Long before modern maps, the Native peoples of the Mojave Desert in the southwestern US survived by singing their terrain—passing multiday songs down through the generations, songs that detailed every hidden spring and treacherous pass across hundreds of miles.

Two infamous demilitarized zones (DMZs)—stemming from the 1950–53 Korean War and the post-World War II Cold War—cruelly divided people, yet life found unexpected refuge within those boundary sectors.

Conventional wisdom says the best way to protect a forest is to leave it alone. Forester Ethan Tapper says such advice can doom many of America’s woodlands.

Picture yourself on a trail on Storm King Mountain in upstate New York. After scampering over rocks, you stop to admire the oaks that grace the landscape. Departing from the trailhead in the morning, you ascend toward the summit through a thick blanket of fog until you reach its cliffs.

Across the American West, winter is no longer what it used to be. In 2026, scientists warned of a historic “snow drought”—a phenomenon where snowpack fails to accumulate even when precipitation occurs, often because temperatures are too warm for snow to form.