Extractive industry laid the infrastructure for the suburban sprawl that fueled Colorado’s destructive Marshall Fire.
Mountain West
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Cultural extraction at the edge of the abyss
Butte, Montana, doesn’t have a major art museum. Instead, it has a gigantic toxic pit.
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Winter without snow is coming
Parts of the Mountain West could be nearly snowless for years at a time in just a few decades.
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Ozone pollution is on the rise in the West
Wildfires, oil and gas drilling, vehicle emissions, and climate change all combine to create more days with unhealthy levels of the colorless, odorless gas.
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‘A ticking time bomb for a mass die-off’
Recent grazing decisions continue to risk Southwest Colorado’s bighorns.
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Climate change increases rare earth elements in Colorado’s Snake River
A new study suggests lower stream flows as a primary culprit.
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‘All I want to do is help people get over this pandemic’
Tsun Sheng Neil Ku, a doctor in Billings, Montana, shares his experience battling both the virus and online misinformation.
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Development threatens one of Montana’s ‘blue-ribbon’ trout rivers
Noxious algae is choking the very watershed that’s drawing people to develop property there.
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What’s the value of tracking recreation in the West?
Fast-growing Western communities face a paradox of increased visitors.
Posted inMay 1, 2021: Beauty and Biodiversity in the Borderlands
Montana counties band together to reinvigorate passenger rail
The newly formed Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority aims to connect a rural and divided state.
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Wyoming’s schools at risk as the state’s extraction industries erode
One of the biggest spenders per student in the nation, the state has tied the expenditure to mineral wealth. Will legislators vote to raise state taxes?
Posted inApril 1, 2021: Holding Fast
Energy companies have left Colorado with billions of dollars in oil and gas cleanup
As the state tries to reform its relationship to drilling, an expensive task awaits.
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Butterflies in the West are disappearing
The climate crisis has caused a steep decline in butterfly sightings in the Rocky Mountain range.
Posted inMarch 1, 2021: The Rough Road Ahead
Will the climate crisis tap out the Colorado River?
Water availability is going from bad to worse in the seven states that rely on the drought-stricken river.
Posted inDecember 1, 2020: A Community Divided
Divided prospects: The fight over an immigration detention center
When a private prison company came to Evanston, Wyoming, local officials believed an economic revival was at hand. Instead, it unleashed a bitter debate.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2021: No Place Like Home
A little fish that’s mighty as a mountain
Pupfish Peak in Nevada’s Amargosa Valley is named for the endangered Devils Hole pupfish.
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Where the Great American Outdoors Act stands now
After passing with bipartisan support in August, the conservation law hits stumbling blocks. Here’s what may happen next.
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Wilderness rescuers brace for a busy winter
Snow is on the way — and amid COVID-19, recovery missions are on the rise.
Posted inNovember 1, 2020: When the Smoke Clears
Hunting for myself in the high Montana sagebrush
A hunter celebrates a new vision of queerness and rural culture.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2020: The Next West
Now that you’ve gone West, young man
Toward unlearning Manifest Destiny.