Dedicated volunteers fight to preserve one of the trails that brought settlers west.
Sarah Gilman
Sarah Gilman is an independent writer, illustrator and editor based in Washington state. Her work covers the environment, natural history, science and place. She served as a staff and contributing editor at High Country News for 11 years.
Posted inNovember 9, 2015: The Campaign Against Coal
Can drilling and recreation get along in Moab, Utah?
The BLM unveils the unprecedented plan to balance oil and gas with conservation in canyon country.
Posted inArticles
Is this climate change-battered conifer migrating northward?
Scientists in Alaska are mapping what may be the tip of yellow cedar’s expanding range.
Posted inSeptember 14, 2015: Close Ties in Big Landscapes
Claustrophilia: Do wide-open lands bring us closer together?
A writer finds that Colorado small-town life and Mongolian mishaps strengthen her human connections.
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
New interns and old errors
Get to know Paige Blankenbuehler and Gloria Dickie. Also, a correction and a clarification.
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
The Latest: Oregon governor passes ethics reforms
The new reforms bar governors’ partners from using their position for personal gain.
Posted inArticles
Climate showdown on the Willamette in Oregon
Activists target shipping hubs to influence fossil fuel development in Alaska.
Posted inJuly 20, 2015: Shredded
Private-land camping startups offer alternative to public lands
Airbnb-like websites spring up in response to overcrowded public campsites.
Posted inArticles
Hot times usher in early Northwest wildfire season
While Oregon and Washington broil, the Southwest and Southern Rockies enjoy a welcome reprieve of moisture
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
The sage grouse two-step
Massive federal sage grouse conservation plans strike a delicate balance.
Posted inJune 8, 2015: Tree of Life
The precious common
Imagine a white burqa crossed with a beekeeper’s suit. At the end of one arm protrudes a pterodactyl-esque puppet head with a long bill, a blazing red pate and cheeks streaked a vivid black. But its golden eyes are flat and unmoving, like those of a specimen in a museum diorama. If you’re a whooping […]
Posted inArticles
Utah vastly overstating future water shortages
State projections downplayed what conservation and agriculture can provide.
Posted inArticles
For rural Oregonians, protections from herbicides come up short
Aerial spray regs remain the West Coast’s weakest after the death of a key law.
Posted inApril 27, 2015: Lost frontier
Knowledge, a wrecking ball
Until I was 18, I lived in the same house, in the same town, just a handful of blocks from the hospital where I was born. Ours was a neighborhood of unremarkable ranch houses on a mesa in Boulder, Colorado. My friends and I knew every backyard shortcut and nook, including a tiny pink house […]
Posted inArticles
Scientists document mega Oregon-Nevada pronghorn migration
Three hikers will track ecological conditions on the route this June.
Posted inApril 10, 2015: Strangers in a Strange Land
An outsider’s guide to insider Portland
Dispatch from a dryland alien in the rainy Northwest.
Posted inArticles
Land-based foods won’t float polar bears through ice declines
As climate change sends bears searching for calories, new research suggests there’s no substitute for seals.
Posted inArticles
BLM’s new fracking rules strike middle ground
But they’re unlikely to resolve today’s fierce skirmishes over oil and gas development.
Posted inMarch 16, 2015: Wild Ride
Governor Kitzhaber’s fall from grace
The peculiar and spectacular undoing of Oregon’s top official.
Posted inArticles
Fish and Wildlife whistleblower retaliation case raises questions
A top Texas official reported political interference and scientific misconduct.