Articles worth reading: April 14, 2026
Snowpack measurement around the West deemed “pitiful”; pruning the U.S. Forest Service; industrial logging poised to make a comeback in the Pacific Northwest; “toilet to tap” wastewater recycling comes closer to reality in Arizona, and more environmental news from the West.
The April 1 snowpack measurement has long been a harbinger of the West’s water future. It is the single most important number in western water management, considered a strong proxy for how much water the mountains are holding in reserve. This year’s measurement was pitiful around the West, enhancing the risk of dangerous wildfires. The exceptionally warm winter of 2025–26 across much of the western U.S. delivered a powerful preview of what the regional water cycle in a warmer climate may increasingly look like: less snow and a fundamental reshaping of the chart showing how much water flows through streams over the year. THE CONVERSATION
The U.S. Forest Service plans to relocate its national office to Salt Lake City and implement further budget cuts. This will close or repurpose nine regional offices, create 15 state offices and terminate research facilities in more than 30 states. When the Trump Administration first announced its intentions last summer, many tribal representatives, conservation groups and former Forest Service staffers voiced opposition. “Nobody is asking for this,” said the former Department of Agriculture undersecretary. “None of the farm groups want this. No one in conservation wants this. Nobody.” ALASKA BEACON LOS ANGELES TIMES
Unusually high threat of summertime wildfires across the West. Recent snow drought, rapid snowmelt and unprecedented heat waves suggest above-normal fire risk across the Southwest and into the Rockies, Pacific Northwest and northern California, according to the latest projections by the National Interagency Coordination Center. A wet spring, however, could decrease fire risk dramatically. GRIST
Industrial logging about to make a comeback in the Pacific Northwest. President Trump’s executive order of a year ago mandating a 25 percent increase in timber volume from federal lands, coupled with the subsequent effort to eliminate the 2001 roadless rule, means that the opening of 25.7 million acres of untouched landscape to logging is getting underway quickly. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
The Trump Administration’s energy push runs roughshod over tribal consultations and safety concerns. An expedited process allowed construction of a uranium mine in San Juan County, Utah, a mine long opposed by the Ute Mountain Ute. The “emergency” declared to circumvent safety and public-comment regulations “is all predicated on something that isn’t true: We don’t have an energy emergency.” Tribal consultation requirements have been truncated to accomplish an ‘energy dominance’ agenda on ancestral tribal lands. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, once set for the scrap heap, reauthorized for 20 years. The power plant, which provides roughly 9% of California’s electricity, had been scheduled to shut down by 2025 by PG&E. But extreme heat waves in 2020 and 2021 drove Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers to sign a state law directing PG&E to extend its license in 2022. This decision was approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on April 2, granting PG&E license to continue supporting California’s energy needs until 2044 and 2045. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
Arizona’s first advanced water purification plant is at its halfway mark. Estimated to serve 25,000 to 30,000 homes, the plant will be able to convert 8 million gallons of wastewater into 6.75 million gallons of potable water per day. This is just one example of the state’s many water projects, the smaller ones of which a new bipartisan bill aims to expedite by bypassing the lengthy federal review. KTAR
California is cutting funds for restoration efforts that saved endangered salmon on the McCloud River, upstream of Lake Shasta in Northern California. Two years ago, a historic partnership between the state and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe reintroduced endangered winter-run Chinook salmon. “It makes the tribe feel betrayed,” said Gary Mulcahy, government liaison for the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “It’s like they just gave up.” CAL MATTERS
Seven dead gray whales washed up in Washington waters, pointing to a deeper crisis in the Arctic. Scientists say shifts in the Arctic’s ecosystem, including warming waters and loss of sea ice, have altered the foundation of the whales’ food chain. “The eastern North Pacific gray whale population is in real trouble,” said John Calambokidis, a marine biologist. KING 5
After a year, toxic foam is still washing ashore at ports in Washington, polluting the water and littering the shore. Muskrats have been chewing the polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam, inside aging dock floats. While the state banned it in dock construction in 2024, older docks continue to be toxic to wildlife and human health as the material breaks down into microplastics. In February, the Washington State Department of Ecology acknowledged the pollution, but did not mention whether it would replace the remaining foam blocks or start cleanup efforts. KING 5
The era of ranching at California’s Point Reyes National Seashore is almost over. “Twelve of the 14 ranches on the Point Reyes National Seashore officially shuttered their operations and permanently vacated the federally protected land after years of contested leases, litigation and environmental campaigns that favored habitat protection over cattle operations.” The National Park Service, environmental groups and the Nature Conservancy settled with departing ranch owners for about $30 million. MENDOCINO VOICE
It’s not just salmon: wetlands are also returning to the Klamath River basin since the removal of the four dams that had been there for decades. Many Oregon farmers have embraced the potential of wetlands to coexist with agriculture. As one said, “You take a barley field that’s been barley for 90 years, and it’s a freaking crazy wetland in a year.” He pointed out more than a dozen species of waterfowl taking cover in his permanent wetland. “This system wants to go back to what it was.” PATAGONIA
Articles worth reading: March 30, 2026
Seldom-seen solutions to the Colorado River crisis likely, including large releases from upstream dams; California nut exports hurt by Iran war; tons of manure go missing in California; Congress preparing to investigate Native boarding schools, and more environmental news from the West.
New releases from upstream Colorado River dams may be needed to keep the reservoir behind Arizona’s Glen Canyon Dam from falling to critical levels. A release of 500,000 acre-feet is under consideration by the Upper Basin states – Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. If they also cut deliveries to Arizona, Nevada, and California, they might violate decades-old contractual commitments. They argue lack of snow and persistent heat cut deeply into supplies. “Those [who] live in the headwaters already know that 2026 is going to be a rough water year.” SALT LAKE TRIBUNE WYOFILE
War against Iran stymies California nut exports. In addition to causing sharp increases in fuel and fertilizer costs, the war has disrupted access to key export markets. “As the largest exporting state, California and our exporters and producers are bearing the brunt of these market and export impacts,” said a spokesman for the state agriculture department. “The disruption has been especially painful for exporters of almonds, walnuts and pistachios, all ranking among the state’s top agricultural export commodities, an increasing share of which have been purchased by buyers in the Gulf.” AG ALERT
Congress is on the cusp of investigating Native boarding schools. Last month, after the Senate approved identical legislation, a bill to create an investigative commission was introduced in the House. The proposed Truth and Healing Commission would be made up of five people chosen by Congress based on recommendations by tribes and Indigenous-led organizations. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
The West is likely to face weather extremes in the coming months, prompted by a record-breaking heat wave and an upcoming strong El Nino formation in the Pacific. And this year’s anomalous weather is a sign that “It’s going to become increasingly harder to use the past as a playbook for the future, because we are shifting into a completely different climate system,” said one expert. WIRED THE ATLANTIC
Ten million tons of manure is missing in California. Ten million tons of animal manure have gone unreported, a Stanford Law researcher’s report finds, “thanks to a combination of non-compliance, non-enforcement and opaque disclosure rules.” Zoe Robertson, the paper’s author, said that some effluent may have found its way to lakes and streams, directly or indirectly. SENTIENT MEDIA/PROPUBLICA
$5 billion needed to effectuate a settlement of Native water rights affecting the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes. The federal funds are needed to pay for wells, pipelines, treatment systems and storage facilities. These would annually send the tribes 56,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water to split. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, whose bill would provide the money, argued that the settlement “is a major step forward securing the tribes’ water future.” KTAR
A big lease sale spurs increasing optimism among Alaska’s oil producers. ConocoPhillips was a major participant in the just-completed lease sale that drew a record $163 million in high bids, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced. ConocoPhillips’ existing Willow project is set to tap into reserves of about 600 million barrels in the National Petroleum Reserve on the North Slope’s west side. That $8 billion-plus project is on track to start producing oil in 2029. ALASKA BEACON
Hurricane hunters track the West’s atmospheric rivers. Outside of hurricane season, NOAA’s Gulfstream IV jet flies a transect through or above an atmospheric river on the West Coast. It releases dozens of tube-shaped instruments called dropsondes that parachute down through the atmosphere, transmitting real-time temperature, humidity, and wind-speed readings. Marty Ralph of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at Scripps has likened the dropsonde data to an MRI scan of an atmospheric river revealing its internal structure. KING 5
Bringing groundwater back in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Shimmering water in dozens of ponds in the southern San Joaquin Valley’s Arvin-Edison water storage district distinguish it from districts where groundwater levels continue sinking. They take in river water which percolates into sandy soil, recharging groundwater. A new study cites Arvin-Edison as one of many areas where local efforts made aquifers rebound.“Groundwater depletion can be solved,” said Scott Jasechko, a professor at U.C. Santa Barbara. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Hidden crop for corporate tech: farm data. A farmer on the Washington-Idaho border uses data collected from GPS coordinates from tractors, seeding rates from planters, pesticide volumes from sprayers, moisture readings from soil probes, and yield estimates from combines. He uses these precision agriculture services, used by 27 percent of farms and ranches, paired with artificial intelligence to produce wheat, canola, lentils, garbanzos, and green peas across his 7,500 acres. But small-scale farmers worry that big tech companies will leverage data to sell more, corner markets, or even threaten their livelihoods. CIVIL EATS
Why small, humpbacked pink salmon are climate winners – and how their success impinges on the future of larger and more culturally significant species. A threefold increase of pink salmon on the spawning grounds has encroached upon spawning Chinook salmon, hurting the latter’s reproductive success. SEATTLE TIMES
The long, troubled tale of Montana’s American Prairie, the organization seeking to give bison millions of acres to roam. ”Perhaps because the need to protect grassland was so great, and the opportunities were so few,” the group’s unorthodox approach was to protect land by buying it from ranchers. The non-Montanans behind the company “failed to build relationships with—infuriated, actually, possibly irrevocably—the people who owned the land it was trying to buy.” As local hostility spread – the federal government just said bison could not graze on Bureau of Land Management lands – American Prairie’s leaders recalibrated. They now seek to win over the locals whose conservation work they had ignored. A new program pays or cost-shares with ranchers to create conservation practices on private land. ALTA
Articles worth reading: March 16, 2026
An offshore oil platform that experienced a massive 2015 spill is ordered reopened by the Trump administration; the Colorado River’s Upper basin expects just one third of normal flow: how farmers are coping; a small modular nuclear reactor is approved in Wyoming; science works to solve mystery of tree deaths at Crater Lake; the role of fungi in restoring fire-scarred landscapes, and more environmental news from around the West.
Trump orders restart of troubled California offshore oil rig. Citing the fast-rising fuel prices brought on by the Iran war, the administration invoked emergency powers and ordered the restart of the Santa Ynez offshore oil platform and pipeline along the Santa Barbara coast. It was shuttered in 2015 after a spill released thousands of barrels of crude into the Pacific. Governor Gavin Newsom has threatened to sue. CAL MATTERS
Projections show the Colorado River upper basin’s flow may be one-third of normal this year. Recent modeling has shown the river system is “on track to deliver a scant 2.3 million acre-feet to Lake Powell, one of the river system’s largest reservoirs. That’s 36 percent of the median of 6.4 million acre-feet recorded between 1991 and 2020.” DENVER POST
How to farm along the Colorado River as its water disappears. From fallowed fields and low-flow nozzles used on southwestern Colorado’s Ute Mountain Ute reservation to the fast-expanding solar panels of central Arizona’s Pinal County, the farmers who for decades depended on Colorado River water are figuring out how to make do with much less. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
A novel Wyoming nuclear power plant – a small, modular reactor – is approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is the first commercial nuclear power plant approval in a decade.The company TerraPower, cofounded by Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, has designed an experimental reactor that would produce 345 megawatts of electricity. The estimated cost is $4 billion, half of which will come from the Department of Energy. WYOFILE
Nobody’s bidding to drill in federal waters off Alaska’s Cook Inlet. The attempted sale of rights to drill in more than 1 million acres of ocean was the first of six offshore oil and gas auctions in Alaska mandated by the Republicans in Congress last year when they passed Mr. Trump’s sweeping tax law. So far, nobody is looking to drill. NEW YORK TIMES
Utah selling part of Great Salt Lake to the federal government, ending years of legal fights over ownership. The sale of 22,311 acres of the lakebed to the Bear River Migratory Bird refuge – which belongs to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service – nets the state more than $60 million. Because the terminal lake’s elevation varies dramatically in wet and dry years, and the water level is a basic determinant of ownership, the fight over who owns what has been going on for 60 years. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Federal permit granted for a towering energy project that could overwhelm a Washington cultural site crucial to the Kamílpa band of the Yakama tribe. Creating the proposed 1,200-megawatt pumped hydro-energy storage project would connect two reservoirs by tunneling through a mountain in the Columbia River gorge. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which granted the permit, must eventually vote on licensing the $2 billion to $3 billion project. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Arizona Corporation Commission ends the state’s renewable energy standard. It noted that customers’ bills are higher today because of contracts entered into to meet the requirements of the 20-year-old standard. UTILITY DIVE
Science solving the mystery of why trees are dying at Oregon’s Crater Lake. Decades of trial-and-error works allow scientists to zero in on what kind of trees survive invasive blister rust fungus. OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING
Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the state of Idaho reach a water historic rights settlement agreement. The agreement authorizes the creation of a new Tribal water supply bank, gives the Coeur d’Alene agency to lease water, and puts an end to more than a decade of litigation. IDAHO CAPITAL SUN
The brief but glorious wildflower bloom in Death Valley, the country’s driest place, was the best on record since 2016, according to the National Parks Service. It’s been a decade since gold and violet flora have dominated this desert landscape. Now past its peak, visitors still clamor to witness the rare “superbloom” event. BBC THE GUARDIAN
Their crucial role long overlooked, fungi are starting to get their due. Little is known about fungi, which partner with roughly 80 percent of terrestrial plants. Meet the researchers working to change that and the sites where they focus their work. For instance, the California Fungal Diversity Survey has sequenced the DNA of 10,000-plus different local species, 20 percent of which are new to science. YALE E360
How “fire fungi” help put charred landscapes back together. These “first responders” make soil livable again after a blaze, laying the foundations for ecosystem recovery. BIOGRAPHIC
Articles worth reading: March 3, 2026
U.S.-Mexico border walls expand further into remote and sensitive areas; federal judge favors salmon over ag interests; the ongoing sewer crisis on the Tijuana River; solar power over California agricultural fields? And more environmental stories from around the West.
