Molly Wetsch
Molly Wetsch examines how statewide policy, economic development and environmental change affect rural and Native communities in South Dakota. She is an investigative reporter at South Dakota News Watch and a Report for America corps member covering rural and Indigenous issues across the state. Her environment beat traces connections between land, energy systems and local economies, from lake country in the northeast to tourism sites such as Custer State Park.
Rural services, infrastructure and basic needs
Wetsch regularly reports on how basic services reach rural residents, using data and local voices to explain gaps in funding and access. Her coverage of the first $9.6 million in opioid settlement money shows that counties and cities have spent less than half of the dollars so far, examining why local governments wait to deploy addiction-treatment resources. In stories built around 211 helpline call data, she breaks down how housing, food and utilities dominate resource requests, translating statewide statistics into clear pictures of financial stress in communities. She follows programs that address rural legal “deserts,” documenting how incentive schemes have placed dozens of attorneys in areas that previously lacked basic legal services and tracking how many stay after the program ends.
Food access is another recurring subject, with pieces that catalogue food resources, federal grants, farm-to-school efforts and volunteer-driven initiatives that feed isolated towns.
Environment, energy and land use
Environmental change and land-use decisions are central threads in Wetsch’s reporting. In the Custer area, she has chronicled how drought and tourism reshape the landscape, explaining why Custer State Park is auctioning more bison than usual and how the annual roundup has evolved as a spectacle and a management tool. She has unpacked the relocation of a major pork processing plant to the state’s largest industrial park, asking what “responsible growth” means for rural areas on the edge of a fast-growing metro and weighing the environmental and economic trade-offs.
Her coverage of the merger between Black Hills Corp. and NorthWestern Energy scrutinizes monopoly utilities, clean-energy commitments and the expansion of wind, solar and hydroelectric power, while noting new large-load projects such as data centers that will shape future demand. In northeast South Dakota’s Prairie Pothole Region, she writes about a glacial lake landscape that fuels recreation and tourism but also brings challenges for small towns facing isolation, housing pressures and workforce needs.
Native communities and historical harms
Native communities are at the center of much of Wetsch’s work, which often links present-day policy to the legacy of historical harm. In her reporting on the documentary “Nine Little Indians,” she tells the story of nine sisters from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians who attended a Catholic-run boarding school in South Dakota, endured abuse and later pursued a lengthy legal battle against the diocese. The piece situates their experience within a broader history of Indian boarding schools, drawing on research that identifies at least 35 such institutions that operated in the state. Wetsch highlights ongoing efforts to reckon with that history, including geophysical surveys that use ground-penetrating radar to search for unmarked graves near former school sites. Across her Native and rural communities beat, she returns to themes of voice and visibility, foregrounding interviews that capture both the resilience and the unresolved trauma present in tribal communities.
Community institutions, politics and local power
Another strand of Wetsch’s reporting focuses on community institutions and the ways local power operates through churches, elections and business holdings. She has documented a historic restoration effort at Canton Lutheran Church, showing how one rural congregation combines community fundraising with state and national grants to preserve stained-glass windows and a building that anchors local identity. Election coverage includes analysis of a record-high number of Republican registrations ahead of a runoff for governor, using voter data to explain how rule changes and high-stakes races drive party enrollment. Outside South Dakota News Watch, her work has examined the portfolio of local figure Steve Doeden across real estate, auto dealerships, cryptocurrency and tax increment financing, mapping how private investments intersect with public redevelopment tools in his community. In combination, these stories show a reporter interested in who controls resources and narratives in small places, and in how formal authority and informal influence shape everyday life.
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.