On the Western Slope of Colorado, frozen reservoirs and rivers offer interesting terrain for skating.
Mountain West
Posted inArticles
Mountain towns are trying all sorts of solutions to the housing crisis
A new report details the many ways that high-altitude communities are wrestling with ballooning housing costs.
Posted inOctober 2, 2023: The Dark Side of the Sheepherding Industry
The case of the Colorado River’s missing water
Researchers are trying to unravel the mystery of snow that falls but never shows up in the river.
Posted inArticles
In the Northern Rockies, grizzly bears are on the move
As grizzlies recover, they’re no longer content to roam within the boundaries contrived for them.
Posted inArticles
Can net-zero homes really be affordable?
A Colorado nonprofit is constructing its second affordable housing complex with an eye toward mass production.
Posted inArticles
How to save the whitebark pine
The tree is getting federal protection. But plenty of people were already trying to save it.
Posted inArticles
Poets reflect on the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs
A conversation with award-winning poet Nico Wilkinson.
Posted inJune 1, 2022: A Legacy of Weapons and War
Western courts grapple with climate change
Rocky Mountain teens sue over fossil fuel-friendly policies.
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 inArticles
On grieving trees
For years, a young writer saw the tell-tale signs of beetle kill. And then the infestation came for the pines at her own home.
Posted inApril 1, 2022: The Archives Issue
Schussing through time
A Utah library holds a comprehensive archive commemorating ski sports.
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
The place that coal built and fire burned
Extractive industry laid the infrastructure for the suburban sprawl that fueled Colorado’s destructive Marshall Fire.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Cultural extraction at the edge of the abyss
Butte, Montana, doesn’t have a major art museum. Instead, it has a gigantic toxic pit.
Posted inArticles
Winter without snow is coming
Parts of the Mountain West could be nearly snowless for years at a time in just a few decades.
Posted inArticles
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.
Posted inArticles
‘A ticking time bomb for a mass die-off’
Recent grazing decisions continue to risk Southwest Colorado’s bighorns.
Posted inArticles
Climate change increases rare earth elements in Colorado’s Snake River
A new study suggests lower stream flows as a primary culprit.
Posted inArticles
‘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 inArticles
Development threatens one of Montana’s ‘blue-ribbon’ trout rivers
Noxious algae is choking the very watershed that’s drawing people to develop property there.
Posted inArticles
What’s the value of tracking recreation in the West?
Fast-growing Western communities face a paradox of increased visitors.