Center for Environmental Journalism

Can AI predict whether snowfall will be light and fluffy or dense?

In this story for The Water Desk, Mitch Tobin explores how scientists are combining machine learning with hand-collected snow data to improve snowfall forecasts and better understand storm impacts.

Read more: https://waterdesk.org/2026/05/machine-learning-snow-to-liquid-ratio/

Image Credit: Mitch Tobin/The Water Desk

Luke Runyon, co-director of The Water Desk at the Center for Environmental Journalism, University of Colorado Boulder, is featured in the latest episode of PBS NewsHour Horizons examining the growing Colorado River water crisis.

The episode explores how worsening drought and climate change are intensifying tensions over water rights and affecting communities, industries, and ecosystems across the American West.

Watch the episode:
https://www.pbs.org/video/how-states-are-confronting-the-colorado-river-water-crisis-js7vst/

Ted Scripps Fellow (2026–27) Spotlight Series: Sam Price-Waldman

Sam Price-Waldman is a documentary filmmaker working at the intersection of long-form journalism and cinematic storytelling. His work focuses on character-driven stories shaped by close access, trust, and time.

As a director and cinematographer, he has worked across short-form reporting and multi-year documentary projects for HBO, Netflix, Showtime, The Atlantic, PBS, and National Geographic. His most recent short documentary, The Life We Have, screened at over 20 film festivals and was awarded Best Short Documentary at AmDocs, the Audience Award at Mountainfilm, and a 2026 Webby Award.

Before transitioning to independent work, Sam was a staff producer, cinematographer, and editor at The Atlantic, where he reported on science, environment, and culture.

As a Ted Scripps Fellow, he will explore the emotional dimensions of environmental change and how different ways of knowing shape human relationships to the natural world, while developing a new long-form documentary project.

We’re excited to welcome Sam Price-Waldman to the Ted Scripps Fellowship at CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

Ted Scripps Fellow (2026–27) Spotlight Series: Ayurella Horn-Muller

Ayurella Horn-Muller is a staff writer at Grist covering the intersection of climate change, food, and agriculture. She previously reported for Axios and Climate Central, and her work has appeared in CNN, National Geographic, The Associated Press, El País, The Atlantic, WIRED, and The Guardian. She has been recognized with a first-place Society of Environmental Journalists Award for Outstanding Beat Reporting and an honorable mention Nina Mason Pulliam Award for Outstanding Environmental Reporting, alongside honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and Green Eyeshades. She is the author of Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South, and her work has been anthologized in The Best American Food and Travel Writing.

As a Ted Scripps fellow, Ayurella will investigate how climate change is reshaping the bonds between communities and the crops that have long defined them. From Puerto Rico's coffee farms to Georgia’s sweet onion fields and Arizona's winter lettuce valleys, her reporting will explore what it means to lose these place-based anchors, the conflict between adaptation and ancestry, and how race, class, and power determine who gets to maintain their food identities — and who is forced to abandon them.

We’re excited to welcome Ayurella Horn-Muller to the Ted Scripps Fellowship at CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

Ted Scripps Fellow (2026–27) Spotlight Series: Amanda Eggert

Amanda Eggert is an environmental journalist based in Bozeman, Montana. In January 2021, she joined the staff of Montana Free Press, a nonprofit newsroom founded by John S. Adams, the journalist featured in the documentary Dark Money. Her stories about Montana's housing affordability challenges, land-use issues in central Montana's Crazy Mountains, and the intersection of drought and Montana's treasured cold-water fisheries have won awards. When not working, she enjoys exploring Montana's mountains and rivers with her husband, two young sons and collie mix, Athena.

During her fellowship, Amanda will explore the decline of southwestern Montana's cold-water fisheries and the policy levers that can bring them out of their long-term slide.

