Amy Gamerman’s new book examines attempts to block the energy transition in Montana’s Crazy Mountains.
Economy
Posted inArticles
How Utah’s Christmas Festival has buoyed a changing coal community
Thirty-five years ago, Helper was nearly a ghost town. Now, art and tourism are providing new paths forward.
Posted inMarch 2025: The Berry Pickers
Utah’s coal mines can’t find enough workers
A mine just reopened in eastern Utah, but the industry has changed.
Posted inJanuary 2025: The West's Most Wanted
Legal weed entrepreneurs promised a windfall from tribal lands. Then it fell apart.
The Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone are still picking up the pieces from the failed cannabis cultivation venture.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
Can land repair the nation’s racist past?
California’s approach to Black reparations shifts toward land access, ownership and stewardship.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
Is your pension fund liquidating Oregon’s forests?
Lax state regulations create a timber bonanza for institutional investors.
Posted inArticles
Montana’s Jon Tester might lose. Here’s why that matters
What the Senate contest says about the unexpected shift in Western politics.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
Denver rideshare drivers just launched a worker-owned co-op
A new alternative to Uber and Lyft aspires to give workers more income and more say over their working conditions.
Posted inNovember 2024: The Once and Future Prairie
Is a farm that hosts weddings still a farm?
Agritourism divides a rural Washington county.
Posted inArticles
Denver’s last slaughterhouse is on the ballot
Voters face a complicated choice between jobs, workers’ rights and animal welfare.
Posted inArticles
In rural Washington, a ‘constitutional sheriff’ and his growing volunteer posse provoke controversy
Where some see a ‘rural neighborhood watch’ that saves money, others worry about liability and ties to extremism.
Posted inArticles
Befriending wildfire
A new book from Obi Kaufmann illustrates the reciprocal connection between California ecosystems and fire.
Posted inIssues
What to make of land art in the era of LandBack
‘City,’ a massive outdoor sculpture in Nevada, took Michael Heizer 50 years to make. Today, it is met with a mixture of scrutiny and awe.
Posted inSeptember 2024: When Migrants Go Missing
The scrappy store that gave me everything when I had nothing
Before its demise, the 99 Cents Only chain fed generations of families across four states.
Posted inArticles
Trying to escape sea-level rise, Northwest coastal tribes are drowning in paperwork
A new study shows how federal grant funding has actually become an obstacle to climate adaptation.
Posted inArticles
Arizona and Nevada edge toward Harris and Walz
The Democratic ticket is hitting home in Western swing states with young, minority and independent voters.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
After historic floods, the safety net failed small farmers
Climate disasters are killing the largest subset of California farms. Government programs are too.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
The inequity of heat
Extreme heat doesn’t discriminate; the ability to escape it does.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
How New Mexico made child care free for most families
The state, long known for its challenges with child wellbeing, is now a leader in early childhood education.
Posted inArticles
Grabbing public land in the name of housing
Have politicians finally found a way to take public land out of the public’s hands?