High Country Observations

HCO Episode 022: Foreign Beef, Domestic Herds, and the Price of Temporary Relief Beef prices are high. The American cattle herd is historically tight. And the Trump administration is turning to more imported beef to provide consumers some relief at the grocery store. In August, the administration announced a temporary 300,000-metric-ton expansion of lower-tariff access for lean beef trimmings , ro...

The “Just Stop Growing Alfalfa” Argument Agriculture uses most of the Colorado River’s water. Alfalfa uses a lot of that agricultural water. So why not just stop growing it? It’s an increasingly common argument in Western water policy, particularly as the Colorado River shrinks and states search for increasingly large reductions in water consumption. On paper, the argument looks straightforward. A...

Data Centers on Trial: The Legal Fights Spreading Across the Country For the last several years, America’s data-center boom has largely been discussed as a technology story, but it is quickly becoming a legal one. Across the country, communities are confronting facilities that can require enormous amounts of electricity, new transmission infrastructure, significant amounts of land and, in some cas...

The Colorado River After 2026: The Rules Are Expiring. The Water Problem Is Not. For most of the last century, the Colorado River was governed around a basic assumption, that there would be enough water to divide. That assumption is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. The Colorado River Compact divided the river between the Upper and Lower Basins more than a century ago. Later agreements,...

Hemp: The Crop We Spent a Century Misunderstanding For most of American history, hemp wasn’t controversial. It was useful. It supplied fiber for rope, sails, textiles and other basic materials. Then cannabis prohibition changed its legal status, and for decades federal law largely failed to distinguish industrial hemp from marijuana. That changed with the Farm Bills of 2014 and 2018. But legalizat...

Seed Oils: What We Actually Know Seed oils have somehow become one of the biggest arguments in American food. Depending on who you listen to, they’re either poisoning us or there’s absolutely nothing worth worrying about. The evidence is more complicated than either side makes it sound. In this episode of the High Country Observations Podcast, we break down what seed oils actually are, how they’re...

The Last Year Without a Grizzly Hunt Grizzly bears have been protected under the Endangered Species Act in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for decades. But after years of population recovery, litigation, state management disputes, and fights over federal delisting, the legal landscape may finally be changing. In this episode of the High Country Observations Podcast, we break down why 2026 could...

The United States has prohibited domestic horse slaughter for human consumption for nearly two decades, yet thousands of American horses continue to enter the international slaughter market each year through exports to Canada and Mexico. In this episode of High Country Observations, we examine the legal, economic, and regulatory systems behind the U.S. horse export trade. We discuss the history of...

Episode 14: Oregon’s PEACE Act (IP 28): A Legal and Policy Analysis Oregon’s proposed PEACE Act (IP 28) has become one of the most controversial ballot initiatives in the country. Supporters argue it would strengthen protections against animal cruelty. Opponents contend it would fundamentally reshape agriculture, hunting, fishing, veterinary medicine, and wildlife management throughout the state....

Episode 13: 250 Years of American Land and Wildlife. Systems That Endured and Systems That Changed. Stand with us on a high ridge as we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with a clear-eyed look at the living systems that have shaped America's landscapes, wildlife, and rural communities. From Indigenous fire management and Spanish/Mexican land grants, through the public l...

HCO Episode 012: MEGADROUGHT, AI Data Centers, Western Water Stress, and the Evolving Legal Landscape In the American West, water is life, and the systems governing it are under unprecedented strain. As megadrought conditions persist and artificial intelligence drives explosive demand for new data centers, the intersection of tech infrastructure, prior appropriation doctrine, interstate compacts,...

HCO Episode 011: Cartel Cattle – Mexican Drug Cartels’ Influence on America’s Cattle Industry and U.S. Biosecurity Risks The return of New World screwworm to the United States is more than a parasite story. It is a systems story exposing vulnerabilities in the highly integrated North American cattle supply chain. In this episode, we examine how criminal influence in parts of Mexico, over transport...

Episode 010: Drone Hunting and the Future of Fair Chase Drones are transforming agriculture, ranching, conservation, and wildlife management across the American West. Now they're forcing hunters, wildlife agencies, and conservationists to confront a difficult question: What happens when technology begins removing uncertainty from the hunt? In this episode, we explore the history of fair chase,...

Subsidies, Regulation, and Who Shapes American Land Use Most people never think about the Farm Bill. Yet behind one of the largest and least understood pieces of legislation in America sits a system that quietly shapes crop decisions, insurance structures, conservation programs, subsidies, land use incentives, and risk across millions of acres. And standing at the edge of a field, none of it feels...

People talk about “federal land” like ownership and control are simple. They’re not. Across the American West, public land debates shape everything from grazing and wildlife management to energy development, recreation, mining, wildfire policy, and local economies. But behind every argument sits a bigger question: Who actually makes decisions on these landscapes? Congress? Federal agencies? State...

Glyphosate is everywhere right now. In the courts. In Congress. On farms. In forests. And increasingly, in the public conversation itself. In this episode of High Country Observations, we break down the legal, ecological, agricultural, and political battle surrounding the most widely used herbicide in modern history. We examine: • how glyphosate became embedded in industrial agriculture • why it i...

Today is National Arbor Day . And at the same time, you’re seeing headlines suggesting the United States Forest Service is “shutting down.” This episode looks at what’s actually happening. Forests in the United States are not just natural systems, they are managed systems, shaped by law, policy, funding, and operational capacity. And the Forest Service does not operate independently of those force...

Wildfire in the American West is not just a natural event, it is shaped by law, policy, and the limits of institutional capacity. From the Big Burn of 1910 to the Yarnell Hill Fire , this episode examines how the modern wildfire system developed, how it operates today, and where it fails under pressure. We break down the role of Congress, the executive branch, and the legal framework, highlighting...

The Senate is voting on whether to reopen mineral leasing upstream of one of the most intact freshwater systems in North America: the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This episode breaks down what that decision actually means. Not just headlines, but the structure behind the policy. From federal land withdrawals to Congressional Review Act reversals, this is a closer look at how public land...

Country of Origin Labeling sounds simple. Know where your beef comes from. But in practice, origin moves through a complex system, across borders, processors, and markets, before it ever reaches a consumer. In this episode of High Country Observations, we break down MCOOL as policy, not talking point. How labeling works, why it was challenged internationally, and what it means for U.S. ranchers op...

The gray wolf has returned to the American West, but not without consequence. Once nearly eradicated from the lower 48, wolves have become one of the most visible symbols of modern conservation success. From their reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 to their controversial return under voter mandate in Colorado , the wolf now sits at the center of a deeper question: What does reco...

Grizzly De-listing and the Future of Yellowstone Recovery The Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear has become one of the greatest conservation success stories in North America. From roughly 136 bears in 1975 to over 1,000 today, the population has rebounded under decades of federal protection through the Endangered Species Act. But success raises a harder question: What does “recovery” actually mean i...