Selected Works
Betting the ranch.
Cody Easterday wagered hundreds of millions of dollars on the price of beef. He lost.
— High Country News
It’s His Land. Now a Canadian Company Gets to Take It.
Three thousand miles away, news of the project’s approval sent Bill Gow, a cattle rancher from southern Oregon, into a lasting funk.
— ProPublica/Underscore Media Collaboration
The Bloody Baron’s Crazy, Mixed-Up Robbery
When the cops turned up on the evening of April 6, 2012, George von Bothmer needed to be absolutely sure: “Are you the real police?” he asked. They were.
— The Daily Beast, with David Wolman
Sharecroppers of the Sea
Before you feel sorry for anybody in this story, meet Jared Bright. And remember your first impression, because he’s eventually going to call himself a serf.
— Seattle Weekly/InvestigateWest
Money Blows in to a Patch of Oregon known for Its Unrelenting Winds
“You can see how the pioneer women went crazy out here. Now you wake up and the wind is blowing and it’s like, yes!”
— The New York Times
Teen activists face US government in crucial hearing over climate trial
The key determination ahead is whether kids get a trial over climate breakdown. Those stakes and the government’s handling of the case have catapulted it to rare courtroom celebrity.
— The Guardian
Spoils of the Sea Elude Many in an Alaska Antipoverty Plan
At more than $1 billion a year, there is no bigger fishery for human consumption on the planet. Pollock was meant to be a savior, part of a Washington-backed antipoverty plan that created a hydra-headed nonprofit money machine. But the results on the ground are deeply uneven.
— The New York Times, with Kirk Johnson
A Place for Old Chickens, Outside the Pot
Here, chickens are a symbol of urban nirvana, their coops backyard shrines to a locavore movement that has city dwellers moving ever closer to their food. Hence a budding phenomenon: urban chicken retirement.
— The New York Times
The Big Fish Win Again
What does it take to buy a share of the American ocean? For Lion Capital, a British private equity firm, the price is less than $980 million. Now, every time you sit down to a bowl of clam chowder in the United States, you’re probably padding profits for British investors.
— Slate
'Kids are taking the streets': climate activists plan avalanche of events
Stories of climate awakening are a universal truth for young Americans living in the age of worsening climate conditions and born to an era of hashtags and ubiquitous touchscreens.
— The Guardian
Rise of the Pitchforkers
Since their first days of protest with farm implements, the so-called Pitchfork Rebellion has spurred the first public health inquiry into aerial pesticide spraying on timberland. Until now, photos of rashes and burns lived in private collections.
— Slate
Massive Snowmelt Pits Wind Turbines Against Water Power
A bizarre situation in the Pacific Northwest caused by fast-melting snowpack and heavy rains prompted the Bonneville Power Administration to scuttle wind power off transmission lines.
— The Atlantic
Excerpt: The Fish Market
This book is the product of a lost bet. That’s the truth. In winter 2011, I had just written a story for a regional magazine about salmon fishing. And I was in a bar in Portland, Oregon, a wood-paneled place downtown called Cassidy’s, loudly proclaiming that I was never going to do it again... I was lucky the wager was only beer.
— Huffington Post