Madelyn Beck
Madelyn Beck is a regional Illinois reporter, based in Galesburg. On top of her work for Harvest Public Media, she also contributes to WVIK, Tri-States Public Radio and the Illinois Newsroom collaborative.
Beck grew up on a small cattle ranch in Manhattan, Montana. Her previous work was mostly based in the western U.S., but she has covered agriculture, environment and health issues from Alaska to Washington, D.C.
Before joining Harvest and the Illinois Newsroom, she was as an energy reporter based in Wyoming for the public radio collaborative Inside Energy. Other publications include the Idaho Mountain Express, E&E News/EnergyWire, KRBD Rainbird Radio, the Montana Broadcasters Association, Montana Public Radio and the Tioga Tribune.
-
Much of the Mountain West is in the midst of a heat wave, but what does that mean for wildfires? The National Interagency Fire Center forecasters say it depends on what happens next. Extreme heat can dry out fuels, starting with grass and brush and then drying out trees. If that’s followed by more hot, windy weather and thunderstorms, that’s a recipe for more wildfires.
-
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new $1 billion grant program this week to help communities facing wildfire risks. Grants for wildfire protection planning or outreach can be up to $250,000. Affiliated infrastructure and resilience projects can get grants of up to $10 million.
-
Tampon shortages, plus increasing costs for both tampons and menstrual pads, present growing challenges for those who have periods. Supply chain issues, hiring challenges and inflation all contribute, which will likely be the greatest burden for lower-income people.
-
U.S. Senators talked about the West’s drought this week and what more they could be doing to address it. About $8.3 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure package is going to water systems, but as some lawmakers noted, water is drying up faster than some projects can get off the ground.
-
This year’s strain of the bird flu is still killing birds in our region, from poultry to hawks. Officials hope the virus dies out later this summer, but until then, they urge bird owners to use good hygiene practices and to protect the birds from other wild species. To report sick or dead livestock, contact agriculture officials. To report sick or dead wild birds, contact your state wildlife officials.
-
A housing crunch in the West has some looking to public lands as a solution…and a place to live.
-
It’s legal to pick up roadkill for food in most of the Mountain West (Nevada excluded). You generally just have to get a permit, and now Wyoming is making that especially easy to do. In that state, you can get a permit via an app, called Wyoming 511. However, if you want to take part of the animal for food, you’ll need to take the entire animal with you.
-
In Part 3 of Mountain West News Bureau's series on fentanyl, reporter Madelyn Beck takes a look at what tools are available to help slow fentanyl deaths.
-
In Part 2 of Mountain West News Bureau's series on fentanyl, Madelyn Beck reports on how the legal system is responding and the impacts of the death of a…
-
Fatal drug overdoses are skyrocketing, driven by synthetic opioids like fentanyl. And the potentially deadly drug has made it to the region -- the last to…