Many have moved to the nation’s fastest growing city seeking community as well as a better life. Few are finding it.
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inArticles
What happens when an affluent Arizona suburb’s main water supply is cut off?
As the Colorado River crisis worsens, an unregulated housing development faces a reckoning.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2023: Ripple Effects
Can dam removal save the Snake River?
See the river as the climate changes, development continues and consequences grow with inaction.
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The mountain lion that changed LA
A eulogy to P-22 with hope that his legacy will ensure more wildlife crossings.
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Should we worry about 8 billion people?
Breaking down population’s role in the environmental impact equation.
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How growing Western rec towns might hold onto their futures
Researchers look to give small tourism communities the tools for a GNARly approach.
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Arizona faces a reckoning over water
The state’s powerful will to grow is challenged by extreme heat, deep drought and serious water-related stress.
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Utah has a water dilemma
Record-breaking drought along the Wasatch Front forces tough decisions about water supply.
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7 statistics that illuminate the housing crisis
Headwaters Economics shines a light on record-breaking costs in the West.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
Where do public lands factor into the homelessness crisis?
As the housing crisis in the West deepens, more unhoused people are making a home outside.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
Idaho denies proposed land exchange
The state found that the timber tracts offered in a proposed trade are worth much less than the land around Payette Lake.
Posted inArticles
Colorado River water shortages highlight the urgency of reducing water waste
Conservation, water reuse and better irrigation technology all make more sense than proposed water pipelines.
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Development threatens one of Montana’s ‘blue-ribbon’ trout rivers
Noxious algae is choking the very watershed that’s drawing people to develop property there.
Posted inAugust 1, 2021: A Mega-Dairy Comes to the Desert
Could casitas help prevent displacement in the West’s cities?
As the housing crisis worsens, advocates sound off on how to bring homes to the people.
Posted inJune 1, 2021: Once and Future Fires
Rapid growth in Arizona’s suburbs bets against an uncertain water supply
‘The alternative is something they don’t want to think about.’
Posted inMay 1, 2021: Beauty and Biodiversity in the Borderlands
The Los Angeles River’s overlooked anglers
Unhoused Angelenos use the urban river as a source of sustenance, but a proposal to revitalize the waterway could push them out.
Posted inApril 1, 2021: Holding Fast
Idaho state lands could end up in private hands
How a developer’s proposed large land swap ignited a fight in small but growing McCall.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2021: No Place Like Home
Mustafa Santiago Ali describes the path forward for environmental justice
Former EPA program leader shares ideas for federal action in the Biden administration.
Posted inAugust 1, 2020: Infectious Ideologies
Food insecurities exposed by COVID-19 in Washington
A task force addresses weaknesses and inequities in the food system.