We love and make use of our public lands, but we get no respect.
Opinion
Posted inArticles
How my adopted daughter made peace with the outdoors
If our daughter couldn’t tolerate nature, how would we integrate her into our world?
Posted inAugust 8, 2016: Line of Descent
Sometimes, the West must be protected from itself
Today, we need to listen more carefully than ever to the ideas of Western historian, Bernard DeVoto.
Posted inArticles
Outdoor outfitters can’t stay quiet on climate change
The industry is short-changing millions of visitors at a time when dialogue is needed.
Posted inArticles
The importance of Black Lives Matter in a white rural West
A Westerner reflects on racial injustice close to home.
Posted inArticles
Let’s be clear: TSA’s new tactics are bribery
A new program lets you cut in line at security, for a fee.
Posted inJuly 25, 2016: Salmon Power
How Leonard Peltier has unjustly spent forty years in prison — and why it’s time to change that
So much time has passed that many Americans have forgotten, if they ever knew, what happened to an American Indian named Leonard Peltier, who has spent more than 40 years confined in various federal penitentiaries. This summer, a group of his family members and friends are traveling the country in an attempt to salvage what […]
Posted inArticles
Federal coal leasing needs a major overhaul
The winds of change are blowing hard across our Western coalfields. Competition from cheaper fuels such as natural gas, wind and solar has dampened domestic demand for coal. This trend ‒ plus a bust in export markets after a brief boom ‒ has driven five major coal companies into bankruptcy court. There, they seek protection […]
Posted inArticles
There’s no Brexit from our climate problems
A rant against the mindless pleasure of simply smashing something to see what happens.
Posted inJuly 25, 2016: Salmon Power
In this season of potential megaburns, nix the campfire
In 1972, Grand Canyon National Park outlawed campfires in the backcountry. Backpackers like me considered this an outrage. After all, the only people who carried those fancy little stoves back then were people incapable of building a fire. I bring this up because we are living through another explosive fire season in the West. Of […]
Posted inArticles
We should be proud of delisting grizzlies
The bear is a huge conservation success story, and it shows that the Endangered Species Act works.
Posted inArticles
Why is an Estonian energy giant trying to revive failed Utah oil dreams?
There’s a new proposal to extract oil from shale, at great cost to the Colorado River Basin.
Posted inArticles
Wildfire in the West has become an uncontrollable force
A former fire dispatcher says last year’s fire season pushed firefighters to the edge.
Posted inArticles
Homegrown anti-government militias threaten public safety
As we saw during the Bundy Ranch standoff in 2014 and earlier this year at a wildlife refuge in Oregon, violent extremism is not limited to war-torn countries thousands of miles away from the United States. Armed militias have expanded in size and sophistication and now present a threat to public safety and national security. […]
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The Park Service doesn’t need corporate sponsorship. It needs proper funding.
When I was a child, I remember passing through any number of national park entrance stations in our family station wagon. I remember the historic stone kiosks where the rangers greeted us, and my excitement as we began the slow drive toward the greatest wonders of nature. Visiting a national park felt a little like […]
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Don’t just save the Grand Canyon. Save the wider region, too.
We think we’ve saved the Grand Canyon. We established a national park that is supposed to remain “forever unimpaired,” as the Park Service’s enabling legislation put it. But the Grand Canyon is so deeply enmeshed in a spider web of connections to its watershed that a lot of work needs to be done to keep […]
Posted inArticles
In praise of a wild West
A 21st-century vision for Western public lands, including their role in solving challenges like climate change.
Posted inArticles
It’s time to put a price on carbon
The United States should set a persuasive example for the rest of the world.