A community science initiative along the West Coast is using volunteer observations to study the effect of wildfire smoke on birds.
Climate change
Posted inJuly 2024
Wilson’s phalarope to the rescue
A new Endangered Species Act petition could trigger major conservation actions to save the West’s saline lakes.
Posted inJuly 2024
A new documentary confronts water scarcity in the West
In Mirasol: Looking at the Sun, Colorado farmers fight to save their communities.
Posted inArticles
When a landslide blocks your commute
The Teton Pass collapse highlights the importance — and growing vulnerability — of mountain roads.
Posted inArticles
Endangered wildflower threatened by Nevada lithium mine
Tiehm’s buckwheat is found nowhere else in the world, and the planned mine would sit square in its habitat.
Posted inArticles
The American Climate Corps take flight, with most jobs based in the West
Biden’s climate jobs program will put young people to work starting this summer.
Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness
As the Gila Wilderness turns 100, the Wilderness Act is still a living law
Wilderness areas are changing in profound ways — and so are our ideas about them.
Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness
California’s homelessness and climate crises leave unhoused communities vulnerable to floods
Seeking shelter, people are living in flood control channels and other flood-prone places.
Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness
Water inequality on the Colorado River
A new accounting reveals deep disparities in Western water consumption.
Posted inJune 2024: The Idea of Wilderness
What if the future is the past?
Degrowth offers a path for dealing with our serious environmental issues.
Posted inArticles
Trump vs. Biden on the climate
The next presidential election will have huge ramifications for the planet.
Posted inArticles
The West’s wetlands are struggling. Some have been overlooked altogether.
Wetlands are carbon-storage powerhouses — and many are unmapped.
Posted inArticles
Can carbon capture transition California’s oil fields?
In Kern County, the community searches for an economic alternative to a fossil fuel industry. Will it be any fairer than the old one?
Posted inArticles
Killing one owl to save another
Is it ever the right thing to do? Two ethicists weigh in.
Posted inArticles
Will changes at San Gabriel Mountains National Monument serve LA’s communities of color?
As the monument reaches a decade of federal recognition, the Biden administration hopes to address funding and stewardship challenges alongside the expansion.
Posted inArticles
An environmental justice coalition for all
How has Biden’s record on conservation served communities of color?
Posted inArticles
Audio: The Joshua tree-yucca moth link
These desert species wouldn’t survive without the other. Can they weather climate change together?
Posted inArticles
Are the Great Salt Lake scientists all right?
A Q&A with Great Salt Lake Institute Director Bonnie Baxter on studying a dying lake.
Posted inArticles
Indigenous people rush to stop ‘false climate solutions’ ahead of COP29
The next international climate meeting could make carbon markets permanent. Indigenous leaders call for a moratorium before it’s too late.
Posted inArticles
Can ice climbing bring life to an isolated Colorado town in the dead of winter?
Lake City’s ice-climbing park is transforming the local economy.