After a year indoors, a writer remembers the joy — and pressures — of a childhood spent in Utah.
People & Places
Posted inArticles
What makes a whimbrel?
A writer reflects on natural cycles of absence and abundance, loss and love.
Posted inJuly 1, 2021: An Urban Greenspace Revolution
How will humans live through ecological collapse?
In ‘Believers,’ Lisa Wells profiles ordinary people who want to lead less destructive lives.
Posted inJune 1, 2021: Once and Future Fires
Film: After wildfire, a motel becomes a temporary refuge
Nearly 8,000 people lost their housing in Oregon’s Labor Day fires. Some are finally finding a home, for now.
Posted inJune 1, 2021: Once and Future Fires
Hotels for those left unhoused by wildfires
As climate change ratchets up wildfire intensity, an Oregon program provides a step toward home.
Posted inArticles
A path to getting Native lands back
Mary Big Bull-Lewis is taking a creative approach to returning ownership of the land and its stories to Native people.
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 inArticles
The health hazards of California’s neighborhood drilling
Much of the state’s oil extraction takes place in residential areas, often in Spanish-speaking communities, but there’s a lack of research detailing its impact.
Posted inMay 1, 2021: Beauty and Biodiversity in the Borderlands
Can a wildlife refuge help a community’s fight for environmental justice?
In Albuquerque’s South Valley, activists are happy for more green space but worry about gentrification.
Posted inMay 1, 2021: Beauty and Biodiversity in the Borderlands
As the country reckons with race, will tribal nations lead the way?
The descendants of those once enslaved by tribes continue to push for equality.
Posted inArticles
LA girls behind the lens
The Las Fotos Project empowers youth of color to tell their stories.
Posted inApril 1, 2021: Holding Fast
Modern redemption in a small New Mexican town
Kirstin Valdez Quade’s debut novel depicts everyday Catholicism in a struggling family.
Posted inApril 1, 2021: Holding Fast
Albuquerque’s racist history haunts its housing market
Policymakers and activists fight to remove pro-segregation, anti-immigrant provisions from property deeds.
Posted inMarch 1, 2021: The Rough Road Ahead
Did James Plymell need to die?
How homelessness is criminalized in small cities and towns across the West.
Posted inMarch 1, 2021: The Rough Road Ahead
Foreign-born doctors fill physician shortages in the West
Some find a permanent home; others languish in a visa holding pattern.
Posted inApril 1, 2021: Holding Fast
Honoring Montana’s first Black librarian
Carrying on the legacy of Alma Smith Jacobs requires representation and education.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
How Wyoming’s Black coal miners shaped their own history
Many early Wyoming coal towns had thriving Black communities.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
Workers reflect on Oregon’s first and last coal plant
‘The people here made the plant. What we did is something that was needed.’
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
Meet the gun-toting ‘Tenacious Unicorns’ in rural Colorado
How a transgender-owned alpaca ranch in Colorado foretells the future of the rural queer West.
Posted inArticles
Pandemic restrictions follow state lines. The spreading virus doesn’t.
Cross-border COVID-19 contamination underscores the pitfalls of not having national standards.