The great displacement

In part two of Joseph Bullington’s series, he visits the Colorado ski towns at the extreme edge of rural gentrification.

The proposed rule would apply land-health standards to all of the 245 million acres that BLM manages, instead of limiting them to federal livestock grazing allotments. The rule would also designate conservation as a formal use of public lands, on par with energy development, grazing and recreation.

Begun nearly two decades ago, the battle for Oak Flat sits at the intersection of Indigenous rights and dispossession, religious liberty, public lands and private sales, and a growing demand for so-called green energy solutions in an era of climate catastrophe.

The Forest Service is not waiting for the court's ruling to publish the new report, said Joan Pepin, an attorney for the Forest Service, adding that the agency does not believe an 1852 treaty between the U.S. government and Apaches gives Native Americans the right to the land containing the copper.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision on Tuesday allowing a lawsuit by two landowners attempting to close off public access to Bitterroot National Forest lands via Robbins Gulch Road, south of Darby, to proceed.

LandTrust expands with significant investment from Kevin O'Leary and the Wilks Brothers.

On Tuesday, April 18th, the Andrus Center for Public Policy will host an in person environmental conference focused on recreation and public lands with an eye towards resolving tensions and furthering best practices.

American Prairie has expanded its land holdings in Phillips County with the recent purchase of the 4,960-acre Wilke Ranch South, located on the eastern border of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

In a race to conserve the largest intact, unprotected watershed in southern B.C., the Simpcw First Nation unilaterally declared the creation of a new protected area under Indigenous law — a move that could put an end to logging plans.

The Vatican on Thursday responded to Indigenous demands and formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” the theories backed by 15th-century “papal bulls” that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property laws today.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch has joined three other members of Congress from the Northwest — including Montana Sen. Steve Daines — in another move to shield dams on the Snake River from efforts to remove them.

Grayling were once abundant in southwest Montana. Now there are only a few native populations left, including the one in the Centennial Valley, a vast open space flanked by tall peaks along the Montana-Idaho border.

The wildlife winter kill in southcentral Wyoming is the worst anybody there can remember, some locals are saying.

Already one of Utah's fastest growing cities, South Jordan lays plans to grow even more.

Deer Valley Resort expects to almost double the amount of employee housing it typically offers.

According to 2023 report, Idaho has 38 affordable rental homes for every 100 households with extremely low incomes — a decrease from 42 units in 2022.

The vast majority of Ada County’s new residents — 22,000 of them — moved to Idaho from other places in the U.S.

A years-long process of rewriting the city’s zoning code for the first time in 60 years is wrapping up.

CPR News read through research papers and spoke with academics to try to answer that question. Here’s what they found.

The newest residents of Pinion Park are settling into their brand new modular homes as the builders and developers navigate a first-of-its-kind strategy for fixing Colorado’s affordable housing crisis. The first lesson: Don’t ship, assemble and finish the new-school modular homes in winter.

Census data shows fewer people are moving out of coastal urban centers, but Sun Belt states remain popular.

How much should Xcel's customers have to pay for Hayden, Craig and Pawnee as the coal era winds down? Opinions vary—and widely so!

Montana utilities are rallying around a bill allowing customers to be locked into paying for power plants before they’re bought or built.

In the third letter from Colorado lawmakers to government regulators issued this month, Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse are now appealing to the Environmental Protection Agency for help in evaluating the risks of the Uinta Basin Railway Project.

At issue is whether the state can improve air quality—and continue to allow new drilling along the Front Range.

Environmental groups, frustrated by the Biden administration’s decision to resume oil and gas leasing without making meaningful changes to the program, turned once again to the courts.

An Australian mining company poised to open the only cobalt mine in the U.S. has halted final construction on its Idaho Cobalt Operation west of Salmon, Idaho.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has received an application for a wind farm that would have up to 73 turbines and a capacity of up to 393 megawatts. Construction is expected to begin by summer's end.

10,000 solar roof-tops in Colorado's United Power service territory, a temporary setback for Pivot Energy, and solar replaces coal in northwestern New Mexico.

New study finds that an optimal arrangement of solar panels on farms can cool the panels down by 10 degrees—crucial for their efficiency.

A new state study shows impressive EV sales progress, but a pressing need for charging port construction and retirement of heavy trucks.

For a 60-minute period in January 2023, a power plant like no other existed in the U.S. Mountain West. It contained a solar array, lithium-ion battery, hydrogen electrolyzers, and a nuclear reactor, all coordinating with each other to provide reliable power. Even more unusual, the plant combined real and simulated technologies hundreds of miles apart.

U.S. crude oil exports in 2022 were 22% higher than in 2021. Increased U.S. crude oil production, releases from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and more global demand for crude oil from countries other than Russia all drove the growth in U.S. crude oil exports.

Militia groups, Christian nationalists, anti-vaccine activists and other conspiracy theorists in the Pacific Northwest have all started working together and are forging new connections with the formal political class.

Record-breaking rain and snow bring salvation — and destruction — to a drought-parched West.

Deep mountain snow is good news, but what really matters is how reservoirs and soil moisture are replenished when it melts.

Region has received so much snow that operations have ceased.

Unprecedented precipitation? Probably not, but a whopper of a winter, nonetheless.

While Utah’s leaders are optimistic about the record snow and spring runoff, researchers remain concerned about the state of the lake.

NASA’s Images of Change gallery has added a new feature: "Google Timelapse" view.

Elk populations across much of the state are growing, and above ideal thresholds set by wildlife managers. In recent years landowners, hunters and outfitters have disagreed about how to update policy to match the trend. But that could change during the current session of the Montana Legislature.

Wyoming Game and Fish says the butchering was legal but carcass disposal was not

Two-decade-old senescence study suggests that famous Grizzly 399 should again be able to bear cubs, even as she’s nearing the end of a normal grizzly lifespan.

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by a property owner who alleged the Forest Service's handling of the 2018 Pole Creek fire resulted in extensive damage to private land.

In 2019, management abruptly stopped recognizing a union. This week, the company and the union negotiated a new contract.

A paper co-authored by a University of Utah professor says researchers need to look “beyond ‘bluespace’ and ‘greenspace’” when studying the effects of nature on human health.

The trees of the West can tell us about our past. They can also transform our future.