The first crack in the area’s suspension on new housing that relies on groundwater appears.
Housing
Posted inOctober 2025: Limits to Growth
Ventura County is turning former farmland into affordable housing for farmworkers
This California county has some of the nation’s strictest protections for agricultural land, but developers are using a new exemption to house people who work the land.
Posted inOctober 2025: Limits to Growth
The dried-out subdivisions of Phoenix
A groundwater crisis halted the construction of thousands of homes and pitted affordability against environmental concerns.
Posted inArticles
Will the public-lands coalition hold?
Americans came together to keep public lands in public hands this summer. Will they do it again?
Posted inArticles
The race to protect homes from speculators post-wildfire
Around the West, community land trusts are helping people recover from disaster — and prepare for the next one.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
How one California community is turning an old oil field into protected habitat
Despite federal policies complicating Fullerton’s conservation success story.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
911’s hidden emergency
A former firefighter makes the case for community paramedicine in the age of climate change.
Posted inArticles
In Albuquerque, developers are turning old motels into affordable housing
Once-dilapidated buildings are finding new life as homes for immigrants and other working-class New Mexicans.
Posted inArticles
MAGA and the developers are coming for your public lands
Sen. Mike Lee slips federal land privatization provision into Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Posted inArticles
Senate Republicans want to sell 3 million acres of public land
The majority of public land is too fire prone and far away from communities to even make sense for housing, research shows.
Posted inArticles
Public lands for housing in Nevada and Utah called ‘giveaway’
Interested parties say water resources, tribal sovereignty and public engagement are threatened by the budget reconciliation bill’s amendment.
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
The toll of Bozeman’s housing crisis
At the small city’s only emergency shelter, demand is higher and the work is harder than ever.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
How a crucial homeless shelter in Boise was obstructed by neighbors
The Veterans Park Neighborhood Association sued to halt a shelter’s plans.
Posted inArticles
Trump’s unprecedented attack on America
We need an army of Raúl Grijalvas to stem the flood of ‘bullshit’ emanating out of the White House.
Posted inArticles
The indomitable Butte, Montana
The misunderstood, often-maligned mining town helps itself.
Posted inMarch 2025: The Berry Pickers
The rise of the recreation economy
Public-lands tourism outpaces mining and drilling in much of the West.
Posted inMarch 2025: The Berry Pickers
‘I was determined to solve this problem’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Posted inArticles
Many renters are struggling after fleeing LA County wildfires
For many in the county, recovery requires a new lease, a new landlord, new schools and possibly a new state.
Posted inArticles
With so many displaced by fires, Los Angeles County can’t accurately measure homelessness
The county was supposed to conduct an annual tally of people experiencing homelessness this month. Then disaster struck.
Posted inArticles
How the Park City ski patrol won concessions from Vail
As patrollers and management reach an agreement, other ski patrols are learning from Park City’s example.