'This changes everything'

The ruling in Held v. Montana is expected to bolster cases in other states with similar environmental protections in their constitutions.

The ramifications of a judge’s decision this week in the historic Held v. Montana trial are already being seen in the Treasure State, and policymakers and lawyers say its impact can’t be overstated in Montana and beyond.

"I thought this was one of the strongest decisions on climate change issued by any court anywhere," said Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

The case hinged on Montana’s “green amendment,” which guarantees a constitutional right to “a clean and healthful environment.” Other states have similar amendments, and more are considering them.

Pat Parenteau explains how the judge ruled in favor of a group of young litigants, and why an expected appeal by the state of Montana could be hard to win before the Montana Supreme Court.

The state of Montana was billed nearly $95,000 in total by the three expert witnesses the Attorney General’s Office utilized in the Held v. Montana climate change trial, two of whom the state never called to testify.

With Utah oil production at an all-time high, the Uinta Basin is enjoying another boom economy. How long will it last?

Fueled by an incredible oil and gas boom and strong consumer spending, New Mexico’s financial reserves reached about 52% of ongoing state spending this summer — a financial cushion of nearly $4.4 billion. And the geyser is still spewing.

Even as unprecedented wildfires hamper Canadian oil drilling, fossil fuel firms are seeking to boost production, ramping up Canada’s oil output by 8 percent over the next two years.

The 10th Circuit ruling is a loss for environmentalists who said the natural gas project at the heart of the fight poses risks to two iconic Western species.

Frederick, and its neighbor Dacono, are appealing to state regulators to force K.P. Kauffman to plug and abandon wells developers say are making them look elsewhere.

The Environmental Defense Fund says MethaneSAT, set to launch next year, is a new frontier for climate accountability.

"Vanishing Oasis" — First-Place Winner of the Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — documents how massive withdrawals from rivers that feed the Great Salt Lake are threatening the survival of millions of migratory birds and creating bare lake beds that generate plumes of toxic dust.

Lake advocates balk at governor's claim Utah will have "the most environmentally friendly inland port anywhere in the country."

Following lithium “dust-up,” powerful legislator prepares to slap mineral extractors with unprecedented restrictions, including limits on how much lake water they can use.

The latest study from the Bureau of Reclamation shows how a wet winter in 2023 helped boost Lake Powell and Colorado River water supplies. But experts say more cuts to demand for the water supply are needed.

Colorado River Basin states don’t agree on very much when it comes to the future operations of the basin’s largest water savings banks.

A new global analysis finds U.S. states along the Colorado River are under extremely high water stress. The region is grappling with how to reduce water use.

Restoring natural infrastructure, such as beaver habitat and the wetlands it creates, could shield communities from damaging floods, remove toxins and high sediment loads from water, and reduce the apocalyptic effects of megafires.

National Park Service data shows the invasive species' population growing below Glen Canyon Dam, posing a danger to threatened fish.

Taxpayers are on the hook for heat-related crop losses in parched states like Arizona. That needs to change.

The proposal would establish four new areas of critical environmental concern in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The bill passed in July, which the full House of Representatives is expected to vote on in September, would tie the BLM’s hands in two fundamental ways.

A federal judge tossed a lawsuit by Utah political leaders who’d asked the courts to declare Presiden Joe Biden’s expansion of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments unlawful on Friday.

Last week, Utah gave notice of an appeal just days after a lower U.S. District Court tossed out its suit against the Biden administration.

A weeklong journey through the under-documented region, which now has new protections.

President Biden’s declaration of a new national monument put some Western areas off limits to uranium mining, but companies have plans in others—and tribes are pushing back.

Update will guide management of 3.6 million acres of public lands in Rock Springs Field Office, including Red Desert and migration corridors.

Two national forest systems and Grand Teton National Park are seeking to raise the costs of camping, backpacking and more.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Hugh Cook spoke with Kelly Norris about the state of Wyoming’s forests, her plans for the agency, and being the first woman to fill the position of state forester.

Amid congressional efforts to defund Glacier National Park’s vehicle reservation system, park administrators and stakeholders defend it as an adaptive tool that has evolved based on public feedback.

Green groups and off-roaders are divided on the agency's policy, which scales back a Trump-era exemption of e-bikes from rules governing vehicle use on backcountry trails.

A veteran employee of the Bureau of Land Management in the San Luis Valley filed a whistleblower complaint Monday, saying her bosses are failing to enforce livestock grazing rules on public lands and are jeopardizing the ecosystem along the Rio Grande River.

The Bennett Hills conservation area covers more than 120,000 acres of rolling grasslands in southwest Idaho, just outside Mountain Home. It’s home to upland game bird species and serves as winter habitat for elk and mule deer.

Better data is needed to measure recreational use on public lands. New, accurate methods are being pioneered in Montana’s Bridger Mountains.

Invoking a recent Montana climate court case, many western Montana residents are calling for NorthWestern Energy to redo its energy management proposal for the next 20 years.

