Voters finally felt the threat to public lands had reached a critical point, observers say.
Articles
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.
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.
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.
Nuclear power drive boosts southwestern uranium mill — and tribal health concerns
Havasupai, Ute Mountain Ute, Najavo (Diné) tribes worry that southwestern uranium mills may foul groundwater for generations.
Nevada sues over Colorado River plans, aiming to protect Las Vegas
The state says federal plans to manage the drought-stricken basin would cut the city’s water supply by roughly 71%.
What the new rules for a shrinking Colorado River mean for tribal nations
‘None of us is in the exact same situation.’
Solar and wind continue to push coal off the West’s grid
Trump’s war on clean energy falters.
Arctic drilling in Alaska won’t get environmental review in new proposal
The Interior Department will soon publish a ‘categorical exclusion’ that will rubber stamp oil and gas development in Alaska’s remote National Petroleum Reserve.
Behind the cover: Drawing the ‘landscape of conversation’
Artist Armando Veve illuminates his process of world-building by pencil.
New Mexico’s rising climate-disaster costs are being paid by oil and gas revenue
The state is in a double bind of fossil fuel extraction and the destructive results of burning it.
The BLM may stop notifying landowners about drilling under private land. Ranchers are alarmed
Western cattlemen are poised to lose almost all opportunity to comment on oil and gas development underneath their property.
Protect Sandia Mountain, our church
The Pueblo of Sandia urges lawmakers to transfer lands within the T’uf Shur Bien Preservation Area.
Mining execs bought big in company stock days before Bears Ears’ cuts
House Democrats have opened an investigation for insider trading.
It’s a make-or-break year for Hood River’s pear farmersÂ
After a dismal 2025 season, the pears being picked right now could mean the difference between solvency and bankruptcy.
Does your dog make you safer in bear country?
What new analysis of more than 300 bear encounters shows about the notion of dogs as early bear alarms or deterrents.
Utah is killing the Great Salt Lake
Profligate waste and perverse tax incentives are drying up the West’s largest natural body of water.
The Spokane burns show that not even suburbia is immune to wildfire
The Old Trails Fire burned through the city’s northwest corner — an area considered outside the highest risk zone.
