In hot water

Northwest Montana rivers and streams are historically low, prompting agency officials to ask anglers to take voluntary steps to reduce stress on native cold-water trout species, or else face the prospect of closures.

The Flathead County Commissioners on July 24 requested Gov. Greg Gianforte issue a disaster declaration for both Flathead and Lake counties to alleviate the economic impacts of Flathead Lake’s historic low water levels.

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks implemented fishing restrictions on additional rivers in southwest Montana this week, adding to a growing list of area waterways impacted by high temperatures and low stream flows.

Snake River sockeye salmon are making a good showing at Bonneville Dam, but the endangered fish must contend with rising water temperatures to complete their daunting 900-mile journey back to Idaho.

Several groups say the Snake River dams are making the river too hot for sockeye salmon. Now, they’re planning to sue the federal government.

Last week, the River Forecast Centre reported 74 of roughly 350 river monitoring stations across the province measured record low flows, including a number of stations in the Fraser Valley. "This is unprecedented," said Dave Campbell, RFC head.

If finalized, the rule would put companies under more pressure to see their drilling projects through — a notable change to a federal program that has struggled to prevent wells from being abandoned in the past.

Both conservationists and the petroleum lobby say the higher bonding amount would scuttle leasing in low-probability areas, which is mostly what Montana has.

This week’s federal oil and gas lease sale of just four parcels of land in Nevada shows that an Obama and Trump-era rush by drillers to lease land in a state with little oil has ended for now, even as it has inspired anti-speculation legislation in Congress.

Colorado on Thursday approved the nation’s first requirements for having oil and gas companies measure and document methane emissions from their wells in ways state regulators can validate.

Public concerns about rail safety have grown in the wake of the East Palestine disaster and the approval of the Uinta Basin Railway.

Battles over public and private lands throughout the American West have played out for generations, often over the massive swaths of territory owned by the federal government or the vast expanses closed off by wealthy landowners. This is a different sort of tussle, perhaps a distinctly 21st century one, featuring property owners who don’t want to keep others out but fear potential liability and litigation.

Four hunters are fighting a Wyoming landowner’s effort to temporarily block a judge’s order that corner crossing is not trespassing.

Climbers in western Colorado know the thrill of working their way up the tricky rock faces of desert canyons and mountain crags. But those who enjoy practicing the sport in remote areas worry they could lose safe access to some routes, if a key piece of safety equipment is banned on some public lands.

Lander’s International Climbers’ Festival hits 30 years. A founder looks back on three decades of sending and celebration.

Utah’s Department of Transportation released renderings of the finished product, and people are surprised.

A solar cell production facility is coming to Colorado Springs and soon, hundreds of new jobs will open for the Switzerland-owned Meyer Burger Plant.

“We are about to see another energy industrial revolution, and Nevada is at the center of that,” said Jaina Moan, Nevada external affairs director for the Nature Conservancy. “But there’s no one master plan to guide all of this development.”

Rocky Mountain Power program gives rebates to customers who let the utility use their home-battery systems when needed.

Private companies are already making major investments in EV charging. But should monopoly utilities, like Xcel, support them or build their own?

While livestock drew much of the focus during wolf reintroduction meetings, deer and elk will also share the state with Colorado’s new lupine residents.

Several states in the West, including Idaho, have loosened hunting laws to promote culling more cougars. But the belief that this will lessen conflict ignores what we know of how mountain lions structure their societies, critics say.

Beavers relocated to a remote Idaho valley have transformed the landscape into a lush wetland and a haven against fire and drought, satellite imagery shows.

The victim of the fatal grizzly bear mauling on a popular trail system west of the town of West Yellowstone last Saturday was a 48-year-old woman from Kansas, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office announced, and efforts to trap the bear will cease on Tuesday.

Climate change’s sweaty fingerprints are all over the July heat waves gripping much of the globe. A new study finds these intense and deadly hot spells in the American Southwest and Southern Europe could not have occurred without it.

From 2000 to 2021, climate change caused the loss of more than 40 trillion liters (10 trillion gallons) of water in the Colorado River Basin — about equal to the entire storage capacity of Lake Mead — according to a new study that modeled humans’ impact on hydrology in the region.

Colorado River researchers say the system’s mega-reservoirs will likely never fill to half way. Smaller ones higher in the watershed are less prone to evaporation.

Timberon has water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink (or flush). Blame the pipes.

More than 66 tons of the black, gooey stuff have been removed from the river since the June 24 accident, officials said. Most of the spilled material — a binder for asphalt that sticks to river rocks and gets harder to handle as it warms — is expected to get left behind.

Using water quality research to bring healing and sovereignty to the Apsáalooke.

LeAnn Miller works to connect rural producers with urban consumers in a state of vast highways and harsh growing conditions.

Table to Farm Compost strives to capture food waste across La Plata County.

Tourism officials at Lake Tahoe were surprised when a respected international travel guide included the iconic alpine lake on a list of places to stay away from this year because of the harmful ecological effects of overtourism.

The study also documents significant deposition in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and Idaho, as well as dozens of federally-recognized tribal lands, potentially strengthening the case for people seeking expanded compensation in those areas.

The recent Haaland v. Brackeen victory for Indian children is undermined by a 2022 ruling authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

A far-right activist who led the takeover of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon now must pay millions of dollars in damages after a hospital in Idaho won a defamation lawsuit against them.