West Obsessed - High Country News

In the West, wildlife managers have wavered between killing Mexican wolves and trying to save them. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have released wolves to the wild, then yanked them back out, a push-and-pull that is now forcing a reckoning with mismanagement and inbreeding among wolf populations. In this episode of “West Obsessed,” writers and editors of High Country News discuss a recent feature story on the wolves and ask: Is there hope for their recovery?

High Country News writers and editors discuss a Western legacy of sexual harassment and our recent feature story about the women in the male-dominated world of wildland firefighting that face harassment, abuse and sexism. The story is part of an ongoing investigation into the long history of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in public-land agencies.

Some of the most powerful figures in Western states are county sheriffs. They are elected officials, armed, with deputies and the ability to wrangle posses, and they can be hard to unseat. In this episode of “West Obsessed," Managing Editor Brian Calvert, Senior Editor Jonathan Thompson and Online Editor Tay Wiles discuss what makes county sheriffs so fascinating when it comes to public land issues, like those that led to the occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Long before the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge became a fantastic media event, High Country News was following a smaller controversy, in nearby Burns, Oregon, over ranching. In this episode of “West Obsessed,” we discuss the public land issues that preceded the occupation at Malheur. We go behind the scenes with our photographer and associate designer, Brooke Warren, who spent the first evening of the occupation with the men who seized the refuge, and we discuss the deeper issues behind the occupation with our online editor, Tay Wiles, who has been following the latest iteration of the Sagebrush Rebellion.

President Donald Trump and his fossil-fuel focused administration want to steer the country toward more energy development and have promised to revive the coal industry. In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News editors check in on the early days of the new administration. Are they on track in keeping their promises to Coal Country? What implications might that have on the West and its natural resources?