Oakland is pricing out long-term residents, among them Joe Waukazoo.
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inJune 1, 2020: Dissent at a Distance
How a small Arizona town is building ecological resilience
A younger generation of activists are being trained in conservation.
Posted inArticles
Questions surround Utah’s hastily passed inland port
Plans to build a massive distribution hub along the Great Salt Lake divide Utahns and test Western leaders.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
As Spokane grows, is it leaving low-income renters outside?
Proposals to protect tenants and reduce homelessness lack political support.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
Montana’s water rights fractured by new development
As subdivisions spread, it’s becoming harder to manage one of the state’s most valuable resources.
Posted inOctober 14, 2019: Severed Ties
The prospect of more Airbnbs tempts a struggling New Mexico town
Vacation rentals have gutted the culture of nearby communities, but a new project in Questa flips the narrative.
Posted inArticles
Much of rural America is doomed to decline
Public policy solutions need to grapple with, not ignore, this economic reality.
Posted inJuly 21, 2019: A Radical Return
Paranoia and a ‘preposterously’ oversized water tank
An affluent Utah community spent millions to extinguish its fear of fire. Decades later, they’re still trying to buy their way out of a bottomless pit.
Posted inJuly 21, 2019: A Radical Return
Close encounters with the bear kind
The very places that attract visitors and newcomers for their proximity to wildlife grapple with a spike in bear-human incidents.
Posted inJune 24, 2019: Losing Lake Coeur d'Alene
See where PFAS pollution has been confirmed in the West
Western states lag behind in both monitoring and regulating the class of ‘forever chemicals.’
Posted inJune 24, 2019: Losing Lake Coeur d'Alene
The ‘shenanigans’ behind a federal employee’s decision to blow the whistle
Pressured by higher-ups, a Fish and Wildlife field supervisor smoothed the way for a 28,000-home development along a fragile Arizona river.
Posted inJune 10, 2019: 'None of this happened the way you think it did'
Wildfire escape routes? There’s (almost) an app for that.
Scientists are using crowdsourced data to help firefighters flee dangerous flames.
Posted inJune 24, 2019: Losing Lake Coeur d'Alene
Fires are indiscriminate. Recovery isn’t.
The disparate timeframes of rebuilding in California’s wine country and its poorest county, shown by data.
Posted inArticles
Russian investors are keen on Nevada’s copper
Demand for clean cars is causing an uptick in copper mining in the West, but at what cost?
Posted inArticles
Extinction looms for southern California’s mountain lions
A new study presents a choice: Allow the big cats to vanish in 50 years — or build modest wildlife corridors.
Posted inApril 29, 2019: A History of Violence
New Mexico’s ‘mini’ Green New Deal, dissected
The Energy Transition Act could be a model for ambitious policies of the future.
Posted inArticles
Push for renewables vexes Western power supplier
Tri-State’s future looks less than bright unless it can keep up with the times.
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
Get to know the Green New Deal, by the numbers
The plan would boost the U.S. economy and eliminate fossil fuel use in ten years.
Posted inMarch 18, 2019: Arizona's Wild Horse Paradox
Development plans test a decade-old conservation deal
Were concessions to protect undeveloped land in California worth it?
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
In need of water, an Idaho town turns to its neighbors
Does recharging an aquifer solve one of the West’s oldest water problems, or perpetuate it?