2025: The Year in Review

From the Director

This month, during my first quarter as Spence and Cleone Eccles Family Director, the Bill Lane Center celebrates its twentieth year advancing understanding of the past, present and future of the American West. I’m honored to step into this leadership role during a significant milestone year. 

Having arrived only a few months ago, I can’t take credit for the impressive scholarship that has emerged from the Center over the course of two decades. We stand on the shoulders of Bruce Cain, whose 12 years of leadership expanded the Center’s efforts across multiple disciplines and communities. Moreover, Cain’s strong commitment to mentorship continues to position students for success in their academic and career pursuits in the West. 

And we also owe a debt of gratitude to our co-founding directors, David Kennedy and Richard White, who set out on a mission in November of 2005 to make Stanford the premier place of study for the region. Taking stock of the wonderful programming and events the Center has produced over years, it seems there is ample evidence to suggest we have achieved this goal.

In addition to celebrating all we’ve accomplished in the past 20 years, we also look forward to an exciting new chapter for the Bill Lane Center as we design programming that leverages our recent acquisition of the California Historical Society (CHS) archives. 

The CHS collection contains more than 600,000 items documenting California’s state and local history, from the early 1800s to the present. It spans approximately 16,000 linear feet. Highlights include Gold Rush–era materials, records from statehood and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the extensive Peoples Temple Collection, early ACLU of Northern California records, and the Kemble Collections on Western Printing & Publishing. 

These archives stand as an unparalleled resource for studying the social, political, and environmental history of the West. We are thrilled to begin integrating its materials into our teaching and research, bringing it to bear on so much of the work we do here at the Center.

As we share some highlights from the past year  and offer a glimpse of where we’re headed next, we wish our community rest and renewal over the winter recess. We’re grateful to the scholars, students and partners whose work and wisdom continue to shape our understanding of the American West, and we look forward to connecting with you again after the break.

Happy trails,

Zephyr Frank
Spence and Cleone Eccles Family Director
The Bill Lane Center for the American West
 

Celebrating 20 Years of Scholarship and Solutions

As chronicled in this Stanford News article from July, for the past 20 years the Bill Lane Center for the American West has been growing as a vibrant interdisciplinary hub linking research, educational programming, and public engagement. From water governance and wildfire resilience to the energy transition and the arts, the areas of study centered in our classrooms, programs and research offer different lenses for approaching the challenges our region is up against. Increasingly, Lane Center students, faculty, and partners have helped shape major policy discussions related to how the West is grappling with grave climate change threats. We also have provided countless educational opportunities - in the classroom and out in the field - for students to develop a deeper appreciation of the region’s history, myths, competing stakeholder interests, diverse communities and shifting identities.

Since the 1990s, the academic community as a whole has shown greater interest in interdisciplinary study such as ours. And since our founding 20 years ago, we’ve been asking how we might use interdisciplinary study – regional study in particular – to engage the public in crucial conversations about stewarding the West into the future. Just this fall, Kate Gibson, associate director of the Lane Center, participated in a panel at the Western History Association’s annual conference to delve deeper into this question. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gibson and fellow panelists discussed the role and relevance of university-based Western studies centers at a moment when public trust, academic engagement, and enthusiasm for the humanities and social sciences are increasingly fragile. Titled “Centering the West in an Age of Disenchantment,” the session brought together directors and senior leaders from several prominent Western research centers to reflect on how these institutions can remain vital, innovative, and publicly relevant in the mid-2020s. It was the perfect conversation to have on the eve of our twentieth anniversary.

Indeed, November marks two decades of wading knee-deep into this important, interdisciplinary work, which remains vital and relevant thanks in part to the vision of Lane Center leadership. This year also marked a significant transition from Bruce Cain to Zephyr Frank as our new faculty director, who will continue to innovate and inject fresh ideas into the Center’s research, programming and educational agendas.  We welcome Zephyr with warmth and excitement, and we bid “happy trails” to Bruce Cain with gratitude for more than a decade of exemplary teaching and scholarship.

