Politics

Wolves in Colorado should benefit both humans and the ecosystem, but can they survive the culture war?

The shredders, climbers, policy-makers, barrier breakers, and scientists who forever changed the way we view the world

Three figures are working to initiate change in public-lands leadership after four years of decline and mismanagement under the previous administration

The office will advance outdoor opportunities, policies, and infrastructure in the Bay State

As Ukraine prepares for months of frigid conflict with Russia, its troops might look to another nation that held its own against the Red Army in the cold: Finland.

Your guide to voting on national, state, and local levels this November

With increasing decriminalization efforts underway, here’s what it would take to legalize weed on public lands

The Ute Indian Tribe says the White House did not meaningfully consult their government about Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, which is located within the tribe’s ancestral lands

The newest national monument sits in the heart of Colorado’s ski country. Here’s what you need to know about Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument.

With a possible Antiquities Act designation looming, what is Camp Hale, and why does it merit protection? 

In Colorado, there’s a new ballot-first model to bring the contentious species back to the state, and it could be a prototype for the rest of the country

While many sports are tightening restrictions on transgender athletes, these leagues went in the opposite direction

Blasting the Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday, the GOP nominee for a Senate seat in Georgia said, “A lot of the money is going into trees. Don’t we have enough trees around here?”

The family of Lauren Davis desperately sought answers after she was fatally struck by a driver while biking to work in New York City in 2016. At every step, the criminal-justice system let them down, raising the question of what justice should look like for victims of traffic violence.

You’ll need an ATV, throwing hatchets, strong lungs, a chainsaw, a snow machine, beer, a water gun, and neighbors who just can’t stop pissing you off

The contents will astonish you

The compromise offsets climate spending with big wins for oil and gas, too

Hawley is lucky that his awkward run didn’t end in injury, writes Zoë Rom

“In short, FICOR will make the outdoors more accessible, equitable, and positive to more Americans.”

For his new PBS show, ‘America Outdoors,’ comedian and activist Baratunde Thurston connects us to our natural environments through the most interesting of creatures: humans.

Mega cruise ships stopped sailing to Key West, Florida, during the height of COVID-19. Many locals appreciated the resulting peace and quiet and won a vote for large ships not to return. But the fight’s not over.

The federal government’s authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions is at risk, as right wing Supreme Court justices rewrite American laws

On June 21, the BLM, U.S. Forest Service, and Five Tribes of the Intertribal Coalition signed a cooperative management agreement for Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. It marks a shift in our history at a time when we’ve never needed to collaborate more.

Native scholar weighs in on the United Nations’ suggestion that Indigenous knowledge might help us survive the climate disaster

When vast gas reserves were discovered off the idyllic coast of northern Mozambique, a crew of roughnecks flew in from around the world to make their fortunes. But in March 2021, Islamist rebels attacked, and the foreigners and thousands of Mozambicans were abandoned. Two hundred holed up at the Amarula Lodge, where the expats faced a choice: save themselves, or risk it all to save everyone. As oil and gas fuel a new war in Europe, Alex Perry pieces together, shot by shot, a stunning morality tale for the global economy.

The American Southwest hasn’t been this dry in 1,200 years. The region’s water supply—and entire energy infrastructure—is at stake.

Our national parks are overcrowded, especially in summer. One solution is to create more of them. Here are the regions that get our votes.

We asked one of the original Earth Day organizers for ideas on how to bring back urgency to the movement during a moment that’s more dire than ever

‘Our Great National Parks’ overly idealizes U.S. conservation efforts and gives a mealymouthed call to climate action

Yolanda Davis-Overstreet is fighting for safer streets and mobility justice in the marginalized communities of Los Angeles

For the German climber and his family, life has changed dramatically over the past five weeks

Bill Hayes’s new book, ‘Sweat: A History of Exercise,’ offers a personal account of a universal tradition

It’s not easy being a progressive who works for a middle-of-the-road president. Mark Sundeen sizes up the interior secretary’s first year in office—which has been a disappointment to climate-change activists—and decides she’s most likely to make a mark through a historic reckoning over the U.S. government’s shameful running of Native American boarding schools.

Earth-loving New Yorkers are drawing from an unlikely arsenal of activism, hip-hop, marathon city-council Zoom meetings, and one sassy pug to hold the city to its zero-waste commitments. If they succeed, the environmental benefits could be huge.

Whether they want to or not, organizations like World Athletics and the International Olympic Committee have shed the mantle of neutrality

A ‘Washington Post’ story on Greg Gianforte’s latest hunting escapades is misleading, which is a shame, because its subject deserves much more scrutiny

The ROI Act will give rural communities the money they need to develop outdoor recreation economies

Yes, things are very bad, but there are some glimmers of hope for making meaningful progress

BLM’s first confirmed director in five years talks about access, equity, and the future of public land in the West

All over the West, a housing crisis is causing workforce shortages, crippling local businesses, and threatening the culture and existence of mountain towns as we know them. But amid the doom and gloom, some people are fighting for solutions.

