As America’s food basket dries out, Punjabi American growers fear the loss of their hard-earned farmlands.
Agriculture
Posted inMarch 1, 2021: The Rough Road Ahead
Nevada lithium mine kicks off a new era of Western extraction
The hastily approved project went forward without comment from the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe.
Posted inMarch 1, 2021: The Rough Road Ahead
Why Utah’s wild mink COVID-19 case matters
‘Vet-virologist’ Anna Fagre discusses the first positive case detected in the wild — and how ‘spillover’ could impact the West.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
Meet the gun-toting ‘Tenacious Unicorns’ in rural Colorado
How a transgender-owned alpaca ranch in Colorado foretells the future of the rural queer West.
Posted inArticles
Diverted, drained and dwindling: What’s the fate of New Mexico’s Rio Grande?
Century-old water rights and climate change means the river may never flow through many communities year-round again.
Posted inArticles
California farmworkers aren’t staying in free quarantine hotel rooms
Fear, testing barriers and miscalculations have hobbled the statewide program.
Posted inArticles
How one student brings soil science down to earth
Bo Collins’ goofy, profanity-laden social media presence makes scientific research seem humorous and relatable.
Posted inArticles
Colorado ranchers adapt for a changing climate
Regenerative agriculture can help address drought and topsoil degradation.
Posted inDecember 1, 2020: A Community Divided
In California, 1 million people lack access to clean water
Why one community has struggled with arsenic in its water for so long, despite the state’s Human Right to Water law.
Posted inNovember 1, 2020: When the Smoke Clears
Northwest co-op builds for a local food future beyond big ag
‘I’ve always felt like this was something to do in case the world doesn’t end.’
Posted inArticles
Will the extraction industry’s economic turmoil blight Colorado?
Questions about gas well maintenance, clean up and public safety rise amid bankruptcies in the sector.
Posted inArticles
How the West’s wildfires impact crops
Wine grape and cannabis growers try to assess the invisible damage of ash and smoke on their harvests.
Posted inArticles
COVID-19 makes it harder to know when to harvest sugar beets
Decisions depend on the weather, but accurate long-term forecasts are another casualty of the pandemic.
Posted inOctober 1, 2020: Democracy's Frayed Western Front
Killing the Vegas Pipeline
Nevada’s attitude toward water is changing.
Posted inArticles
West coast wildfires signal a planetary fire age
Beyond climate change, history has helped create the pyrocene.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2020: The Next West
Where people are migrating in, and out of, the West
While the region continues to grow, migration patterns are in flux.
Posted inArticles
Can grazing help Oregon’s largest private nature preserve?
Scientists and ranchers team up to determine if cattle can preserve biodiversity and support economies on a treasured prairie.
Posted inArticles
Who’s minding Montana’s abandoned oil and gas wells?
Left-behind extraction wells pollute after drilling and pumping stops. One foundation gets proactive.
Posted inArticles
Getting schooled in conservation
In Colorado’s Four Corners, experiential approaches to education connect high school students to each other and the land.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2020: The Next West
The old-school organizers who got it done on Zoom
How the country’s oldest organizing group won COVID-19 relief for undocumented immigrants in California.