Kirk Siegler
As a correspondent on NPR's national desk, Kirk Siegler covers rural life, culture and politics from his base in Boise, Idaho.
His beat explores the intersection and divisions between rural and urban America, including longer term reporting assignments that have taken him frequently to a struggling timber town in Idaho that lost two sawmills right before the election of President Trump. In 2018, 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's award winning reporting on the West's bitter land use controversies has taken listeners to the heart of anti-government standoffs in Oregon and Nevada, including a rare interview with recalcitrant rancher Cliven Bundy. He's also profiled numerous ranching and mining communities from Nebraska to New Mexico that have worked to reinvent themselves in a fast-changing global economy.
Siegler also contributes extensively to the network's breaking news coverage, from floods and hurricanes in Louisiana to deadly school shootings in Connecticut. In 2015, he was awarded an international reporting fellowship from Johns Hopkins University to report on health and development in Nepal. While en route to the country, the worst magnitude earthquake to hit the region in more than 80 years struck. The fellowship was cancelled, but 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 quake. He also filed in-depth reports focusing on the humanitarian disaster and challenges of bringing relief to some of the Nepal's far-flung rural villages.
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 the NPR West studios in Culver City, California. 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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Ranchers in North Dakota have been forced to sell off their herds at historic rates. Now they're worried they won't have enough feed to keep their remaining cows alive this winter. -
After a prolonged and bitter nomination, the Senate has narrowly confirmed Tracy Stone-Manning to be the next U.S. public lands chief.
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Rural health leaders are warning that the Biden administration's vaccine mandates will worsen staff availability at small-town hospitals as the pandemic wears on.
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The president viewed the wildfire ravaged West Monday, to renew warnings about climate change its role in extreme weather and fire events. -
An estimated 50,000 people have been evacuated as the Caldor Fire rages on. Shelters are filling up and hotel rooms are hard to find, leaving evacuees struggling to cope with the uncertainty. -
Around 50,000 rapidly evacuated Lake Tahoe on Monday. Many shelters are full, and hotel rooms are scarce and pricey. Some older evacuees are stressed and worried about how long this crisis will last.
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Firefighters are hoping for favorable conditions today to help them keep the Caldor Fire from getting loose in the city of South Lake Tahoe, California.
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Some 30,000 people are now under orders to evacuate from the Lake Tahoe Region, as the out-of-control Caldor Fire is spreading rapidly in extremely windy and hot conditions.
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In Nevada, tribal opposition to a proposed lithium mine is testing the White House's pledge to electrify America's transportation system and give more of a voice to indigenous people in federal lands.
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Decimated by the deadly Camp Fire in 2018, Paradise, Calif., is now moving to acquire some high-risk properties and turn them into managed park land to buffer against future wildfires.
