Noxious algae is choking the very watershed that’s drawing people to develop property there.
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inAugust 1, 2021: A Mega-Dairy Comes to the Desert
Could casitas help prevent displacement in the West’s cities?
As the housing crisis worsens, advocates sound off on how to bring homes to the people.
Posted inJune 1, 2021: Once and Future Fires
Rapid growth in Arizona’s suburbs bets against an uncertain water supply
‘The alternative is something they don’t want to think about.’
Posted inMay 1, 2021: Beauty and Biodiversity in the Borderlands
The Los Angeles River’s overlooked anglers
Unhoused Angelenos use the urban river as a source of sustenance, but a proposal to revitalize the waterway could push them out.
Posted inApril 1, 2021: Holding Fast
Idaho state lands could end up in private hands
How a developer’s proposed large land swap ignited a fight in small but growing McCall.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2021: No Place Like Home
Mustafa Santiago Ali describes the path forward for environmental justice
Former EPA program leader shares ideas for federal action in the Biden administration.
Posted inAugust 1, 2020: Infectious Ideologies
Food insecurities exposed by COVID-19 in Washington
A task force addresses weaknesses and inequities in the food system.
Posted inArticles
Video: How rural and urban housing crises affect one Indigenous family
Oakland is pricing out long-term residents, among them Joe Waukazoo.
Posted inJune 1, 2020: Dissent at a Distance
How a small Arizona town is building ecological resilience
A younger generation of activists are being trained in conservation.
Posted inArticles
Questions surround Utah’s hastily passed inland port
Plans to build a massive distribution hub along the Great Salt Lake divide Utahns and test Western leaders.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
As Spokane grows, is it leaving low-income renters outside?
Proposals to protect tenants and reduce homelessness lack political support.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
Montana’s water rights fractured by new development
As subdivisions spread, it’s becoming harder to manage one of the state’s most valuable resources.
Posted inOctober 14, 2019: Severed Ties
The prospect of more Airbnbs tempts a struggling New Mexico town
Vacation rentals have gutted the culture of nearby communities, but a new project in Questa flips the narrative.
Posted inArticles
Much of rural America is doomed to decline
Public policy solutions need to grapple with, not ignore, this economic reality.
Posted inJuly 21, 2019: A Radical Return
Paranoia and a ‘preposterously’ oversized water tank
An affluent Utah community spent millions to extinguish its fear of fire. Decades later, they’re still trying to buy their way out of a bottomless pit.
Posted inJuly 21, 2019: A Radical Return
Close encounters with the bear kind
The very places that attract visitors and newcomers for their proximity to wildlife grapple with a spike in bear-human incidents.
Posted inJune 24, 2019: Losing Lake Coeur d'Alene
See where PFAS pollution has been confirmed in the West
Western states lag behind in both monitoring and regulating the class of ‘forever chemicals.’
Posted inJune 24, 2019: Losing Lake Coeur d'Alene
The ‘shenanigans’ behind a federal employee’s decision to blow the whistle
Pressured by higher-ups, a Fish and Wildlife field supervisor smoothed the way for a 28,000-home development along a fragile Arizona river.
Posted inJune 10, 2019: 'None of this happened the way you think it did'
Wildfire escape routes? There’s (almost) an app for that.
Scientists are using crowdsourced data to help firefighters flee dangerous flames.
Posted inJune 24, 2019: Losing Lake Coeur d'Alene
Fires are indiscriminate. Recovery isn’t.
The disparate timeframes of rebuilding in California’s wine country and its poorest county, shown by data.