Stay on top of changes in the West

Headwaters News seeks to create an informed and active citizenry in the Rocky Mountain West by providing a free, premier daily news service that features the region’s top stories on the most relevant issues.

Each weekday morning, Headwaters News offers summaries of and links to the region’s best stories and commentary on environmental, political, economic, growth and tribal issues, and delivers them to your desktop. Over the weekend, we publish the highlights.

Our editors scour the regional and national papers so you don’t have to. We believe that, presented with the latest and most pertinent information about the issues, policies and changes happening across the region, your participation in democracy will be more meaningful.

Headwaters News also believes in the power of open and friendly public discourse about these issues and provides a forum for discussion. We aim to enrich the lives of all citizens, not just those that live, work, visit and play here, but those around the country and world who can learn from our successes and help us with our challenges.

We hope you will help us do that:

Donation – We rely on donations to produce our daily pages. Please consider making a tax-deductible gift to Headwaters News.

Participation – We believe in healthy discussion and ask you to participate in an exchange of ideas by responding to story posts, commenting on a column, or sending a letter to the editor. We also offer the option for readers to email stories to interested friends.

As well, if you or a group with which you are associated are sponsoring a conference to address an issue confronting the Rocky Mountain West, let us know and we will add the conference to our online calendar.  Headwaters News also publishes position statements and columns about such conferences in our Western Perspective and A Look Ahead sections. We can get your message out to our thousands of subscribers and the thousands of visitors who visit our site dialy. Contact us with your ideas today.

Invitation – The best way to create an active and informed citizenry is to invite others to share in the essential tools. We have also found that word of mouth is the best way we can grow our readership. We encourage you to invite others to join the Headwaters News community.

Citizen journalists, you, too, can be a contributor to Headwaters News. Read more about how to publish your pieces on this site.

Headwaters News is a project of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at The University of Montana. It was started with a three-year grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and is currently funded with an additional Hewlett grant and through partnerships.

Editor: Shellie Nelson received her journalism degree from the University of Montana in May 1996 and worked three years as a daily newspaper copy editor and page designer. She worked as Headwaters News' assistant editor from August 2003 until June, 2005, when she was named editor.

Assistant Editor: Daniel Berger received his journalism degree from Syracuse University and his Master's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. Dan is returning to Headwaters News after spending the last two and a half years as the staff writer for the National Forest Foundation.

Senior Fellow: Daniel Kemmis is a regular contributor to Headwaters News' Western Perspective. He has served as mayor of Missoula and Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives. He is the author of Community and the Politics of Place, The Good City and the Good Life, and This Sovereign Land: A New Vision for governing the West.

Director of the Center: Larry Swanson has a background in journalism, economics consulting, and policy analysis. He is a native Nebraskan with a Ph.D. in economics and community and regional planning from the University of Nebraska.