Writer Craig Childs goes boating in Utah and ponders the costs and payoff of solitude.
Rivers & Lakes
Posted inArticles
New rules limiting clean water protections ignore stream science
What happens to part of a river network affects all of it.
Posted inDecember 10, 2018: Critical Mass
There’s no easy fix for our nuclear past
At Washington’s Hanford nuclear site, failing infrastructure and make-do plans as the West prepares for a new round of radioactivity.
Posted inArticles
Update: Razorback sucker populations are increasing
The endangered fish seem to be recovering in the San Juan River.
Posted inNovember 26, 2018: Follow the fish
Critics skeptical of mining company’s plans for restoration
Midas Gold hopes to reopen and revitalize an abandoned gold mining site in Idaho.
Posted inArticles
Arizona delays the Colorado River drought agreement
Interests of a few hundred farmers are contributing to postponements in basin-wide plan.
Posted inArticles
Interior Department issues order to avoid settlements
Critics say the decree will slow down the implementation of enacted laws.
Posted inArticles
Reckoning with History: When we overcame political division
50 years ago, a functional Congress enacted four important conservation bills.
Posted inOctober 15, 2018: Nature Retreat
See what the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act preserves
Over 50 years, the landmark law has protected more than 13,000 miles of American waterways.
Posted inArticles
An Alaska ballot measure could kill Pebble Mine
In November, voters will decide how to balance resource development and salmon habitat protections.
Posted inNovember 26, 2018: Follow the fish
Tiny bits of plastic permeate our world
From alpine headwaters to city water supplies, the West is awash in microscopic pollutants.
Posted inArticles
Paddling the Colorado’s headwaters reveals a wrung-out river
Shrinking snowpacks and low waterways will affect everyone from tourists to farmers.
Posted inDecember 10, 2018: Critical Mass
The arresting quiet of a crane migration in Washington
Sandhill cranes, cattle and the surprising benefits of their coexistence in the West.
Posted inArticles
Mining protections lapse on one of Oregon’s wildest rivers
The Department of Interior’s failure to extend restrictions exposes the weaknesses of a key environmental law.
Posted inJuly 23, 2018: Pay for Prey
The Colorado, lifeblood and sculptor of an arid West
In a new book, a longtime river-runner invites readers to sit down by the Colorado’s riverside and listen to its stories.
Posted inArticles
Supreme Court to states: Live up to your treaty obligations
Will future courts order states to take down fish-blocking dams?
Posted inJune 25, 2018: Little Weed, Big Problem
An inventory of loss on the Los Angeles River
The city weighs revitalization of an unruly river, since transformed into a concrete ditch.
Posted inArticles
Aspen may stockpile water under its golf course
As climate change looms, towns look to store water without dams.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
How the Yurok Tribe is reclaiming the Klamath River
For the first time, the largest tribe in California has one of its own to lead its legal battles.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
Below Mount Shasta, a fight burbles over bottled water
Selling water to Nestlé, Crystal Geyser and others could strain aquifers.