Will the border wall invade Big Bend National Park in west Texas? A new barrier, called a “smart wall,” could stretch 150 miles and is planned both within a state park and crossing into the national park next door. The archaeologist David Keller called the plans for border barriers in Big Bend “the military industrialization of one of the last, great, unspoiled places remaining in the United States of America.” INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
To preserve collapsing salmon runs, a Federal judge in Oregon orders that reservoir levels be maintained behind Columbia and Snake River dams, pushing back against the Trump Administration’s effort to set high reservoir levels. These would be advantageous to farmers and harmful to fish. The underlying lawsuit challenges the Trump Administration’s decision to abrogate a Biden-era treaty, backed by tribes and crucial stakeholders. The treaty had sought to minimize the harm that dams have done to a cornerstone species in the Northwest. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Tijuana River sewer crisis is one of California’s longest-running health emergencies. The river flows 120 miles across the border from Mexico, through working-class neighborhoods, emptying into the Pacific through a San Diego beach littered with “keep out” signs The communities facing the cesspool filled with sewage and banned chemicals have called for politicians to reach across the border and find ways to protect their health. SIERRA
The expansion of peatlands in the Arctic, where decaying plant matter stores large amounts of carbon dioxide, might seem to be a benefit to the climate. Until it’s not. A sudden release, or “burp” – of the carbon could be a quick and dramatic setback to efforts to keep carbon out of the atmosphere. GRIST
Trying to interpret the mandate that National Park signs not disparage America, managers created a database of hundreds of questionable items. One of these is a sign at Arches National Park in Utah describing the impact of graffiti on the red-rock landscape, which may violate a requirement to emphasize natural beauty. “The submissions provide a sweeping portrait of the scope of President Donald J. Trump’s bid to reconsider how national park sites address the historic legacy of racism and sexism, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, and pollution — or whether to acknowledge them at all.” WASHINGTON POST
The Trump Administration pulled out of a caribou protection deal with a Native Alaskan village near Teshekpuk Lake in northern Alaska. The caribou are a staple of the Native’s diet and central to their culture and are threatened by plans to drill for oil in one of Alaska’s largest oil fields. The village’s lawsuit challenging this move is in the hands of a federal district judge. NORTHERN JOURNAL
The Copper Flat mine in eastern New Mexico is being primed to reopen in a couple of years. After operating for three months in 1982, it was shut down. Recent years have seen lawsuits and a protracted permitting process, as New Mexico Copper tried to create a modern mining operation. ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
For young Native Americans, suicide is the second-leading causes of death – rates in Indigenous groups are 91 percent higher than the general population. But now, even in cultures like the Navajo where speaking of death is considered unlucky, tribal elders are working to enhance the cultural connections of youth to tribal ceremonies, and to openly confront the issue – particularly the impact of social media on tribal youth. NATIVE NEWS ONLINE
One of the nation’s largest solar projects is set to grow in fallowed fields on the western side of California’s Central Valley. While many farmers see this development as a way to keep themselves afloat, others fear it’s another reason for a loss of farming jobs. Why should this project be so big? To justify new multibillion-dollar power lines to carry electricity from the Central Valley to cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Colorado’s decision: give new data centers big tax breaks or regulate them? Two legislative proposals reflect the competing desires to benefit from this major technology boom and to ensure the state’s environment is protected. Either bill would create Colorado’s first regulations of data centers. DENVER POST
The dam-building era has been replaced by an era of dam removal. A primary cause: worries about the structures’ safety. So far this century, more dams have been removed than new ones built; in 2019 and 2024, a record 108 dams were removed nationwide, with 2018 close behind at 107. The 2024 removal of the four Klamath River dams was a dramatic illustration of the new era, just as much as – Hoover dam, now 90 years old, was the apotheosis of the previous one. AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
What are the roots of the cowboy? Spain? Mexico? The lands of the Apache and Comanche? The answer is not as easy as what Secretary of State Marco Rubio described in a speech in Germany, experts say. The horse-riding cow hands may have had antecedents in Andalusia, but the introduction of horses and cattle to the vast spaces of the New World created a new set of needs and techniques for moving and roping the cows. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Articles worth reading: February 17, 2026
Colorado River basin states miss a big deadline to agree on future division of declining flows; the Washoe Tribe buys 10,000 acres north of Lake Tahoe; Alaskan Native groups raise concern about deep-sea mining; major wildlife crossing near completion outside Los Angeles; and other environmental stories from the American West.
Another major deadline missed in the struggle to make a new deal on division of the Colorado River. After missing their Valentine’s Day deadline to agree on a plan, the federal Bureau of Reclamation will step in to impose a plan instead. With each state vying for its own interests in this scarce water supply, litigation is expected to follow. THE NEW YORK TIMES
How did the Colorado River basin states get to this impasse, and why some would rather punt the dilemma to the federal government? An interview with a lead negotiator in the talks that produced an agreement 19 years ago reveals that partisanship has pushed negotiators further apart while water levels and snowpack dry the basin at an unprecedented rate. POLITICO
Snow drought across the West reaches critical levels; will new storms cure it? “At less than 140,000 square miles, snow cover across the region was the lowest ever recorded on February 1 in the satellite record, which goes back to 2001. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) call it the “worst snowpack on record.” One leading meteorologist said: “The situation with the western snowpack is quite dire in just about all areas.” BOISE STATE PUBLIC RADIO
A congressional office finds the government falls short on legal duties to tribal nations. When tribes ceded millions of acres of their territories to the federal government, it was in exchange for certain commitments from the U.S. government including services, protection, reservations, and for some tribes, hunting and fishing rights. A new report from the Government Accountability Office says that the government continues to fall short. GRIST
Canada’s largest nickel mine contains a mineral with great potential to store carbon dioxide. Crawford Nickel mine outside Timmins, Ontario, is receiving millions of public dollars with the goal of both zeroing out its own emissions, estimated at 15,200 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide a year, and locking the carbon dioxide from nearby emitters in the mineral brucite. THE NARWHAL
Trump wants to allow deep-sea mining in 113 million acres of waters off Alaska, alarming Native groups. The move would allow companies to scrape sea floors for minerals used in electric vehicles and military technology, a practice scientists say ecosystems could take millennia to recover from. Alaskan Native groups voice concern that this practice could repeat the mistakes of land-based mining, where indigenous interests have been shunned. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Native families promised free solar are being left out in the cold by the Trump administration. In northern Montana, a coalition of 14 tribes received a $135 million grant to build solar panels from the Inflation Reduction Act. Not only would the grant have lowered energy costs that were rising as high as $900 a month for some residents, but some even hoped to bring business to the reservation by creating solar installation companies. Under the Trump administration, those hopes were dashed, with only one house receiving a solar array in time. MOTHER JONES
The Guadalupe River floodplain in Texas is both the site of flooding disasters and a fracking hotspot. In one area, almost 20 feet of water could submerge the oil tanks. Part of the reason behind the inadvisable placement stemmed from a misunderstanding: A 100-year flood is not one that happens every 100 years, but one with a 1 percent chance each year. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Los Angeles nears completion on the largest wildlife crossing of its kind in the world. Can California mountain lions survive the encroachment of humans? The state added 550 miles of lanes to highways in just five years. The new wildlife crossing, set to complete at the end of the year, is part of California’s solution. NEW YORK TIMES
In one of California’s largest land returns, California’s Washoe Tribe buys land back. In a major step in the movement to return land to tribes, the Washoe Tribe now owns 10,000 acres north of Lake Tahoe. They had been forced off the land at the time of the 19th century gold rush. THE GUARDIAN
Climate change will change Colorado skiing, but how? Warmer temperatures at the beginning and end of the season will shorten the season on average, according to climate experts. And with big snows becoming less reliable, resorts are expected to invest in snowmaking, push preseason passes sold before snow begins to fall, and increasingly call for a green transition. DENVER POST
High-tech prospectors use new technology to find mineral deposits in Utah. The West’s unique geological profile led generations of miners to dig for valuable metals. Knowing where to dig now may be easier thanks to a new technology used on federal lands in Utah. It involves arranging hundreds of 20-pound nodes in the ground. “Arranged in grids that connect to low-Earth-orbit satellites,” the author writes, “the nodes are capable of collecting and sharing data used to create high-resolution maps of anomalies, miles underground, that might be gold, copper, nickel, lithium, or other minerals.” THE ATLANTIC
Articles worth reading: February 4, 2026
Under proposed EPA rules, human life has no economic value; Texas oil companies released millions of pounds of pollutants during icy weather; Northern Cheyenne Tribe to use solar power to help restore bison; a new lead on the sea-star wasting disease; and other environmental stories from the American West.
Human life will have no value in cost-benefit calculations of proposed EPA rules. For the first time, the agency will not take costs to human life into account when setting limits on air pollutants, fine particulate matter, and ozone. Only what it costs companies to comply with regulations will be considered. NEW YORK TIMES
Icy weather in Texas permitted companies to emit 1.6 million pounds of regulated pollutants. When freezing temperatures and leaky pipes allow air to spoil pipeline systems, Texas law allows companies to release or burn off the gas to avoid explosions, so long as they report the amount. The high amount of pollution reported has caused many to call for gas companies to winterize, a requirement enacted for power plants in Texas since 2021. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Congress works to downsize Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and reintroduce mining, which was long forbidden. The Utah National Monument has been protected since 1996 and spans 1.87 million acres of public land. The site was downsized under the previous Trump Administration, restored under the Biden Administration, and is now under threat again, this time from Congress’ efforts to reinstate resource extraction in the area. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Undoing monument decisions could cause legal chaos. “This area is becoming a big mess, legally speaking,” said a Stanford expert. BLOOMBERG
The Northern Cheyenne Tribe is using solar power to restore bison habitat and become more self-sufficient. Indigenized Energy, a Native led nonprofit focused on energy sovereignty, partnered with the tribe on the project to install a 36kW solar array and 57.6kW battery. The new system will help the tribe expand their bison restoration efforts, with bison being an important source of biodiversity, a valuable food source, and source of income through selling meat. THE DAILY YONDER
The Defense Department aims to revoke billions of dollars in contracts to Native businesses. A program had given preference for contracts to businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals and tribes. The program provided $16.1 billion to Native businesses in 2024. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed on social media this move is part of dismantling DEI in the federal government. TRIBAL BUSINESS NEWS
National park signs about Native Americans’ removal and climate change to be removed. Trump officials ordered national parks to remove signage that “disparage Americans past or living.” The order that led to the removal of an exhibit reporting George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people was followed by a wave of orders this month targeting signage about the disappearance of glaciers due to climate change and the forced removal of Native Americans, among others. The move will impact some of the nation’s most iconic National Parks, including Grand Canyon, Zion, and Glacier. THE WASHINGTON POST
Federal agency canceling bison permits for Montana’s American Prairie Reserve. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte praised the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to cancel the permits, calling the previous policy “federal overreach” that came “at the expense of our local communities.” According to Gianforte, the policy created needless competition for farmers and ranchers, claiming the policy “[created] a massive nature reserve that displaces families.” CHAR-KOOSTA NEWS
New fence on California-Mexico border may block crucial migration path for bighorn sheep. Federal officials plan to seal parts of the border that pass over rocky mountainsides with spirals of razor wire instead of a looming wall. Scientists and concerned citizens fear endangered bighorn sheep will be killed, and their migration path blocked. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Oregon proposes a one percent tax to protect wildlife. The bill is expected to provide roughly $30 million annually towards saving imperiled species of wildlife and would increase the state’s current hotel and lodging taxes, if passed. Hotel and lodging was selected for a raise due to the state’s high rate of eco-tourism. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
EPA to eliminate one of the few ways tribes can protect their water. Developers building dams, mines, data centers, or pipelines must obtain a permit from local tribes or the state confirming the proposal meets federal water quality standards. Under new EPA guidelines, that permit would only have authority to address “discharge,” eliminating the ability for tribes to voice spill risks, any threats to their cultural resources, and wildlife impacts. GRIST
What does urban fire do to the body? The chemicals released to the air when the fuel for a fire are manmade structures was relatively unknown. The Los Angeles fires helped researchers better understand the impacts of being exposed to urban fire. Spikes in cases of respiratory illness, heart problems, and mental health challenges were clearly linked to the fires, while the cause of abnormal blood tests is still not fully understood. THE ATLANTIC
Researchers may finally know what causes sea star wasting disease. The disease has caused sea star arms to fall off and bodies to decompose into white goo, decimating West Coast populations from Alaska to Baja California since 2013. In summer of 2025, researchers pinned many instances of the disease on the bacteria Vibrio pectenicida, but since it can’t explain the disease in all impacted species, researchers suspect the bacteria is a symptom, not the original cause, of sea star wasting disease. With questions still unanswered, researchers warn that another massive outbreak may come again, especially since it seems warmer waters help fuel the disease. YALE E360
Articles worth reading: January 20, 2026
Federal government offers five options for the future of the Colorado River; the EPA eases legal controls on water pollution; the Supreme Court to consider the safety of the weedkiller Roundup; California completely drought-free for the first time since 2000; and other environmental stories from the American West.
