In the new film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella, I saw my own Forest Service career reflected back at me.
Claire K. Thompson
Claire K. Thompson, a former seasonal trail worker with the U.S. Forest Service, is working on a book about the impacts of climate and political change on public-lands stewardship. She writes from north-central Washington.
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
Losing more than a Forest Service job
Trail work, though underappreciated, made for a life well-lived in the woods.
Posted inJune 1, 2021: Once and Future Fires
How Suzanne Simard changed our relationship to trees
In ‘Finding the Mother Tree,’ a maverick forest ecologist relates her scientific journey — one that follows in the footsteps of traditional Indigenous knowledge.
Posted inJune 10, 2019: 'None of this happened the way you think it did'
What it’s like to navigate life below the poverty line
A new book humanizes the work America’s poor must go through to try and stay afloat.
Posted inMarch 18, 2019: Arizona's Wild Horse Paradox
An outsider endures violence and redemption in the Wild West
A familiar trope of storytelling puts women and people of color on center stage.
Posted inArticles
Holding onto home in rural North Dakota
A new documentary explores progress and place in fracking country.
Posted inJune 25, 2018: Little Weed, Big Problem
‘Little House’ and the identity of the prairie struggle
The gritty reality behind Laura Ingalls Wilder’s writings.
Posted inJanuary 20, 2014: Building a More Sustainable West, One City at a Time
A (very small) room with a view
Microhousing catches on in Seattle and other Western cities.