Deborah Blum - Environmental Journalism

Environmental Journalism

After earning a master's in environmental journalism from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Blum returned to the Fresno Bee, where she became an award-winning environmental reporter. She was the first to report on the startling incidence of severely deformed waterfowl at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, where poor management of irrigation runnoff had polluted the wetland with toxic levels of the chemical selenium. Her work for the Fresno Bee put the midsized paper ahead of much larger regional rivals, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times in covering a major environmental story.