A hunter reflects on the gut-level connection she has to the public land she traverses.
Sarah Jane Keller
Posted inJanuary 25, 2016: The Forever War
Montana rancher looks to the past to prepare for tomorrow’s climate
Can re-engineering the family ranch help it survive climate change?
Posted inDecember 7, 2015: Good Neighbors
Adrenaline junkies get political
Do young recreationalists who like things faster and steeper care about the land the way their forebears did?
Posted inAugust 31, 2015: Unlocking the Methane Mystery
Montana farmers start talking climate change
The Montana Farmers Union is fighting political polarization with pragmatic discussions about how to adapt and what to expect.
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
The scrappy effort to revive a former mining town
In Butte, Montana, optimism is booming.
Posted inArticles
Why is Montana giving its bison specialist the boot?
The state blames budget cuts as it demotes a longtime wildlife biologist.
Posted inArticles
Don’t blame bark beetles for fire risk
A new study suggests hot dry weather, not beetles, make forests go up in smoke.
Posted inArticles
Wyoming grazing dispute threatens bighorn sheep
Rancher’s domestic sheep may pass fatal disease to a major bighorn herd.
Posted inArticles
Killing wolves to protect cattle may backfire
A new study raises questions about how to handle livestock conflicts.
Posted inArticles
Landscape-scale conservation gains ground
The Nature Conservancy just announced its largest Washington land purchase to date.
Posted inArticles
How the hot and dry West is killing Rocky Mountain forests
A new report summarizes how climate change is accelerating tree death from fires, bark beetles and drought
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
A dam difficult job
California’s drought through the eyes of a water manager.
Posted inGoat
Fish and Wildlife declines to list wolverines as endangered
Not enough evidence of climate harm to list wolverines, says Fish and Wildlife Climate change is a real force disrupting wildlife populations. But for the 300 or so wolverines living in the lower 48, there’s still not enough evidence of present or future danger to protect them under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Climate changes for wolverine listing
What good can the Endangered Species Act do in a warming world?
Posted inGoat
Colorado River Basin groundwater levels drop even faster than reservoirs
When Lake Mead is full it’s the largest reservoir in the U.S., capable of holding two years’ worth of water from the Colorado River. But the Southwest has been trapped in a 14-year drought, and the states Mead feeds – Nevada, Arizona and California – are thirsty. The reservoir is now only about half full […]
Posted inArticles
North Dakota wrestles with radioactive oilfield waste
Regulators look at raising the limit for radiation amid a rash of illegal dumping.
Posted inJune 9, 2014: Border Out of Control
Snowmobiling for science in Idaho
Scientists and snowmobilers team up for smarter wolverine management.
Posted inGoat
Climate change expedites hybrid trout takeover
When two species mate, their offspring end up with undignified new names like ‘pizzly’ (a grizzly and polar bear pairing) or ‘sparred owl’ (for barred owl and spotted owl hybrids). But the more rare species in such couplings face a far worse fate – hybridization can be a path to extinction. That’s why hybridization is […]
Posted inGoat
Feel-good salmon farms
Standing on a grated metal platform above a fiberglass tank, I’m entranced by silvery salmon gliding through a current of recycled freshwater. The salmon are lively and occasionally jump when a large feed bin, meticulously set with a timer, rains down an exact amount of feed pellets. Everything is designed to help the fish grow […]