High Country News welcomed new interns in this summer: Noah Schlager from Novato, California, and Sarah Trent, based in Vancouver, Washington.
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Noah Schlager (he/him) recently returned there after living in Arizona, and now writes from his home in Novato, California. Growing up in a family with mixed roots, both sides displaced from their homelands — his father is Jewish and his mother Mvskoke (Creek) and Florida Cheraw — Noah is interested in writing about diaspora and the cultural interconnections among disparate regions and groups in North America many of which play out across the Western U.S.
When he’s not writing, he’s working the land, growing the three sisters — vce cvlvtwe (Creek flint corn), cvse (pumpkin) and tvlako (beans) — and more on a one-acre farm in the East Bay. “I’m a farmer, I grow traditional crops. That’s a big part of what I’m doing when I’m not doing journalism,” he said. It’s a tradition that connects him with his cultural roots and also informs his writing. “I’m interested in stories that look at interactions between humans, plants and the wildland interface,” he said, and considering how Indigeneity and colonialism inform those interactions and other issues related to the environment, conservation and working landscapes.
Intern for HCN’s North Desk, Sarah Trent (she/her) has been living and reporting in the West since 2009. Originally from Minnesota, she began her career in journalism at a local newspaper in Maine before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and working for a time in the non-profit sector. In the wake of attacks on journalism and free press around the 2016 election, she decided to return to her journalistic roots and enrolled in UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she graduated in 2020. She has written for Outside Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and was a 2020 recipient of the Overseas Press Club Fellowship, a prestigious award to encourage the next generation of foreign correspondents. She planned on covering climate and the environment in Asia following graduate school, but the pandemic and emerging domestic climate impacts, like the California wildfires, drew her attention back home.
Sarah recently moved to Vancouver, Washington, and is looking forward to exploring climate stories in a region that is significantly impacted, but “less covered by the national media.” She is drawn to stories that explore the relationship between humans and wildlife, as well as the science-based climate solutions being enacted in the West. She is a birder and is interested in how the relationship between humans and birds can illuminate stories of major environmental issues.
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