Federal solutions for the future of the Colorado River unveiled. The Trump Administration released five proposals for the future of the Colorado River; most mandate significant water losses from the three Lower Basin states – California, Arizona, and Nevada. One option dictates that if the water levels in Lake Mead drop too far, up to 20 percent of the current allocation for the Lower Basin states could be cut. Months of negotiations among the seven states have thus far ended in an impasse; the new deadline for a consensus plan is Feb. 14. LOS ANGELES TIMES SALT LAKE TRIBUNE COLORADO SUN
States push back against President Trump’s aim to halt renewable energy and preserve fossil fuel plants. President Trump came into office with massive goals to put an end to renewable energy efforts. States are putting up a fight.
Under a new EPA proposal, there will be less control over water pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency reconsiders which waters are protected by the Clean Water Act. Some fear that under this new interpretation of the act, protection against water pollution could disappear for 90 percent of the country’s wetlands. SACRAMENTO BEE
Supreme Court to decide if Roundup is shielded from lawsuits. Currently, the EPA considers the herbicide to be safe, but it faces an Oct. 1, 2026 deadline to re-examine the evidence. In a rare occurrence, environmentalists and activists under the Make America Healthy Again banner are aligned against it being labeled safe. NEW YORK TIMES
In Midland, Texas, the bankruptcy process has allowed companies to evade responsibility for pollution. In 2007, the city of Midland filed a complaint with the state that an injection well was contaminating the groundwater, but since the Heritage Standard Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 2010, the cleanup has dragged on to this day. In the end, the company’s environmental costs were capped to ensure that it could pay back creditors. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
For many, the Los Angeles fires were just the start of their troubles. The Eaton and Palisades fires may be out of the public consciousness, but they still haunt daily life and legislation in Los Angeles County. Insurance companies drag out the rebuilding process NPR while Black residents are the most likely group to have their rebuilding permit denied HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Also, a look back at the aftermath of the Palisades fire and the people who are still picking up the pieces today. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
State lawmakers attempt to bar civil lawsuits against oil companies. Lawmakers in Oklahoma and Utah proposed legislation making it impossible to hold the fossil fuel industry legally accountable for climate change, a kind of lawsuit that has been increasingly common as the impacts of climate change become clearer. THE GUARDIAN
A hotly debated mine advances in British Columbia, causing anxiety among Alaskan Indigenous groups who live downstream. The Eskay Creek gold and silver mine is set to reopen after 18 years. The new owners won approval from 77 percent of the roughly 1,750-member Tahltan Nation after proposing up-front payments of $7,250 per person. Native Alaskans, who depend on the Unuk River, which is just below the mine and flows into Southeast Alaska, fear Canadian regulators may not safeguard downstream interests, and many believe the environmental risks of the mine are not worth the cash. NORTHERN JOURNAL
Some Wyoming residents push back against the phalanx of wind turbines overtaking the state. “This is no longer a series of isolated projects,” Cheyenne area resident Wendy Volk told a hearing of the state Board of Land Commissioners. “It is a continuous, or near continuous, industrial corridor stretching across multiple counties and landscapes.” When a plethora of data-center proposals are included, “the tsunami of industrial ventures threatens viewsheds, tourism, agriculture and scarce water resources without a cohesive government venue to deal with either specific projects or bigger picture impacts.” WYOFILE
Is California entirely drought free, for the first time in 25 years? According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a peer-reviewed report shows no drought anywhere in the state. SF Gate However, some experts argue the claim is too simplistic, ignoring the dominant impact of groundwater in the state’s water system. MERCURY NEWS Meanwhile, the rest of the West faces an unequivocal snow drought. CNN
Cascade frogs return to Lassen Volcanic National Park after 18 years. Researchers remember the last frog at Lassen well: Year after year, she sought a mate, body full of eggs, in a park devoid of her species. By 2007, even she was gone. But in early September, researchers began reintroducing the species, taking the count of Cascade frogs from 0 to 117 in a single day. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Articles worth reading: January 6, 2026
Water giveaways enjoyed by southwestern farmers in California and Arizona; an attempt to eliminate tribal vetoes of energy projects on tribal lands; Trump administration ending Colorado center gathering climate data; previously unwanted Utah beavers drafted to undertake new projects, and more environmental stories from around the West.
Farmers enjoy deep discounts on Colorado River water relative to others. A UCLA study shows wholesale prices for Colorado River water paid by big agricultural water agencies in California, Arizona and Nevada are “a fraction of what cities pay, if anything at all.” They said these “dirt-cheap” prices cost taxpayers, add to the strains on scarce water, and discourage conservation.” THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
Trump administration seeks to eliminate tribal vetoes of energy projects on their land. When a power company wanted to build a pumped-storage plant using a deep canyon near Black Mesa on Navajo land, federal energy regulators rejected it because the tribe did not approve. At the time, tribal approval of such industrial projects was required. But the current energy secretary wants that policy abandoned. GRIST
Plans to break up a 70-year-old federal center gathering climate data. ”The Trump administration said it will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, one of the world’s leading Earth science research institutions. The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in humanity’s understanding of weather and climate.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
Klamath Indigenous Land trust buys 10,000 acres along the newly undammed river where salmon now swim freely. “The move is one of the largest private land purchases by an Indigenous-led land trust in U.S. history,” according to the land trust’s announcement. “Dam removal allowed the salmon to return home. Returning these lands to Indigenous care ensures that home will be a place where they can flourish and recover,” said the president of the trust’s board of directors. SISKIYOU DAILY NEWS
Federal appeals court blocks Hawaii’s new climate-change tax on cruise ship passengers. The tax, which establishes higher rates on hotel room and vacation rental stays, also adds an 11 percent levy on cruise ship passengers’ fares for the time they are in Hawaiian ports. A District Court blocked the cruise ships; challenge; the 9th Circuit Court temporarily stayed that order. The new tax would have taken effect at the beginning of the year. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trump Administration seeks to block three western power station closures. The Energy Department’s new reversals, or attempted reversals of decisions to shutter economically unviable energy-generating facilities mean that:
A “super bloom” of poisonous mushrooms has hospitalized more than a dozen Californians and led to one death – the largest outbreak of such cases in 30 years. The warm fall and early rains accelerated the growth of these “death caps,” Strong government warnings about the problem have led mushroom-lovers to accuse agencies of breeding “mycophobia.” KQED
Proliferation of Mexican data centers depends on fossil-fuel energy. There aren’t enough green energy sources and it’s easier to use fossil fuels. “It’s a lot easier to pump more oil than it is to get an entire industrial-sized solar system built quickly,” said one critic. CONTEXT
Related:AI-crunching data centers sprout across the West.
Once-scorned Utah beavers are in demand on new job sites. One beaver who was doing her dam-building thing infuriated a rancher, who said his sheep were getting stuck in the mud her work created. But she wasn’t killed; the state moved her to a place where her work was far more valued, as degraded streams needed to be restored. THE NEW YORK TIMES
The improbable rise and longevity of the Riley Creek wolf pack in Alaska’s Denali National Park. Riley, a long-lived female who took the risky course of striking out on her own had enough big litters that she became central to a pack whose territory grew and grew. The pack’s rise and eventual decline was closely tracked by state biologists for a better understanding of what makes a successful wolf. ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS
“It didn’t work.” A decade later, reverberations of the occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. “Bundy and the other occupiers claimed they came to support a local ranching family, who was being prosecuted and sent back to prison by the federal government for arson,” says this report. But the local reaction at the time – even from the ranchers they claimed to support – was unenthusiastic. A former local district attorney said, “The disruption and the attempts to cause disunity between us — it didn’t work.” Now people just want to move on and worry about environmental issues like controlling invasive species, and figuring out how to “best use the land for wildlife and cattle.” BOISE PUBLIC RADIO
Articles worth reading: December 8, 2025
The financial breaks going to rich ranchers whose cattle graze on public lands; Washington power plants must scramble to replace the coal they can no longer use; tourism drying up on the Navajo reservation; how to use fungi to remediate polluted soil, and more environmental news from the American West.
The wealthy profit from public lands. Taxpayers pick up the tab. “In 2024 alone, the federal government poured at least $2.5 billion into subsidy programs that public-lands ranchers can access, not including the steep discount on forage. Subsidies benefiting public-lands ranchers include disaster assistance after droughts and floods, cheap crop insurance, funding for fences and watering holes, and compensation for animals lost to predators. Benefits flow largely to a select few wealthy ranchers. Roughly two-thirds of all the livestock grazing on BLM acreage is controlled by just 10 percent of ranchers.” PROPUBLICA HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Canada relaxes rules to expand oil sands production in Alberta, as the Canadian prime minister and Alberta’s premier agree on a plan to expand Canadian energy self-sufficiency in response to a less friendly relationship with the United States. But authorities in British Columbia object to a plan to build a pipeline across their territory from Alberta to the Pacific Ocean. Environmentalists are concerned about the lack of safeguards. POLITICO
Nearly 900 acres of land returned to Sierra tribe. About 175 years after settlers and miners drove them off their territory on Yosemite National Park’s western border, the Southern Sierra Miwuks’ descendants are reclaiming some of the land. The tribe, based in Mariposa, purchased land with precipitous outcroppings and deep forests of white fir and incense cedar from a San Francisco environmental group. SAN JOSE MERCURY-NEWS
With a state ban on using coal imminent, Washington’s power plants are scrambling to replace the coal they use – much of which comes from – with Montana’s wind energy. But the new wind energy won’t completely cover the gap. SEATTLE TIMES
A massive underwater battery being tested off Long Beach, CA. It’s designed to use ocean pressure to sequester energy stores thousands of feet below the sea surface. An empty concrete sphere is placed on the seabed. When there is extra wind or solar power, an electric pump pushes water out of the sphere against the surrounding deep-sea pressure. When electricity is needed, a valve opens and water rushes back into the empty sphere. A turbine then spins the generator, turning the stored pressure into power that can be sent to the grid. EARTH.COM
Huge new data centers come to Nevada mountains. In the dry hills near Virginia City, Nevada, once the site of gold and silver mines, the AI age has arrived, with the new digital world’s infrastructure going up at record speed over a 160-square-mile area. A huge buildout of data centers – miles of concrete buildings housing millions of computer servers — is underway. New transmission lines lead to an industrial center covering an area bigger than Denver, housing the largest data center in the country. More will follow. THE GUARDIAN
Tourism drying up on the Navajo reservation. Fallout from the slump in travel to the United States has reached all the way to Monument Valley. Foreign arrivals to the United States overall are down nearly 5 percent, or 2.3 million people, through August compared to last year. That decline has had a major effect on popular Navajo Nation destinations like Monument Valley, the Four Corners Monument and Antelope Canyon. In the valley, where tour guides estimate as many as three in four visitors come from abroad, nearly 525,000 tourists arrived in 2024, according to the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department, a number that dwindled to about 320,000 this year through August. NEW YORK TIMES
Tiny technology helps citizen scientists track monarch butterfly migration. The solar-powered tag Blu+, affixed to some insects, can be tracked with a new iPhone app, Project Monarch. While coastal California once hosted thousands, counts in recent years have barely broken a thousand, down about 95 percent over recent decades. Much remains unknown about their migration patterns. Each migration season, from October to January, volunteers along the California coast tally butterflies. Now they can use the app while they count. SAN JOSE MERCURY-NEWS
Farmers’ tractors block the Mexican legislature protessting new water restrictions. “The farmers amassed outside the congressional chamber to protest the General Water Law proposal, which they say will take water away from the countryside and re-allocate it for discretionary use. They say the proposal threatens their livelihoods and chips away at their fundamental right to water.” ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawai’i’s Kilauea volcano won’t stop erupting. The lessons we can learn from one of the most active and accessible volcanoes on Earth. Its awe-inspiring eruptions in 2018 caused the summit to collapse and swallowed up parts of nearby highway. The geologist Ashton Flinders said, “if you thought about a volcano as a living, breathing entity and body, gravity is the body mass index. So I use gravity meters or gravimeters to study variations in the acceleration of gravity or the force of gravity that are measurable on the surface, but that are being caused by changes in the volcanic system.” ATLAS OBSCURA
Using mushrooms to fix polluted soil. In the Terra Verde podcast, Danielle Stevenson, a biologist specializing in fungi, discusses their use in remediating heavily contaminated brownfield sites in Los Angeles. She describes her work using plants, microbes and fungi which can pull heavy metals from soil and break down petrochemicals. In the wake of January’s Los Angeles wildfires, she is also doing post-fire bioremediation research. EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL/KPFA
Articles worth reading: November 25, 2025
An investigation into health risks facing the youngest farmworkers; the Rio Grande’s water crisis rivals the Colorado River’s; fire destroys 1,000 Joshua trees; do AI translations of Native languages infringe tribal sovereignty?; and other environmental stories from around the West.
