Questions of coexistence

Eli Francovich’s “The Return of Wolves” explores the wolf-human divide and can teach Coloradans what to expect with the wolf reintroduction.

The measure, proposed by Western Slope lawmakers whose constituents largely opposed reintroduction, would have hinged the effort on a specific type of federal authorization that would allow state officials to manage (capture, relocate or even kill) wolves.

The lack of sound science isn’t what’s keeping land management agencies from effectively dealing with the horse conundrum. It’s the politics.

Grizzly bear population growth has slowed significantly in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, only increasing slightly for the last decade, according to a U.S. Geological Survey official.

Following the deadliest winter on record in which a disease outbreak compounded fatalities, the fate of the long-distance travelers that winter in the Green River basin but sojourn for the summer in Grand Teton National Park, the National Elk Refuge and along the Gros Ventre River is unclear. Wildlife scientists aren’t sure how many remain.

Surrounded by industrial development and human habitation, less than three dozen caribou remain on Wet’suwet’en territory. As government biologists fight to keep the herd alive, recovery efforts will need to look to the past to plan for the future.

The Biden administration says it has completed a court-ordered review that should ensure construction continues at a Nevada lithium mine, despite legal challenges brought by conservationists and tribal leaders.

Members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and the Oglala Sioux Tribe erected a roughly 20-foot-tall tipi in the path of a water pipe set to be installed across the property.

“There’s mining companies drilling all over the place looking for lithium right now. We don’t know what else is gonna pop up.”

Australian company hypes its proposed Utah Lithium Project.

Can nuclear replace the tax base, jobs and generation of coal plants at Pueblo and Craig? Maybe, but tough questions remain to be answered.

The AP’s findings — that significant numbers of eagles continue to die while fewer criminal cases are pursued — underscore a dilemma facing the Biden administration as it tries to confront climate change.

A South Korean energy firm is proposing to build and operate a 600-megawatt array of photovoltaic panels across nearly 4,300 acres of public land in Beaver County.

The White House wants Congress to pass permitting reform. In case that doesn't work, it's tapping DOE's authority to make it easier to build transmission.

The Empowering Rural America program will make $9.7 billion available for rural electric cooperatives to create renewable energy, zero-emission and carbon capture systems.

Colorado’s Boulder County won’t be forced to lease oil and gas located miles below open space purchased with taxpayer dollars after an energy company withdrew the project from consideration by state regulators.

Roughly 13 premature deaths linked to oil and gas production occurred in Wyoming in 2016, according to a peer-reviewed analysis published last week.

It’s been boring, hard work, but it promises historic results — and it was almost undone by state legislators demanding more regulations.

As written, the Public Lands Rule would allow BLM lands to be leased not only for uses like drilling and grazing, but also for conservation. Wyoming’s top elected officials and a number of industry members have declared the measure an illegal attack on ranching and oil and gas development in the state.

At an online public meeting Monday night, Bureau of Land Management officials said that the proposal adding conservation as a management priority would not undermine the bureau's multiple-use mandate.

House Republicans peppered Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning with an array of questions and concerns about budget spending priorities, energy development, and the legitimacy of climate change science during a hearing Tuesday that highlighted the deep partisan divide over public lands issues.

For the first time, a legal expert questioned opposing sides in a $7 million trespass case that addresses public access to 8.3 million acres of public land in the West.

The issue of whether the U.S. Forest Service can amend longstanding protections for grizzly bear and bull trout habitat in Montana’s Flathead National Forest came before a Ninth Circuit panel in Seattle on Friday.

The agency received funding to thin out national forests, but Republican lawmakers called for faster progress at a pair of House hearings Tuesday.

Forestry experts say state-run nurseries play a crucial role in reforestation, one that has lagged because of underinvestment in recent decades.

Snowmelt is replenishing depleted ecosystems and flooding communities.

The public’s ability to fish and wade Colorado’s rivers is on the line as the Colorado Supreme Court takes up a case involving a dispute between an angler and a landowner on the Arkansas River. If the court rules in favor of the fisherman, there could be major changes to the way wade-in anglers access the legendary streams and rivers of the Centennial State.

The debate breaching Snake River dams exemplifies one of the trade-offs inherent in the clean energy transition: Hydropower has provided reliable, zero-carbon energy to some regions of the United States for decades, but has also contributed to driving some species to the brink of extinction.

The story of America is, in a very real sense, the story of its rivers and the struggle to control them. Anthony Palumbi’s book, “At the Base of the Giant’s Throat: The Past and Future of America’s Great Dams,” invites readers to consider the history of North America through this fluvial lens.

Almost 40% of forest area burned by wildfire in the western United States and southwestern Canada in the last 40 years can be attributed to carbon emissions associated with the world’s 88 largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers, according to new research that seeks to hold oil and gas companies accountable for their role in climate change.

The images are dramatic but the blazes are coming with a heavy ecological impact.

Earth’s global ocean temperatures were record high for the month, and the second-warmest for any month on record, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Global temperatures are likely to soar to record highs over the next five years, driven by human-caused warming and a climate pattern known as El Niño, forecasters at the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed into law a bill that bars the state from considering climate impacts in its analysis of large projects such as coal mines and power plants.

The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 sought to keep Native children in tribal communities. The Supreme Court may change that this spring.

"It's sinister...but when you understand history, using the children of Native nations to attack tribal sovereignty is sadly something the U.S. has been doing for generations," says Rebecca Nagle, host of the “This Land” podcast.

A Montana judge has said a climate change lawsuit from young people challenging the state’s pro-fossil fuel policies will proceed to trial despite efforts by the state to derail the case.

Climatologist Judith Curry, a go-to figure on the denial circuit, is expected to take the stand for the defense in the youth climate lawsuit.

Greater Yellowstone Coalition has raised $3.9 million of the $6.25 million needed to execute the deal.

Private equity firms are snapping up mobile home courts from Missoula to Great Falls to Billings and raising rents for low-income residents.

A Missoula Democrat's bill to increase the rights of mobile home tenants had broad bipartisan support, but it was vetoed by Gov. Greg Gianforte.

Colorado’s top air quality regulators this week will try to define what it means to live in a community that is disproportionately impacted by poor air quality and what steps should be taken to protect the people who live there from the toxins that roll out of factories and into the air they breathe.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law Friday a bill that mandates a statewide wildfire-resistant building code, a step that scientists say will help protect residents and first responders as climate change intensifies blazes.

A “big chunk of the mountain” fell off last fall, altering the profile of the Grand’s East Ridge so drastically that people can see the difference from the valley floor.

Famous bruin arrives with youngster, the oldest GYE grizzly to bear a litter.

Wildness, a name we give to living nature, is intangible, maybe even ineffable, but it’s not imaginary—it’s biological.