Educational Programming

Occasionally, a stand-out undergraduate demonstrates a unique commitment to the American West, taking advantage of every opportunity afforded by the Bill Lane Center to engage with the past, present and future of the region. Isaac Nehring is one such student, and this year, he was selected as a 2025 Truman Scholar for work on rural conservation and development.

Nehring came to Stanford from Montana with a passion for rural policy, land stewardship, and the outdoors. His time as a Bill Lane Center Student Ambassador, researcher, and program leader helped sharpen that focus, setting him on a path toward graduate study in environmental management.  The Truman Award recognizes not only Isaac’s academic and civic accomplishments, but also the very qualities the Center strives to cultivate in our students: intellectual curiosity, regional understanding, and a desire to strengthen the communities of the American West through public service. We are immensely proud of Isaac for this accomplishment.

The Center also funded Nehring’s self-designed summer research project, in which he examined the historical and contemporary intersections of agriculture and conservation in Central Montana. Drawing on twenty oral history interviews conducted across fourteen counties, his study traced how land use, ownership, and community identity have evolved in his home state. The project contributes meaningfully to the environmental and rural history of the American West, highlighting Central Montana as a microcosm of national debates about land, livelihood, and the meaning of conservation in the twenty-first century.

Undergraduate programming in general continues to thrive at the Lane Center, providing countless opportunities for students to dive into both classroom and field learning. This year, we supported 16 American West interns and 5 Shultz Energy Fellows, for a total of 21 student internships. We also sponsored a Sophomore College (SoCo) trip in September, accepting 15 students into our course,  Climate Resilience and Energy in Hawai‘i. The program offered students an immersive look at what it means to build a sustainable future in a state at the front lines of climate change. 

Led by Bruce Cain, students examined the practical, social, technical, and political dimensions of climate resilience in Hawai‘i — an environment that shares many of California’s climate goals, yet faces its own distinct vulnerabilities. As an island state, Hawai‘i is acutely exposed to warming temperatures, sea-level rise, intensifying storms, coastal erosion, wildfires, and biodiversity loss.

Traveling across more than 30 sites on Kaua‘i and O‘ahu, students met with local leaders, community organizations, scientists, cultural practitioners, and energy experts. On their final evening, they presented their research to Stanford alumni, covering topics ranging from Native perspectives on self-governance and sustainability to the restoration of fishponds and reef ecosystems. The students’ many learning experiences during SoCo underscored just how many voices and values must be considered — political, social, economic, local, and cultural — when planning for a resilient future.

Research

Our research assistants (RAs) once again produced a remarkable slate of projects, particularly over the summer, with research covering everything from groundwater recharge to energy policy to the histories of rural communities in the West. These fifteen impressive projects – some organized by the Bill Lane Center, others designed by students – were undertaken in collaboration with Stanford faculty and community partners. Throughout fall quarter, student researchers have been presenting their findings at our weekly American West Working Group sessions led by Esther Conrad, the Center’s research manager. In addition, nine undergraduate and graduate students conducted part-time research with the Center during the academic year, helping to sustain our involvement in on-going research initiatives with partner organizations.

Collectively, our 2025 student work offers valuable insight into how policy, risk, and equity intersect in conversations about housing and climate change. The research identifies how the region is transforming, the different communities that call it home, and the barriers Westerners are up against as they attempt to build and sustain lives in an era of heightened climate consciousness and climate threat. When the RAs presented their projects to the Bill Lane Center community, representatives from their partnering agencies were often in attendance, and they unilaterally offered high praise for all the students had accomplished. It was obvious that bringing the RA’s assiduous work to bear on complicated, real-world problems produced win-win collaborations for the students, the partners, and the communities they serve. Seeing the mutual rewards of these partnerships reaffirmed the value of placing solutions-focused projects at the heart of the Center’s research agenda.

