Today’s movement is a radical, perverted version of the 1970s-80s rebellion.
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Ranch Diaries: The anti-ranching, misinformed discourse around Malheur
The federal grazing system doesn’t support good management.
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How some Western cities are leading on climate action
Despite faltering national policy, some communities are forging ahead.
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Huge U.S. coal company declares bankruptcy
Bad investments, cheap natural gas and air pollution regulations led to Arch’s decline.
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2015 wildfires burned a record-breaking 10.1 million acres
Fires in Alaska help to smash 2006 record.
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Who’s who inside and on the outskirts of the Malheur occupation
Here are the most vocal occupiers, along with a core group of militia members staying in Burns.
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Climate change triggers triage in Northwest forests
Siuslaw National Forest managers must decide whether to save meadows or let trees encroach.
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Sieges like the Oregon standoff turn the rural West into a political stage
The armed protesters occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon have indicated that they will leave if the locals so desire. Well, it’s time for them to go: Harney County residents, who just held a huge community meeting about this invasion, seemed to heartily agree that they want the vigilantes to pack their […]
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How the feds can ensure Western states get more water in 2016
Key legislation failed in 2015. Will this year be any different?
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I have a lot in common with the Bundys. Here’s what I’d like to say to them.
Like the Bundy brothers now illegally occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, I’m a lifelong rural Westerner, and I believe that if I were to talk with them, we’d most likely find we have a lot in common. There’s the way our lives were shaped by the land, for instance. I was […]
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Former BLM chief: Bundys ‘pursuing an agenda’ on public land
Bob Abbey was Bureau of Land Management chief from 2009 to 2012 and Nevada state director from 1997 to 2005. In a recent interview with High Country News, he discusses the BLM’s response to ranchers, including Cliven Bundy in Nevada, who broke federal laws, as well as the importance of collaborating with local law enforcement when it comes […]
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The BLM has armed up since 1978, but it’s still outgunned
In confrontations with armed groups like the Bundy supporters, local law enforcement matters most.
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I send my toddler to school outside. You should, too.
“Your son looks quite … warm,” another mother says, eyeing my 3-year-old son as we drop off his older brother at kindergarten. I look down at Isaac, his body encased in a snowsuit, two additional insulating layers hidden beneath. “He goes to an all-outdoor preschool,” I reply, but the mother is already distracted, busy waving […]
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The BLM’s inconsistent approach toward rule breakers
A look at how the feds have — and have not — punished individuals for defying regulations.
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Can plant-based feeds make aquaculture sustainable?
Some scientists are replacing sardines and anchovies with soybeans and corn as food for farmed fish.
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Don’t delist: Yellowstone grizzlies still need federal protection
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has indicated that it plans to remove the iconic Yellowstone grizzly bear from the protection of the Endangered Species Act early this year. The federal agency’s plan is irresponsible and premature because grizzlies are struggling to adjust to declining food sources, even as they face an uncertain future caused […]
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California relocates residents whose wells have gone dry
Residents explain why the new drought program may or may not work for them.
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PZP: Where hope, science and mustangs meet
The longtime mustang advocate, TJ Holmes, and I head into southwestern Colorado’s Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, searching for mustangs. We do this regularly. TJ has documented these mustangs for eight years, working in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management. A big part of her work is administering PZP, the fertility-control vaccine (porcine […]
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Malheur occupation, explained
The deep history behind the Bundy brothers’ takeover of a wildlife refuge in Oregon.
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Forty years of Sagebrush Rebellion
The Oregon occupation, the 2014 Bundy standoff and many other stories are all related to a long-simmering movement.