, Debbie Schum walked onto the campus of Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, carrying a petite gift bag. The bag had red...
Jose Miranda lays down to cuddle with one of his water buffalo. They are very attached to him, excitedly running to the gate when his truck approaches for a visit. (Photo by Luna Anna Archey/High Country News)

One rancher’s plan to establish water buffalo in Colorado The challenges and possibilities of...

“If more ranchers knew about water buffalo, they would forget about cows,” José Miranda, a Carbondale rancher, told me one morning last January over...
Goodwin Fire, July 2017, Prescott National Forest. (Photo by U.S. Forest Service)

Wildfire escape routes? There’s (almost) an app for that. Scientists are using crowdsourced data...

In 2013, when a wildfire changed tack and made a run for the town of Yarnell, Arizona, 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots...
Bears Ears National Monument, Valley of the Gods, Utah. (Photo by Jeff Sullivan via Flickr: Creative Commons)

Will the Trump administration boost uranium industry? Lobbyists are pushing administration to order...

In July 2017, lobbyists from Energy Fuels Resources, a Canadian uranium mining company with operations in the United States, urged the Trump administration to...