Texan wildlife specialist Billy-Pat McKinney's unique path shows that people can be open to change.

Liza Doran came to Bluff, Utah in 1986 to run the Cow Canyon Trading Post. From this central location in the middle of nowhere, her life's been changed by her surroundings here and other Bluff residents. Liza has learned to lean into the change.

Coal is both boon and bane of the Navajo people. It provides millions in revenue and many jobs to a community in sore need of both, but carries the obvious cost of pollution, depletion of natural resources, and displacement of Navajo from their ancestral homes. What's the way forward?

Renewable energy in California faces a conundrum: green power is prioritized, but faces strict environmental regulations that protect impacted species. Energy companies like TerraGen push for exceptions to the rules, but have also made themselves a model organization for working with regulators, rather than fighting them.

The Mojave Chubb is found in only one pond in the entire world, and will continue to do so: artificial restoration for these fish is impossible. If the goal of the Endangered Species Act is to aid recovery, what's the point of the Chubb?

Heidi Fischer stood to be taken by their grief. The passing of a loved one could have swept her away. She found joy at home in the West, captivated by canyons, cold desert nights, and saguaros.

Invasive species are often seen as a pest: something to be immediately removed. This one-minded view ignores the broader ecological context of these species: the connections between organisms, rather than the organisms themselves.

In wilderness, access is important: roads crisscross many "wild" places so people can move around freely. Ironically, roads become barriers as tortoises, deer, and other species struggle to cross roads or fences built alongside them.

Released Mexican Gray Wolves roam between western New Mexico and adjacent Arizona, but are relocated if they stray from a small zone where they're allowed to live. Ranchers live in fear of these top carnivores, and imposed this seemingly self-defeating system of reintroduction. Does this have to be the case?

In conservation, passion and expertise only go so far. Caring, knowledgeable people have tried and failed to preserve many a place from development and destruction. Ecologists Mary O'Brien and Suzanne Fouty espouse the importance of a third necessity: tools.