Borrego Springs, California, was founded on the promise of endless water. Now they must conserve — or else.
Communities
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Dispatch from Nevada’s cowboy poets confab
An older generation of artists looks for a younger set to take over the tradition.
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Should this national monument become a national park?
An Idaho town hopes changing Craters of the Moon to park status will boost its economy.
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Four charts that show how public land is good for rural areas
A study finds that personal income is rising faster in counties with more public land.
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Did Colorado leave residents of the Raton Basin with bad water?
Regulators don’t link industry to contamination — but testing shows the pollution came after drilling.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Sugar Pine Mine, the other standoff
How a small-time mining dispute in Oregon readied a network of militias for the Malheur occupation.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
In ‘Gold Fame Citrus,’ the nascent genre of cli-fi looks to California
A new climate change novel predicts a dystopian West of sand and refugees.
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Forest Service leaves control of water rights to ski resorts
How does industry control of water affect public land management?
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How do we define climate pollution’s cost to society?
Every year, the government recalculates how much money a metric ton of carbon costs us.
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Shifts toward clean energy threaten Montana coal town
Washington and Oregon utilities consider pulling out of Colstrip’s power station.
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Dispatch from Blockadia
Where enviros are uniting with social justice and tribal rights activists in the Northwest to stop new fossil fuel development.
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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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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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California relocates residents whose wells have gone dry
Residents explain why the new drought program may or may not work for them.
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
These are your state’s gun laws
In the wake of mass killings, a state-by-state look at Western gun policy.
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
Highway injustice in Denver’s Latino neighborhoods
Poor districts have breathed I-70’s pollution for decades. Now they’re facing its expansion.
Posted inDecember 21, 2015: Secrets of the Deep
Why Westerners die at the hands of cops
Jack Yantis, an Idaho rancher, raised the profile of rural police brutality.
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Colorado citizens can now report health problems from oil & gas
The nation’s first ‘health response’ program launched this fall.
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Millions in debt, a community wonders if its water source will provide
This master-planned community must keep building to survive, despite the drought.