Murphy Woodhouse
Idaho Reporter, Mountain West News BureauExpertise: Audio production, field reporting, photography, wildfire policy
Education: University of Montana + University of Arizona
Highlights
- I’m fluent in Spanish and love putting Spanish on the air
- I’m an all-conditions bike commuter and e-bike evangelist – EVERY day is a good day to ride
- I’ve seen two total solar eclipses, and intend to see many more before I die
Experience
I joined Boise State Public Radio and the Mountain West News Bureau (MWNB) in April 2023 after about a decade working as a print and radio reporter on both sides of the Arizona-Sonora border. Most recently I was based in the Sonoran capital Hermosillo working for the Phoenix NPR affiliate KJZZ. At the MWNB, I’ve tried to leverage my past experience as a wildland firefighter to provide listeners with informed coverage of a number of key issues in wildland fire. I’m especially interested in efforts to improve the famously challenging and dangerous working conditions on the fireline.
I’ve been a news photographer for a number of years now, but have more recently decided to really hone my skills. As a part of that, I try to have a camera on me whenever I’m out and about. I love sharing images that capture something essential about wherever I’m shooting, like young folks flinging themselves off the Greenbelt truss bridge last summer or car lights stretching along Highway 28 as meteors streak overhead in the lonely Lemhi Valley.
Email: Trail tips? Story tips? Know a secret the public ought to hear? Drop me a line!
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Satellites like NOAA and NASA’s GOES constellation have been an important fire science tool for years. Over the summer, the nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance launched the first three satellites of its FireSat program, and the first images taken by them were recently released. -
Twenty firefighters have died so far this season, and hundreds of homes have been destroyed across the West. -
Vicki Christiansen, who retired as Forest Service chief in 2021, pointed to aggressive agency mandates to quickly extinguish fires as a possible factor at play during this dangerous season. -
A bill — known as the Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act — was recently introduced in both chambers of Congress, and enjoys bipartisan support. -
The Yellow Pine Country Club is free to play, and you don't even need to bring your own clubs and balls. But tournaments there are part of how the remote, unincorporated town pays for things like fire station additions. -
As the insurance crisis deepens in the West and across the country, policies known as surplus lines are becoming more important. This lightly regulated and previously niche corner of the insurance market comes with a number of risks, and a new report from Climate Cabinet Education offers policy recommendations. -
In 2025, roughly 4.5% of Utah homeowners policies — or nearly 1 in 20 — were not renewed by insurance providers. That’s the highest rate in the country, and 1.5% higher than the number two state California. -
The faster a fire burns, the more severe its ecological impacts. That’s one of the findings of a new paper in the journal Science Advances. Climate change only promises to further accelerate those fires, according to its lead author. -
Blame wildfires and hail — made more destructive by climate change — for the deteriorating insurance situation in the West. Add in hurricanes and other disasters elsewhere, and it’s a nationwide trend — one that a new report from the advocacy group the Insurance Fairness Project says is threatening home sales. -
From Spokane, Wash. to Pueblo County, Colo., fast-moving fires have again wreaked havoc in neighborhoods this summer. Now, a network of scientists, fire professionals and other experts have joined forces to seek research-based solutions to the problem.
