Agenda

#SEJ2025 Draft Agenda

All information is subject to change.

Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Friday, April 25, 2025
Saturday, April 26, 2025

Most sessions, as well as registration, exhibits and breaks, will take place at the Omni Tempe Hotel at ASU, 7 E University Dr, Tempe, AZ 85281 (unless otherwise indicated). Omni meeting-space floor plan.

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

All-Day Workshops

Reporting on Ag & Water: Scarcity and Solutions Amid Changing Times

8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. ($75 fee, includes breakfast and lunch)

This solutions-focused workshop will explore water use in agriculture, the role of ag in water conservation and Indigenous perspectives on agriculture. Participants will also examine shifts in ag policy under a new federal government administration and will have a hands-on data training component. Organized by the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, this workshop equips reporters to better cover the complexities of agriculture and water in a rapidly changing world. SEJ members and journalists only. Space is limited; preregistration required.

How To Investigate the Biggest Story on the Planet

8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. ($75 fee, includes breakfast and lunch)

Co-produced by the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE), Drilled and Floodlight, this one-day workshop will dive into the investigative side of climate reporting, covering everything from what makes a good climate investigation to tips for the most effective FOIA requests at the state and federal level, collaborative and cross-border approaches to investigative reporting, ideas and techniques for data-based investigations, and more. Whether you’re a seasoned investigative journalist who’s new to the climate beat, a longtime climate reporter looking to do more investigative work, new to all of it or somewhere in between, you’ll find inspiration and new skills. SEJ members and journalists only. Space is limited; preregistration required.

Care and Safety in Environmental Journalism

8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. ($75 fee, includes breakfast and lunch)

Learn from experts in physical and digital safety, from wildfires to disaster recovery to human health impacts. Discover the latest safety protocols and trauma-informed care practices to stay safe and effective in the field, online and off. SEJ members and journalists only. Space is limited; preregistration required.

SEJ Newcomers Orientation

Opening Reception — Welcome to Arizona!

Thursday, April 24, 2025

All-Day Tours

Advance registration is required for all Thursday tours. Attendance on each tour is strictly limited, so registering early is important. Departure times vary, but all Thursday tours will return to the Omni Tempe Hotel at ASU about 5:00 p.m.

From the Waste to Wildlife: Environmental Management in the Borderlands

6:00 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

Borders are inherently a human-made concept, but have profound implications for the environment. In Arizona, key watersheds, biodiversity and cultural hubs straddle the U.S.-Mexico border and decisions made in one country are inextricably linked to outcomes in the other. In the face of rising political tensions, governments on both sides of the border have struggled to manage critical components of the environment including waste and wildlife. For this tour, journalists will learn about and see firsthand the border wall in Nogales, Arizona, that is disrupting wildlife crossings for iconic species like jaguars, Mexican wolves, pronghorns and many others. We will then learn from locals, hydrologists and officials about restoration efforts for the Santa Cruz River, as well as the tricky process of binational sewage management, which is becoming even more difficult as erosion and flooding — made worse by climate change — overwhelm wastewater infrastructure and potentially contaminate groundwater resources. Stops may include a portion of the border wall in Nogales, the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant and part of the proposed Santa Cruz River Urban National Wildlife Refuge, which could help restore crucial water resources and maintain wildlife habitat connectivity. Total drive time: 6 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Kendal Blust, Assistant Professor of Practice, School of Journalism, The University of Arizona; Reporter in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands
• Kiley Price, Reporter, Inside Climate News

Wolves, Prairie Dogs and Wildlife Crossings: Biodiversity Conservation and Wildlife Coexistence

6:30 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

In this era of climate disruption and urban sprawl, the challenges of wildlife and human coexistence are more daunting than ever. From Mexican wolves, prairie dogs and elk in Arizona, mountain lions in California, mule deer in Wyoming and black bears in New Jersey, this tour will investigate how we protect both human lives and biodiversity amidst these challenges. We’ll venture into the field to hear about the intricate relationships, heated debates and innovative solutions surrounding these issues. We’ll explore wildlife migration corridors and crossings infrastructure between Phoenix and Flagstaff, learning about their crucial role in public safety and transportation planning and discovering how states are funding these essential climate adaptation measures, embraced in a bipartisan spirit across the West, including Arizona, a state leading the way. We’ll also hear about the complex relationships and the debates surrounding threatened prairie dogs and Mexican wolves while visiting their habitats in Flagstaff and the San Francisco Peaks. Total drive time: 6 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Nancy Castaldo, Freelance Environmental Journalist and Book Author
• John Leos, Environmental Reporting Fellow, The Arizona Republic