In addition to mentoring student researchers and running the American West Working Group, Esther Conrad also advanced the Center’s policy work this year through a report co-authored with students Andrew Nevárez and Dev Madgavkar. Their June publication, City and County Fleet Electrification under California’s Advanced Clean Fleet Regulations: Preliminary Findings on Progress and Key Challenges, offers one of the first systematic looks at how local governments across California are navigating the state’s ambitious mandate to transition public fleets to zero-emission vehicles.

In Memoriam

Sadly, on October 6 of this year, we lost a significant research partner, mentor, colleague and friend: Dick Luthy. A professor of civil and environmental engineering, Luthy was a research affiliate of the Bill Lane Center for many years. Just months before he died, he had been advising Lane Center students on a project aimed at scaling up groundwater recharge in the San Joaquin Valley. This research was funded by the Sustainability Accelerator at the Doerr School, along with another Lane Center project investigating strategies to reduce agricultural groundwater demand. 

In addition to mentoring students, teaching Lane Center courses and producing highly influential research on sustainable water management, Luthy was also affiliated with our Water in the West program, jointly run with the Stanford Woods Institute. Established in 2010 to address the West’s growing water crisis, the program focuses on the kind of environmental work that mattered most to Luthy: finding solutions that can move the region toward a more sustainable water future. We honor Dick Luthy’s very meaningful legacy and feel immense gratitude for the partnership we enjoyed with him for over a decade.

Events and Conversations

Over the course of the year, we hosted and co-sponsored a range of events exploring the intersections of history, environment, and identity in the American West. With the LA wildfires erupting in January, early in 2025 the Center already had ample regional crises to address, which we did with a panel of experts in a highly informative webinar. 

The LA fires, which spread from wildland to urban areas and devastated communities with unprecedented speed, offered a stark reminder of the climate threats Californians now face. The Lane Center responded by exploring what these events might mean for the Bay Area — because panelists all agreed that the question is no longer if a major wildfire will strike here, but when.

The conversation featured three leaders with extensive knowledge of fire behavior, community preparedness, and climate policy. David Shew, Napa County’s first Fire Administrator and longtime CAL FIRE veteran, spoke to evolving statewide prevention strategies and new funding streams for resilience. Mark Brown, CEO of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, drew on decades of incident-command experience to highlight the importance of coordinated regional planning. And Michael Wara, director of Stanford’s Climate and Energy Policy Program, offered a broader view of how climate change and infrastructure decisions shape fire risk across California.

Guided by moderator Derek Fong, senior research engineer in Civil and Environmental Engineering, the discussion highlighted not only the inevitability of future wildfires, but the concrete steps Californians can take now. Home hardening, vegetation management, and large-scale planning and policy innovation will all be required to safeguard communities. Together, the panel underscored that the Bay Area’s wildfire future is still uncertain, and the decisions we make today will determine our resilience in the years ahead.

As in other years, we also hosted a number of programs on western history, co-sponsored with the History Department. Event recordings of the Western History Lecture Series are available on our website, as are recordings of our ArtsWest events, which feature Western-based artists, writers, and cultural leaders who are inspired by the region’s lifestyle and landscape.

February took us to Fresno for the Eleventh Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, “People and Places: Unlocking the Central Valley’s Potential in California’s Climate Future.” It was another exceptional showcasing of critical developments in rural communities that are improving many lives across the region. 

This year, we co-hosted the conference with the California Water Institute and The Maddy Institute. Scholars, policymakers, and community leaders gathered at California State University, Fresno to address the Central Valley’s evolving role in climate adaptation, agriculture, water management, health, and rural economic development. Discussions focused on how rural communities can lead in climate resilience, renewable energy, sustainable land use, and more. Over the course of two days, featured speakers and five expert panels conveyed a rich tapestry of perspectives on issues that will shape the future of Central Valley communities and the state of California as a whole.

For our annual Stanford to the Sea event, in April, members of the Lane Center community hiked 22 miles from Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve to San Gregorio State Beach before gathering at TomKat Ranch for a special 20th anniversary dinner. We are immensely grateful to Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor for hosting such a meaningful and festive celebration honoring the Bill Lane Center’s two decades of accomplishments.

