Demand for housing, recreation and energy development means military bases could lose essential buffer land.
Deserts
Posted inArticles
Obama designates three more national monuments
Vast stretches of Nevada and Northern California are now protected, bringing Obama’s count to 19.
Posted inArticles
Lake Mead watch: As levels fall, hydropower dips
Why Southwest utilities are starting to sweat.
Posted inArticles
BLM advances solar project that will harm bighorn sheep
The Bechtel Corporation’s Soda Mountain solar farm will undo decades of conservation in California.
Posted inJune 8, 2015: Tree of Life
Genetic research lays foundation for bold conservation strategies
To save the greatest number of species, should we focus on the most common?
Posted inArticles
New border security bill would roll back public lands protections
Sen. John McCain’s proposal would give Border Patrol more immediate access to sensitive borderlands.
Posted inArticles
Colorado’s snow is dust-free for the first time in a decade
But conditions are still prime for early snowmelt and summer drought.
Posted inJanuary 12, 2015: What Are We Thinking?
A Hot Day’s Night
New fiction from the author of ‘The Windup Girl.’
Posted inJanuary 12, 2015: What Are We Thinking?
Postcards from fire
‘We will rise from the ashes, sweep them from our children’s hair.’
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
The dust detectives
Scientists are closer than ever to understanding how microscopic airborne particles shape the Earth, and the West.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
A fix for the desert tortoise
Prolific pets continue to threaten their wild cousins.
Posted inArticles
Rants from the Hill: Desert Insomnia
Living the not-so-quiet life in the rural West.
Posted inArticles
A plan for California desert conservation comes online
Will it stop more solar and wind projects from being built in the wrong places?
Posted inGoat
Summer rains in a drought-plagued state
How much does a monsoon season relieve drought?
Posted inGoat
Joshua trees may be migrating north in response to climate change
Last spring, Joshua trees put on a magnificent show in the Mojave Desert. Nearly all at once nearly all of them bloomed, sprouting dense bouquets of waxy, creamy-green flowers from their Seussian tufts of spiky leaves. The bloom was so sweeping and abundant — and such a contrast to the typical pattern, where only a […]
Posted inGoat
Discovery: Good ol’ tallgrass was formed by good ol’ bacteria
It’s always tempting to reflect on how wonderful the West used to be. You know what I mean: Conservationists and Natives lament that the first invasions by white settlers wrecked everything, and ranchers and loggers long for a return to the era before 750-page environmental-impact statements. Who among us hasn’t conjured up wistful images of […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Secret getaways of the National Landscape Conservation System
Note: This story is part of a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. Updated 4/9/13 The only map I have shows the way out of Las Vegas — always a good thing to know. It is crisp and folded-up on the passenger seat and it says to take the eastbound interstate, […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
The desert that breaks Annie Proulx’s heart
Wyoming storyteller gives an unvarnished view of the Red Desert
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Walking on a Wire
Los Angeles needs green power. Does it have to tear up the desert to get it?