Forty years after the mountain’s eruption, officials struggle to balance research and risk.
Public lands
Posted inArticles
Hunting and fishing provide food security in the time of COVID-19
But virus fears and travel restrictions could impact big game season in the fall.
Posted inArticles
Border wall construction brings crowds, and COVID-19 anxiety, into Arizona towns
Hundreds of workers are passing through the rural border communities, where medical services are already strained.
Posted inJune 1, 2020: Dissent at a Distance
Park closures have unequal costs
As we limit outdoor access, consider the impact on underrepresented communities.
Posted inArticles
Uranium mining threatens our home, the Grand Canyon
Since time immemorial, the Havasupai have lived inside the natural wonder. We face yet another peril.
Posted inArticles
How Mormon history helps explain today’s public-land fights
Betsy Gaines Quammen’s new book looks at the Bundy family and religion’s connection to the Western landscape.
Posted inArticles
How do you stay at home when you’ve chosen a life on the road?
Those who live nomadically face new pressures under coronavirus.
Posted inMay 1, 2020: Lives on Lockdown
During the pandemic, how do you ethically get outdoors?
Sheltering responsibly doesn’t mean you have to stay inside.
Posted inArticles
The danger of self-isolating from COVID-19 on public lands
Gateway communities grow wary of out-of-town crowds.
Posted inMarch 16, 2020: Wiring the Wild
The Park Service is selling out to telecom giants
With Trump’s blessing, cell towers are infiltrating protected public lands across the West.
Posted inArticles
Government report found best practices lacking in BLM relocation
The Government Accountability Office says the agency’s ‘analysis of costs and benefits did not include key information.’
Posted inArticles
Forest Service delays copper mine planned on sacred land
‘Oak Flat is still on death row.’
Posted inArticles
Oregon elk vex landowners and game managers
The herds are wary of recreationalists, unwelcome at the refuge and eating into profits.
Posted inArticles
Interior finalizes plans to welcome industry into Utah monuments
The plans for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante provide ‘certainty’ to business owners and communities, officials said.
Posted inArticles
Tom Udall: It’s past time we confront the climate and nature crises
For our survival, we can look to my father’s vision as an alternative to our current path.
Posted inArticles
Trump administration manipulated wildfire science to promote logging
Emails show Interior appointees crafted a narrative that blamed forest protection efforts for wildfires.
Posted inMarch 1, 2020: Predator (Mis)perceptions
Mauna Kea telescope project halted after months of protests
Hawai‘i Gov. David Ige announced that law enforcement would vacate the area.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2020: How One Woman Took a Stand Against Tribal Disenrollment and Paid For It
Observe the BLM’s displacement
Moving land-management HQ out of Washington illustrates the ‘deconstruction of the administrative state.’
Posted inArticles
Interior attorney gave false information to Congress about contact with Koch Foundation
Daniel Jorjani, the agency’s top lawyer, reached out to his former employer for advice in April 2017.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2020: How One Woman Took a Stand Against Tribal Disenrollment and Paid For It
Skiing and snowmobiling are as natural as the weather
With human impacts felt everywhere, we need a new environmental ethic.