Photos of the rigorous training this special type of firefighter endures.
How smokejumpers prepare for wildfire season
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A place where bears own the right of way
A few months ago, I found myself in a remote area of Alaska, watching pink and chum salmon splash through the shallows of an unnamed stream. The sounds of the salmon, the breeze coming off the ocean, the breakers on the beach, and the continuous calls of gulls made for an Alaskan symphony. A bush […]
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Dispatch from Blockadia
Where enviros are uniting with social justice and tribal rights activists in the Northwest to stop new fossil fuel development.
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The folly of “taking back” the West
Do 700 million acres of national parks, national monuments, national forests, national wildlife refuges and Bureau of Land Management units belong to you and your fellow Americans? No, according to the increasingly popular notion in the West that it’s time for states to “take back” federal land. “Taking back” property that belongs to Alaskans and […]
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West Obsessed: Behind the Malheur occupation
Our editors discuss the lead-up to the stand-off in Oregon.
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Justice in the West has a double standard for protesters
In Boston over 200 years ago, a group of American patriots dressed and painted like Indians smashed crates and dumped tea into the city’s harbor. In today’s American West, protesters ride their ATVs into publicly owned canyons to protest federal restriction of motorized access, and more recently, grazing-fee opponents forcibly “occupy” the desks of wildlife […]
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Massive leaks are an everyday occurrence in gas fields
California’s Aliso Canyon is a reminder that methane emissions are widespread, poorly regulated — and ongoing.
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How to shelter mountain streams in a changing world
Can cold waters protect native fish from the worst of climate change?
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Feds announce moratorium on new coal leases
Interior Department will examine the federal coal program in light of climate change.
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Economic downturns fuel Sagebrush Rebellion events
Natural resource-dependent rural economies help explain why disputes happen where they do.
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Nevada decision guts the state’s thriving solar industry
Electric utility pushed effort to sour economics of rooftop solar.
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The first Sagebrush Rebellion: What sparked it and how it ended
Today’s movement is a radical, perverted version of the 1970s-80s rebellion.
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Ranch Diaries: The anti-ranching, misinformed discourse around Malheur
The federal grazing system doesn’t support good management.
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How some Western cities are leading on climate action
Despite faltering national policy, some communities are forging ahead.
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Huge U.S. coal company declares bankruptcy
Bad investments, cheap natural gas and air pollution regulations led to Arch’s decline.
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2015 wildfires burned a record-breaking 10.1 million acres
Fires in Alaska help to smash 2006 record.
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Who’s who inside and on the outskirts of the Malheur occupation
Here are the most vocal occupiers, along with a core group of militia members staying in Burns.
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Climate change triggers triage in Northwest forests
Siuslaw National Forest managers must decide whether to save meadows or let trees encroach.
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Sieges like the Oregon standoff turn the rural West into a political stage
The armed protesters occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon have indicated that they will leave if the locals so desire. Well, it’s time for them to go: Harney County residents, who just held a huge community meeting about this invasion, seemed to heartily agree that they want the vigilantes to pack their […]
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How the feds can ensure Western states get more water in 2016
Key legislation failed in 2015. Will this year be any different?