Colorado’s John Hickenlooper has straddled the divide between industry and the environment. Now the U.S. senator is trying to create a climate-oriented voting bloc comprised of outdoor enthusiasts.

For decades, Deep Springs College in California resisted the push to go coed. But even though women are now allowed to attend, it still holds on to the past.

Each year an estimated 300,000 smugglers, known as ‘kolbars,’ haul millions of pounds of contraband from Iraq to Iran over the 14,000-foot peaks of the Zagros Mountains. More than 50 of them will die—shot dead, killed in accidents, or freezing to death—and countless more will be arrested and imprisoned. Alex Perry travels to Iraqi Kurdistan to investigate the roots of a trade that all but defies comprehension.

President Biden just restored the national monument’s boundaries. Now it’s time for deeper healing and restorative justice for the region’s Indigenous people.

Three days before Indigenous People’s Day, President Biden reversed the largest attack on public lands in recent history

And what it means for the future of America’s public lands

The National Park Service hasn’t had a director in four years. The Biden administration is trying to fix that but faces a host of major challenges.

Writer Jason Motlagh has been reporting in Afghanistan since 2006, which has involved developing close relationships with Afghan journalists and their families. He and a network of media colleagues are currently in a race to get more than 100 of them out of the country as the Taliban cracks down.

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report made clear this week, we’re going to need to give up some of the things we love if we don’t want much more taken away

Democrats in Congress are pushing for a federal jobs program that would tackle climate, land use, infrastructure, and more. Here’s why it’s so urgent.

Despite GOP rhetoric, selling America’s largest rainforest to China was actually bad business

History tells us why skiing—and the outdoors in general—lacks diversity. Thanks to the work of dedicated groups, this is slowly changing.

In ‘Camping Grounds,’ Phoebe S.K. Young reminds us that sleeping outdoors is far more than just a recreational hobby

Competence wins, as Biden’s Interior Secretary acts to protect America’s last great wilderness

Here’s how President Biden plans to address climate change, pollution, and public lands in the greatest detail we’ve seen so far

One editor’s thoughts on the Asian American illusion of belonging

The state just passed a law calling for 90 percent of its wolf population to be killed. It’s based on fear and lies.

‘Head on a Swivel’ shows how running as a person of color can be an act of defiance

The 46th president made big promises to move the United States toward a carbon-free future. What he’s accomplished so far has been impressive, but can he keep up the momentum?

Gage Lorentz was pulled over for speeding on a dirt road in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Minutes later he lay on the ground, dead from a point-blank shot to the heart. How did a trivial traffic stop lead to his death?

In Ours, a digital exhibition for the New Museum, artist Samuel Marion imagines a not too distant future in which outdoor brands use slick advertising to mask more sinister aims

With the stroke of a pen, the secretary of the interior just undid most of Trump’s harmful energy policies

In his new book, ‘The Nation of Plants,’ botanist Stefano Mancuso suggests that human democracies may have something to learn from the world’s trees and flowers

CEO Ryan Gellert says staying silent is “tantamount to supporting unjust laws”

Republican senators used the hearing to air conspiracy theories, lie, and point fingers at Biden nominee for issues they themselves are responsible for

The billionaire philanthropist has thrown his wealth at some of the world’s most intractable problems, drawing both praise and criticism along the way. His approach to tackling the climate crisis is no different.

Right-wing politicians and media are trying to scapegoat frozen wind turbines for the state’s power disaster. Their claims couldn’t be more inaccurate and irresponsible.

Despite rhetoric from Republicans, the shift toward renewable energy actually brings substantial, nationwide economic benefits—and it'll help the oil and gas industry, too

From day one, the new administration has showed itself to be in favor of protecting the wild spaces and species we love

In one fell swoop, President Biden is undoing his predecessor's most harmful work on public lands, climate change, clean air and water, and environmental justice

The end of the Trump administration can't come soon enough for our climate and public lands. Thankfully, there are a series of actions our new president can immediately take to begin undoing the damage.

Drawing only three bidders and $14 million, the administration's attempt to drill for oil in the massive Alaskan refuge is likely dead on arrival

The 35th generation New Mexican will oversee public lands, national parks, Native American affairs, and more

Can the IOC create an internationally applicable code of conduct for Olympic protest?

A quarantine backyard ultramarathon. Thousands of protesters on bikes. This year brought the unexpected in countless forms. Here’s who (and what) had the biggest impact on the outdoor world.

With a key list of Land and Water Conservation Fund projects missing, political subterfuge threatens the bipartisan legislative achievement