Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Wildlife
Posted inArticles
The ‘grandmother’ cottonwood trees bulldozed for the border wall
After a 71-day protest, the last of the 100-plus-year-old trees was cut down southeast of Tucson.
Posted inArticles
Duck banding in the Centennial Valley helps save the lesser scaup
The longest-running study on breeding ducks has given Montana state biologists the highest-resolution dataset to aid in the bird’s survival.
Posted inOctober 2026: Origin Stories
Native nations sue over Endangered Species Act changes
Environmental work being done by tribes across the country will be made more difficult now that the Trump administration has more narrowly defined ‘harm.’
Posted inArticles
Toxic algal blooms are spreading across the West
Climate change is increasing the frequency of the blooms. Here’s what you need to know.
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How the Interior secretary has let down public lands and the nation
Doug Burgum was once seen as a conservationist. Reality shows otherwise.
Posted inArticles
As bears ‘spin out’ in southern Montana, wildlife managers are at wit’s end
Amid a record-breaking year of Western bear conflict, the historically tolerant Red Lodge community is grappling with opposing views on how to live with the species — and if a ‘fed bear’ really should be a ‘dead bear.’
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Wyoming chooses public lands at the ballot box
Voters finally felt the threat to public lands had reached a critical point, observers say.
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Tohono O’odham fight border wall on sacred, sovereign lands
The nation is using the courts and lobbying congressional Democrats to stop construction near Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Southern Arizona.
Posted inSeptember 2026: On the Trail with Gary Paul Nabhan
Hexing AI slop with queer magic
LGBTQ+ artists showcase alternative spiritualities in an exhibit at the Palm
Springs Art Museum.
Posted inSeptember 2026: On the Trail with Gary Paul Nabhan
How Bozeman is preventing human-wildlife conflicts before they start
A ’wildlife first responder’ is developing a tool for coexistence.
Posted inSeptember 2026: On the Trail with Gary Paul Nabhan
On the road with a desert sage
A writer travels the Borderlands with ethnobotanist and author Gary Paul Nabhan.
Posted inSeptember 2026: On the Trail with Gary Paul Nabhan
In Arctic Alaska, 1.4 million acres of federal land is shifting to state hands
A cascade of changes is underway along its only northern highway.
Posted inAugust 2026: The Conversations Issue
Why I talk to animals
The creatures in our midst may have answers to life’s vexing questions.
Posted inArticles
Arctic drilling in Alaska won’t get environmental review in new proposal
The Interior Department will soon publish a ‘categorical exclusion’ that will rubber stamp oil and gas development in Alaska’s remote National Petroleum Reserve.
Posted inAugust 2026: The Conversations Issue
In a warming world, wildflowers offer a warning
The discourse between plants and fungi changes with increasing soil temperatures, impacting meadows, nutrients and wildlife.
Posted inArticles
Does your dog make you safer in bear country?
What new analysis of more than 300 bear encounters shows about the notion of dogs as early bear alarms or deterrents.
Posted inAugust 2026: The Conversations Issue
Convocation of crows, sea-lebrity sea lions and what is that nasty smell?
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Feds transfer grizzly bear management to states
After 20-year controversy and numerous court battles, the Trump administration declared grizzlies recovered despite public lands rollbacks.
Posted inArticles
How a Utah Republican’s quiet battle for hunting access undercut LandBack hopes
Rep. Casey Snider worked behind the scenes for years to transfer large blocks of roadless state trust land to wildlife officials — cutting the Ute Tribe out in the process.