Watershed reckoning

Drought and global warming have transformed the Colorado River, making some sections unrecognizable to those who have spent decades on the river.

As climate change and overuse threaten the Colorado River, Native American tribes seek a larger role in the river's stewardship.

Tribal nations hold the rights to significant portions of the Colorado River. In the increasing drought, some are showing the way to sustainability.

Decades into a megadrought, proponents of mothballing the 710-foot dam say now is the time to drastically rethink management of the depleted Colorado River.

The seven states that rely on the river for water are not expected to reach a deal on cuts. It appears the Biden administration will have to impose reductions.

State leaders across the West are pushing to establish a regional transmission organization that would allow for more coordinated planning and electricity sharing.

Huge clean energy projects in Wyoming show how the debate over whether and where to build green infrastructure has pitted climate hawks against their erstwhile allies: environmentalists.

Xcel is building a 10 MW storage site the size of a football field that can hold days of wind and solar electricity in Pueblo's Comanche power plant.

Dry Fork Station near Gillette, Wyoming, stands alone in the nation on one measure of economic viability—a positive distinction for that plant, but a damning one for coal-fired electricity in general.

Colorado uranium hunter George Glasier is now looking to develop a mill and mine in Emery County, proposing to use a new technology for separating uranium and vanadium from the ore.

NuScale Power, a pioneer in small nuclear reactors, cleared the ultimate U.S. regulatory hurdle in civilian advanced nuclear last week—and in doing so provided some hope for the long-heralded nuclear renaissance.

Federal loans for Ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge lithium mining project could expand domestic supplies of a key material for EVs and batteries.

rPlus Hydro has submitted a final application to build a 900-megawatt pumped storage project in Wyoming that could provide clean, renewable power even when the sun is down and the wind isn't blowing.

Parking lots and big-box store roofs could generate oodles of clean power.

Three decades after legislation pushed for the return of Native American remains to Indigenous communities, many of the nation’s top museums and universities still have the remains of thousands of people in their collections.

Students recall being taken from their homes with little warning, put in schools where they were punished for speaking their language.

Imagine putting on a virtual reality headset and entering a world where you can explore communities, like Missoula, except your character, and everyone you interact with, speaks Salish.

Less than two hours from Las Vegas, the sacred creation site for Yuman-speaking Native Americans may soon become a national monument. It’s been a long time coming.

Landmark legislation, initiated by the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, would grant Wyoming’s governor the authority to negotiate tribal hunting and fishing seasons on off-reservation lands.

An interview with Wes Martel on tribal wildlife conservation.

Former U.S. wildlife official Chris Serhveen lost faith in delisting when Montana’s GOP revealed its anti-bear “hysteria.”

Montana’s hot real estate market is making it harder and more expensive to conserve grizzly bear habitats. Nonprofit conservation groups trying to connect isolated bear populations face the challenge of a growing human population and the rising cost of land.

New study shows how animals changed their behavior around hiking trails on the east side of Glacier National Park during and after the COVID-19 closures.

An “unprecedented” shortage of Wyoming game wardens is adding to angst about a legislative proposal that would attract coyote hunters onto public land at night, adding to the thinned corps’ around-the-clock duties.

Colorado wildlife commissioners heard from ranchers and wildlife advocates hoping to influence the draft plan for bringing wolves back to the Western Slope.

A five park study shows that wolf pack reproduction and “persistence” falter after hunting, car wrecks.

NPS faces a backlog of at least 28 studies on possible new park sites, national trails, national heritage areas, and wild and scenic rivers.

The U.S. is directing $930 million toward reducing wildfire dangers in 10 Western states by clearing trees and underbrush from national forests as officials struggle to protect communities from destructive infernos being made worse by climate change.

Congress last year approved more than $5 billion to protect populated areas nationwide from worsening wildfires as the climate warms.

Native seeds are crucial for land restoration efforts after disasters, which will grow more extreme as climate change worsens. "Time is of the essence" to bank sufficient seeds, a new report says.

Also: Mining Monitor; Aridification Addendum

The Signal Peak Mine was embroiled in a web of criminal activity. Now, environmental groups want to shut it down.

All of the nation’s top 20 highest per capita income counties are in the West, and 19 out of the bottom 20 are also in the West.

The board called homelessness a ‘lifestyle’ and blamed a Kalispell shelter for the increasing number of people on the streets.

For a state used to growing at a torrid pace for decades, the past two years were tantamount to Colorado crashing headlong into a demographic brick wall.

Brian Head Resort near Parowan will nearly double in size over the next 30 years, adding 850 acres of new terrain, seven lifts and a lodge as part of the planned Aspen Meadows ski-in, ski-out community.

Idaho commissioners, mayor question plans for emergency response, housing, wildfires.

To find out what it takes to don the red-and-white jacket, we send one writer to try out for ski patrol. What he found was long days, low wages, passionate professionals, and signs of change on the horizon.

Now they’re rallying to ensure public access to the recreation hotspot.

Claiming "overgrown" forests are sucking up Utah's water resources, rural lawmakers call for major logging initiative to save Great Salt Lake and Lake Powell.

Advocates call for healing the rift between scripture and politics.

By one estimate, agriculture in Utah consumes 75% of the state's water. Given that fact, along with historic drought and a drying Great Salt Lake, people are starting to ask: Can we continue to farm here?

A new NOAA study fingers U.S. Magnesium plant as the single largest contributor to Salt Lake City's particulate pollution problem.

A unique New Mexico coalition is battling the project to prevent widespread harm—and deja vu.