A new venture near Salmon signals an uptick in hardrock mining across the West.
Public Lands
Posted inArticles
The green metal mining boom is on
Now is not the time to loosen mining regulations.
Posted inDecember 1, 2022: Beyond Illusion
The West is losing 1.3 million acres of sagebrush steppe each year
A new report aims to advance transforming rangeland conservation across 13 states and 115 million acres.
Posted inArticles
Trump tried to open Alaska lands to resource development — what will Biden do?
The Bureau of Land Management is taking comments on whether it should open about 28 million acres to oil, gas and mineral extraction.
Posted inArticles
What new national monuments are likely under Biden?
New designations could help meet conservation goals set by the administration.
Posted inArticles
What the Inflation Reduction Act means for Indian Country
$720 million goes directly to tribal nations, but compromises raise questions.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2022: Going Under
Questions about the LandBack movement, answered
Number one: Why are Indians spray-painting my Starbucks?
Posted inArticles
The climate bill’s blind spot
A closer look at the good and the bad of specific provisions in the historic climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act.
Posted inArticles
A new biography resurrects a Western conservation writer
Bernard DeVoto’s work has fallen into obscurity, but the land remembers his legacy.
Posted inArticles
Was Yellowstone’s deadliest wolf hunt in 100 years an inside job?
Veteran park service employees were involved in last year’s hunt, but one says he’s a victim of a federal ‘witch hunt.’
Posted inAugust 1, 2022: Our Fiery Future
How oil companies endlessly avoid cleanup costs
In Colorado, a sale of 110 low-producing oil wells illustrates a hot potato effect, and how funding remediation eventually comes from the public.
Posted inArticles
New Mexico wildfire sparks anger at Forest Service
An enormous blaze dredged up longstanding resentments toward federal officials
Posted inArticles
What the Ukraine war means for Western lands
War hawks and climate hawks alike are calling for energy independence.
Posted inArticles
How the oil and gas industry is trying to hold New Mexico’s education system hostage
Fossil fuel interest groups are saying: let us keep drilling or the state’s education system will collapse.
Posted inArticles
Wyoming jury finds corner crossers not guilty
The hunters escaped criminal trespass charges, but still face a civil suit.
Posted inArticles
Utah wants to build an oil railway through a wilderness area
Questions surround the fiscal viability of the project and how this aligns with Biden’s climate agenda.
Posted inMay 1, 2022: New Ways of Seeing the West
From river bottom to meadow
A runner in Ojai, California, considers how access to public space isn’t necessarily a given.
Posted inArticles
Biden’s broken promise on climate?
The administration resumes oil and gas leasing — and fixes a dysfunctional system in the process.
Posted inMay 1, 2022: New Ways of Seeing the West
Park Service’s midnight-hour rule change benefits Telecom
The eliminated policy was designed to keep the public in the loop about new cell towers.
Posted inArticles
EVs’ demand for copper escalates threat against Apache’s Oak Flat
A massive copper mine in Arizona could destroy an Apache community’s most sacred land.