Editor’s Note – Issue 15

Issue 15 of Western Confluence will explore the unique history and modern-day implications of the checkerboard pattern of public and private landownership in the West. Stories will be released online throughout 2025 and in print January 2026. 

Beyond Yellowstone

Beyond Yellowstone

Revisiting the original nature conservation model

Perspective from Robert B. Keiter

Yellowstone National Park—established in 1872 and widely regarded as the world’s first national park—represents the initial dominant model for nature conservation both here and abroad.

A Promise at Risk

A Promise at Risk

Climate change threatens the Sámi way of life, and so does the green transition

By Camilla Sandström

Long ago, it is said, the Indigenous Sámi people of the North made a quiet, sacred promise with the reindeer.

In the Shadow of the Lion King

In the Shadow of the Lion King

The rise of community-based conservation in Africa’s last absolute monarchy

By Kelly Dunning

One of my first days in Eswatini, a small country bordered by South Africa and Mozambique, my guide told me a story about the Rhino Wars.

Crossing Borders

Crossing Borders

Wolf management in the Alps requires attention to science and people

By Francesco Bisi

The first wolves to enter the Alps in nearly a hundred years found themselves in southeast France’s Mercantour National Park in 1992.

Barriers to Survival

Barriers to Survival

Could a centuries-old pastoralist tool help conserve a rare antelope?

By Annabella Helman  

In Kenya’s Rift Valley, a pride of lions begins to stir as the sun descends to the horizon and the air grows still.

Game on the Range

Game on the Range

Small tweaks in USDA programs support working lands and migrations in Wyoming 

By Shaleas Harrison 

It’s 8 am as the sunlight moves across the foothills of Carter Mountain, the longest mountain in the Absaroka range and east from Yellowstone National Park.

Home Grown Hirolas

Home Grown Hirolas

Local communities lead the protection of an endangered antelope 

By Tesia Lin 

In the 1990s, Kenya’s hirola antelope population “plummeted from 15,000 to an estimated 300-500 animals,” says retired professor Dr. Richard Kock.

High but Not Dry

High but Not Dry

In the right places, flood irrigation might be doing more good than harm

By Emily Downing

Every spring, Chris Williams looks forward to seeing the terns alight on the meadows of the southern Wyoming ranch that he manages.

Editor’s Note – Issue 15

Issue 15 of Western Confluence will explore the unique history and modern-day implications of the checkerboard pattern of public and private landownership in the West. Stories will be released online throughout 2025 and in print January 2026.  To promote westward expansion in the nineteenth century, the...


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