Joshua Yeager covers the environment, rural issues and local governments for the Visalia Times-Delta newspaper in the heart of the agricultural San Joaquin Valley. He has devoted his three-year career at the paper to exposing inequalities in Tulare County towns suffering contaminated and insufficient drinking water. He won a first-place California News Papers Association award for his coverage of Sierra Nevada’s historic 2020 wildfire season. An avid Sierra hiker, he has recently investigated forest management policy oversights that have resulted in the death of thousands of giant sequoia trees.
Beat: Tulare County
This reporter covers California's Central Valley South with a focus on Tulare county. Tulare is home to the World Ag Expo, Congressman Devin Nunes and some 70,000 people – and its growth-minded leaders envision it spreading wider across some of the world's most important farmland. Tulare's elites are wealthy and powerful. Deep-rooted ag families have amassed fortunes. Yet more than one in five residents live at or below the poverty line. Just 11 percent of Tulare residents have a college degree. Sixty-one percent are Latino and 45 percent speak a language other than English. This reporter will focus heavily on local government accountability and water availability/issues related to growth, development and farming.