Working to pick California berries on sweltering days while breathing in toxic chemicals, children and young adolescent farmworkers are sacrificing their health. They have few places to turn for help to ensure that they work in safe conditions and are paid at least a minimum wage. CAPITAL & MAIN
The Rio Grande’s problems in Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico get worse, but are overshadowed by the attention paid to the Colorado River’s water crisis. A new report with the first full accounting of Rio Grande water use shows current use is unsustainable. “The Rio Grande basin is at a tipping point, and everyone needs to be part of the solution,” said one of the report’s authors. BIG PIVOTS ASSOCIATED PRESS
California offers oil companies a way to remove only decommissioned rigs’ tops, because a profusion of sea life clings to oil platforms’ underwater legs – creating prolific ecosystems. For the long-maligned oil companies, this is a complicated decision with liability implications. Erik Olsen tells the story of some of the most productive ecosystems on the planet and whether they will survive – and provides a bevy of underwater photographs. CALIFORNIA CURATED
Knowledge of Yu’pik is needed to get disaster relief to Native Alaskan communities… AI can help. But training AI to be a Yu’pik translator may tread on tribal sovereignty. “Many Native tech and culture experts are intrigued by [AI’s] potential, particularly when it comes to language preservation. But they warn that the technology risks distorting cultural knowledge and could threaten language sovereignty.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Diminishing demand for wine means vineyards are plowed under. Some 40,000 acres of California vineyards – about seven percent of the state’s total – were removed between October 2024 and August 2025, according to a report from the California Association of Winegrape Growers. “Industry experts have attributed the weak wine market to multiple factors, including a shift in messaging from health experts about how safe it is to consume low levels of alcohol … and market share lost to seltzers, ready-to-drink cocktails and marijuana.” AG ALERT
The Trump administration proposes offshore oil leasing in most Alaskan waters. In addition to opening up most of Alaska’s seacoasts for development, with potentially 21 lease sales in the next six years, the new plan proposes leasing along most of the Pacific Coast. ALASKA BEACON
Native American protests against the country’s last operating uranium mill in Utah are growing. The opposition began with the White Mesa Ute tribe. Its lands are nearest to the mill, which now takes radioactive waste from around the world, extracts small amounts of uranium and discards everything else in waste piles not far from Ute lands. “Some tribal members worry the mill will contaminate springs, plants, and wildlife. As a result, some have stopped using ceremonial springs and hunting deer and rabbits near the mill.” NAVAJO HOPI OBSERVER
Fire destroys 1,000 Joshua trees during the government shutdown. The blaze was centered on a slightly elevated section of California’s Joshua Tree National Park with a high concentration of the trees. Fire devastated an area ideal for maintaining tree populations which are increasingly hampered by rising temperatures at lower altitudes. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Some Texas water customers are facing an unpleasant surprise. A recent state plan predicts that within 50 years the state population will increase by 70 percent and water supplies will decline by 18 percent. Now, “as industrial operations move to the state, residents find that their drinking water has been promised to companies.” THE NEW YORKER
Wolves are not always welcome in California. Fourteen years after the first wolf entered the state after their earlier extermination, there are now 60 to 70 wolves in 10 packs. “As fragile as their California residency may still be, their wild voices are turning up on the night air in surprising places. … As wolves probe the state’s best habitat, looking for food and mates, a debate rages about how to best coexist with the world’s second-most-successful large predator (after humans).” RED CANARY
How a rural Montana resort shaped nuclear policy. With the potential for nuclear confrontation in the air after the shootdown of a civilian airliners in 1983, the Big Sky Lodge 10 months later hosted a powerhouse gathering of leading academic and former government officials, from Robert McNamara and McGeorge Bundy to leading academics like Graham Allison, Joseph Nye, and Thomas Schelling. Their task: figuring out how to “avert major nuclear war in a world where leaders are human, and even the best-designed and engineered systems are fallible.” BULLETIN OF ATOMIC SCIENTISTS
The tumbleweed takeover of the West. Western lands face “an avalanche of hard and spiky bouncing beach-balls of the noxious, unpleasant weed. During strong westerly winds, especially in years with a wet spring and hot, dry fall, swarms of thousands—sometimes hundreds of thousands—roll freely over the prairie landscape, halting only where housing developments stand in their way.” WALL STREET JOURNAL (gift link)
Articles worth reading: November 11, 2025
Colorado river dispute draws federal pressure to solve interstate conflict; Uranium mining makes a comeback in the West; recovered turtle populations in Hawaii raise questions about how to manage conserved species; and other environmental news from the West.
Colorado River states race against time. With a deadline looming and key reservoirs at historic lows, the seven Colorado River Basin states remain deadlocked over how to share diminishing water supplies after 2026. Federal officials are pressing for a new agreement that balances urban growth, agriculture, and Indigenous rights, but disputes over who bears the largest cuts persist. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The essential things to know about the intrastate disagreements. UTAH NEWS DISPATCH
Montana ranchers turn wildfire waste into carbon credits. In the aftermath of massive wildfires that left millions of trees dead, ranchers in Montana are experimenting with burying charred biomass to trap carbon and earn credit revenue. The approach, a mix of land management and emerging carbon-market opportunity, could reduce wildfire fuel loads while generating new income streams for rural landowners. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
As sea turtles recover in Hawaii, Indigenous communities hope to resume traditional harvesting. Federal regulations under the Endangered Species Act have prevented all commercial hunting of green sea turtles, including by native Hawaiians. Now, as turtle populations bounce back, Indigenous groups call for lifted restrictions on cultural harvesting practices. INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY NEWS
Is California’s Siskiyou County illegally depriving a cluster of Asian residents – Hmong immigrants who came after the Vietnam War – of the water they need? A federal judge ruled that the Northern California county cannot dismiss a lawsuit alleging it targeted Hmong immigrants by restricting water deliveries under the guise of combating illegal cannabis cultivation. Residents in the remote Mount Shasta Vista subdivision rely on hauled water for domestic use and farming, but the county’s ordinances limited deliveries to suppress marijuana production. COURTHOUSE NEWS
How Sierra Club tore itself apart. Once the nation’s most influential environmental organization, the 132-year-old group founded by John Muir now faces leadership struggles, staff disputes, and financial crises. Recent reports reveal budget deficits as the organization tries to redefine its mission in a polarized era, struggling to balance its focus on wildlife preservation with broader social justice advocacy. NEW YORK TIMES
Alaskan advocates call for immediate coastal resilience funding in the face of anticipated climate damages. Native leaders asked Congress for $80 million a year to fill budget shortfalls in response to increasing natural disasters after a recent typhoon devastated rural villages. ALASKA BEACON
Solar power sees a rare political victory in Colorado. Recall elections in Montrose County led to anti-solar former Commissioner Scott Mijares to be replaced with Kirstin Copeland, an unaffiliated candidate who could be more open to utility-scale solar development. BIG PIVOTS
Life in America’s most polluted city: Bakersfield, California. Residents describe the health tolls of chronic smog and particulate pollution from agriculture, oil fields, and traffic. Despite years of advocacy from environmental groups and state regulations, the San Joaquin Valley still is the epicenter for the nation’s highest rates of asthma and particulate pollution, exacerbated by social inequalities. DESERET
Uranium boom threatens western landscapes. As nuclear power enjoys a policy revival, uranium mining is surging in the deserts and plateaus of Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming. Companies are reopening long-dormant mines, citing energy security and low-carbon electricity goals. Meanwhile, Indigenous nations and environmentalists warn against repeating the kind of Cold War-era contamination that left groundwater poisoned and communities sick. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Death Valley becomes a model for climate resilience. Researchers studying native shrubs in America’s hottest desert have identified genetic traits that allow these plants to endure extreme heat and drought, insights that could inform the breeding of climate-resilient crops worldwide. Their findings show that the harshest ecosystems can yield solutions for a warming planet, positioning Death Valley as an unlikely laboratory for agricultural adaptation. E360
A spectacular eruption of a Hawaiian volcano caught on video, with lava being blown 1,000 feet into the air. BBC
Western rivers inspire artists and scientists to tell the stories of their encounters with western water. Amid shrinking water reserves, pollution, and infrastructure encroachment, three river enthusiasts reflect on their memories of rafting trips, kayak expeditions, hikes, and other encounters with the West’s waterways. TERRAIN.ORG
Articles worth reading: October 27, 2025
California establishes a long-term carbon market; Indigenous communities in Alaska struggle to recover from major typhoon; an ocean “blob” caused by warming waters is on its way to the Pacific coast, and more environmental news from around the West.
Trump administration paves over environmental concerns with approval of road construction through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The road, set to be 18 miles long, will cut through a stretch of coastal wildlands in southwest Alaska that is home to migratory birds, caribou, and brown bears among other species. The plan, and has faced outcry from environmentalists and Indigenous groups since its proposal over 40 years ago. The project is intended to provide increased accessibility to a remote fishing village in King Cove. WASHINGTON POST
ExxonMobil takes the state of California to court over sustainability reporting regulations. The company claims that 2023 climate disclosure laws unfairly shame bigger corporations for global warming since the bills require large businesses to disclose indirect and direct greenhouse gas emissions in their operations worldwide and financial risks related to climate change. California Governor Gavin Newsom defends the bills and calls for transparency from top polluters. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alaskan native communities reflect on damages and look to rebuild after Typhoon Halong. Hundreds of homes were destroyed as water levels rose over six feet above the normal tide line in parts of the region. Following a huge evacuation effort, thousands are now living in shelters, leaning on their community while waiting for conditions to be safe enough to return to their homes and start to repair the destruction. ICT NEWS
When there’s a will, there’s a wave — even in the desert. The arid landscape did not deter Utah developers from building a $25 million water sports community, drawing concern from conservationists who worry that the project will mean a loss of critical water supplies from state efforts to combat droughts and protect a shrinking Great Salt Lake. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
“Forever chemicals” detected in New Mexico residents’ bloodstreams. People living near a contaminated groundwater plume in New Mexico have recorded some of the highest known levels of PFAS chemicals in their blood, according to new testing results. The contamination stems from firefighting foam used decades ago at nearby military installations, prompting renewed calls for cleanup and medical monitoring as state officials seek federal assistance. THE SEATTLE TIMES
Mining revival gains momentum in Texas. A federal push to increase domestic mineral production is fueling a resurgence of mining activity across Texas, from lithium and rare earth exploration to renewed drilling in long-dormant quarries. While industry leaders hail the boom as key to strengthening U.S. supply chains for clean energy technologies, environmental advocates warn that lax oversight could repeat past pollution and land degradation. TEXAS OBSERVER
Oil and gas leasing threatens Wyoming wildlife migration corridors. A new analysis shows that all of Wyoming’s designated big-game migration corridors overlap with proposed federal oil and gas leases, raising alarms among wildlife biologists and conservationists. The finding highlights ongoing tensions between the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” policies and its promises to protect critical habitats for pronghorn, elk, and mule deer. WYOFILE
Warming Pacific Ocean “blob” returns off British Columbia coast. A new patch of abnormally warm water has formed in the northern Pacific Ocean, reminiscent of the 2014–2016 “blob” that disrupted marine ecosystems and fisheries across the West Coast. Scientists warn that if the current anomaly persists, it could trigger oxygen loss, toxic algal blooms, and shifts in species migration along the Western coast. VANCOUVER SUN
California legislation to make data centers account for water use is vetoed by Gov. Newsom, who cites worry about regulatory burden with unknown consequences. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Fiber optic cables underwater may help endangered orcas by documenting their movements and vocalizations. Scientists are using underwater fiber-optic cables as passive listening devices to detect the sounds and movements of endangered orcas along the Pacific Northwest coast. The technique, which repurposes telecommunications infrastructure for environmental monitoring, could offer real-time insights into whale migration routes and interactions with ship traffic. ASSOCIATED PRESS
California extends cap-and-trade program through 2040. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan bill extending California’s landmark cap-and-trade program for another 15 years, maintaining a central pillar of the state’s climate policy. The system, which limits carbon pollution and allows companies to buy and trade emissions permits, will now run through 2040 with updated targets aligned with the state’s 2045 carbon neutrality goal. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Surfboard-snatching sea otter stirs up trouble off Santa Cruz coast. A bold sea otter has been making waves by jumping onto surfers’ boards and refusing to budge. Researchers say this behaviour may stem from food stress and learned boldness, illustrating how human-wildlife overlap in coastal zones can trigger unexpected conflicts. NEW YORK TIMES
Articles worth reading: October 14, 2025
As solar projects come under fire in Nevada, Utah looks to dominate the nuclear realm; Indigenous hunters in Alaska change their walrus hunting techniques; California faces an ice-free future, and more environmental news from the West.
