Ashli Blow
Ashli Blow covers the intersection of environment, public health and policy, concentrating on how decisions about land, water and infrastructure translate into risk and consequences for local communities. She is the Environment & Public Health Correspondent at Lookout Eugene-Springfield, drawing on more than a decade of journalism and science writing to explain climate, pollution, wildfire and health-system issues in clear, accessible terms. Her beat spans regional forests, rivers, hospitals and neighborhoods, and she tends to stay with a single issue from early warning through regulatory decisions and their impact on residents. She brings a data-informed, science-grounded approach to storytelling, breaking down complex policy shifts such as proposed changes to national forest protections or timber rules into concrete implications for people living near these landscapes.
Environmental policy, forests and timber conflicts
Blow’s reporting on forests and timber policy focuses on federal land around communities such as those near Bureau of Land Management forests by Eugene and Roseburg, where logging proposals collide with conservation law and local concerns. In coverage launching a series on these forests, she examines projects like the Blue and Gold timber operation, following the arc from proposed cutting of old, large trees to a judge’s ruling that halted a multi-million-dollar plan and reshaped the conflict between timber economics and environmental protections.
Her stories on the Trump administration’s push for more logging in western Oregon track how high-level policy decisions reverberate in checkerboard forests, detailing what increased logging could mean for residents living next to federal land. She also digs into federal rule-making, explaining moves such as the Forest Service’s delayed rollout of a proposed repeal of the Roadless Rule in terms of what changed access and protections would mean on the ground.
Across these pieces, she combines interviews with residents, advocates, agencies and industry with close reading of policy documents and court decisions, keeping both ecological impacts and human consequences in view.
Climate extremes, wildfire and environmental hazards
Blow treats extreme weather not as isolated incidents but as part of shifting climate trends, including coverage of record-breaking heat in Eugene framed against long-term patterns and local vulnerability.
She has reported on the Holiday Farm Fire and its aftermath, following survivors who lost homes and businesses as they seek accountability from multiple power companies years after the blaze. In those stories, she traces complex legal proceedings while keeping the focus on the slow pace of justice and the continuing uncertainty for people whose lives were upended by the fire. Her work on hidden environmental hazards includes reporting on what lies beneath a popular running trail, where an old landfill raises questions about contamination, oversight and whether agencies have sufficiently examined the site in recent decades.
She has also chronicled safety issues on the Willamette River, first documenting a hazardous low-head dam where recreational users were pulled into a concrete wall, then returning to cover the installation of warning signs and the unresolved questions about who is responsible for the structure and its long-term future. These pieces show a consistent focus on how climate extremes, legacy pollution and overlooked infrastructure combine to create risks that ordinary people encounter in everyday places.
Health systems, hospitals and public safety
Alongside environmental coverage, Blow reports extensively on health systems, especially where hospital decisions intersect with patient safety and community trust. She has spent months documenting the controversy around PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center’s emergency departments, including plans to replace the local doctors’ group, the conditions physicians describe inside the ER and the public backlash that followed. In her coverage of emergency doctors planning to leave what they call a “disaster” at PeaceHealth, she brings forward detailed accounts from medical professionals about staffing, safety and how administrative choices affect care at the bedside.
Her work tracks the dispute over time, from initial announcements through public letters and, ultimately, the hospital’s decision to renew its contract with the existing physicians’ group after significant community outcry.
In parallel, she covers shorter-term public safety issues such as winter weather and its implications for local mobility and exposure, pairing forecasts with practical context about what residents can expect. This strand of her beat underscores how she treats health care institutions as part of the broader environment people inhabit, linking clinical conditions, corporate decisions and regulatory scrutiny to everyday safety.
Method, tone and impact
Across her work, Blow favors reported narratives and deep explanatory pieces over quick takes, often returning to the same story as new data, policy moves or legal rulings emerge.