Just Transition: When Tribal Cultures, Lithium and Water Collide

7:00 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

The U.S. needs massive amounts of copper, lithium and rare earth metals to build the new grid, and that means more mines — and the waste products that accompany mines. It also means massive amounts of water to separate the ore from the rock it’s encased in, water that frequently is no longer usable. The mining also can disrupt underground water sources. And this is in a region already naturally short of water and suffering from a long-term drought. We will visit Ha’Kamwe’ Spring, one of the Hualapai Tribe’s sacred sites in the Big Sandy River Basin, where residents, both Native and non-Native, have been opposing test drilling for a possible lithium mine. Total drive time: 6 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Deb Krol, #SEJ2025 Conference Co-Chair; Indigenous Affairs Reporter, The Arizona Republic
• Molly Peterson, Staff Writer, Public Health Watch; Board Secretary, Society of Environmental Journalists
• Chris Woodside, Freelance Environment and History Writer

Decarbonizing Arizona With Solar and Nuclear: Meeting Challenges of Growing Energy Demand

7:20 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

Join us on a tour of energy infrastructure that will highlight the vast potential for low-carbon energy generation in Arizona, including solar and nuclear. While more carbon-free energy is rapidly coming online, electricity demand is expected to increase in coming years driven by electrification and the growth of AI data centers. Joined by experts in the space, we will discuss how power plants and solar farms in Arizona manage scarce water resources, as well as waste management challenges for nuclear power. We are still finalizing details of the tour but potential stops include the Palo Verde Generating Plant, the nation’s largest nuclear power plant, and a solar farm outside of Phoenix. Total drive time: 3.5 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Martha Pskowski, Texas Energy and Environment Reporter, Inside Climate News

The Risks of Wildfire in a Biodiverse Landscape in an Evolving Wildland-Urban Interface

7:40 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

As wildfires grow larger, more severe and increasingly destructive, journalists are thinking differently about how to cover fire-prone regions. We’ll spend the day learning about the escalating wildfire risks in a variety of Arizona’s diverse firescapes, from the Sonoran desert to chaparral scrublands and the Mogollon Rim, with critical looks at the state’s rapidly expanding wildland-urban interface, where homes and development are threatened by the flames. In the desert outside Phoenix, we’ll see an iconic landscape that is being transformed by the increasing frequency, size and intensity of wildfires. In Yarnell, we’ll look at the elements that contributed to the tragic 2013 fire that claimed the lives of 19 elite firefighters to understand the human and environmental toll of increasingly intense wildfires. In Prescott, we’ll learn about a biodiverse yet fire-prone landscape that challenges traditional perceptions of wildfire risk. And at the Natural History Institute, we’ll engage with experts on biodiversity, natural history and the ecological factors driving wildfires; the role of climate change; and how journalists can effectively report on fire science, policy and community resilience. Total drive time: TBD.

Tour leaders:

• Michael Kodas, Book Author and Senior Editor, Inside Climate News; Board Member, Society of Environmental Journalists
• Shaun McKinnon, Environment Editor and Storytelling Coach, The Arizona Republic

How Does Arizona Keep Taps Flowing in the Desert?

8:00 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

Arizona has built a massive agricultural industry and the nation’s fifth-largest city in the middle of the desert. To sustain that, the state has been forced to get creative with its water supply. This tour will take attendees behind the curtain of Arizona’s water system, bringing them face-to-face with the infrastructure that makes life here possible, and the challenges of keeping that system running into the future as climate change drives a decades-long drought across the Southwest. Some of Arizona’s most powerful water managers will discuss the conflicts and potential solutions for a state trying to balance a shrinking Colorado River, disappearing groundwater and steady demand from the cities, farms and tribes that draw from those supplies. Stops will include Lake Pleasant, where Colorado River water is stored to supply Phoenix, the Central Arizona Project’s headquarters (the entity responsible for delivering Arizona’s share of the river) and the Gila River Indian Community. Total drive time: 3 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Alex Hager, Colorado River Basin Reporter, KUNC Radio
• Wyatt Myskow, Mountain West Correspondent, Inside Climate News