The sun sets on Nevada’s Esmeralda 7 solar energy project as the Trump administration targets renewable energy developments across the country. The project was set to be the largest solar development in North America, and had steadily moved through the permitting process under President Joe Biden’s administration until the current Bureau of Land Management announced on October 9, 2025 that the final step of environmental review for the project had been cancelled. While environmentalists in favor of ending fossil fuels lament this loss, conservationists who voiced concerns about the projects’ impacts on local wildlife supported the decision. E&E NEWS
Spurred by climate change, a deadly fungus is spreading throughout Arizona amidst health care funding cuts. The coccidioidomycosis disease, more commonly known as “Valley fever,” is caused by cocci fungal pathogens that grow in topsoil in the Western U.S. during the cool, rainy winters and then spread during dry, hot summers as dust enters the air and spores can be inhaled by passing humans or animals. As these natural weather cycles become more extreme, infections are spreading faster than previous years, and Arizona’s doctors fear cuts to public health care funding and medical research will undermine efforts to contain and treat the budding health crisis. GRIST & the West looks closely at the victims of Valley fever and the efforts to contain the disease.
Utah governor looks to turn the state into the nuclear power hub of the country, with support from the federal government. On October 7, Gov. Spencer Cox announced his plans for “Operation Gigawatt,” a state-wide effort to increase energy production by building out the state’s nuclear power capacity. As the only state in the country with an operating uranium mill, Utah is poised to play a critical role in meeting the increasing AI-driven energy demands nationwide. DESERET NEWS
The National Guard increasingly faces a tough enemy: natural disasters. New data from the Pentagon shows that on average, 1,100 National Guard troops have been deployed on disaster response in the wake of hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters over the past year. In Oregon, the rising need for disaster response coupled with President Trump’s attempts to deploy the troops for law enforcement has resulted in a legal battle between state and federal governments. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
California will experience ice-free glacial peaks for the first time in modern human history. Glaciers have been a part of the Sierra Nevada landscape since the Ice Age, thousands of years before humans lived in North America. These ice peaks have significantly shrunk in recent years as a result of a warming climate, and scientists now say that Californians can expect to say goodbye to all four glaciers by 2100, if not sooner. SF GATE
Indigenous communities adapt centuries-old walrus hunting traditions in the face of thawing sea ice. Warming temperatures and shifting walrus migration patterns are forcing Native Alaskan hunters to alter their timing and techniques, while researchers struggle to study walrus populations amid strained U.S.-Russia relations that have halted collaborative research projects. Despite these challenges, walruses continue to hold significant cultural and economic importance for Alaskan tribes. NATIVE AMERICA CALLING
Utah hunters offered $800 to use lead-free ammunition for the sake of endangered condors. Lead poisoning is a leading cause of death for the state’s condors and other scavenging birds that eat the remains of wildlife shot with lead ammunition. As Utah’s hunting season ramps up and condor populations reach drastic lows, officials are now offering a reward to those who prove that they took steps to prevent secondary impacts from recreational hunting. DESERET NEWS
At the frontlines of the climate crisis, Arctic science is increasingly politicized as the Trump administration advances defense aims. As the region warms roughly four times faster than the rest of the world, U.S. Arctic policy is shifting away from a Biden-era emphasis on climate change research and towards national security, reframing polar research as a strategy move. This raises concerns that environmental and community-oriented studies will be sidelined as funding shifts towards defense priorities. NEW YORK TIMES
Klamath River shows signs of recovery one year after dam removal. The ecosystem is flourishing, with salmon, beaver, bald eagle, otter, and osprey populations bouncing back after the world’s largest dam removal project restored natural river flows after 100 years. UNDERSCORE NEWS
Water-saving study in Lake Mead shows conservation does not have to be costly. According to new research, the most cost-effective way to preserve water in the Colorado River system is by reducing agricultural usage. However, experts caution that deep cuts to agriculture risk undermining food production and rural livelihoods. REVIEW JOURNAL
Oil refinery explosions across California spark debate about management practices in the absence of federal oversight. A recent explosion at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery has ignited concerns over the weakening of management for California’s oil industry as the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is defunded. CAL MATTERS
Waste from the Hanford, Washington nuclear plant can now be turned into glass, instead of being stored in liquid or chemical form, which sometimes leaks from storage containers. It’s radioactive glass, but easier to store securely. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Extreme heat is responsible for more deaths in Arizona than autopsy records indicate. As U.S. temperatures soar, autopsy reports in one of the nation’s warmest states reveal that though extreme heat is rarely cited as a cause of death, heat exacerbates preexisting conditions, especially in vulnerable groups without access to cooling systems and health care. The discrepancy in reporting means that the country may be severely undercounting how many lives are being lost to climate change. GUARDIAN
Lessons learned on the hunt for the best blueberries: a hiker’s reflection on his trek through Alaska’s mountains. Reporter Bill Sherwonit walks readers through his autumn hike to Falls Creek Valley in the Chugach Front Range, where he picks wild blueberries while reminiscing on memories of journeys with his dogs soaking up the beauty of Alaska. ALASKA BEACON
Articles worth reading: September 30, 2025
Federal judges ruled in favor of wildlife, protecting gray wolf populations in Montana; how amphibian-inspired technology could pull water from the air; California lawmakers back down from ambitious data-center sustainability rules, and more environmental news from around the West.
Court orders wolves back on Endangered Species List. A federal judge from Montana ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to put gray wolves back on the federal endangered species list, citing failures to consider “the best available science” in their 2024 ruling which handed wolf management to state governments in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. While numbers of this keystone species have recently increased in the West thanks to conservation efforts, wildlife biologists fear state management plans aimed at slashing populations in half to appease ranchers could threaten still-fragile wolf communities. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Washington State moves to expand its forest conservation as the dismantling of federal Forest Services threatens woods across the nation. The state set aside 77,000 acres of public land under a new plan to boost climate resilience and endangered species protection. The decision has raised economic concerns for rural communities, which have historically relied on timber sales from state land trusts to pay for public schools and other services, while conservationists urge officials to stop “pitting children against trees.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
After a hot, dry summer dropped the Great Salt Lake more than two feet, Utah Lake will send 10,000 acre-feet of water through the Jordan River to bolster fragile ecosystems and migratory bird habitats. The emergency transfer, backed by state agencies, water districts, and conservation groups, underscores mounting risks of global warming as dust pollution rises and ecological threats loom. KSL Salt Lake City
Does creating a national monument create trouble for ranchers? The Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, created by President Biden stretches over 900,000 acres of public land in Arizona, thousands of acres of which have been part of Chris Heaton’s family ranch for generations. Now he worries that repairing a culvert or allowing his cows to eat protected plants will be illegal. How does the Antiquities Act, the law behind the monument’s creation, work when the land preserved has historic uses? SWORD AND SCALES
State of Alaska loses longstanding dispute over Arctic refuge boundary. A federal judge ruled against the state’s bid to redraw the western border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, maintaining federal control over 20,000 acres of potentially oil-rich land. The ruling ends an 11-year legal battle, with significant implications for state revenue from future oil and gas leasing in the region. ALASKA BEACON
California legislators retreat from bold data-center sustainability goals. The lawmakers started out the year with four proposals on the table to limit data-center-driven water use, electricity price spikes, and carbon emissions, but only two bills have made it to Governor Newsom’s desk. Even the surviving proposals have been “successfully gutted” by data center lobbyists, experts say, as they have been amended to limit protections for electricity payers. CAL MATTERS
Southwestern researchers turn to air to solve water scarcity challenges. A Las Vegas startup called WAVR is developing a system that mimics amphibian anatomy to absorb moisture from the air, with the goal of harvesting water in arid regions. Their technologies are designed to supplement irrigation in the Colorado River, where flows are predicted to decline by as much as 30 percent by mid-century. KTVN Las Vegas
Invasive pests threaten Yakama Nation huckleberries. A fruit fly known as the spotted wing drosophila has been spotted for the first time in Yakama huckleberry fields. Native to Southeast Asia, the species poses a significant threat since the insects lay eggs inside berries as they ripen, unlike other flies that target overripe fruit. NATIVE NEWS ONLINE
New island emerges as Alaska’s ice melts. Prow Knob, once surrounded by the Alsek Glacier, is now fully detached as a 2-square-mile island in Alsek Lake. Glacial melt due to rising global temperatures has distinctly altered the landscape over the past forty years, with the lake more than doubling in size and ice retreat leaving Prow Knob a freestanding land mass. Yale E360
Latino Conservation Week adapts under pressure in Colorado. As heightened immigration enforcement has caused fear around public gatherings, Colorado’s Latino Conservation Week shifted towards smaller events centered around connecting heritage and nature. Participants spent time outdoors planting trees and creating community gardens in hopes of establishing a stronger connection with their land and feeling safe in recreational spaces amidst surveillance concerns. KSUT Four Corners
Nature photographer turns the camera beneath the forest floor to uncover the world of fungi. Artist Melinda Hurst Frye ventures into the Pacific Northwest woods with flatbed scanners, pressing flat plates against stumps, soils, roots, and fungi to capture the “understory” cross-sections of the forest floor. Her images reveal the intricate natural poetry of mycelium networks often invisible to the naked eye. CASCADE PBS Seattle
Articles worth reading: September 15, 2025
Experts call for the federal government to quickly impose cuts on Colorado River use; how those cleaning up potentially toxic ash from the Los Angeles fires were allowed to dump it in a neighborhood landfill; Washington legislature enacts a bill rooted in claim that logging fights climate change; golf courses are now part of Native lands, and more environmental news from around the West.
The Trump administration should impose substantial cuts on Colorado River use by the seven basin states to preserve the flow and avoid drastic depletion, a new analysis concludes. “Everybody needs to impose cuts right now,” said one expert. The river’s major reservoirs are less than one-third full, and another dry winter would push reservoirs toward critically low levels. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Conservation to lose its designation as a productive use of public lands. After the Biden Administration established a system allowing public lands to be leased for conservation, the same way they can be leased for oil drilling, industry and agriculture groups lobbied hard to have it overturned. The Trump administration is taking steps to do exactly that. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The impact of pecan trees on the Rio Grande’s shrinking water supplies. Pecans, the largest food crop in New Mexico (and in any state) are a very thirsty crop. Farmers’ choice to expand pecan plantings is stressing not only overpumped groundwater supplies, but the Rio Grande itself, whose flow is turning to sand. “The Bureau of Reclamation predicts that the Rio Grande watershed will continue to warm and dry, losing as much as one-half of its hydroelectric capacity by the end of the century.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
A rich town fights against potentially toxic fire ash going into their landfill. “Usually, communities like ours are not victimized by environmental injustice, because they have some level of power and influence,” said a Calabasas, California city council member. The anti-dumping effort failed. “As many influential and resourceful people that we have in [town], we still can’t get it stopped,” a resident said. “There’s no amount of money that can make you feel protected…..” NEW YORK TIMES What Southern California Edison is doing to remake a resilient, fire-resistant grid in the Los Angeles area. T&D WORLD
The reason the Washington legislature certified logging as a climate benefit. Research by a quasi-academic group founded by the timber firm Weyerhauser helped. “Washington is the country’s second biggest producer of soft wood lumber, and the timber industry holds considerable sway in Olympia, the state capital. By positioning industrial logging as a climate change solution, the [2020] law slipped through the gap between the state’s environmental values and one of its most powerful industries.” EARTH ISLAND
A Texas firm dives into a $150 million search for oil under Alaska’s Arctic coast. When Shell was hesitant to develop oil wells on land it had leased on Alaska’s North Slope, it was unclear if the oil would ever be extracted. Enter Narwhal Exploration, a small, Texas-based firm, which acquired some of the Shell leases and is testing its ability to pump difficult-to-reach oil reserves. “This winter, the company plans to sink as many as five exploration wells into state land beneath West Harrison Bay — a shallow inlet of the Beaufort Sea.” NORTHERN JOURNAL/ALASKA BEACON
Northwestern regions share firefighting resources as wildfires worsen. The Northwest Wildland Fire Fighting Compact, a union of 12 states, provinces and territories, allows its members to share firefighting resources and technology when blazes exceed the capacity of a single jurisdiction. The partnership comes as larger, faster and more frequent fires are happening and the U.S. federal forest service firefighting funds are being cut. LOS ANGELES TIMES
A longstanding ban on firefighters wearing protective masks is lifted as evidence grows of the health impacts of wildfire smoke. NEW YORK TIMES
Managers of a fire-damaged, crumbling, and crucial canal in Washington’s Yakima Valley wait to see if the Trump Administration will provide the tens of millions in aid needed to rejuvenate it. Built 115 years ago when developing the West was a national priority, it provided a “reliable supply of water here and elsewhere helped the Yakima Valley flourish into an agricultural power.” THE WASHINGTON POST.
