The Interior Department reviews sage grouse management plans.
Scientific research
Posted inArticles
We can still ease back from worst-case climate scenarios
A colossal iceberg breaks off Antarctica, foreshadowing a daunting future climate.
Posted inAugust 7, 2017: Los Promotores
The West’s newest bird species has a beak like a crowbar
A recently discovered species of crossbill already faces extinction.
Posted inJune 26, 2017: Personal Pilgrimage
Meet the woman behind Colorado’s highest trails
How trail designer Loretta McEllhiney protects mountains from people.
Posted inJuly 24, 2017: Down the Dark Mountain
White sharks rebound in California
The long arc of environmental regulation is rebuilding a damaged ecosystem.
Posted inMay 29, 2017: The Cost of a Comeback
The cost of the bighorn comeback
In California’s Eastern Sierra, bringing back bighorn has meant killing more mountain lions.
Posted inMay 29, 2017: The Cost of a Comeback
Meet Jane, a climate scientist who fled Trump’s government
Worries about science censorship drove her from her post at the Energy Department.
Posted inArticles
Good management starts with science
Should decisions on wildlife be made at the ballot box — or by experts?
Posted inArticles
Where Trump has weakened public and scientific input
Suspended advisory boards and dismissed scientists hamper policy-making.
Posted inJune 12, 2017: The Big Swing
Climate change is shrinking the West’s water supply
Three new studies show dry times ahead.
Posted inMay 15, 2017: Prison Town
Learning to live with bears
Two books examine our evolving relationship with bears.
Posted inMay 15, 2017: Prison Town
#LiveAndLetTutu; a sodden Oregon; mastodon for dinner
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Climate change is unraveling natural cycles in the West
Spring’s early arrival creates more mismatches in ecosystems.
Posted inArticles
What citizen science can say about seabird deaths
In the Pacific Northwest, the diligence of citizen scientists helps discern patterns in die-offs.
Posted inMay 1, 2017: Change Comes to Short Creek
An end to Tucson’s growth wars
A conservation plan puts science ahead of politics.
Posted inMay 1, 2017: Change Comes to Short Creek
Ten years, 3 million pounds of soil and 1,800 sensors
The numbers behind the world’s largest weathering experiment.
Posted inArticles
West Obsessed: The March for Science, out West
After Earth Day, a look at researchers’ economic influence and political sway.
Posted inArticles
Republicans set their sights on the EPA’s science
The federal agency that regulates our environment may soon have less data to work with.
Posted inArticles
California’s backcountry drug war
Dangerous drug cartels are growing pot on public lands—putting wildlife, water supplies, and outdoor enthusiasts at grave risk.
Posted inArticles
California wants to give dispirited federal workers a job
Why the state’s utility commission is recruiting EPA, Energy employees.