We’re excited to welcome Amanda Eggert to the Ted Scripps Fellowship at CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

Ted Scripps Fellow (2026–27) Spotlight Series: Jenae Barnes

Jenae Barnes covered issues at the intersection of public health, environmental justice, and the lived experiences of Black communities. She has been recognized with two awards by the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists for deeply reported, community-centered journalism, blending investigative rigor with narrative storytelling. Her reporting frequently highlights the impacts of climate change, gender and health disparities, and amplifying underrepresented voices.

Jenae was selected as a 2024 Pulitzer Center Story Reach Reporting Fellow, participated in the 2024 National Science, Health, and Environment Reporting Fellowship, and Wake Forest University’s Environmental and Epistemic Justice Fellowship. She is also a 2025 participant in the AHCJ German Health Care Study Group, where she reported on the health care experiences of Black expatriates in Germany.

Jenae plans to use the fellowship to research a project that looks at environmental justice issues in the US and abroad, and how these are linked by shared obstacles of socioeconomic status, geography, and historic redlining and/or colonization.

We’re excited to welcome Jenae Barnes to the Ted Scripps Fellowship at CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

Ted Scripps Fellow (2026–27) Spotlight Series: Sam Brasch

Sam Brasch is a public radio reporter covering climate and environmental issues for Colorado Public Radio News. A Denver native and graduate of Colorado College, he began his journalism career at Modern Farmer Magazine. Since joining CPR News in 2019, he has co-created Purplish, a podcast on Colorado politics, and helped launch the station’s climate solutions desk.

As a Scripps Fellow, Sam plans to study the history and science of air quality to produce podcasts and other long-form radio projects.

We’re excited to welcome Sam Brasch to the Ted Scripps Fellowship at CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

We are thrilled to announce the 2026–27 Ted Scripps Fellowship cohort! Please join us in welcoming Jenae Barnes, Sam Brasch, Amanda Eggert, Ayurella Horn-Muller, and Sam Price-Waldman.

Jenae Barnes is an award-winning journalist covering public health and environmental justice. As a Ted Scripps Fellow, she will examine how environmental justice issues in the U.S. and abroad are shaped by inequality and historic systems of exclusion.

Sam Brasch is a public radio reporter with Colorado Public Radio News covering climate and environmental issues. As a Ted Scripps Fellow, he will study the history and science of air quality for future podcast and long-form audio projects.

Amanda Eggert is an environmental journalist with Montana Free Press reporting on land, water, and climate issues in Montana. As a Ted Scripps Fellow, she will explore the decline of southwestern Montana’s cold-water fisheries and related policy solutions.

Ayurella Horn-Muller is a climate journalist at Grist covering food, agriculture, and environmental change. As a Ted Scripps Fellow, she will investigate how climate change is reshaping community relationships to culturally significant crops and food systems.

Sam Price-Waldman is a documentary filmmaker working across journalism and cinematic storytelling for outlets including HBO, PBS, and National Geographic. As a Ted Scripps Fellow, he will explore the emotional dimensions of environmental change and develop a new long-form documentary project.

Please join us in celebrating this outstanding cohort of journalists joining the fellowship program at CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism.

Join a timely panel on native firefighting legacy, shared practices, and the outlook for the 2026 fire season—moderated by Ted Scripps Fellow, Meteorologist Ben Cathey.

Featuring voices with deep expertise in Tribal fire management and stewardship, this conversation highlights the critical role of Indigenous knowledge in addressing today’s wildfire challenges.

Register here: https://tr.ee/zXBMWN

Organized by the Center of the American West

In this powerful weekend essay for TIME, Ted Scripps Fellowship Advisory Board Member Meera Subramanian reflects on how, even as the climate crisis intensifies, a new generation of climate activists is stepping up at a critical moment—organizing, advocating, and pushing for accountability in ways that are reshaping the future of climate action.

From courtrooms to communities, they are taking action where institutions have fallen short, offering not just urgency, but direction and hope.

Read: https://tr.ee/67lc4o