Arguments over state environmental policy impacts ignore broader challenges to rural communities.
Carl Segerstrom
Posted inArticles
Job Corps program benefits communities, at-risk youth, disaster relief
Trump administration efforts to privatize and close centers met bipartisan pushback.
Posted inArticles
Interior Department’s coal reboot ignores tribes and curtails public input
The Obama administration wanted to rethink coal leasing; now, Trump is rushing forward.
Posted inJune 10, 2019: 'None of this happened the way you think it did'
After nearly going extinct, Washington’s pygmy rabbits need room to grow
Recovering the endangered rabbits will test society’s willingness to let nature reclaim a landscape.
Posted inJune 10, 2019: 'None of this happened the way you think it did'
The key to endangered species recovery? Communication.
A retired federal biologist says Trump’s Interior Department is more business as usual than critics claim.
Posted inMay 27, 2019: Public Pushback
Trump’s infrastructure order threatens local right to protect the environment
Washington blocked a coal terminal under the Clean Water Act. New rules could subvert that authority.
Posted inMay 27, 2019: Public Pushback
Climate cases set the stage for oil and gas leasing reform
The decisions could curb greenhouse gas emissions from public lands.
Posted inApril 29, 2019: A History of Violence
Can the tools of capitalism curb climate change?
Investors are pushing companies to reckon with their environmental impacts.
Posted inApril 29, 2019: A History of Violence
As oil trains roll into Portland, city residents keep watch
Without state oversight, activists step up to monitor the traffic in their own backyards.
Posted inArticles
Wyoming Legislature extends lifeline to coal power
As economics challenge coal’s future, Wyoming passes a law to prop it up.
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
New bill leaves lands protected, lawmaking neglected
A bipartisan public lands bill punts on overhauling environmental policies.
Posted inArticles
Dead pines drive new herbicide rules in Oregon
A controversial weed-killer has split the state, and pit state regulators against feds.
Posted inFebruary 18, 2019: Barriers to Entry
As shutdown ends, rural Washington considers life without feds
‘We’re going down a road to bitterness.’
Posted inArticles
Zinke leaves unfinished business at the Interior Department
The questionable legality of the Trump administration’s aggressive deregulatory and development-friendly policies could end up being its undoing.
Posted inArticles
The Interior Department’s deregulatory agenda
The actions taken by Zinke’s Interior Department have different levels of legal permanence.
Posted inArticles
A toxic past and present on the Spokane River
In eastern Washington, a push to clean PCBs from its namesake river faces a dirty legacy and global pollution problem.
Posted inDecember 24, 2018: Good news, bad news
See paradise beneath the Colorado peaks
A publishing couple invites you into the process behind their picturesque Vail estate.
Posted inDecember 24, 2018: Good news, bad news
No news is bad news for public health
Losing local news sources and public health reporters hampers disease detection and outbreak response.
Posted inArticles
Dollars and sense in the West’s power market
An outgoing utilities commissioner discusses Montana’s changing energy landscape.
Posted inDecember 10, 2018: Critical Mass
A most welcome winter
Former editorial fellows receive recognition, and fact-checking curious visitors swing through the office.