Fear of ICE makes some farmworkers shun clean-water deliveries. The water in the unincorporated community of Royal Oaks in California’s Central Coast region is contaminated with nitrates. It shouldn’t be used for drinking or cooking. But some residents who joined a free bottled water program, are leaving it, “fearing that identifying information used to deliver the water could be weaponized by immigration enforcement.” CIRCLE OF BLUE
Wyoming Game and Fish Commission nixes plan to trim pronghorn migration corridor. Originally, two of 10 segments of the long route had been marked for removal from existing protections. A stock growers’ representative had argued that the sheer size of the migration corridor – 2.6 million acres, bigger than Yellowstone National park – was excessive. WYOFILE
Golf’s appeal changing Native lands. “The Mescalero Apaches started things off with the Inn of the Mountain Gods in 1975. Today, the celebration of land and design, recreation and economy on Native land continues to grow, as more than 60 tribes, bands and nations have gotten into the game, stretching across the United States from Hawai’i and California to the East Coast.” INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY
Articles worth reading: September 1, 2025
Roadless rule under threat; union drive in California national parks; a new Gold Rush?; the effect of wildfires on water supply; and more environmental news from around the West.
The effort to end the roadless rule and expand logging in national forests moves forward. Put on the books in 2001, the roadless rule was designed to protect wilderness areas in national forests from road-building and logging, “which can destroy or disrupt habitats, increase erosion and worsen sediment pollution in drinking water.” The Agriculture Department is publishing a notice to rescind it, allowing the logging industry to take advantage of a Trump executive order to expand timber production by 25 percent. LOS ANGELES TIMES How the roadless rule has protected wild places and their fish and wildlife. CALTROUT
Workers in California’s National Parks unionizing. More than 97 percent of the employees at Yosemite, Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks have voted to unionize, with the firings and budget cuts brought on by the Trump administration reversing the workers’ previous disinclination to form a union. The park service this year has lost a quarter of its staff and is facing a potential $1 billion budget cut. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Gold miners again flocking to South Dakota’s Black Hills. There already is one gold mine in operation, but more are on the way, spurred by gold prices exceeding $3,000 an ounce. Proposals for a second mine have been filed with the state and federal governments. The pits made by massive digging operations and the cyanide used to leach out the gold leave permanent scars on the land. ASSOCIATED PRESS
What to do when wildfires contaminate water systems. The impact of the Tubbs fire in 2017 that devastated part of Santa Rosa, California, affected not just trees and buildings but also the water system, which became contaminated with benzene. Since then eight fires nationally have contaminated local water systems, and a Purdue professor has been studying how to detect and remedy the problem. Last year marked the appearance of a blueprint to help utility staffers find potential problems and decontaminate their systems. KQED
As Great Salt Lake dries, more dust storms erupt, but no-one is counting. While there is no formal monitoring of the dust storms blowing off the desiccated playa of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, residents and researchers know there is a significant increase. But it is hard to evaluate the long-term impact of the contaminant-laden sand grains on the health of the regional population in one of the fastest-growing regions of the country. WASHINGTON POST
Decades of water conservation will help Nevada if a water-sharing deal eludes the seven Colorado River basin states before the November deadline. So, too, will their water utility’s advance planning: it installed a new, lower pump to accommodate Lake Mead’s falling water level. But if the water falls too far, it will hurt the electrical supply. Lake Mead is at 31 percent of capacity, and its water level has dropped 175 feet from peak levels. NEVADA CURRENT
A solar-powered microgrid is being designed to serve the Hopi reservation as a solution to its intermittent electrical power. Working with a $9 million federal grant, members of Arizona State University’s engineering faculty and and the microgrid development company BoxPower are helping the Hopi Utilities Corporation to build the new microgrid. NAVAJO-HOPI OBSERVER
The return of bison to Yellowstone revives the grasslands. A new study illustrates the synergistic connection between the presence of wandering bison and the health of the ecosystem, indicating the likely cost of the near-eradication of the animals more than a century ago. WYOFILE OUTSIDE
Federal agents detain two firefighters as they were out on an assignment, helping fight a blaze on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. More than 40 people who were part of the crews of two private contractors, who had been assigned to cut down trees that could fuel the fire. All were lined up and ID’s were demanded.” It is unusual for federal border agents to make arrests during the fighting of an active fire, especially in a remote area,” reported the SPOKANE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW SEATTLE TIMES
Graffiti fighters at work in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The graffiti removal team – The Erasers – has been working in the area for years. It can erase a complex web of graffiti filling large stone alcoves at the shore of Lake Powell. “Etched into the rock of the smaller of the two caverns were countless names and dates, many of them overlapping each other…. The walls had been inscribed by generations of visitors…. Amid the numerous dates and names were elaborate drawings — here a shark, there an anguished face reminiscent of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream,’” reports the NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION
Death Valley’s teakettle junction. Signposts at a nondescript dirt road intersection in Death Valley are festooned with teakettles. They mark the perseverance of a longstanding tradition and superstition – that luck will come if travelers take a tea kettle home. Some travelers who do this leave a kettle behind, often with a message inside. ATLAS OBSCURA
The Homeland Security Department’s embrace of the painting “American Progress” reflects the current desire to embrace positive historical narratives. “To the Trump administration, the painting epitomizes patriotism and the progress spread by American pioneers advancing technology, democracy and the blessings of Western civilization. Some historians, however, say that D.H.S.’s battle cry, in the context of the painting, glorifies racism and glosses over just whose homeland America is.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
Articles worth reading: August 20, 2025
Firefighters and federal authorities grapple with consequences of the lack of firefighters’ protection from wildfire smoke; climate forecasts and a new federal study demonstrate dire decrease in Colorado River flows; deep-sea salination offers potential solution to fresh water crisis; and other environmental stories from around the West.
How lungs are being destroyed by smoke during wildland firefighting, and why respirators aren’t used. For decades, the U.S. Forest Service deliberately did not require wildland firefighters to wear masks during firefighting operations because they were cumbersome and firefighters resisted using them. That failure to address the long-term health risks associated with smoke exposure may have increased firefighter lung diseases. Now, as climate change leads to more frequent and severe fires and a prolonged wildfire season, with thousands of firefighters developing cancer and needing lung transplants at younger ages, the agency is forced to reckon with the cost of years of denial. NEW YORK TIMES
California unveils plan to protect Joshua trees against climate change. The symbolic trees, regarded as a “linchpin of the Mojave Desert ecosystem,” are now protected from projected habitat loss due to climate change under a conservation plan based on scientific findings and indigenous knowledge. The plan has drawn controversy from community members and others who say its provisions to protect the trees from removal have “already stalled housing and infrastructure projects and driven away desperately-needed jobs and investments.” LOS ANGELES TIMES
The dramatic reduction of Colorado River supplies, confirmed by a new two-year projection, adds pressure and anxiety to negotiations between feuding states over where the new restrictions will be felt. “After one of the Colorado River’s driest years in decades, Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the largest reservoirs in the country — could see alarming declines in the coming years, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced” as it put pressure on Arizona and Nevada to cut back, according to CAL MATTERS
Permits cancelled for massive Idaho wind plant. Amid a wave of federal cancellations of wind energy projects, the Interior Department has announced “crucial legal deficiencies in the issuance of the approval” for the 231-turbine Lava Ridge Wind Project. BLOOMBERG LAW
Is deep-sea desalination the answer to the drought-fueled shortfall of fresh water in places like California? With a global decline in available fresh water, the technology leverages the hydrostatic pressure of the ocean’s depths to create purified water from reverse osmosis pods, cutting the amount of energy typically needed for desalination. While subsea desalination represents an innovative approach compared to land-based systems, regulatory and other hurdles must be overcome before the technology can be deployed on a broad scale, reports SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
Why are old ships dumped in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta? While deserted vessels are not a unique phenomenon across the state, the vast and relatively unmonitored delta has become a “dumping ground” with “incalculable” effects on human and ecosystem health and navigation. Despite restricted funding for ship removal, the State Lands Commission declared it the “largest single-site commercial abandoned vessel abatement and site restoration action” in June and has further projects scheduled over the next several months to “clear California’s waterways and create a long-term vessel removal program.” CAPRADIO
Renewal of commercial fishing in Pacific Ocean national monument halted by judge, after environmentalists pushed back against an executive order to permit commercial fishing in the expansion of the monument. The region supports a diversity of marine life including turtles, mammals and seabirds which are threatened by longline fishing, according to environmental activists. The Native Hawaiian plaintiffs also state that commercial fishing threatens their “cultural, spiritual, religious, subsistence, educational, recreational, and aesthetic interests.” ASSOCIATED PRESS
To reduce Californians’ electricity bills, lawmakers propose public financing. With customers of the state’s three largest utilities “now paying almost twice the U.S. average for their power,” two bills undergoing review in the California Senate and Assembly would “use money raised from state bonds to help pay for the hugely expensive process of expanding the power grid and making it less vulnerable to wildfires.” The proposal is intended to alleviate some of the burden imposed on utility customers amid the state’s “electricity cost crisis.” CANARY MEDIA
Cacti under an evolving climate. An iconic emblem of the Sonoran Desert, the towering, long-lived saguaro cacti are essential to the Tohono O’odham Nation’s traditions and way of life. Emerging research on the flowers of the plants indicates that climate change, combined with a prolonged drought lasting since the 1990s, is exacting a toll on the long-term reproduction of the cacti. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Unprecedented high temperatures in El Paso threaten the most susceptible. Designated the “most deadly sector of the U.S.-Mexico border” in 2024, the Texas border town has reported simmering temperatures higher than in most other U.S. cities. Migrants, the elderly and hikers are most at risk of heat-related illness, according to an investigation by Inside Climate News. Speaking about migrant deaths at the border, Dr. Brian Elmore, an emergency medical physician at El Paso’s University Medical Center., said, “All of these deaths are avoidable, perpetuated by the cruelty of our policies. But the heat deaths in particular seem so senseless.” INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Tribal members impacted by uranium mining at Laguna Pueblo are hopeful for justice and compensation. Expansion of the Radiation and Exposure and Compensation Act under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed on July 4 will provide a one-time payment of $100,000 to post-1971 uranium miners. However, with the deadly Jackpile Mine still intact and exposed, and amid the looming possibility of renewed uranium mining, the “physical source of harm remains unattended.” SEARCHLIGHT NEW MEXICO
Teen kayakers from Indigenous groups make first complete transit of the undammed Klamath River. Following removal of the river’s four dams — the largest dam removal in U.S. history — 15 teens embarked on a historic 300 mile expedition organized by the Paddle Tribal Waters program to reconnect with their ancestral waterway and celebrate their tribes’ resilience. WASHINGTON POST
Articles worth reading: August 6, 2025
Wildfires in Arizona and Utah produce ‘fire clouds’ responsible for volatile atmospheric conditions; dam removal project on Northern California’s Eel River given the green light alongside proposal for a new replacement system; drought conditions set historic record in Washington state; and more environmental news from around the West.
