#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Birds
Posted inMarch 2026: The Uncertainty of Farming in the Colorado River Basin
Wildlife loves Wyoming’s ‘Golden Triangle.’ So do oil companies
How Trump’s oil-and-gas agenda threatens a critical, and little-known, ecosystem.
Posted inArticles
How federal cuts are reshaping Alaska’s communities, research and species management
A former U.S. Geological Survey research scientist reflects on the Trump administration’s sweeping changes in the agency.
Posted inFebruary 2026: The Recording Artists
What’s needed to protect sage grouse?
The Burns Paiute and Shoshone-Bannock tribes are proving that reducing grazing may be the key to saving the iconic bird.
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
Attack of the owls, emu-cipated emus, and say ‘hi’ to the bumpy little snailfish
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
More than 2,000 jobs could be cut at Interior during shutdown
Research, wildlife and conservation are in the crosshairs.
Posted inOctober 2025: Limits to Growth
Watching the Oregon ash vanish
The emerald ash borer is killing the native tree. How do we make the most of the time while it’s still here?
Posted inArticles
The invisible ‘giant nets’ that catch the smallest songbirds
Collaboration and tiny technology are revolutionizing the study of migration.
Posted inArticles
How Interior is using environmental laws to suppress renewable energy
The Trump administration is turning environmentalists’ legal playbook against them.
Posted inArticles
The Trump team sets double standard on migratory bird rules
The administration said it will go hunting for cases of wind energy companies unintentionally killing migratory birds — something it has long argued is not a violation of federal law.
Posted inArticles
Searching for the next generation of American kestrels
Around California’s Mount Diablo, chicks are hard to find.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
How one California community is turning an old oil field into protected habitat
Despite federal policies complicating Fullerton’s conservation success story.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
Get to know the American kestrel
This small falcon faces an existential crisis.
Can nest boxes help?
Posted inArticles
Mass layoffs can move forward, with devastating impacts for conservation and science
‘Shortsighted’ cuts could eliminate bird banding program, federal bee research and much more.
Posted inArticles
USGS’ biological research arm could vanish
Trump is on a multipronged mission to eliminate a science agency that conservationists, toxicologists, universities and more call irreplaceable.
Posted inArticles
Trump’s border wall expansion endangers wildlife and habitat
Migration pathways for animals will be further fragmented by the new additions to the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Posted inJuly 2025: Seeds as Sustenance
Searching for sparrows in the Sky Islands
Grassland restoration in Sonora, Mexico, helps to conserve North America’s bird life.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
Bird flu finds its way into Western wildlife
The deaths of two Washington cougars suggest the virus is more widespread than thought.
Posted inArticles
Turkey vultures in California are testing positive for rat poison
Despite statewide restrictions on the deadly poisons, new research shows they’re still infiltrating the food web.