Researchers are studying how climate change and biodiversity affect viruses’ jump from animals to people.
Public health
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Wildfires’ unequal impacts on pregnant people
An interview with one researcher studying the effect of wildfire on pregnancy outcomes in the West.
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Western workers fight for better conditions
Ski patrollers, grocery clerks and teachers organize for fair wages and support for their jobs.
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A history of pollution pervades a California neighborhood
As new soil tests reveal remaining lead contamination, the people in the Logan barrio continue their long struggle for justice.
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‘The clinic, it’s going to be the heart of it all’
Members of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the newest federally recognized tribe, will have guaranteed access to health care when their new medical center opens.
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Stories we wish we’d written
A look at some of the journalism from 2021 that inspired us, made us feel seen, and, sometimes, even made us cry.
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40 years after its closure, the Jackpile Mine’s toxic legacy continues
‘They have to look at it every day and wonder if that’s the reason why they’re dying.’
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How to cool one of the fastest-warming cities in the West
In Phoenix, a new heat office hopes to prevent more people from dying of extreme heat.
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‘Our food from this land’
A new Native American restaurant plates a contemporary take on precolonial gastronomy.
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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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How community control of housing and land can help solve the housing crisis
Communities are turning to land trusts and real estate cooperatives as possible solutions.
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Indigenous women tackle college during a pandemic
How three Native American students took on the challenges of their first year away from home.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
When public health becomes the public enemy
Far-right extremists are robbing the West of the officials who protect community health.
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How Texas’ restrictive abortion law puts pressure on clinics in Western states
Patients are turning to places like New Mexico and Colorado for care.
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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.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
The familial bond between the Klamath River and the Yurok people
How a tribal community’s health is intimately connected to the health of the river.
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Women in wildfire: What are the reproductive health risks?
Females working in a system ‘built for men’ experience a higher rate of miscarriage and other reproductive concerns.
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In spite of bans, evictions in New Mexico continued during the pandemic
Landlords and property managers filed more than 11,000 eviction notices since April 2020.
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A Q&A with New Mexico’s deputy director of The Wilderness Society
Kay Bounkeua discusses growing up Lao-Chinese in the state, her connection to landscape and what’s next for the conservation movement.