The transformation of the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration. Once a hub of migrant passage, the El Paso–Juárez corridor has fallen eerily quiet. Juan Ortiz for years left water bottles in the desert for a steady stream of migrants. Now the stream is almost empty. “It’s dramatically different,” Ortíz said. “Migrants no longer have any hope.” At the same time, the tariff threats have led to thousands of layoffs at Mexican factories. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Two huge fires in Arizona and Utah are creating their own weather. The wildfires — one of which has metastasized into a “megafire” on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon — have sparked the emergence of pyrocumulus clouds attaining heights of at least 25,000 feet. According to climate scientists, the incidence of these clouds may increase with a prolonged fire season caused by climate change. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Destructive wildfires’ assault on western water systems. “High-severity wildfires… are an annual menace growing worse as a warming climate collides with overgrown, tinderbox forests. These fires and the watershed alterations they produce are an emerging risk to the infrastructure that provides water and power to irrigation systems in the western states,” reports CIRCLE OF BLUE
The West’s next big dam removal project comes closer to reality. The Potter Valley project’s two Eel River dams will disappear under the agreement by Pacific Gas & Electric and the many elected officials, nonprofit groups and tribes involved. “The historic agreement marks a major turning point in a years-long effort by federal, state, tribal and local agencies to craft a “two-basin solution” that meets the needs of communities in both the Eel and Russian River basins, which have long been at odds over ownership and control of water diverted from the Eel River,” according to the LOST COAST OUTPOST. And the dam removal comes at a cost. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Expanding use of solar panels to cover canals in the Southwest. With a couple of million acre-feet of Colorado River water lost each year to evaporation, the sun is one of the primary contributors to the region’s diminishing water reserves. By installing solar-paneled canopies over canals and flotillas on reservoirs, water managers not only preserve water supplies but also produce clean electricity and support agriculture in the nation’s fastest growing region. Despite cost concerns and engineering barriers, the promising technology could become the “next step in the future of generating renewable energy.” WESTERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION
Wolves were brought back to Yellowstone. It appears that aspen grew healthier as a result. While the 1990s reintroduction of wolves has decreased the population of species like browsing Rocky Mountain elk, climate-related ecosystem impacts including the loss of coniferous trees and the increasing presence of such herbivores as bison threaten the region’s biodiversity. THE HILL
Drought worsens across Washington State. The disappearance of snowpack and decreasing soil moisture levels have contributed to one of the state’s “driest years on record.” With extreme conditions expected to persist through August, water users are forced to adapt to mounting flow restrictions. SUNNYSIDE SUN
Renewable energy improves Native lives in New Mexico. Delivering solar power to previously remote areas free of charge, the Indigenous-led nonprofit Native Renewables both “connects Navajo and Hopi households to reliable solar energy while also generating jobs on tribal land.” THE NEW YORK TIMES
When Alaska’s glacial dams break, floods can inundate communities. To give residents a tool to assess potential danger, the University of Southern Alaska created the Juneau Glacial Flood Dashboard. While glacial floods happen quickly, this resource can provide early warnings, giving “real-time information on water levels pooled above the ice dam that forms each year at one of the glacier’s basins. It has weather data, aerial images and other up-to-the-minute information… [including] a detailed flood-inundation map,” reports the ALASKA BEACON
Collaborative effort between Canada and First Nations aims to safeguard marine biodiversity. Building on decades of improved Indigenous-colonial relationships, the development of a network of marine protected areas in the Great Bear Sea models environmental progress on land. The Great Bear Sea will be the “first marine area in Canada — and one of few places, land or sea, in the world — designed to be collaboratively managed by three levels of government: federal, provincial, and Indigenous, as represented by 17 coastal First Nations.” BIOGRAPHIC
Agreement reached between the U.S. and Mexico to cease release of sewage into Tijuana River. “Every day, the Tijuana River spews millions of gallons of untreated sewage from Mexico into California, much of which ends up in the ocean.” This sewage crisis has led to health and environmental problems including a high incidence of gastrointestinal illnesses among San Diego residents. Under the deal, the two countries agree to modernize wastewater infrastructure, especially in light of increasing flooding events due to climate change. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS THE NEW YORK TIMES
Conquest and national myth-building on America’s Prairie. In the book “Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie,” environmental journalists Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty illuminate the environmental past and future of one of the “ecologically richest and most endangered ecosystems on our planet.” Documenting the metamorphosis of the prairie from untamed wilderness into one of the country’s most productive farmland regions, the story provides a nuanced lens into a region that is at once “feared by pioneers, shunned by tourists, dismissed today as a wasteland best viewed from thirty thousand feet.” UNDARK
Articles worth reading: July 22, 2025
Federal and state clashes over the future of coal-fired power plants and clean energy in Colorado; anglers in western Montana face restrictions on fishing with mounting temperatures and declining water flows; scientists find that megadrought in the Southwest — the most severe in centuries — could carry on for decades; proposed funding freeze on federal grants threatens access to health and social services for Indigenous communities; and other environmental stories from around the West.
Should bioplastics count as compost, or are they adulterating the rich organic product farmers covet? Under pressure from the plastics industry, the USDA is preparing for a fall ruling that could loosen a 2021 California law that establishes rigid criteria for compostable material. LOS ANGELES TIMES
As the temperatures of a dozen western Montana rivers approach a level lethal for fish, the state is curtailing or even suspending fishing there. The high temperatures, combined with sparse streamflows caused by the disappearance of mountain snowpack in the spring, have prompted renewed conservation measures to maintain water levels. MONTANA FREE PRESS
EPA plans to block Denver plan to shutter coal plants. The agency’s proposal forms “part of the Trump administration’s plan to make sure no federal regulations stand in the way of coal-fired power generation.” According to state regulators, Colorado has its own authority to phase out the coal-fired power plants and evade federal pressure; nonetheless, environmentalists worry that the state’s progress in reducing coal emissions may be reversed. DENVER POST
Looking to the prehistoric geologic record, scientists estimate that the West’s megadrought may persist for decades. Produced by a combination of unchanging temperature patterns in the northern Pacific and climate change, the megadrought threatens to bring the Southwest, the nation’s fastest-growing region especially reliant on water for agricultural and industrial development, to a tipping point. Extreme-weather events such as the current drought also “raise the possibility that greenhouse warming is starting to overpower certain well-established rhythms and patterns in nature.” NEW YORK TIMES
Oregon pioneers microgrid framework to promote energy and climate resilience. In light of intensifying pressures on the state’s grid including more frequent extreme weather events and wildfires, the legislature has passed two bills to establish regulations for building localized grids that can operate autonomously, a “first-in-the nation strategy” that could set a precedent for other states to harness cost savings and greater efficiency. UTILITY DIVE
How will a $24.5 billion funding freeze on federal grants affect Native communities? The Trump administration’s proposal would be “destructive for tribal self-governance” and “violate treaty obligations to tribal nations” said Robert Maxim, Mashpee Wampanoag, a Brookings Metro Fellow who co-authored the report. It would impact tribes across the U.S., particularly those in the West. ALASKA BEACON
Native groups deploy AI to resurrect language and preserve culture. It can also unlock economic opportunity. The cultural and linguistic history of many tribes is in danger of being lost as a generation of elders treasuring the knowledge of languages like Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota disappears. But “AI tools such as voice recognition, natural language processing, and translation models could become vital allies in this effort,” The Circle reports. It adds a cautionary note: “The most important element is tribal control — who trains the AI, who owns the data, and who gets access to it.” THE CIRCLE NATIVE AMERICA CALLING
In response to ending “flagship” FEMA disaster mitigation program, 20 states sue Trump administration over billions in withheld federal funding. The states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, filed the lawsuit that alleges the move violates “core separation of power principles” at a time when the nation faces “a higher risk of harm from natural disasters.” CBS NEWS
To mitigate the risk of wildfires, Trump proposes using AI. Amid an unprecedented number of wildfires this year compared to prior years over the past decade, President Donald Trump’s June 12 executive order directs federal agencies to employ technology and data sharing to enhance monitoring and surveillance efforts to predict and prevent wildfires. Drawing a “mixed response” from wildfire authorities, the order comes in the wake of funding cuts to climate-related monitoring and research and the potential discontinuation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. UTILITY DIVE
Sonoran desert toads use hallucinogens for defense. That’s no longer a good idea, as their hallucinogens are an increasingly desired commodity. As trade regulations to protect the toads are underway, the survival of the amphibians — and the ecosystems that they serve — hangs in the balance. NEW YORK TIMES
Mono Lake, a saline terminal lake in the eastern Sierra, is a crucial waystation for seagulls around the state and is increasingly failing in that function. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Photographer Arianna Lago captures how Mono Lake continues to sustain birds, people, and culture in unexpected ways. ATMOS
Downwinders remember, four score years after the Trinity Test in New Mexico began the nuclear age. This video is resonant with the voices of the residents nearby who were given no warning of what was going to happen. In a ceremony, the town of Tularosa remembers the downwinders who have died. ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
Articles worth reading: July 8, 2025
Rollback of protections for roadless areas ignites debate over wildfire management; new concept for managing Colorado River flows proposed amid dwindling reservoirs; domestic policy package threatens Native American and Indigenous communities; agrivoltaics meet resistance from farmers and utilities in Arizona, and more environmental news from around the West.
A move to end protection of roadless areas in national forests. Eliminating the 24-year-old roadless rule would open more than 90 percent of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to the timber industry, and do the same for 4.4 million acres of national forest land in California. The decision, embraced by the logging industry and spurned by conservationists, follows the administration’s March 1 executive order to increase domestic timber production. While the logging industry argues that allowing access to the forests will enhance forest management, proponents of the rule point to existing provisions that aid wildfire prevention. WASHINGTON POST LOS ANGELES TIMES
A new approach to allocating Colorado River water may break the stalemate between the upper and lower basin states. Aiming to reconcile increasing demand with a shrinking water supply as a result of long-term drought and rising temperatures associated with climate change, the concept bases water allocations on the actual flow of the river rather than estimates, along for real-time accommodation of variable flows. With an approaching federal deadline to submit a multi-state agreement, the need for an innovative and adaptive approach is urgent. DENVER POST
Solar facilities bigger than any before could create both energy and battery storage on fallow farmland in western Fresno County. The Darden Clean Energy Project, intended to be the globe’s largest battery energy storage system, will help to harness the power delivered by the state’s significant solar panel buildout. With this plan, the state is “moving faster than ever before” to realize its renewable energy commitments, said Gov. Gavin Newsom. SF GATE
The end of the effort to sell millions of acres of public lands. Confronting heated criticism from members of his own party and outdoorsmen across the West, Republican senator Mike Lee of Utah retracted his bid to sell large swaths of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land. NEW YORK TIMES
California trims its landmark environmental law to allow more development. Facing pressure from Gov. Newsom, legislators implemented significant revisions to the California Environmental Quality Act — including an exemption for “advanced manufacturing” facilities that has sparked fierce debate regarding decarbonization of the state’s economy and potential impacts on marginalized communities in industrial areas. CAL MATTERS
Honey bees, suffering from a plague of mites, need help. Will California pony up the needed resources to help defeat the scourge and return bees to their crucial role in the state’s agricultural economy? CAL MATTERS
Ending the ban on federal coal leasing in Wyoming and Montana’s Powder River Basin. Just six months after a Biden-era ban on leasing took effect, a new notice is being filed to reverse it. For a decade, coal companies have not proposed any new leases, but the swing in energy politics nationally could change that – or so the Wyoming legislature hopes. WYOFILE
A diminished Mexican river threatens water security and sparks cross-border tensions. The drying-out of Rio Conchos, a Mexican tributary of the Rio Grande, is part of the reason for Mexico’s failure to meet its treaty obligation to deliver water to the U.S. It is also the cause of economic devastation in the state of Chihuahua. “When the water goes down, everything goes down,” said one resident. TEXAS OBSERVER
An experiment in thickening sea ice is taking place In the far northern Canadian town of Cambridge Bay, in Nunavut. The company Real Ice, based in Britain, recently ended its second season trying out an approach which involves drilling holes through winter ice to pump water to the surface, where it solidifies. This is one of the attempts at geoengineering that has sparked significant controversy. THE NARWHAL
Why aren’t agrivoltaics flourishing in Arizona? The practice of putting solar farms on agricultural land seems tailor-made for the state at the heart of the Southwest. But adoption is slow. Among the hurdles to an agrivoltaic revolution include doubting farmers, reluctant utilities and unfavorable state policies. Greg Barron-Gafford, a researcher at the University of Arizona aiming to expand the frontier of agrivoltaics, hopes that people “will care once they see what’s possible.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Senate approval of domestic policy bill hits Native American and Indigenous communities hard. Native American and Indigenous leaders say implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, legislation, which will rescind healthcare for 17 million Americans, will deliver a particularly harmful blow to their communities. With massive cuts to health and education programs, the administration’s proposed domestic policy package is a “continuation of the federal government’s historical failure to deliver on what it promised in land and peace agreements.” NATIVE NEWS ONLINE PBS NEWS
Tohono O’odoms’ ritual harvest of saguaro cactus. The massive cacti, the largest in the U.S. – reaching heights anywhere from 25 to 78 feet – are sacred to members of the Tohono O’odham Nation in the Sonoran Desert. With the ripening of the saguaro fruit in June and early July, tribal members carry on thousand-year-old traditions and celebrate the O’odham new year, as shown in this photo essay. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Articles worth reading: June 23, 2025
Federal government drops commitment to Native tribes to nurture salmon by removing four Columbia RIver dams; Congress looks again at the sale of millions of acres of western public lands; the impact of fish farming in the Arizona desert; the children of California strawberry pickers speak out as immigration raids loom; and other environmental stories from around the West.