She interviews a wide range of sources - from fire survivors and riverside recreationists to forest residents, environmental advocates, medical professionals and agency officials - and uses their experiences to anchor complex topics in lived reality. Her background in environmental policy and data science informs a style that is precise and grounded in evidence, but she keeps the prose straightforward and focused on what decisions mean for communities connected to land and water.
Lookout Eugene-Springfield has highlighted her work for its impact, noting recognition for environment and natural disaster reporting and pointing to coverage that has pressed officials on issues such as landfill oversight and hospital emergency staffing. The outlet also underscores that she brings 12 years of experience in journalism and science writing to stories that sit at the intersection of environment and public health, whether the subject is a river hazard, a forest policy change or a hospital dispute. Her body of work makes her a distinctive voice on a beat defined not just by climate and ecosystems, but by how those forces shape health, safety and accountability in the places people live and work.
4 more environment journalists.
Alan Halaly
Alan Halaly is a water reporter at the Las Vegas Review-Journal who treats the Colorado River as a working system, not a backdrop, making its governance, infrastructure and risks central to his beat. He covers how policy decisions and infrastructure projects shape the region’s water future, linking high-level choices on the Colorado River, dams, mining and data centers to everyday consequences under mounting heat and growth pressures. He reports deeply on new laws, lawsuits and regulatory shifts, focusing on on-the-ground impacts. His coverage spans Colorado River cuts, Hoover Dam operations, extreme weather, heat and parks, septic system rules, workplace and public health risks, lithium and gold mines, protected landscapes, data centers, AI infrastructure and public funding. Previously he reported for metropolitan dailies, digital outlets and public media, including the Miami Herald, WUFT, The Daily Beast and Miami New Times, with work recognized by Hearst, ONA and the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Alejandra Borunda
Alejandra Borunda reports on how climate change affects human health for NPR. Her work treats global warming as a direct cause of physical and mental health risks. She covers extreme heat, including undercounted deaths, lost sleep and local efforts to track heat-related fatalities. She also reports on wildfire smoke, hurricanes, disease spread such as dengue fever, trauma, stress and unequal health impacts. Her stories examine how communities protect themselves and recover, as well as practical solutions involving climate-resilient crops, agriculture and diet. Before NPR, she wrote about climate science and environmental issues for National Geographic, including glacier retreat, shade and heat inequity, and shrinking ice-fishing seasons. A former climate scientist, she combines field reporting with scientific data to connect atmospheric research to everyday risks, choices and people’s lived experiences.
Alex Lubben
Alex Lubben is an environment reporter at The Times-Picayune/The Advocate who connects climate risk to policy, industry and community change. He covers Gulf warming, flood protection, coastal restoration, wetlands litigation, industrial projects such as SpaceX’s possible expansion, invasive species and local ecosystems. His reporting tracks how law, politics and corporate decisions shape levees, drainage, marshes and long-term resilience. He also examines climate relocation, housing and labor, showing how hurricanes, floods and wildfires displace vulnerable communities and expose gaps in government systems. He works on a small environment team and brings an investigative background to document work, data analysis, legal and policy research, and field reporting. His work has appeared in VICE News, The Center for Public Integrity, The Nation, Jewish Currents and NBC News.
Alex Wigglesworth
Alex Wigglesworth reports on how climate, land use and public policy shape California communities. She covers the Inland Empire and Mojave Desert for the Los Angeles Times and is part of its environment team. Her beat includes wildfires, megadrought, extreme weather, desert development, conservation, wildlife, industrial hazards, aging infrastructure and regulatory enforcement. She has covered Western Joshua trees, desert tortoises, beaver-led restoration, toxic lead pipes, air-quality concerns after industrial fires and the effects of nuclear war on food systems. Earlier, she was a general assignment reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com. She combines breaking news with detailed reporting grounded in scientific studies, modeling and expert interviews. Her work connects fires, drought and other hazards to climate change, while examining how agencies, companies and land-use decisions affect people and ecosystems.