Science & Environment

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“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf Scientist?” New York Times Sunday Magazine. 

    Wolf politics gets ugly in one Western state.

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“In the Home of the Bear,” High Country News. 

     Nothing tends to reset priorities like a realization that one no longer straddles the top of the food chain. 

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“America’s Wildest Place is Open for Business,” New York Times Sunday Week in Review (cover story). 

     Meet NPR-A, the biggest, wildest place you’ve never heard of—before it’s gone.

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“The Detective of Northern Oddities,” Outside magazine.

     As the far north thaws, strange doings are afoot. But Kathy Burek is on the case.

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“The Devil is in the Details,” Outside magazine.

    When the congressman who’s the bête noire of America’s conservation movement proposes the biggest wilderness deal in a generation.

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"When Birds Squawk, Other Species Seem to Listen," New York Times Tuesday Science Section. 

     A Dr. Doolittle discovers the hidden language of the forest.

 

"Leaving Only Footsteps? Think Again," New York Times Sunday Week in Review (cover story). 

     That pleasant walk in the woods gets complicated.

 

"Rethinking the Wild: The Wilderness Act is Facing a Mid-Life Crisis," The New York Times Week in Review (cover story). 

     

Travel 

 

"Can Montana's Smith River Survive a Nearby Mine?"  The New York Times Sunday Travel Section.

       The most gorgeous river you've never heard of has got a problem.

 

"Baked Alaska: Surviving Aniakchak National Monument," Outside.

     A wild visit to the least-visited park in the National Parks System. (This story is in The Best American Travel Writing 2015.) 

 

"The Soul of Skiing in the Great White North,"   Outside magazine.     

     Up north--way up north--the smiles, and the passion for powder skiing, are genuine.

 

"Let's Ski Korea,"  Ski.

      How it's done, insanely, in the Land of the Morning Calm.

 

 

People 

 

“A Terror Way Beyond Falling,”  Outside magazine. 

     Adam Roberts was a gorgeous skier, a beloved friend and son, and deeply troubled. The only place he found relief was high in the mountains. But his demons found him there, too.

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"Runs in the Family," Runner's World.

     The Colonel taught us to love running. What happens when he can't run anymore? 

 

"Becoming the All-Terrain Human," New York Times Sunday Magazine.

     Meet Killian Jornet, a man who runs across mountain ranges.

 

"You Want Fries with that Bonk?" Runner's World.

     Prof. Brent Ruby and his against-the-grain ways of thinking about exercise and nutrition.

 

"Watership Down," Outside.

     A boy and his rafts.

 

"Brian MacKenzie's Controverisal New Approach to Marathon Training," Outside.

     Is this former skateboarding powerlifter a fitness genius -- or crazy?

Weird, Sad, Interesting

 

“Bike Batman,” Outside Online. 

A city ravaged by bicycle thefts cried out for a hero. One man heard the call.

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"The Last Man Up," Runner's World.

     How does a runner go missing during a three-mile footrace?

 

"The World's Largest Tunneling Machine Must be Saved," Popular Mechanics.

     How you fix the biggest tunneling machine on earth, when it's still underground, and everybody's angry.

 

"Foot. Loose." Outside.

     Why do feet without owners keep washing up on the shores of greater Vancouver, B.C.? 

 

"The Search for the Guggenheim Treasure," Smithsonian.com. 

     Something's in the water off the shores of Manhattan. 

 

 

Essays & Random Opinions 

 

"Letter from the West: In My Mountain Town, We're Preparing for Dark Times," The New York Times op-ed pages. 

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“Break Down,”  Outside.

     When you’re a middle-aged athlete and the wheels begin to come off, no one prepares you for what that does to your mind.

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"Our Pampered Wilderness," The New York Times Week in Review.

     Why glamping must die.

 

"Mountain Man," The New York Times.

     A guy who loves the peaks moves to the big city.

 

"Goodbye, New York, Thanks for Breaking my Heart," The New York Times.

     ...And what happens when he leaves New York.

 

"Methow Homecoming," High Country News. 

     Love letter to a quiet place.

 

"A Case for Getting Far, Far Away," The New York Times Sunday Travel Section. 

     A truism: The worse your cell phone works, the better the time you're going to have.