Critical minerals, sacred grounds

Across the American West, tribal nations are on the front lines of a new debate over how to balance the needs and costs of clean energy. Extracting the fuels of the future is a process that is often far from clean, and just as fights over the environmental costs of oil exploration helped define the fossil fuel era, conflicts like this one are creating the battle lines of the next energy revolution. The push to unearth new minerals presents a hard choice for the Biden administration in politically divided Western states where mining remains an important source of jobs and political power. The choices are destined to grow more challenging as commodities like lithium, copper, cobalt and antimony become more valuable, and critical to the nation’s future.

Wildfires sparked by embers pose a growing threat in the American West to cities like Louisville that aren’t directly adjacent to historically fire-prone areas blanketed with forest and brush. The region’s historic drought, caused in part by climate change, is creating conditions in which embers burn hotter, travel farther and spark parched land more easily.

Road ecologists say wildlife crossings are one of the best ways to reduce wildlife-vehicles collisions and mitigate one of the most significant human impacts on ecosystems. This three-part series examines Montana’s approach to crossing initiatives as the federal government prepares to implement a $350 million pilot project—the largest investment of its kind in U.S. history.

The proliferation of high-tech devices has taken the hunt out of hunting, critics complain.

Rural western residents have been struggling over the past few years, according to a new study from authors, including social scientist Justin Farrell, who wrote “Billionaire Wilderness.” A survey of 1,203 adults from 11 western states–excluding metropolitan regions–found that nearly half the respondents experienced, at the very least, mild mental health challenges during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 15% of residents were found to have “serious” levels of psychological distress. 

The recreational cannabis market in Montana topped $1.5 million in sales in its first weekend, according to the state revenue department. With a statewide 20% sales tax on recreational cannabis, that opening weekend haul—$1,566,980—amounts to $313,396 in tax revenue for the state. The first $6 million in tax revenue will pour into the Healing and Ending Addiction through Recovery and Treatment (HEART) Fund, a new substance use disorder treatment and addiction recovery program.