Nathan Rott
Nathan Rott is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, where he focuses on environment issues and the American West.
Based at NPR West in Culver City, California, Rott spends a lot of his time on the road, covering everything from breaking news stories like California's wildfires to in-depth issues like the management of endangered species and many points between.
Rott owes his start at NPR to two extraordinary young men he never met. As the first recipient of the Stone and Holt Weeks Fellowship in 2010, he aims to honor the memory of the two brothers by carrying on their legacy of making the world a better place.
A graduate of the University of Montana, Rott prefers to be outside at just about every hour of the day. Prior to working at NPR, he worked a variety of jobs including wildland firefighting, commercial fishing, children's theater teaching, and professional snow-shoveling for the United States Antarctic Program. Odds are, he's shoveled more snow than you.
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The forest at Great Smoky Mountains National Park is sick, infected by invasive aphid-like bugs. To help save the trees, the park's vegetation crew uses pesticides as well as a tiny beetle from Asia. -
These descendants of wild boars were brought over from Europe decades ago. They're highly invasive and hugely destructive — threatening native bears and deer in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. -
There are about 1,600 black bears in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and nearly 11 million annual visitors. The park's wildlife biologists have the job of managing the interactions between them. -
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are looking beyond Saturday's results in the Wyoming Democratic caucuses to a bigger prize: the April 19 primary in New York.
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#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and The Two-Way. Correspondents, editors and producers share the pieces that have kept them reading. Each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories.
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Voter turnout was big in Idaho, Utah and Arizona, and that meant long lines at polling places. In Idaho, the line into one caucus site was reportedly longer than a mile.
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Bernie Sanders is the first candidate in 17 years to campaign on the nation's largest reservation, while Clinton has a long history working on tribal issues.
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The GOP presidential front-runner scheduled rallies in Phoenix and Tucson on Saturday ahead of Tuesday's primary in Arizona.
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The National Park Service has a longstanding diversity problem in its workforce and visitors. As the Park Service celebrates 100 years and looks to its next 100, it wants to change that. -
Parks are expensive for obvious reasons: Visitor centers need displays, and roads need repairs. But there's also upkeep of the Grand Canyon's sewage operations and of Independence Hall's sprinklers.
