Kirk Siegler
Kirk Siegler is a national correspondent for NPR News. As a roving reporter, he covers the western U.S. with an emphasis on rural issues, water and the effects of climate change on smaller communities and former natural resource dependent towns. Recent assignments have taken him to the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona where indigenous groups are protesting mines proposed on ancestral lands that are also seen as key to the Biden administration's goals of transforming the U.S. transportation grid to electricity.
After the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, Siegler spent months chronicling the diaspora of residents from Paradise, exploring the continuing questions over how – or whether – the town should rebuild in an era of worsening climate-driven wildfires. Siegler is also frequently deployed to national and international breaking news events, from the deadly wildfires on Maui, to hurricanes in Louisiana to mass shootings in Florida to a devastating earthquake in Nepal. In 2015, Siegler was one of the first foreign journalists to arrive in Kathmandu and helped lead NPR's coverage of the immediate aftermath of the deadly disaster.
In 2022, he was awarded a fellowship from the United Nations Foundation to report on climate change which took him to the Brazilian Amazon to report on the effects of deforestation and to the tiny Caribbean island nation of Dominica which is still recovering from the deadly 2017 Hurricane Maria.
Before helping open the network's first ever bureau in Idaho at the studios of Boise State Public Radio in 2019, Siegler was based at NPR West in Culver City, California for seven years. Prior to joining NPR in 2012, Siegler spent seven years reporting from Colorado, where he became a familiar voice to NPR listeners reporting on politics, water and the state's ski industry from Denver for NPR Member station KUNC. He got his start in political reporting covering the Montana Legislature for Montana Public Radio.
Apart from a brief stint working as a waiter in Sydney, Australia, Siegler has spent most of his adult life living in the West. He grew up in Missoula, Montana, and received a journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
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The Western U.S.'s wildfire season has been one of the worst in years. More than 8 million acres have burned, at least seven wildland firefighters have died, and hundreds of homes have been destroyed.
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Weeks after a wildfire destroyed hundreds of homes in Spokane, Washington, people are returning home. Big questions remain about whether it's really safe to return.
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Authorities say a 37-year-old man has been arrested in connection with one of the three wildfires burning near Spokane, Washington.
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Fertilizer prices have gone down with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the prospect of a U.S.-Iran peace deal. But struggling American farmers won't likely see relief for months. -
The president is trying to downsize the U.S Forest Service and eliminate wildfire and smoke research as the American West is facing a potentially epic summer fire season. -
The Trump administration is set to repeal a decades-old conservation mandate known as the Roadless Rule, opening up millions of acres of national forests for more logging.
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Construction of an advanced nuclear power plant partly funded by the U.S. government is now underway in Wyoming. The Bill Gates-backed company says its technology is proven but there are still hurdles to nuclear. -
Western states face significant challenges because winter failed to deliver the snow that acts as a reservoir to keep rivers and streams flowing all summer. It's a record drought in many places.
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Many tribes are encouraged by Trump's choice of Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a member of the Cherokee nation, as the new DHS Secretary. ICE agents have been accused of racially profiling Native Americans.
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Survivors of the deadly Los Angeles wildfires say they're in the crosshairs of the White House v. California political battle over aid. It's making it difficult for some to recover let alone rebuild.