Urban and Exurban Development, Rising Heat and Water Shortages

8:30 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

The Phoenix metro area is growing, the temperature is rising and water is scarce. As heat and droughts intensify, what can other communities learn from the ways this desert metropolis is choosing to grow and adapt? On this tour we’ll visit areas, both emerging and established, that are grappling with a changing climate. In Phoenix we’ll see high-tech and low-tech solutions for keeping neighborhoods cool. And in Buckeye, a hot spot of exurban growth, we’ll learn about providing water for a city expecting to add hundreds of thousands of people in the coming decades. Total drive time: 2.5 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Luke Runyon, Freelance Water and Climate Journalist; Co-Director, The Water Desk, University of Colorado’s Center for Environmental Journalism
• Brett Walton, Water Reporter, Circle of Blue

Reinventing Desert Agriculture in Central Arizona

9:00 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

The arid flats of Central Arizona have been farmed for millennia, once irrigated by the engineering genius of the Hohokam people with water diverted from the nearby Gila River, then groundwater, and eventually with Colorado River water brought by the modern prowess of the Central Arizona Project’s 336-mile-long canal. But after they fully lost their CAP allocation in 2023, most farmers are back to pumping from the basin’s shrinking aquifer, which is managed for so-called “planned depletion.” In this tour, we will learn how growers are responding to the pressures that weigh on large-scale commercial farming in Pinal County, a key agricultural hub that concentrates about 20 dairies and produces most of the alfalfa and cotton in the state. We will hear from growers investing in new technologies and desert-adapted crops, working on the revitalization of native heirlooms and venturing into new markets with heritage grains. We will drive by canals being retrofitted with solar panels, visit farms and experimental plots, and hear from industry experts and Indigenous leaders leading innovation in a water-scarce, drier climate. Total drive time: 2.75 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Peter Friederici, Professor of Sustainable Communities, Northern Arizona University
• Clara Migoya, Agriculture and Water Reporter, The Arizona Republic

Phoenix From the Inside Out: Heat Stress and Housing Discrimination in the Valley of the Sun

9:30 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

If Americans know anything about Phoenix, it’s that it’s hot and getting hotter. But while residents of South Phoenix and Maryvale — where there are few trees, shade structures or water features — feel the full brunt of the regular triple-digit highs, wealthier areas like Encanto Park, Paradise Valley and downtown Tempe are often 10 degrees cooler, simply because of the urban amenities they’re able to provide. This tour will help visiting journalists connect the dots between the city’s history of housing discrimination and its present reality, where the sidewalks of many formerly red-lined neighborhoods attract tent encampments while wealthy neighborhoods enjoy the shade, before turning to potential solutions for making the Valley of the Sun a more equitable place. Stops will likely include important historical sites downtown, around Encanto Park and in Maryvale, as well as future-looking projects in both Phoenix and Tempe. Total drive time: 2 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Sadie Babits, Supervising Climate Editor, NPR
• Kyle Paoletta, Freelance Journalist, Critic and Book Author

Living and Curated Desert Collections: From Field Monitoring to Biorepository Resources

10:00 a.m. departure ($75 fee, includes lunch and snacks)

Those unfamiliar with desert ecosystems may not realize how biodiverse and delicate they can be. This tour with a mid-morning start will take journalists into the field and labs with wildlife biologists and botanists as they collect and grow animals and plants for long-term ecological monitoring and species reintroduction efforts. We will then follow collected samples all the way through curation and discuss how the biorepository in Tempe helps scientists around the world retroactively study change over time and estimate the impacts of warming, drought, wildfire, development, invasive species and other threats. We will start the day at the famous Desert Botanical Garden, then visit a desert tortoise research site with state biologists followed by a hands-on exploration of beetle identification, animal specimen preparation and cryopreservation. We will end the day visiting a live desert reptile exhibit where attendees may choose to pet a captive Gila monster while hearing about the role this and other iconic desert species play in local ecosystems. Total drive time: 1.5 hours.

Tour leaders:

• Joan Meiners, Climate News and Storytelling Reporter, The Arizona Republic
• Melina Walling, Agriculture and Climate Change Reporter, The Associated Press

Independent Hospitality Receptions and Exhibits

6 – 9 p.m.

Hospitality Receptions are independently organized by the hosts, who are solely responsible for any content, speakers or materials.

Now a popular SEJ tradition, this is the conference’s best networking opportunity. After spending the day in the field, meet with hosts of multiple receptions. They’ll have experts on hand as well as displays, materials and, of course, great FREE food and drink. Mingle and build your source list.

Friday, April 25, 2025

Opening Plenary. Lessons From the West, Good and Bad: Confronting the Climate Crisis in the Trump Era

Morning Concurrent Sessions 1

All concurrent session times are subject to change. We will finalize sessions and times by Feb. 28.

