Activists claim that decommissioning the dam will save water and restore a wild canyon. Are they right?
Deserts
Posted inArticles
The long fight against Joe Arpaio will continue
How ‘America’s toughest sheriff’ galvanized a movement among Arizona Latinos.
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How many golf trips is public funding for the arts worth?
Consider the saguaro cactus — and celebrate it with your tax dollars.
Posted inAugust 7, 2017: Los Promotores
Latest: Duel over Owens Valley water intensifies
A county uses eminent domain to try to reclaim land taken by LA.
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What they left behind: Items found in the Borderlands
Humanitarian groups track traces of migrants crossing the border.
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Recently discovered toad species already face threats
Meet three new toads that make a home in parts of the West’s harshest desert.
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The thru-hike you’ve never heard of: Oregon Desert Trail
Photographer Meg Roussos shares views from her solo-trek deep in the backcountry.
Posted inJune 26, 2017: Personal Pilgrimage
The Pacific Crest Trail’s shadow hikers
At the border, migrants and long-distance trekkers hike side by side but worlds apart.
Posted inJune 26, 2017: Personal Pilgrimage
A network of trails that spans the country
The National Trails System, by the numbers.
Posted inJune 12, 2017: The Big Swing
Hooligan Island; Tree-hoppers in Joshua Tree; Kanye for president?
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inMay 29, 2017: The Cost of a Comeback
Why are coyotes so polarizing?
A new book seeks to make sense of the hated canid’s history.
Posted inArticles
West Obsessed: The prison economy traps the innocent
How a town dependent on incarceration came to be and what that meant for one asylum-seeker.
Posted inJune 12, 2017: The Big Swing
The danger of urban ‘heat islands’
How built-up cities and higher temperatures threaten human health.
Posted inMay 15, 2017: Prison Town
See portraits of gnarled conifers
A couple draws and writes about the complexities of bristlecone pines and humans.
Posted inArticles
Interior has yet to meet with Bears Ears tribal leaders
Zinke is losing the faith of a tribal coalition as a monument review looms.
Posted inMay 1, 2017: Change Comes to Short Creek
An end to Tucson’s growth wars
A conservation plan puts science ahead of politics.
Posted inMay 1, 2017: Change Comes to Short Creek
Ten years, 3 million pounds of soil and 1,800 sensors
The numbers behind the world’s largest weathering experiment.
Posted inArticles
California’s desert wildflowers burst into bright ‘super bloom’
Following the ideal combination of rain, sun and wind, blossoms abound.
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See the landscapes that a border wall would bisect
Terrain along the Mexico border ignores the man-made divide.
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Invade, steal water: The plant spreading in Utah’s wetlands
Battling a nonnative reed to protect Great Salt Lake bird habitat.