A “state of the art” State of the West conference followed in May of 2025, with this year’s panels focused on the future of the Columbia River Basin. Though it is a vital transboundary waterway, sustaining life for millions of Canadians and Americans, the Columbia faces an existential threat from climate change, dam operations, and conflicts among stakeholders over water, power and salmon. Panelists took up a range of issues central to the river’s health and prospects, from bi-national cooperation to the concerns of Native Americans and First Nations, to energy and hydropower, navigation, flood control, irrigation, environmental services and more. If you missed it, the conference can be viewed online.

As always, we will continue to share recordings of select events as they become available. You can always check back at our Past Events web page to stay updated.

Reporting

Our online magazine, & the West, also continues to publish deeply reported stories at the intersection of science, policy, and history. A standout recent piece by a student intern — “Buried in the soil or drifting on the wind, Valley fever fungus spreads further around the Southwest” — explores how the disease, endemic to the Southwest, is spreading as climate patterns shift and soils dry out. Other noteworthy  stories from 2025 include Felicity Barringer’s January piece about the future of California's groundwater ten years after the passage of the historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act; her April article on data centers, which have been popping up across the West and placing huge demands on electricity and water systems; and Gabriel Nagel’s report on new, experimental nuclear reactor technology. A just-published story on the revival of Allensworth, a historic Black town in the Central Valley, is also a must-read. It features the remarkable grit of a family determined to free their community from the economic and environmental racism that once threatened its future.

In other journalism news, the 2025 Lane Center Western Media Fellow, Lynda Mapes, delivered a deeply insightful two-part series on the Columbia River for the Seattle Times in May. Her first piece offered a broad overview of the river's history, and why, today, it finds itself at a crossroads.  The second piece examined the existential threat faced by the river basin, which has been pushed to the brink as a primary source of fish, energy and commerce for both the U.S. and Canada. Mapes’ work on this topic dovetailed nicely with our 2025 State of the West Symposium, “Two Countries, One River: History, Health, and Future of the Columbia Basin.”

After a competitive application cycle, we were proud to select our 2026 Western Media Fellow just last month. This year’s awardee is Michael Stoll, who will be writing a series of essays on California’s struggle to move beyond a deeply-ingrained car culture toward a carbon-neutral future. With a stipend from the Lane Center, Stoll will investigate what this transition reveals about the American West’s intertwined crises of climate, land use and identity. 

In reviewing his proposal, we appreciated how his topic overlapped with ongoing Lane Center research on municipal fleet electrification in California. Clean transportation – and the many roadblocks to achieving it – is a defining policy issue of the moment for our state, and we look forward to reading what will undoubtedly be a deeply-researched and relevant series of essays.

Looking Ahead

As we move into our third decade, we look forward to more curiosity, more collaboration, and more exploration. Those who study the West understand how traditionally, the frontier mindset of “more” – the ideology of boundless expansion undergirding the region’s settlement in the 18th and 19th centuries – proved to be highly problematic. Territorial expansion carried with it the violent displacement of Indigenous people and the disruption of lands and ecosystems. But when directed toward intellectual frontiers rather than geographic ones, that same drive to explore the unknown yields great benefits — opening new research possibilities for students and scholars who care deeply about the American West. 

In the year ahead, we hope to pioneer the new frontiers of scholarship afforded to us by our acquisition of the California Historical Society archives. We hope to give our students opportunities to investigate known and unknown regional histories and myths in our spring quarter American West Course. We’ll probe the depths of anti-Chinese discrimination in our Western History Lecture Series, and we’ll chart new territory in a fresh partnership with Montana State University for our 12th Annual Rural West Conference.

Thank you for continuing to be a part of our community. Joined by our respect for the landscapes and communities that make the West what it is, we will continue to sustain the region together, now and for generations to come. We hope you have a wonderful winter break, and we look forward to connecting with you in 2026.

Happy holidays and happy trails,
Your friends at the Bill Lane Center for the American West