Exit strategies

North Idaho offers a window into what a right-wing vision for a Christian America can look like — and the power it can wield in state politics.

The proposal is rooted in the so-called Greater Idaho movement, which seeks to include about 11 counties, or 63% of Oregon’s landmass, within Idaho’s borders because proponents of the plan think eastern Oregon is more politically and culturally aligned with Idaho than Oregon’s larger progressive cities in the western part of the state.

Will Grand Targhee Resort expansion put Teton Valley, Idaho, on course to become a doppelgänger of Big Sky? A county commissioner voices her concerns.

Colorado's housing crisis threatens resort town with worker shortages, but development poses its own challenges.

Utah state Sen. Chris Wilson wants to fund a study on how best to manage and maintain Bear Lake in northern Utah, an area where over 1 million people visit every year.

Opponents say a pair of proposals to redefine electric bikes would have unintended consequences on multi-use trails that span management jurisdictions.

Advocates for wilderness and snowmobiles agree on at least one thing about the Great Burn: The 252,000-acre jumble of peaks and lakes along the Montana-Idaho border still holds qualities increasingly hard to find elsewhere. What they disagree about is whether snowmobiles and snowbikes should be allowed into the Great Burn in the winter.

Persistent drought could finally force resolution of the debate over how to account for evaporative losses in the West's major waterway.

Lake Powell’s record low is actually a good sign — if looked at from a certain angle — because it indicates that water managers are confident enough in this year’s snowpack to release a bit more water from Lake Powell than they otherwise would.

Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico are asking the Bureau of Reclamation to pause water releases at Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which has been used to help prop up Lake Powell.

The System Conservation Pilot Program was recently rebooted with $125 million in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to fight shrinking water levels in Lake Powell.

A New Mexico law providing a tax break meant to help subsistence farming throughout the state has also been granted to “hobby farmers” and wealthy landowners who don’t farm at all and use water meant for crop irrigation on what are expansive yards in the state’s most populous county, according to a new study.

Phoenix has long been one of America's fastest growing cities. But central Arizona may finally be facing a reckoning as much of its groundwater supplies are becoming tapped out.

Tax documents show an Xcel Energy executive served as a board member for Coloradans for Energy Access, a group dedicated to battling climate measures.

It’s the tale of two resolutions, and it clarifies the Legislature’s priorities around energy and climate.

A federal judge has sided again with the Biden administration and a Canadian-based mining company in a high-stakes legal battle with environmentalists and tribal leaders trying to block a huge lithium mine in Nevada near the Oregon line.

Plans for the first U.S. small modular nuclear power reactor got a boost on Tuesday as some Western U.S. cities vowed to continue with the NuScale Power Corp project despite a jump in projected costs. NuScale plans to build a demonstration small modular reactor power plant at the Idaho National Laboratory.

The wind project is exactly the type the Biden administration says is needed to transition the country’s energy supply away from fossil fuels. But locals are opposed.

Oregon’s Japanese American community is raising concerns about a proposal to build hundreds of wind turbines just miles from the historic site of the Minidoka prison camp in Idaho.

The effort is part of a broader federal initiative to permit enough renewable energy on public land to power five million homes by 2025.

A new law authorizes the governor’s office to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delegate authority over rare earth mines’ often-hazardous byproducts to the state.

Whether through litigation, ban or mandate, energy legislation has centered on helping fossil fuels while erecting cautionary sideboards for wind and solar.

The bill’s sponsor told conservative host Glenn Beck that there was an agreement to save the plant, but the final bill doesn’t do that.

Sovereign-to-sovereign agreement, once the top legislative priority for wildlife managers, fell apart once it lost tribes’ support. Clarifying off-reservation hunting parameters now falls more squarely in the courtroom.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza — or bird flu — sweeping across the globe has killed more than 12,000 wild birds in Colorado and the virus is jumping into mammal populations as well, state wildlife officials say.

A community science project reintroduces humans to their fellow mammals.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners hosted the fifth and final public meeting on wolf reintroduction plan Wednesday, with possible plans to allow the killing of wolves the most controversial topic.

Less than a century ago, Colorado hunted, trapped and poisoned all the wolves within its borders. Today it’s restoring them – a change that reflects a profound shift in human thinking.

A male wolf trekked from the Dillon area to the Pryor Mountains last year before killing livestock and being shot. This is the first documented wolf in the island mountain range.

The sponsor of a trio of bills expanding territory for wolf trapping and hound hunting for black bears said the legislation would better delineate areas where certain restrictions apply as he continues negotiations with state wildlife managers. But opposition expressed concern that the bills could jeopardize efforts to delist grizzly bears.

As grizzly populations expand and more people move into bear country, wildlife officials in the lower 48 struggle to find places to relocate bears.

Federal agency’s new deputy director, Siva Sundaresan, advocated for environmental causes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for nearly a decade.

University of Montana environmental philosophy professor Christopher Preston's new book is called "Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife recoveries that change how we think about animals."

Emails obtained by InvestigateWest reveal a cozy relationship between EPA officials and mining companies in Butte. Thousands of pages of documents detail how the EPA coordinated with the very companies they’re supposed to be regulating to attack researchers and smear peer-reviewed science that has raised alarms over current mining practices.

What does a statue dedicated to mothers reveal about women’s rights?

Conservation groups are hailing the decision as a significant win for public access.

Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade, expands his presence in northwest Wyoming with acquisition of remote inholding, though that property may be a pawn for larger plans.

A major land exchange 22 years in the making is moving toward completion, barring public opposition — the loudest of which is coming from a Basalt-based public lands group with a history of opposing such deals.

Colorado’s pollution regulators would have to scrutinize permits for pollution sources more strictly, under a proposed bill backed by clean air advocates.

The US Magnesium plant on the southwest shore of Great Salt Lake may be a critical source of the nation’s magnesium, but it also contributes heavily to Utah’s air quality woes. Now state regulators are seeking greater latitude from federal authorities to force the plant to reduce emissions.

Picking through trash left by high-season tourists will help towns in San Miguel County figure out how to change what people toss and why.

A proposal to allow a company to move uranium tailings close to a Navajo community worries residents, who believe their plight has been ignored.

Can the Navajo Nation’s youngest-ever president improve the path on the largest reservation in the U.S.?

Mapping the state of the rails across the region.

“Sentinels” exhibit explores juniper and piñon pines in Southeast Utah

This threatened tree feeds and shelters the high country.

Drought can stress trees to death, but heat’s effects are less known. New research could hold the keys to protecting conifer forests.