Government-issued maps offer a promise for safely exploring our public lands, but they no longer reflect the reality of what’s actually on the ground.
California
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
“Legend-dairy” mountain peaks, visiting bears and remembering a blubbery blowout
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Digging out in the Palisades Fire burn zone
Portraits of the workers shoring up a broken world.
Posted inArticles
A year after the Eaton Fire, permit delays keep Black families from returning
Once known for its trees and community, Altadena is now a test of who — and what — gets to come back after disaster.
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
How plate tectonics revolutionized our understanding of Earth
And how scientist Tanya Atwater was at the center of it all.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Cascades frogs vanished from Lassen Volcanic National Park in 2007. Now, they’re back.
With careful site selection and antifungal baths, scientists are staging a frog comeback in the park.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Inside California’s wild Christmas tree harvest
Each winter, migrant crews climb into the Sierra to cut wild silvertip firs, a fragile tradition now imperiled by wildfire, climate change, and tightening immigration laws.
Posted inDecember 2025: Wild Harvest
Going bananas in Portland, any portabella in a storm, and squirrels gone wild in California
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
National parks aren’t just for tourists. They’re an essential home for wildlife.
Pick up this new book on Yosemite for the photos but stay for the captivating animal stories.
Posted inArticles
The big data center buildup
An AI server farm tsunami threatens to overwhelm the West’s power grid and water supplies.
Posted inArticles
The West’s vanishing porcupines
Scientists are racing to figure out why porcupines are disappearing from their former stomping grounds.
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
In Mendocino, river restoration pays off for salmon
Coho love the newly ‘messy’ streams.
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
Attack of the owls, emu-cipated emus, and say ‘hi’ to the bumpy little snailfish
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Why Colorado River negotiations are so difficult
Basin states have had 2 years to figure out how to share the shrinking river. Will they get there before the feds step in?
Posted inIssues
Western economies falter under the Trump administration
Tariffs, layoffs and federal funding clawbacks stress budgets.
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
For rural Californians, unreliable power has become the norm
Years ago, the state’s largest utility rolled out a power outage program designed to reduce wildfires. Customers now experience thousands of outages a year.
Posted inOctober 2025: Limits to Growth
Ventura County is turning former farmland into affordable housing for farmworkers
This California county has some of the nation’s strictest protections for agricultural land, but developers are using a new exemption to house people who work the land.
Posted inArticles
What we stand to lose if national monuments fall
Can one of the nation’s best conservation tools survive?
Posted inArticles
The race to protect homes from speculators post-wildfire
Around the West, community land trusts are helping people recover from disaster — and prepare for the next one.
Posted inArticles
Wildfire is a growing threat to the West’s water systems
How fire and water managers can prepare.