Deterrence strategies have turned increasingly punitive for immigrants and activists.
Deserts
Posted inMarch 18, 2019: Arizona's Wild Horse Paradox
Development plans test a decade-old conservation deal
Were concessions to protect undeveloped land in California worth it?
Posted inFebruary 4, 2019: Nizhoni Girls
The shutdown has halted important scientific research
Disrupted funding for federal science hurts Western lands and economies.
Posted inNovember 26, 2018: Follow the fish
Latest: Trump’s BLM approves a massive California solar plant
Opponents cite potential harm to desert wildlife, views and sand dunes.
Posted inNovember 12, 2018: Old Wests, and new
The contradictions of iconic lands
The photos inside two new volumes show the grandeur and vulnerability of landscapes like the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument.
Posted inArticles
A high-stakes water reckoning looms in the West
Be it a wet or a dry year, the water rich in Colorado’s North Fork Valley take their share.
Posted inOctober 29, 2018: When your neighborhood goes BOOM
The precarious plan for the Lake Powell Pipeline
Officials in Utah’s fastest-growing county are obscuring details of what a high-stakes project will cost taxpayers.
Posted inSeptember 17, 2018: The Pioneer of Ruin
The pioneer of ruin
Amid a desolate mess in Cisco, Utah, a young woman resurrects a home.
Posted inAugust 31, 2018: The Big Threat to Bighorns
How beavers make the desert bloom
‘I’m always looking for ways to keep water here, and the beaver do it for free.’
Posted inJuly 23, 2018: Pay for Prey
The Colorado, lifeblood and sculptor of an arid West
In a new book, a longtime river-runner invites readers to sit down by the Colorado’s riverside and listen to its stories.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
Bears Ears: An elegy for what was lost?
A book of photos explores the mesas and canyons of Bears Ears.
Posted inJune 25, 2018: Little Weed, Big Problem
Trump administration pauses California’s solar energy truce
The decision imperils the balance between desert conservation and development.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
Some like it hot; the West’s unluckiest man; Phoenix’s future
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
White Sands National … Park?
A bill could establish New Mexico’s second national park within a missile range.
Posted inArticles
The playground of Lake Powell isn’t worth drowned canyons
Before a writer knew the true cost of Glen Canyon Dam, ‘ignorance was bliss.’
Posted inArticles
West Obsessed: A desert divided on the Borderlands
What would it mean to sever life-sustaining links along the U.S.-Mexico border?
Posted inArticles
Let your kids play with fire
Giving a 6-year-old fire-tending responsibilities is good for the whole family.
Posted inApril 16, 2018: Cashing in on Standing Rock
Along the border, 500 miles of desert species
As Trump’s wall lurches forward, ‘BioBlitz’ records the Borderlands’ biodiversity.
Posted inMarch 19, 2018: Desert, Divided
How the U.S.-Mexico border has split the Tohono O’odham
When it comes to the ‘wall,’ the Nation is divided.
Posted inMarch 19, 2018: Desert, Divided
The desert, divided
The Borderlands thrive on connections. What would it mean to sever them?