In an age of extinction, a sunny, endangered flower serves as a beacon of arid lands.
Essays
Posted inNovember 12, 2018: Old Wests, and new
Reconciling wildness and the American dream
A writer finds a home in the wild landscapes of the West.
Posted inOctober 29, 2018: When your neighborhood goes BOOM
The ascension of Matthew Shepard
A painter examines the aftermath of a murder motived by hate, 20 years later.
Posted inOctober 15, 2018: Nature Retreat
Can hunting keep us human?
In the New Machine Age, hunting helps us accept mortality as truth.
Posted inSeptember 17, 2018: The Pioneer of Ruin
Relittering: Take your trash and show it in the sun
Philosophy teaches us little more than how to confuse our settled opinions.
Posted inDecember 10, 2018: Critical Mass
The arresting quiet of a crane migration in Washington
Sandhill cranes, cattle and the surprising benefits of their coexistence in the West.
Posted inAugust 6, 2018: What Are We Doing Here?
After the mountain yellow-legged frog disappeared
A wildlife biologist returns to a childhood stomping ground, devoid of its once-plentiful amphibians.
Posted inJuly 23, 2018: Pay for Prey
Saving baby Jo from the smoke
A mother grapples with her decision to flee the 416 Fire with her infant daughter.
Posted inJune 25, 2018: Little Weed, Big Problem
Monument Valley
The spectral lines between life and the inert.
Posted inJune 25, 2018: Little Weed, Big Problem
An inventory of loss on the Los Angeles River
The city weighs revitalization of an unruly river, since transformed into a concrete ditch.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
What the Ice Age West predicts about our future
An American creation story.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
A bird’s song adds wonder to the world
If a song defines a place, what does it mean to lose it?
Posted inMay 14, 2018: Death in the Alpine
Your stoke won’t save us
The idea that outdoor recreation leads to meaningful conservation rests on a big ‘if.’
Posted inMay 14, 2018: Death in the Alpine
The nowhereness of airports
The way air travel has devolved says something awful about humans.
Posted inApril 30, 2018: Celebrity Scofflaw
This acequia life
The irrigation of the land defines our West in ways I can hardly explain.
Posted inApril 16, 2018: Cashing in on Standing Rock
Frackin’ on heaven’s door
How many people over the centuries have loved the Pawnee Buttes, only to see them ravaged?
Posted inMarch 19, 2018: Desert, Divided
You’re made of the same stuff sloshing around in tidepools
When the tides pull back the water line, a writer takes a trip through time.
Posted inFebruary 19, 2018: Unfrozen North
A celebration of equality and of the land
At a Wyoming wedding, a musician ponders the big questions of life.
Posted inMarch 5, 2018: Drilling Chaco
Cliven Bundy’s victory lap
In Montana, Bundy and his followers celebrate a sound defeat of federal prosecutors.
Posted inApril 16, 2018: Cashing in on Standing Rock
A Dreamer dreams of running for office
Over a year into the Trump presidency, reflections from a young immigrant.