Welcome to the world of community health workers. The job, part medical aide and part social worker, is a tradition in poor and rural communities around New Mexico and well established in similar places around the country. But institutional recognition has been slow to come.Continue readingBy Treating Obstacles to Health, Community Health Workers Also Treat a Troubled System
California’s ambitious energy goals may lead the state toward an economy far less reliant on carbon-based fuels than ever before. But how quickly?Continue readingDecarbonizing California’s Energy Diet
Lake Mead on the Colorado River has become an hourglass of shrinking water supplies. Can lower-basin states turn back the clock?Continue readingLower Basin States Work to Keep Lake Mead Afloat
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In Other Words, Water
From multiple tongues came multiple terms for how water flows, and how it works in the West.Continue readingIn Other Words, Water
Like the topsoil, structures built 40 years ago to contain floodwaters are cracking, too.Continue readingTo Save Crops, Farmers Took Groundwater. Then the Land Sank
The nationwide decline of coal is testing the resilience of the Powder River Basin. Residents used to a thriving economy, a top-notch education system, and an excess of job opportunities are learning to live with less. Continue readingBeyond the Coal Boom: Powder River Basin Residents Look to a Diversified Future
A new paper suggests that “mineral easements” might provide a tool to block hydraulic fracking and the oil and gas wells that have been sources of fear and opposition from New York to California.Continue readingConservation Underground: Researchers Propose a Way to Block Subsurface Exploitation
Conservation easements of various kinds cover more than 22 million acres of land in the United States, according to the National Conservation Easement Database, a public-private partnership. Take a look at our interactive map of nearly every conservation easement, with details on over 130,000 sites.Continue readingConservation Easements Redraw the Western Landscape
California avoided a major catastrophe in the past week as heavy rains compromised the 700-foot Oroville dam. Here is a day-by-day account of what happened and what state engineers and safety officials did.Continue readingDays That Nearly Brought Disaster to the Oroville Dam
The fungal species that causes the illness known as Valley Fever is known as cocciodiodes. Two strains have been found around the North American Southwest. Researchers have found that the fungal spores have made their home – the scientific term is “endemic” – in areas characterized by low rainfall, temperatures that are high in summer…Continue readingThe Southwest’s Orphan Disease Thrives on Ignorance