On the Great Salt Lake's salvation

In July 1847, four days after the Latter-day Saints reached the Great Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and pioneers were floating in the briny lake.

The Frontline dives into the history of Indigenous people harvesting salt from the drying Great Salt Lake.

Many farmers have expressed reluctance about participating in the new water leasing program. The Salt Lake Tribune spoke to irrigators throughout the Great Salt Lake basin to understand why.

The bills are tied to nearly a half-billion dollars in funding for water conservation measures.

“Even in wet years, conservation is crucially important. We’re still in a drought, we still have issues with the Great Salt Lake, we still have declining groundwater levels.”

A parade of atmospheric rivers dumped historic rain and snow on California and beyond. What happens next?

Biologists say pronghorn numbers naturally fluctuate, but this winter is hitting the species particularly hard in some areas.

Reservoirs and streams are in good shape in California and the Great Basin, but groundwater and ecosystems are another story. And then there’s the Colorado River Basin.

A high-altitude labor movement is burgeoning as ski resorts have consolidated and crowds have swelled, stressing working conditions for patrollers.

Part of Utah's alfalfa harvest is exported, raising questions about the wisdom of using Utah's precious water to feed dairy cows in Asia.

After 50 years, the government hasn’t developed water infrastructure owed to a Navajo Nation farm. Now the Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the government’s water obligations to tribes.

As the American West battles its worst megadrought in over 1,200 years, state elected officials throughout the region are rethinking how groundwater is used and who gets access to it — with some even targeting foreign-owned companies.

Conservation groups such as Trout Unlimited and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers have expressed serious concerns about the proposed mine.

Federal scientists are using recon flights and field research to track down metals that are key to the energy transition.

“Nevada is positioned to be ground zero for the energy transition and to play a key role in securing the energy independence and security of the United States,” a new strategic plan states.

Texas-based Arcosa Inc. announced Tuesday its subsidiary, Arcosa Wind Towers, will open a wind-tower production facility in Belen, N.M., with production to begin as soon as next year

The groups charge BLM with failing to consider the project's impacts on lands used for subsistence by Alaska Natives and argue the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to properly consider Willow's potential impacts on endangered species such as polar bears.

Five decades ago, the late Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah described America’s “power madness.”

President Biden plans next week to designate nearly a half-million acres of the Spirit Mountain area in southern Nevada — known as Avi Kwa Ame in Mojave — as a national monument, protecting some of the most biologically diverse and culturally significant lands in the Mojave Desert.

“I know we work just as hard as other schools, but once it comes to the games, we get treated so different. Sometimes, it just seems like (the refs) don’t like to see us do good.”

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed legislation codifying the Indian Child Welfare Act into state law. A similar bill is moving through the Montana Legislature.

Montana is the only state in the nation where the percentage of Indigenous elected lawmakers exceeds the state’s overall Indigenous population, potentially giving Native Americans a bigger voice in their government.

Dozens of bison from a mountain park outside Denver were transferred Wednesday to several tribes from across the Great Plains, in the latest example of Native Americans reclaiming stewardship over animals their ancestors lived alongside for millennia.

Gas prices that rose when Colorado’s only petroleum refinery closed are expected to drop. But residents who’ve dealt with Suncor’s pollution for decades aren’t so thrilled — and they have a plan.

A year-long air monitoring project in Commerce City found there are more harmful pollutants in the air than people realize, and advocates say federal and state environmental authorities are not doing enough to regulate those emissions and protect people’s health.

A new “good neighbor” rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency will restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution they can’t control.

Ranchers and other residents across Moffat County are focused on obtaining what they see as the most favorable regulations possible when Colorado reintroduces gray wolves in the state.

While Fish and Wildlife may have taken its time to roll out a final rule on its grizzly bear recovery plan, grizzly bears have managed to make their way back to the Bitterroot Ecosystem on their own.

It’s a hallmark trait of bears, a characteristic known even by small children: bruins hibernate through winter. Except, this year around Missoula, many of them aren’t.

Idaho lawmakers have moved forward with a bill crafted by a Rexburg drive-thru wildlife park that would remove Idaho Fish and Game and Idaho State Department of Agriculture oversight for similar facilities.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Montana Trout Unlimited want to find a way to increase dissolved oxygen for a shrinking population of Arctic grayling in a wilderness area. No easy task, as it turns out.

An entomologist races to find them before they disappear.

Scientists say that surpassing 1.5 degrees C could trigger a cascade of tipping points, which would irreversibly alter the global climate system and further exacerbate warming.

New research suggests the decline was a fundamental change unlikely to be reversed this century — perhaps proof that the planet has passed an alarming climactic tipping point.

A new study found that the capacity of oceans to absorb carbon dioxide will be severely diminished by the start of the next century, leaving more carbon in the atmosphere and accelerating climate change.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a legal brief on Thursday in support of local governments in Colorado that are part of a growing wave of local and state governments pursuing climate litigation against fossil fuel companies

The case argues that state laws directing Utah government agencies to "systematically authorize fossil fuel development" are unconstitutional because they cause dangerous air pollution and climate change in Utah, "taking years off the youths' lives and substantially endangering their health and safety."

Federal officials proposed to slash their acceptable standards Tuesday for concentrations of PFAS, toxic “forever chemicals” in water in a long-anticipated announcement with widespread implications in Colorado and the rest of the country.

Environmental groups 10 years into fighting a plan to build a luxury home community above Edwards have sued the Forest Service to overturn the agency’s approval of a road across public land to access the island of private property.

State officials around the Mountain West are looking to provide property tax relief to residents as they struggle with the increasing costs of living in the region.

The median sales price of all homes sold in the Missoula area in 2022 was $520,000, an all-time record for a year’s worth of sales and a $70,000 (15.5%) increase over 2021.

Montana lawmakers are eyeing changes to a loophole increasingly used to facilitate residential development. Opponents say the real estate and building industries are turning water appropriation on its head.

Whitefish Mountain Resort gains recertification as whitebark pine friendly ski area for its efforts to promote conservation of a threatened keystone species.

It is one of the few private parcels left in Glacier National Park. Private land in Glacier is governed by Flathead County, not the National Park Service.

Marijke Stob recently launched Superbloom Gear Repair in Whitefish to extend the lifespan of outdoor gear and apparel while promoting recycled materials and less waste.

Over the past three decades, the DEQ-administered program has closed more than 1,600 mine openings around the state. It recently received funding for another 15 years of work.

People are choosing alkaline hydrolysis for themselves and loved ones. The process is considered more environmentally friendly than traditional flame cremation.