An 80-megawatt solar array in southwest Montana is now operating, roughly doubling the amount of the commercial solar energy in the state.

With an end to its hefty power bills, J Bar L anticipates the new system will pay for itself within a few years.

After years of failing to convince Utah legislators, green-minded Utahns are setting up a nonprofit to fund clean-energy projects.

Breckenridge — and soon Summit County — is adopting a “renewable energy mitigation plan” to offset greenhouse gases from outdoor amenities.

Colorado’s e-bike rebate program is one of the largest in the country.

The federal Bureau of Land Management announced last week that more than 106,000 acres of BLM-managed public lands in the proposed Lava Ridge Wind Project area northeast of Twin Falls will continue to be kept open for the project for two more years.

A proposal from a New Mexico startup is in the race to be the nation's second large-scale carbon capture proposal on a power plant.

PacifiCorp’s Wyodak coal-fired power plant near Gillette and its Naughton coal-fired power plant near Kemmerer are in compliance with federal requirements to reduce pollutants that contribute to regional haze, according to a ruling by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Washington’s latest auction of carbon-emission allowances raked in an estimated $62.5 million last week, with revenue from the state’s carbon-pricing program now nearing a billion dollars and far outpacing early estimates.

There were 15 grizzly bears that died or were reported dead in 2023 in Wyoming's portion of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, mortality data shows.

The 95,412-acre Black Ram timber sale was proposed on a segment of the Kootenai National Forest that is home to the imperiled Cabinet-Yaak grizzly population.

Black bears keep eating human items left along lakeshores while visitors dip in the water.

The park’s Bison Management Plan draft environmental impact statement was released to the public for comment on Thursday, outlining three possible alternatives.

Commissioners passed a statewide hunting and trapping quota of 313 wolves. That’s higher than what was originally proposed by Montana FWP, but lower than last year’s quota.

There are more female deer killed by cars than hunters in Colorado every year. Advocates hope three new wildlife crossings on Vail Pass will reduce collisions, improve animal health.

Yellowstone, Montana battle invasive fish — and public opinion — for iconic waterway.

Scientific evidence still lacks, but signs point toward an illegal introduction of nonnative trout in already restored Soda Butte Creek.

Water-quality testing underway in the Jefferson River Basin could help scientists form hypotheses about trout population declines and identify potential interventions.

Grants may fund agencies with salmon protection missions, tribes and tribal partnerships in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California.

Cheyenne and Arapaho descendants are asking why more hasn’t been done to welcome them back to their ancestral lands and heal the traumatic events of the past.

As more visibility is brought to the legacy of U.S. boarding schools, Indigenous mental health providers and social workers feel that therapy must address the unique trauma carried by survivors.

In all, federal officials said $150 million is being invested from the Inflation Reduction Act to support the electrification of homes in tribal communities, many of which have seen mixed success over the decades as officials have tried to address the lack of adequate infrastructure in remote areas.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Ktunaxa Nation sent President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau a proposal to refer coal mining pollution on the Elk-Kootenai watershed to the International Joint Commission.

The outdoorsy lifestyle of Colorado mountain towns has become a magnet for the new remote-worker class, upending life for those already rooted there.

Rising prices are reshaping Montana, ramping up pressure on both sides of the ownership divide.

Montana’s libraries are the latest battlefield in a culture clash over community standards.

The American Civil Liberties Union is among nonprofit organizations and tech-oriented business coalitions that filed amicus briefs in the TikTok ban lawsuit– in favor of enjoining the law

EPA released a position paper Friday touting the benefits of using onsite material, also known as slightly contaminated “grey dirt,” at Superfund sites in Butte. The plan is controversial.

Feds are holding up approving a state air quality improvement plan unless Colorado agrees to give public access to air pollution information.

UDOT decided on an 8-mile gondola for Little Cottonwood Canyon last month. Explore the 5-year-process that led to the gondola's selection, and what's to come by 2050.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says the state shouldn’t be the only one paying for a gondola up Little Cottonwood Canyon, which some estimates suggest could cost over $1 billion.

Copper Mountain’s 10-year plan to sink carbon into native grasses on ski slopes is one of many sustainability projects underway at Colorado ski areas that are working together to deflect the impacts of climate change.

The power of mushroom hunting as both outdoor recreation and community science.

A study finds eastern Canada's fire weather this summer was made twice as likely by the influence of global warming.

In the summer of 2023, Canadians woke up to the reality of climate change amid fire and smoke. Now that we have seen and smelled the future, what will we do?

Maureen Hearty and Kirsten Stoltz’s idea for Prairie Sea Projects is to get people thinking about their uncertain future by embracing the best of rural life.

Building on previous research, a new study estimates how much carbon farmers could lock away by spreading crushed rock on croplands. Their numbers are enormous.

As the red rock desert broils us in beauty, will we have to leave?

A new type of disaster reporting is needed to keep up.

Restoring the journalism jobs lost over the past 20 years wouldn’t just be cheap—it would pay for itself.

An open letter of gratitude to Mountain Journal's valued readers and supporters as we fade into the sunset.