The busiest search and rescue team in Utah is based in Moab, a center in the Southwest for mountain biking, climbing sandstone towers, river running, cross-country skiing and even BASE jumping. The team, which handles an average of 130 calls per year, shares some stories about hairy rescues and offers sage advice for people who love exploring the outdoors: Before you leave, consider what could go very wrong.

In western Alaska, back-to-back fall storms have triggered a humanitarian disaster and the largest air evacuation in state history, writes Tim Lyndon. Across 50 communities, 2,000 mostly Alaska Native people lost their homes and boats, with at least one entire village torn apart. Unfortunately, says Lyndon, climate change is part of their story—one we in the Lower 48 states know little about.

Citing the late Jane Goodall’s deep reverence for quiet and wild places, Stephen Trimble dissects the growing threat to the stillness and solitude of protected landscapes under President Donald Trump's second administration. Under recent proposals and legislation backed by Utah politicians and the Trump administration, off-highway vehicle access would be dramatically expanded, and new coal leasing could bring industrial development to the borders of beloved national parks.Echoing Goodall’s call to "never give up," Trimble urges conservationists to speak out, stay hopeful, and continue defending the quiet beauty that defines the American West.

More grizzly bears are dying in the Yellowstone area, and that’s worrisome, writes Jackson, Wyoming writer Molly Absolon. In total, 77 grizzlies—the highest number recorded—died last year, and as of September 2025, 63 bears were killed. “At this rate, we’ll surpass last year’s high. What’s going on?” Absolon offers some answers to that question.

The reality of artificial intelligence as a threat to creativity has hit home for writer John Clayton: He’s been offered $340 from a company that wants to use his book, “Stories from Montana’s Enduring Frontier,” for “AI training purposes.” Clayton wonders: Is this paltry payment marginally better than outright theft of his book—a not-uncommon practice?

This September, the public was given just 21 days to weigh in on the government’s intent to rescind the Roadless Rule. The response was overwhelming: Over 99 percent of the 183,000 comments submitted argued against removing protection for public lands without roads. Yet the Administration is pushing to open up these lands to logging and other uses that will impact water supplies and wildlife.What’s needed, says Ben Long, is fixing up the many damaged existing roads on our national forests, along with other, long-delayed maintenance projects.

This year was artwork-installer Dennis Hinkamp’s 26th year at the week-long Burning Man festival that’s held in the desolate desert of Nevada. Why do 80,000 people gather in a place that’s hot, dusty and increasingly rainy—not to mention expensive? Hinkamp hates to have to explain that’s it’s something like ritual, homecoming or maybe even shared misery, so once back at home in Utah he tries to duck explaining. This opinion is the closest he can come to sharing what draws him back year after year.

The population of the Mexican wolf, also called “El Lobo,” is down to 286 animals that call New Mexico and Arizona home, writes Ted Williams. One problem is that some locals want none of the small wolves around at all. Inbreeding is another problem, he adds, and wolf advocates support the release of adult wolves to help the population rebound—a solution not in federal recovery plans. “Meanwhile, wolf haters are shooting lobos,” Williams says.

Part of her job at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, writes Marjorie ‘Slim’ Woodruff, is patrolling trails and picking up what hikers forgot or casually left behind. The weirdest find, which earned her the nickname “The lady who found the body,” was a sealed, shiny urn containing somebody’s cremains. There’s always something peculiar or downright perplexing to discover on a trail, she adds, from an empty backpack to a queen-sized bed sheet and just one shoe.

President Trump has turbocharged logging on public lands in ways that are likely to increase dangerous wildfire, writes Mitch Friedman. Inside the “Big Beautiful Bill” that became law this summer, a provision directs the Forest Service to annually increase the timber it sells until the amount doubles to 6 billion-board-feet by 2032. And with many environmental protections dropped, it’s the big trees that will get logged, leaving behind smaller, flammable trees. “This will worsen existing tinderbox conditions, particularly in the West,” Friedman warns.