Farm Bill 2.0 Supports Wildlife Connectivity, But the Work Continues
Working lands, and the farmers and ranchers who steward them, are central to the conservation of wildlife habitat in the West. When managed thoughtfully, these lands provide essential habitat, enable
In drying West, hope for wetlands found on working lands, says new study
The warming climate in the American West is drying out wetlands at a greater scale than previously known. But where wetlands remain, and why, may surprise you. A 2025 paper, “Going,
Warming winters are disrupting the hidden world of fungi – the result can shift mountain grasslands to scrub
Stephanie Kivlin, University of Tennessee; Aimee Classen, University of Michigan, and Lara A. Souza, University of Oklahoma When you look out across a snowy winter landscape,
Flood Irrigation Can Lead to Better Streamflow, Study Says
The conversion of flood irrigation to sprinklers has been a boon to producers. Sprinklers are more efficient, which means better yields, and better yields mean more to sell on the
Public land grazing is vital for a healthy America, for wildlife and people
ProPublica, together with High Country News, recently published articles that don’t tell the whole story behind federal lands grazing. The series suggests that ranchers utilizing federal lands are mostly the
No smoke, no fire, in trends of Montana land ownership, new study actually says
A recent study led by University of Montana professor Alexander Metcalf, published in Environmental Management, places private landowners squarely at the center of a familiar and often contentious debate. The
Colorado’s Attempts to Put Out the Insurance Wildfires
by Ben Cathey, The Daily Yonder There is one fire hydrant in the entire Four Mile Fire Protection District. This backcountry northwest of Boulder, Colorado, is full of switchback canyons and
They ride to reduce conflict. Training the riders who help ranches deal with large carnivores
“Be community-oriented.” Kim Kerns, a sheep rancher from Oregon, clarified her first rule of range riding early on a windy Thursday morning at Western Landowners Alliance’s Range Riding Workshop on the
Can range riding help ranchers live with wolves?
As wolves and grizzly bears continue to recover across the American West, livestock producers are navigating renewed challenges of sharing the landscape with large carnivores. Among the carnivore-livestock conflict reduction
Dung beetles dig it, create value for ranchers and rangelands
Plop! Big mammals poop. They poop a lot. Cattle poop up to a dozen times a day. Horses? Up to 15 times per day. Bison produce three gallons of poop per
A beetle biological control success story
The tamarisk is a gritty survivor, a tenacious shrub that evolved in the steppes of central Asia in dry conditions much like those of the American West. Introduced to the
Indigenous leaders urge California to rethink its relationship with fire
It's a hot day in mid-August in Northern California, not too far from the Oregon border. Smoke rises gently from the fire pit, curling into the late-summer sky as children