Montana’s climate trial

In their complaint, filed in 2020, the young activists seized on language in the Montana state Constitution that guarantees residents “the right to a clean and healthful environment,” and stipulates that the state and individuals are responsible for maintaining and improving the environment “for present and future generations.” It is a concise but untested legal challenge to a state government that has taken a sharp turn to the right in recent years, and is aggressively defending itself.

Dire consequences of a shrinking Great Salt Lake.

Utah’s phenomenal, record-breaking winter has already given the Great Salt Lake a boost, but it will take a few more decent winters before it reaches a safe and sustainable elevation.

View data about all of the state’s 114 golf courses in an interactive map and spreadsheet.

Authorities will pay the Gila River Indian Community and Colorado River Indian Tribes hundreds of millions of dollars to use less water from the river.

Supporters say it's not only designed to rein in drilling and hydraulic fracturing across the state — it's also meant as a referendum on Gov. Jared Polis' approach to climate change.

Legislation being proposed in the Colorado General Assembly would make the state’s air pollution permitting rules more stringent, largely impacting the oil and gas industry and setting up a potential showdown between the governor and supporters of the bill in the statehouse and among environmental groups.

Arapahoe County’s commissioners on Tuesday narrowly voted down a six-month moratorium on all new oil and gas drilling in the county, a decision at odds with the concerns of dozens of Aurora residents worried about the impact of energy extraction on their doorstep.

Colorado officials abruptly withdrew a proposal to lease state public land near Rangely for a Utah power company’s 50 megawatt gas-fired electric plant after questions about why the Polis administration would support new fossil fuel energy.

Within a sea of Patagonia and sunglasses, some of Colorado’s state and federal lawmakers stood beside the banks of the Colorado River at Grizzly Creek on Friday afternoon, objecting to a major proposal that would significantly intensify oil-train traffic along the Colorado River in Garfield County and beyond.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week vetoed tax credits for electric vehicles, energy storage and geothermal power and said the oil-rich state must be careful not to overspend during the current boom in energy prices.

Opponents continue to raise their voices against the massive wind energy project proposed for public land in three counties in southern Idaho.

An inventory of some 30 coal mine and coal plant facilities sets the stage for encouraging new uses, and helps communities facing economic transition.

The bottom line of the recent announcement from Rocky Mountain Power is the bottom line. As a business plan, coal no longer works. And the corporations that sell us our power are clear-eyed enough to see that.

Heat pumps — which heat buildings by transferring heat rather than burning a fuel — are growing in popularity as an earth-friendly method to stay warm inside. Financial incentives from utilities and the federal government are driving interest.

And how a “green energy” firm could stymie big coal leases by rescuing a controversial Australian company.

Bitcoin mines cash in on electricity — by devouring it, selling it, even turning it off — and they cause immense pollution. In many cases, the public pays a price.

Fossil fuel divestment pledges by investors including sovereign wealth funds, trusts and foundations which gain traction on social media have an outsized impact on carbon-intensive companies, wiping billions off their market value, new research has found.

A new economic impact analysis of nonresident spending in Montana shows visitors to the Treasure State spend nearly $4.5 billion during travel, money that supports local restaurants, hotels and other tourism-oriented businesses.

While the heavy flow of tourism keeps the town afloat, it’s a double-edged sword. The small town demands big-town infrastructure, but its wastewater treatment plant is often overworked and overloaded, an issue that has seeped into multiple corners of the town and added to its housing woes.

On Tuesday, Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke attended a roundtable discussion in the Glacier gateway community of Columbia Falls where he called for major changes to the system that was first introduced a few years ago to handle the park’s skyrocketing visitation.

Nevada's natural areas are being overrun. That’s been great for the state’s tourism industry, but not so good for the environment.

Colorado has spent nearly $300,000 in taxpayer money on private weddings in the state as part of an incentive program meant to lure event planners to spend money here and bolster local economies after the pandemic.

Native American tribal members fighting plans for an enormous copper mine on land they consider sacred say they are increasingly worried U.S. officials will move forward on the project even as they await a federal appellate court ruling in the case.

The new monument would protect land considered sacred and culturally significant to tribes and would block new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.

Here are some of the most common ways a few over-the-line landowners obstruct access to public lands and waters, and what to do if you run into it.

Elk Mountain Ranch owner Fred Eshelman and four Missouri hunters he is suing for some $9.4 million are listed as potential witnesses in a federal corner-crossing trespass trial scheduled for June 26.

Paper Trails follows the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Eastman’s Hunting Journal through a confusing patchwork of public and private land.

The pack was confirmed during the state's annual wolf survey and has a minimum of four members. Biologists also confirmed a pack in the Southern Cascades and the Northwest Coast recovery region; an important step toward full statewide recovery per the state’s wolf plan.

Grizzlies are out and wildlife is severely stressed. States issue warnings that recreationists need to be smart and, most importantly, respect space of animals or they could perish.

A Texas couple is suing to remove Teton County’s new wildlife-friendly fencing regulations, sparking a legal debate about “tall horses,” the “police power of government” and who should protect Jackson Hole’s wildlife. Wildlife advocates call the lawsuit alarming.

Wildlife advocates have raised concerns that a bill under consideration in the Colorado statehouse would delay the reintroduction of gray wolves by six years, in conflict with the will of the voters who approved the reintroduction in 2020.

Four mountain lions are among the Colorado mammals felled by a crossover of the avian flu epidemic to larger animals, but state wildlife officials say the trend has slowed even as they warily eye the spring bird migration.

“I’ve found that once I begin trying to untangle nature and property, the more I question the appropriateness of such categories,” writes historian Adam M. Sowards.

Temperatures globally were several degrees above average in most places outside the western United States, where a stagnant weather pattern allowed cooler than typical readings to hang around most of the month.

There are quite a few things working against us when it comes to understanding how urgently we need to act on climate change. But there's also the simple fact that we can't literally see how we're changing the atmosphere. It’s time to give the atmosphere its due.

Surveying the loss of homes in wildfires and a half-century of rapid growth, a new measure introduced by the governor and state Democrats promotes sustainable land use and climate-resilient communities.

As the Legislature slogs toward the finish line, here's a roundup of efforts to address what many say is Montana's top issue.

Some ramblings on supposed safe havens from climate change and nuclear war.

A dialect from the state’s earliest Spanish-speaking settlers has endured for over 400 years in the state’s remote mountain villages. But its time may be running out.

A Colorado couple who ran a string of mountain town newspapers under the banner of Arkansas Valley Publishing has sold them to an Arizona-based company.