Michelle Nijhuis
(that's
"Nye-house") lives in western Colorado, between the foothills of the
Rockies and the redrock canyons of southern Utah. She is a contributing
editor of the environmental journal
High
Country News
and a correspondent for
Orion
, and her work has appeared in
publications including
Smithsonian
,
The Christian Science Monitor
,
The San Francisco Chronicle, Audubon,
Mother Jones
,
Salon
, and the anthology
Best American Science Writing
.
She is the winner of several national journalism awards, including the
Walter Sullivan
Award
for Excellence in Science Journalism and an AAAS
Science
Journalism Award
. In
2006, she was also one of two finalists for the National Academies
Communication
Award.
Michelle
travels frequently to cover stories throughout the western United
States, northern Mexico and beyond (Click
here
to read about
her summer 2006 trip to Alaska).
Please see below for a sampling of published articles, and
here
for a resumé. Thanks for
visiting!
Selected Recent Stories and Projects
Everybody's Doing It , Orion , July/August 2007. What your credit card says about your social conscience (and your bathroom habits).
Luau in the Desert , The Christian Science Monitor , May 2007. Descendants of Polynesian pioneers throw a party in Utah.
Of Murder and Microscopes , Sierra , May/June 2007. How botanist Jane Bock became a crime fighter.
Places in the Heart , Grist , April 2007. Interviews with an Icelandic vodka maker, a defiant Irish farmer, and the other winners of the 2007 Goldman Prize, environmentalism's highest honor.
Wish You
Weren't Here
,
High Country News
,
March 2007. Quagga mussels — a relative of the ferociously invasive
zebra mussel — have a new home in the West. Dealing with them will be
anything but a vacation.
(Endorsed by the
Knight
Science Journalism Tracker
.)
Scarface
,
Audubon
, March/April 2007.
Photographer Cameron Davidson skims above the Appalachian landscape,
and zooms in on mountaintop coal mining.
Powder Day , All Things Considered , January 2007. We'd planned on a ski trip. We got something else.
High
and Dry
, 2006. The award-winning
High
Country News
series on climate
change in the American West, collected in a fancy booklet (links to
individual stories below).
This
Dog Believes
,
High Country News
,
November 2006. Pika takes on global warming.
Wrestling
on a Mountain in Turkey
,
The
Christian Science Monitor
,
October 2006. It's all true.
Science's
Glacial Strides
,
The Christian
Science Monitor
,
September 2006. A two-part tale about the pleasures and perils of
research on Alaska's Juneau Icefield (part two is
here
).
Selling the
Wind
,
Audubon
, September
2006. Dissecting the controversy over wind power and wildlife.
The
Lure of the Lawn
,
High Country
News
, August 2006. Turfgrass is the largest irrigated crop in
the United States. What's behind its persistent appeal? An
abridged
version
of this story appeared in the
San
Francisco Chronicle
in October.
Wrecking the
Rockies
,
OnEarth
, Summer
2006. Colorado hunting guide Laura Amos wonders if her health is an
uncounted casualty of the natural-gas boom.
Dust and Snow
,
High Country News
,
May 2006. In the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, tiny
particles carry big implications for spring snowmelt — and Western
water supplies.
Between
the Body and the World
,
High
Country News
, May 2006. Pondering plasticized human remains at
the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Family
Values
,
Sierra
, May/June
2006. Born in Cambodia, Bernie Barlow lives and works on a remote
Wyoming ranch, where she and her
family
have spent decades fighting the region's energy booms.
Forgiving
Dalton Trumbo
,
San Francisco
Chronicle
, March 2006. Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted Hollywood
screenwriter, outraged his Colorado hometown with his first novel.
Seventy years later, that town is giving Trumbo another chance.
Save
Our Snow
,
High Country News
,
March 2006. Can Aspen and other Western towns put a dent in global
warming? The fifth and final part of the
Hot
Times
series.
Other Featured Articles
The Ghosts of Yosemite , High Country News . Scientists from the past bring us a message about the future. Part four of the Hot Times series. An abridged version of this story appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle .
Written
in the Rings
,
High
Country News
. Ancient trees have a lot to tell us about our
warmer — and drier — future in the American West. Part two of
the
Hot
Times
series.
Madame
Butterfly
,
Sierra
.
Michelle makes a foray to Florida to profile
MaVynee Betsch, a superb and savvy activist who passed away in
September 2005. Winner of the 2005 Best Profile Award from the American
Society of Journalists and Authors.
The
Accidental Wetland
,
Orion
Magazine
. A journey into the Colorado River Delta of northern
Mexico, with gorgeous black-and-white photographs by John Trotter.
Please contact Michelle for full text.
Between
Hoofprints
,
Orion Magazine
. The Quivira
Coalition searches for true common
ground in the West's grazing wars. A feature with lovely photographs by
Lisa Hamilton. Contact Michelle for full text.
,
Smithsonian
.
A tiny town in Wyoming bands together to save its Main Street
department store.
What's
in your Body's Chemical Cocktail?
Salon.com
.
Biomonitoring shows how humans soak up their environment.
Shadow
Creatures
(included in
The Best
American Science Writing 2003
, edited by Oliver Sacks),
High Country News
. Urban critters
reflect who we are, and what we've lost.
The American Dream, Sans Gasoline
,
High Country News
. An
essay about the joys of biodiesel.
A Few More From the Archives
Attack of the Bark Beetles
,
High Country News
. Global warming
is already transforming western forests. Part one of the
Hot
Times
series and
runner-up in the 2004 National Press Foundation competition for young
science journalists.
New Mexico's Strange Love
,
Mother
Jones
. Carlsbad, New Mexico's quest to host a nuclear bomb plant.
,
Smithsonian
. An
immersion school on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana strives to
restore the tribe's ancestral language.
Down on
the Pharm
,
Salon.com
.
Colorado farmers rebel against genetically modified "pharmaceutical"
crops.
Change Comes Slowly to Escalante Country
,
High Country News
. How one woman
paid the political price for Utah's newest national monument.
The Goldman Standard. Interviews with the winners of
the Goldman Prize, environmentalism's highest honor. From
Grist Magazine
.
Goldman
2003
Goldman
2004
Goldman
2005
Goldman
2006
.
"Sleepless in Suburbia," an essay in Comeback Wolves , edited by Gary Wockner and published by Johnson Books. This fine collection of wolf tales won the 2006 Colorado Book Award.
The
End of Something Really Big
,
High
Country News
. Notes of a "carcass tourist."
Where
Free Trade is more than an Acronym
,
High Country News
. An essay about
picking onions along the Mexican border. Also appeared in the
Denver Post
and other regional
newspapers.
Life in the Stupid Zone
,
Grist
Magazine
. What it's like to wait for your house to burn down. An
essay that also appeared in the
Denver
Post
and elsewhere.
Extreme Canning
and
Send
the Coyotes to Congress
,
High
Country News
and various other publications. More silliness
about life in the West.
The Bacischwandenhuis
Collective. Visit scifi writer
Paolo
Bacigalupi
and science
journalist
Christie
Aschwanden
, friends, allies,
and superstars.
The
Coyote Commons
. What
happens in Michelle's backyard.