For the first time, the largest tribe in California has one of its own to lead its legal battles.
Features
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.
Posted inDecember 11, 2017: Scorched Earth
What fire researchers learned from California’s blazes
In California, land managers use fire as a tool.
Posted inNovember 27, 2017: Profit and Politics
A tale of two parks: How the Bakken boom transformed a landscape
While a North Dakota national park is an oasis from drilling, a nearby state park is thrown open.
Posted inNovember 27, 2017: Profit and Politics
Threatened plants on state lands have few protections
Politics, land ownership and imperiled plants collide in New Mexico.
Posted inNovember 13, 2017: Solace and Perspective
A man and his house of relics, in search of a self
What is the right way to treat artifacts that do not belong to you?
Posted inOctober 30, 2017: The Changing Face of Woods Work
The changing politics of woods work
Cash-strapped agencies use private contractors to the detriment of local communities.
Posted inArticles
‘Diabolical’ mussels begin their march into Montana
Divisions between state and tribal agencies could keep the door open for a most unwelcome visitor.