To save the greatest number of species, should we focus on the most common?
Deserts
Posted inArticles
New border security bill would roll back public lands protections
Sen. John McCain’s proposal would give Border Patrol more immediate access to sensitive borderlands.
Posted inArticles
Colorado’s snow is dust-free for the first time in a decade
But conditions are still prime for early snowmelt and summer drought.
Posted inJanuary 12, 2015: What Are We Thinking?
A Hot Day’s Night
New fiction from the author of ‘The Windup Girl.’
Posted inJanuary 12, 2015: What Are We Thinking?
Postcards from fire
‘We will rise from the ashes, sweep them from our children’s hair.’
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
The dust detectives
Scientists are closer than ever to understanding how microscopic airborne particles shape the Earth, and the West.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
A fix for the desert tortoise
Prolific pets continue to threaten their wild cousins.
Posted inArticles
Rants from the Hill: Desert Insomnia
Living the not-so-quiet life in the rural West.
Posted inArticles
A plan for California desert conservation comes online
Will it stop more solar and wind projects from being built in the wrong places?
Posted inGoat
Summer rains in a drought-plagued state
How much does a monsoon season relieve drought?
Posted inGoat
Joshua trees may be migrating north in response to climate change
Last spring, Joshua trees put on a magnificent show in the Mojave Desert. Nearly all at once nearly all of them bloomed, sprouting dense bouquets of waxy, creamy-green flowers from their Seussian tufts of spiky leaves. The bloom was so sweeping and abundant — and such a contrast to the typical pattern, where only a […]
Posted inGoat
Discovery: Good ol’ tallgrass was formed by good ol’ bacteria
It’s always tempting to reflect on how wonderful the West used to be. You know what I mean: Conservationists and Natives lament that the first invasions by white settlers wrecked everything, and ranchers and loggers long for a return to the era before 750-page environmental-impact statements. Who among us hasn’t conjured up wistful images of […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Secret getaways of the National Landscape Conservation System
Note: This story is part of a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. Updated 4/9/13 The only map I have shows the way out of Las Vegas — always a good thing to know. It is crisp and folded-up on the passenger seat and it says to take the eastbound interstate, […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
The desert that breaks Annie Proulx’s heart
Wyoming storyteller gives an unvarnished view of the Red Desert
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Walking on a Wire
Los Angeles needs green power. Does it have to tear up the desert to get it?
Posted inApril 14, 2008: Taking to the Trees
Lines in the sand
Desert cultures are a breed apart. The environments of each shape the particular ways in which its inhabitants – human and otherwise – survive and express themselves. But beyond each desert’s distinctive topography, climate and culture, “a living river of common heritage runs through them all.” So says Gary Nabhan, Sonoran Desert ecologist and author […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
The Weed-wackers
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Bonfire of the Superweeds.” Sue Rutman had been warned: Buffelgrass, she’d been told, loved disturbance. Pulling up the weed would only overturn more desert soil, spread seeds, and encourage its expansion. But as the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument botanist watched buffelgrass cover longer […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Have golf’s glory days gone by?
The game that brought grass to the desert appears to be drying up
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
The Lure of the Lawn
Can Westerners get over their romance with turf?