The crows in our midst
When thousands of these birds roost together, some consider it a nuisance. But can we learn to live with them?
As bears ‘spin out’ in southern Montana, wildlife managers are at wit’s end
Amid a record-breaking year of Western bear conflict, the historically tolerant Red Lodge community is grappling with opposing views on how to live with the species — and if a ‘fed bear’ really should be a ‘dead bear.’
American Samoans punished for voting in Alaska get relief after a yearslong nightmare
Alaska officials accused American Samoans caught in a unique legal limbo of illegally voting but finally dropped those charges this month.
Wyoming chooses public lands at the ballot box
Voters finally felt the threat to public lands had reached a critical point, observers say.
Montanans push back against corporate money
A novel approach to curb big money in political spending heads to the ballot.
Ranch manager tied to top Trump appointee started 5,600-acre Idaho wildfire
A state investigation shines light on the unpermitted fire, which cost nearly $950,000 to contain.
Even cowgirls get the Instagram blues
A Montana rancher wonders what is lost in her urge to share her Western life online.
‘Everyone deserves to have a good quality of life’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Studies link New Mexico drilling to radiation, air pollution, health risks
Small towns in the Permian Basin have become a petri dish for the perils of living amid the nation’s largest oil fields.
What will happen to the Grand Canyon as water levels drop?
The impacts will reverberate through recreation, river ecology and local tribes.
The massive infrastructure projects of the 1960s wouldn’t work today
When people thought infrastructure could solve the arid West’s water problems.
Tohono O’odham fight border wall on sacred, sovereign lands
The nation is using the courts and lobbying congressional Democrats to stop construction near Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Southern Arizona.
Hexing AI slop with queer magic
LGBTQ+ artists showcase alternative spiritualities in an exhibit at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Large solar project on Navajo Nation leaves residents skeptical
As renewable energy expands, questions about how renewable the projects are regulated on Diné land emerge.
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In This Issue
September 2026: On the Trail with Gary Paul Nabhan
This issue, we get to spend time with Gary Paul Nabhan as the legendary writer, activist and ethnobotanist wanders the Borderlands and discusses everything from books and borders and seed banks to the deep-rooted Indigenous cultures of a landscape he has loved and defended for…
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Water
On the road with a desert sage
Nevada sues over Colorado River plans, aiming to protect Las Vegas
What the new rules for a shrinking Colorado River mean for tribal nations
Wildlife
How Bozeman is preventing human-wildlife conflicts before they start
In Arctic Alaska, 1.4 million acres of federal land is shifting to state hands
Why I talk to animals
Public Lands
Arctic drilling in Alaska won’t get environmental review in new proposal
The BLM may stop notifying landowners about drilling under private land. Ranchers are alarmed
Mining execs bought big in company stock days before Bears Ears’ cuts
Indigenous Affairs
Protect Sandia Mountain, our church
‘Quite frustrating:’ what it’s like to have a treaty with the United States
Deb Haaland’s vision for New Mexico comes from tradition
Communities
The GOAT of all goats, a mystery solved, and the rez dog who chose not to ‘stay’
‘I have some very heartfelt conversations’
It’s a make-or-break year for Hood River’s pear farmers
Books
On Mount Shasta, a photographic record outlasts living memory
Let’s go in on the American dream, together
What can we learn from salt lakes?
In the News
Western states step up to save their wetlands
The West’s vital wetlands are in trouble — but states are working to safeguard them.