Imperial Beach considers the unthinkable: a retreat from nature.
Features
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
Agricultural interests steer Colorado’s wildlife management
Sheep grazing in the state’s largest wilderness area could endanger a dwindling bighorn sheep herd.
Posted inAugust 20, 2018: Where the West is Moving - and Why
Farmworkers face illness and death in the fields
‘The reality is that the machinery of growers is taken better care of than the lives of farmworkers.’
Posted inAugust 20, 2018: Where the West is Moving - and Why
Estranged in America
What happens to a community when its sense of belonging begins to unravel?
Posted inAugust 6, 2018: What Are We Doing Here?
In this rapaciously dry year, a quiet question grows louder: What are we doing here?
Drought, dread and family in the American Southwest.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
How the Yurok Tribe is reclaiming the Klamath River
For the first time, the largest tribe in California has one of its own to lead its legal battles.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
The dark secrets of the Animas River
A 2015 spill that turned the waterway orange is a reminder of mining’s disastrous legacy.
Posted inMay 14, 2018: Death in the Alpine
Death in the alpine
Social media is changing our relationship to risk, with deadly consequences.
Posted inArticles
Bears Ears is open for business
A reporter staked a mining claim on former monument lands. You could, too.
Posted inApril 30, 2018: Celebrity Scofflaw
How the feds helped make Cliven Bundy a celebrity
The creation of an anti-public-lands hero.
Posted inApril 16, 2018: Cashing in on Standing Rock
Cashing in on Standing Rock
How Veterans Stand squandered $1.4 million raised around the #NoDAPL protests.
Posted inArticles
How whales converse with the world
Arctic people have been speaking with cetaceans for centuries — and scientists are finally taking note.
Posted inMarch 19, 2018: Desert, Divided
The desert, divided
The Borderlands thrive on connections. What would it mean to sever them?
Posted inMarch 5, 2018: Drilling Chaco
Resistance to drilling grows on the Navajo Nation
Indigenous activists try to quell a rising tide of oil and gas exploration in Chaco Canyon.
Posted inFebruary 19, 2018: Unfrozen North
An unfrozen North
The world’s permafrost holds vast stores of carbon. What happens when it thaws?
Posted inFebruary 5, 2018: Caught Between Crises
A tale of two housing crises, rural and urban
How one Indigenous family is navigating two very different housing problems.
Posted inJanuary 22, 2018: A Separatist State of Mind
A separatist state of mind
In the era of Trump, rural discontent settles in the state of Jefferson.
Posted inArticles
In Montana, houses are replacing farmland
Can lessons from Vermont keep local agriculture alive?
Posted inDecember 25, 2017: Bear Essentials
In the home of the bear
In the McNeil River Sanctuary, bears and humans have learned to share the landscape.