Items by Joshua Zaffos
In the midst of the nation’s current oil and gas frenzy and controversies over fracking, energy company contributions to schools are raising questions about academic integrity.
The Port Gamble S'Klallam are protecting their treaty rights to fish and shellfish in Port Gamble Bay, using laws to limit development, much to the frustration of timber company-turned-developer Pope Resources.
Bob Abbey, recently retired from the Bureau of Land Management, discusses democracy, energy development, and agency culture.
After the Colorado wildfires, experts try to figure out why some "fire-proofed" neighborhoods with defensible space burned, while similar neighborhoods didn't.
Oregon has long refused to regulate sediment runoff from logging roads as pollution under the Clean Water Act. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide what the state should do.
Candidate conservation agreements try to keep rare species, like Colorado's Gunnison sage grouse, off the endangered species list, or at least healthy enough to lessen the restrictions that come with listing.
An Indian-born progressive applies social entrepreneur techniques gleaned from the developing world to struggling communities in Colorado through his nonprofit, iCAST.
Colorado State University professor Maria Fernandez-Gimenez researches traditional ecological knowledge to better understand how ranchers learn and adapt management practices, form their attitudes and opinions on environmental change, and interact with their neighbors and resource scientists.
Suddenly, everyone is eyeing the West's rare-earth deposits, but mining and processing the metals will not be easy.
Kane County, Utah, heart of the Sagebrush Rebellion and an off-road vehicle paradise, is also home to a growing number of environmentalists, hikers and animal lovers.
In Washington’s Yakima Valley and in northern Colorado, water developers want to build kindler, gentler “off-channel” reservoirs.
The Nez Perce Tribe is trying to combat global warming – and make a few bucks – by planting trees for carbon dioxide sequestration
The Gunnison sage grouse has been denied endangered species protection, and biologists like Clait Braun fear the species may be doomed
With the elk population at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park out of control, wildlife managers are considering bringing in four wolves to restore the balance
It took a while, but the writer eventually came to see the strange, harsh beauty of the gnarled old pinon and juniper trees in Canyon Country
Silver Fox of the Rockies by Daniel Tyler tells the story of Delphus E. Carpenter, who sought peaceful resolutions to Western water problems, and helped create the 1922 Colorado River Compact
Cape Cod’s opposition to a proposed offshore wind farm sounds crazy to Westerners, who would gladly exchange nuclear waste dumps, coal mines and gas wells for some renewable energy
The National Park Service has released a new draft management plan and environmental impact statement for the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon
The Ambushed Jury by Wes McKinley and Caron Balkany tells how the federal government covered up nuclear crimes at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant outside Denver
- Guy Durrant on Giving thanks and looking forward
- Sarah Gilman on Closure of federal sheep facility would be a victory for grizzlies
- Gretchen King on Sage grouse found walking through Wyoming underpass
- Robb Cadwell on We can do our part to defuse the West
- Robb Cadwell on Wyoming grapples with how to fund wildlife conservation