• Should We Mine the Ocean Floor?
• A Reporter’s Guide to Covering Local Opposition to Renewable Energy
• Meeting Communities Where They Are in Environmental Journalism
• Beyond Worst-Case Scenarios: Building a Vibrant Subculture of Climate Adaptation
• Cross-Border Climate and Environmental Investigations: Stories Beyond Borders
• Methane: New Tools To Detect and Report on the Super-Potent Climate Pollutant
• Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Journalism: We’ve Got This! Let’s Do Some Good With AI

Morning Concurrent Sessions 2

All concurrent session times are subject to change. We will finalize sessions and times by Feb. 28.

• The Lightest Gas, The Heaviest Questions: Hydrogen Development on Navajo Lands
• Threat Multiplier: Covering Climate and Conflict Connections
• When There Is No Data Available: Finding Alternative Ways To Support Our Environmental Stories on Latinx Communities
• How Water Will Decide Any New Project’s Fate in the Southwest — Including for the Energy Transition
• Is Phoenix Sustainable?
• Revealing the Invisible: How Remote-Sensing Satellites Are Transforming Methane Accountability and Climate Action
• How to Make Biodiversity Stories Matter to Your Audiences

Lunch Plenary. The Power of Knowledge: ​​Truth, Science and the Role of Universities in Environmental Leadership

Afternoon Concurrent Sessions 3

All concurrent session times are subject to change. We will finalize sessions and times by Feb. 28.

• Water, Forests, and Biodiversity — Are Unprecedented Threats on the Horizon?
• The Mining Conundrum
• 100 Days In: Trump’s Second Term and Transportation Electrification
• How to Cover Scientific Controversies — Without Undermining Trust in Science
• The West: An Energy Transition “Frontier”?
• CruzaGrafos: Using Public and Georeferenced Data To Investigate Environmental Crimes and Power Networks in Brazil
• Walling Off Wildlife
• How to Expand Local Environmental Reporting Through Academic/News Partnerships
• Climate Visual Storytelling on Tribal Lands

Afternoon Concurrent Sessions 4

All concurrent session times are subject to change. We will finalize sessions and times by Feb. 28.

• On Your Doorstep: Covering and Attributing Climate Impacts in Your Community
• Oak Flat: When the Just Transition Goes Haywire
• How To Cover the Impact of Pesticides From the Global North to the Global South
• Protecting Journalists Who Cover the Environment
• Overcoming Challenges to Increasing Latino Voices in Environmental Journalism
• C.A.R.E.S: How Do We Care for Ourselves, Our Audiences and Sources As We Cover the Effects of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss and Environmental Racism?
• Engaging Readers on Climate in an Age of Distraction
• Hi-Tech Environmental Investigations

Reception and Networking

5 -6 p.m.

Beat Dinners

6 p.m.

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Morning Concurrent Session 5

All concurrent session times are subject to change. We will finalize sessions and times by Feb. 28.

• Disaster Reporting During a Climate Crisis: Strategies and Solutions for Covering Emergencies
• Hands-On Training and Tips for Sharing Environmental News Using Virtual Reality and Extended Reality
• Road to COP30: Forests and Climate From the Amazon to Arizona
• Climate, Reproductive Health and Policy: Reporting on a Growing Crisis
• Beyond Climate Anxiety: Alternative Frameworks for Reporting on Uncertain Climate Futures
• How (and How Not) To Cover Extreme Heat: Scientifically, Ethically and Visually
• Safeguarding Your Sensitive Sources
• Covering Public Lands From the Ground Up

Morning Concurrent Session 6

All concurrent session times are subject to change. We will finalize sessions and times by Feb. 28.

• Literary Style and Climate Change Storytelling
• Protocols for Environmental Journalism Safety: Lessons From the Amazon
• Energy Efficiency
• The Electric Runway
• Skills for Covering Communities You’re Not a Part Of, Especially in the Wake of a Climate Catastrophe
• Choppy Waters: The National Implications of Petrochemical Pollution in Texas
• Just Transition in the Global South

Closing Plenary. Shaping Tomorrow: Who Is Leading Collaboration Across Sectors?

Lunch and SEJ Membership Forum

Afternoon Mini-Workshops

• Reimagining Environmental Journalism in a Perilous Era: A Mini-Workshop for Dreamers and Problem-Solvers
• The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Environmental Records

Mini-Tours

Stay tuned!

Afternoon Author Program at ASU Bookstore

Closing Party: Omni Hotel at ASU, Tempe

 

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