Many communities fight transport of crude oil through their towns; some find legal footing to succeed.
Communities
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
An outsider’s guide to insider Portland
Dispatch from a dryland alien in the rainy Northwest.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
International tourists in Western states, by the numbers
Where they’re from, where they go and where they spend their money.
Posted inArticles
Are we in a megadrought?
As the dry-spell continues, a radio forum on water security in Western states.
Posted inArticles
Rural counties to lose the most from defunded lands programs
What happens to local budgets when Congress stops these federal payments.
Posted inArticles
Unwanted California tires end up in rivers and beaches
But efforts to use the trash as building materials in Mexico offer new hope.
Posted inArticles
Lifties and ski patrol go head to head in Telluride
It’s a Telluride tradition: the annual St. Patrick’s Day lifties versus ski patrol softball game. To understand the magnitude of this yearly matchup, it’s important to understand the social dynamic of these two groups in any ski town. Ski patrol is full of alpha males and females, talented and aggressive skiers—in general only skiers—who have […]
Posted inArticles
Dispatch from a gas patch shopping trip
Reporters Notebook from New Mexico’s San Juan Basin.
Posted inArticles
California state parks’ blueprint for a more diverse future
Plans to overhaul park system, appeal to communities of color.
Posted inArticles
How ‘amenity migrants’ push out locals
Communities once sustained by local labor now rely on stock market dividends.
Posted inMarch 16, 2015: Wild Ride
A giant resort overshadows a tiny Colorado town
A teacher’s perspective of big changes to a small town.
Posted inMarch 16, 2015: Wild Ride
The quietest and noisiest spots in the West
Some places are 20 decibels or less, similar to levels in pre-Colonial times.
Posted inMarch 16, 2015: Wild Ride
The woman who brings drinking water to remote Navajo homes
In the parched countryside, delivery means community.
Posted inArticles
American boondockers
Surprising photographs of people who live in their vehicles, from the Cascades to the Rockies.
Posted inArticles
Marie’s dictionary
The last fluent speaker of Wukchumni creates a dictionary to document her tribe’s language.
Posted inMarch 2, 2015: Unite and Conquer
Community solar comes of age in the West
A neighborhood solar experiment in Washington gains traction in other states.
Posted inMarch 2, 2015: Unite and Conquer
Keeping the dust down in California’s Owens Valley
A civil engineer battles Los Angeles over its air pollution legacy.
Posted inMarch 2, 2015: Unite and Conquer
Most native tongues of the West are all but lost
A map shows where just over 60 languages remain spoken around the region.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Chainsaw diplomacy
In southern Utah’s Escalante watershed, a river restoration group tries to cut through old cultural barriers.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
My kind of town: Livingston, Montana
An essay on returning home to the West, after years abroad.