Journalism and Outdoor Writing

In spring 2023, I received my master’s degree in environmental journalism from the University of Montana. I write stories about the intersection between mental health and identity, particularly as these issues overlap with climate change and the environment. Below, you’ll find reported articles, personal essays, as-told-to stories, trip reports, gear reviews and longer-form creative nonfiction pieces. Some of these pieces are also part of my larger Glaciers of Glacier National Park or Held v. Montana projects.

My work has been featured in High Country News, Inside Climate News, Trails Magazine, Mountain Outlaw Magazine, Wired, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Journalism

While They’re Still Here

What can we learn about grief and joy from our glaciers?

A personal essay exploring the concepts of hospice and perceived inevitability, and how my glacier project is helping me make space for the grief and joy that accompany the changes and losses associated with climate change.

Published in Trails Magazine in February 2024 | 1,100 words and six photos

My friend Solomon crosses the mouth of a river, four days into the middle of nowhere Alaska. Photo by Richard Forbes.

The Nature of Dreams

On control, release, and rest.

A photo-illustrated personal essay, set in the heart of Southwest Alaska, exploring how my relationship with the mountains and adventure is changing as I reckon with the consequences of my outdoors-oriented life.

Issue 8 of Trails Magazine in November 2024 | 1,100 words and ten photos

Artist and mountaineer Jonathan Marquis observes glaciers deep in the backcountry of Glacier National Park. Photo by Richard Forbes.

While They’re Still Here

What can we learn about grief and joy from our glaciers?

Published in Trails Magazine in February 2024 | 1,100 words and six photos

Plaintiff Mica Kantor, 14, testifies on the second day of the trial. Photo by Richard Forbes.

In a Montana Courtroom, Debate Over Whether States Can Make a Difference on Climate Change, and if They Have a Responsibility to Try

Subhead: The first youth-led climate lawsuit to go to trial considered if a statute preventing the state’s environmental agency from denying permits for fossil fuel development contradicts its constitution’s guarantee of a “clean and healthful environment.”

Published in Inside Climate News on June 28th, 2023 | 1,600 words and eight photos

Republished by Wired on July 1st, 2023 with the title “Inside the First Youth-Led Climate Lawsuit to Go to Trial”

Plaintiff Olivia Vesovich wipes away tears on the stand as she describes her fears that climate change may affect her ability to have the family she dreams of. Photo by Richard Forbes.

In the nation’s first youth-led climate trial, a case for hope

Subtitle: Five days of expert testimony argued that Montana can transition away from fossil fuels and reap economic benefits in the process. Now it’s up to the judge.

Published in High Country News | 1,200 words and five photos

Lead plaintiff Rikki Held on her family's ranch in southeastern Montana. Behind her, a wildfire burns four miles away. In Summer 2022, this was one of 18 wildfires within 50 miles of her home. Photo by Richard Forbes.

Love of the Land and Community Inspired the Montana Youths Whose Climate Lawsuit Against the State Goes to Court This Week (2023)

Subtitle: For the plaintiffs in the first youth climate lawsuit to go to trial, finding their voice and inspiring others has been as much a salve for their climate grief as bringing their case to trial.

Publications

Published in Inside Climate News on June 12, 2023 | 3,800 words and nine photos

Republished with High Country News on June 14, 2023 with the title “Meet the youth attempting to hold Montana to account on climate”

Republished with Fast Company on June 25, 2023 with the title “Meet the youth suing Montana for not protecting them from climate change”

In 2024, excerpts from this article will be published in a Danish high school textbook to support students in discussing activism and finding their own voices while advancing their English language skills. I’m deeply honored my work is supporting this audience.

If you want to read all 5,000 words of my master’s work, you can find it here, hosted by the University of Montana.

This piece documents the perspectives of the plaintiffs of the historic Held v. Montana lawsuit - the first youth-led climate lawsuit to go to trial in the United States. This project explores the plaintiffs’ involvement in the lawsuit and how their involvement is changing their relationships to their own climate-related mental health. It also explains how the plaintiffs’ psychological concerns reflect larger societal issues related to climate change.

This story was my master’s project while studying environmental journalism at the University of Montana, and I was fortunate enough to spend 14 months with it - working with plaintiffs, following legal updates, and writing countless drafts. I’m very proud of the result.

Artist and mountaineer Jonathan Marquis draws Whitecrow Glacier, deep in Glacier National Park. Photo by Richard Forbes

Witness (2022)

Published in Mountain Outlaw Magazine Winter 2022 | 2,300 words and five photos

I wrote a profile on artist and mountaineer Jonathan Marquis, who is currently nine years into visiting and drawing all the glaciers in Montana. He is creating aesthetic documentation of the effects of climate change on Montana’s glaciers and attempting to show a different way to relate to glacial landscapes. I spent seven days in Glacier National Park with Jonathan, visiting six glaciers and hiking over 100 miles (most of which were off-trail).

Reporting trauma: John D. Sutter on Hurricane Maria (2022)

An As-Told-To Story published on Nieman Storyboard | 1,600 words

I interviewed John D. Sutter, a journalist and filmmaker who focuses on telling stories about climate change, about his philosophy on reporting on traumatized subjects. I then took our conversation and crafted it into an as-told-to story.