Trump rescinds commitment to tribes to help restore Columbia River salmon runs. Under the Biden administration, “to enable the removal of four hydroelectric dams considered especially harmful to salmon, the government promised to invest billions of dollars in alternative energy sources to be created by the tribes.” That agreement is null and void. After Trump won the presidency, millions of dollars in funding were cut as was most of the staff working on salmon recovery. Energy secretary Chris Wright is “passionate” about keeping the dams. PRO PUBLICA/OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING Native voices discuss this decision and the plan to rescind national monument status for some Native lands. NATIVE AMERICA CALLING
Reviving the effort to sell public lands. After such a plan was excised from the House’s budget reconciliation bill, it’s back in the Senate’s. Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s language, which he said would promote housing and community development, requires that up to three million acres be sold, selected from a mosaic of 250 million acres in 11 western states. Montana, whose Republican congressman Ryan Zinke scotched a similar proposal, is exempted. The Wilderness Society has a map of potentially saleable land, including bits of California’s Big Sur and land close to Wyoming’s Jackson Hole, Washington’s Olympic Mountains, and Utah’s Big Five national parks. Conservationists, hunters and anglers strongly object. SPOKESMAN-REVIEW WYOFILE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Wildfire response complicated by looming consolidation – and budget cuts. The Associated Press reports on a plan to consolidate all federal firefighting into a new Interior Department agency, even though the U.S. Forest Service, home to the bulk of these efforts, is part of the Agriculture Department. Experts say “it would be costly to restructure firefighting efforts and cause major disruptions in the midst of fire season.” The Los Angeles Times notes the dangerous cumulative impact of budget cuts at the Forest Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the weather forecasting arm of NOAA, whose “warnings are often the first indication of trouble ahead.” ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES TIMES
White House edict: no negatives, truthful or not, in national parks’ historical signage. Visitors are encouraged to use a special QR code to report “unpatriotic” parks that fail to follow the edict. This text is likely to be added to encourage visitors to identify “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.” LOS ANGELES TIMES NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
Kainai Nation ignites Canada’s first Indigenous fire guardians program. Controlling nature with fire, as generations of Native groups did in the mountain West, has come back to Canada after being actively shunned for generations. In the years of western settlement, fire suppression to protect property became dominant. But that has changed. The Kainai Nation, one of four groups that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy, is creating the first forest guardians program in Canada. It covers 540 square miles where 8,600 tribal members live. THE NARWHAL
BLM to cut Wyoming’s wild horse herd in half. Beginning in mid-July, there will be a roundup, the first of a series designed to reduce the free-roaming herd from about 6,000 horses to a little more than 2,500. The horses culled will be pastured together and up for adoption, though horse advocates fear they may end up in Mexican or Canadian slaughterhouses. MOUNTAIN JOURNAL
California Coastal Commission vs. Elon Musk and SpaceX: a property-rights view. The political and environmental discussion that framed the decision of the California Coastal Commission to vote, 6-to-4, not to agree to an increase of SpaceX rocket launches on Vandenberg Air Force Base. The base is nestled into the coastline of Santa Barbara County. SWORD AND SCALES
Supreme Court revives 88-mile Utah railway proposal to take oil from northeastern Utah to main rail hubs. As reporters describe it: “The waxy crude oil is currently transported by truck over narrow mountain passes. Project proponents said shipping the fossil fuel by rail — as many as 10 trains daily — would … revitalize the local economy by quadrupling the Uinta Basin’s oil production.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS/INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Does large-scale fish farming in the Arizona desert come without environmental cost? “In the desert of landlocked Arizona, where the Colorado River crisis has put water use under a microscope, Mainstream Aquaculture [an Australian company] has a fish farm where it’s growing the tropical species barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass, for American restaurants,” the Associated Press reports. The company’s water source? Groundwater, which in this part of Arizona is not rightly regulated. But Jay Famigletti, an Arizona State professor and water expert, said evaporation losses show that “Artificial ponds in the desert are stupid.” ASSOCIATED PRESS
The economic and personal impact of immigration raids on farmworkers picking strawberries on California’s central coast has led their children to speak up for them. One observer said that, as the strawberry season starts, “Our people are having to risk going to work, to pay their rent and for their basic needs … But they go with the fear of not coming back home to their kids.” Now their documented children are marching to protest the immigration raids and honor their parents’ work. CIVIL EATS
Geothermal power deal for Meta’s planned New Mexico data centers. In a deal with XGS, a geothermal company, Meta gets power for its centers and helps XGS build out 150 MW of new energy. Utility Dive says the deal “adds to the growing corporate demand for geothermal energy, which provides carbon-free power generation without weather dependence.” UTILITY DIVE
Some fungi in Oregon and California seem to thrive after wildfires, but that may be a deceptive view of climate change’s impact. In Santa Cruz’s Big Basin National Park, whose ancient redwoods were torched in 2020, an abundance of unfamiliar mushrooms has emerged. Their waxy caps were similar to those discovered in unknown mushrooms that emerged after a wildfire in the Great Smoky Mountains. This expanding study of “disaster mycology” has positive moments, but it also shows that a warming climate takes a toll. “When reports come about trees dying, the diminished fungi are the story between the lines,” the author writes. One expert said of climate change, “It’s hurting what’s there,” but added that the fungi should adapt. ORION
Articles worth reading: June 9, 2025
The Colorado River basin’s groundwater is disappearing; California’s major environmental law is poised for revision; land restored to the Yurok tribe; new study describes how a thirsty atmosphere worsens droughts, and more environmental news from around the West.
Groundwater depletion in the Colorado River basin is so severe that the watershed is losing more of its underground supplies than it is losing in the river itself. The study that made the findings reveals that not quite 28 million acre-feet of water has been depleted, almost the volume of Lake Mead, the river’s – and the country’s – biggest reservoir. DESERET NEWS
A possible solution to the evaporation woes of the Colorado River is being tried out by the Gila River tribes. Can their deployment of floating solar panels offer a partial solution to the problem? INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
What happened after climate change forced an Alaskan village to relocate. A Washington Post investigation showed that “nearly 300 people from Newtok have moved nine miles across the Ninglick River to a new village known…. But much of the infrastructure there is already failing. Residents lack running water, use five-gallon buckets as toilets and must contend with intermittent electricity and deteriorating homes that expose them to the region’s fierce weather.” Newtok’s experience was supposed to be a model for dozens of threatened Alaskan communities; instead it shows how unprepared the federal government is to manage such projects. WASHINGTON POST
As Canadian wildfires darken the air in the Midwest and Mountain West, accelerating predictions of an intense wildfire season in the western U.S. CNN BOISE PUBLIC RADIO
The atmosphere is thirstier in a warming world. What will that mean for the intensity of future droughts? “A new study, published in Nature, shows that the atmosphere’s growing thirst for water is making droughts more severe, even in places where rainfall has stayed the same. The paper details how this “thirst” has made droughts 40 percent more severe across the globe over the course of the past 40 years.” PHYS.ORG
The 50-year-old California Environmental Quality Act is under the gun. The Los Angeles Times reports that “Two proposals have advanced rapidly through the Legislature: one to wipe away the law for most urban housing developments, the other to weaken the rules for most everything else. Legal experts say the efforts would be the most profound changes to CEQA in generations. Newsom not only endorsed the bills last month, but also put them on a fast track to approval.” LOS ANGELES TIMES
After the Supreme Court declined to block a copper mining firm’s takeover of a sacred Apache site on Oak Flat in Arizona, a district court judge in Phoenix, handling a separate case opposing the mining interests, postponed the transfer of the land for two months. This would allow opponents of the transfer time to review the U.S. Forest Service’s pending environmental impact statement. GRIST Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented from the Supreme Court’s decision in a case over Oak Flat that had been filed separately. THE HILL
Some 73 square miles of land was returned to the Yurok tribe in northern California, the largest Indigenous land restoration effort in the state. About 90 percent of tribal lands were taken from them in the mid-1800s, as the Gold Rush brought swarms of new colonizers to the territory. Some settlers and soldiers participated in tribal massacres and introduced fatal diseases. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Is New Mexico’s oil and gas boom both paying for students’ education and harming their health? A student’s nausea “symptoms usually show up when the sixth-grader smells an odor of ‘rotten egg with propane’ that rises from nearby natural gas wells and wafts over Lybrook Elementary School, where he and some 70 other Navajo students attend class.” SEARCHLIGHT NEW MEXICO.
Nominee to head a division of the U.S. Forest Service has a history of run-ins with it. Michael Boren, a wealthy tech executive nominated to head a division responsible for natural resource protection, was accused of flying a helicopter dangerously close to a Forest Service trail crew and building a private airstrip in a national recreation area. NEW YORK TIMES. While a new face comes to federal conservation management, a park superintendent chooses to leave. The superintendent of Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park said that his agency is under siege. “I… did not want to participate in the dismantlement … of the National Park Service.” KGW
A rock-climber in Utah reimagines his relationship with the rocks around Bears’ Ears National Monument after Indigenous advisers change his line of sight. “I had once thought my climbing impact was minimal. But now I wondered whether I was any better than the looters.” PATAGONIA
What post offices mean for the rural West. Mail delivery in Supai, the only village on the reservation of Arizona’s Havasupai Tribe, involves logistics, horsemanship, and carefully placed hooves. “Supai is one of the most remote communities in the country. At the edge of the Grand Canyon, it is accessible only by foot, and by helicopter when the weather allows. The mule train, which makes the 16-mile, six-hour loop up and down the canyon five days a week, is perhaps the most extreme manifestation of the USPS mandate to “render postal services to all communities.” THE ATLANTIC In far-flung places like California’s Yosemite Valley National Park, with internet and cell phone connections spotty at best, the post office is a crucial lifeline. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Articles worth reading: May 26, 2025
The impact of slimming down and reorganizing federal firefighting as wildfire season looms; lawsuit seeks federal accountability for Native boarding schools; what NOAA cutbacks and deletions mean for forecasting and databanks; rapid snowmelt across the region; and more environmental news from around the West.
The plan to consolidate federal fire-fighting forces into one agency risks administrative confusion as fire season begins. The agencies with the most firefighters – the Forest Service with 9,450 and the Interior Department with 6,700 – were hit with layoffs in February and then rehired some workers. Exact numbers have not been released. “It’s going to create greater risk and it’s going to be particularly chaotic if you implement it going into fire season,” said the head of the forest service retirees’ group. The loss of federal workers supporting wildland firefighting makes planning for the wildfire season a challenge, said state officials. ASSOCIATED PRESS
New lawsuit sets out to hold U.S. accountable for Native boarding school system. It charges that about $23 billion in Native funds paid for the system that took Native youth from their homes to separate them from their culture, but it was never accounted for. It seeks such an accounting. Last year, President Joe Biden issued a formal apology for the government’s boarding school policy. But in April, the Trump administration cut $1.6 billion allocated to capture and digitize stories of living boarding school students. SEATTLE TIMES NEW YORK TIMES
How have cutbacks endangered is the weather and climate data originating with the federal government? A scientific bulletin delves into “the weather, climate, and Earth science data the government doesn’t want you to see.” It reports that managers of the NOAA program at the National Snow and Ice Data “clarified that the data products they create and maintain” will stay online for now. This includes the Sea Ice Index, the World Glacier Inventory, and the Snow Data Assimilation System, which tracks things like snow cover and density. But…decommissioning will mean less funding and bandwidth to respond to user questions or to any problems that arise.” BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS
The impact of the possible desiccation of Great Salt Lake is laid out in a new study from the University of Utah’s law school. Published by the Environmental Law Institute, the study said the economic hit would go beyond the brine shrimp harvesters and recreational firms but could affect property values on the Wasatch Front, skiers, and, thanks to the rise in dust-born pollution, health insurers as well. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
The Trump administration’s attack on public lands includes funding cuts to agencies like the National Park Service and rethinking existing national monuments and wildlife refuges. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS But a provision of the reconciliation “big, beautiful” budget bill requiring the sale of public lands in Utah (more than 10,000 acres) and Nevada (about 500,000 acres) was eliminated shortly before the bill passed, at the urging of Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT.) MISSOULA CURRENT
A buildout of water-consuming data centers in northern Nevada’s deserts could quickly turn the Reno area into one of the world’s major data-center hubs. “The last number I heard was 13 million square feet under construction right now, which is massive,” said a former project manager for the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, a city-sized business park poised to become a data-center city. Public filings for NV Energy, the state’s predominant utility, indicate that statewide data-center projects are seeking almost six gigawatts of electricity. MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
Rapid snowmelts across the West thanks to above-normal temperatures prompted a new warning about the likelihood of reduced water supplies in the spring and summer, when farmers will need it most and when wildfire season gets underway. The existence of a late-season snow drought was confirmed by reports from the the National Integrated Drought Information System. THE HILL California’s reservoir levels still remain robust. ROSEVILLE TODAY Western Alaska’s weird, warm winter. KNOM
A new push for expediting mining permits risks eviscerating safeguards. “So far in his second term as president, Trump’s administration has claimed to have approved, expedited, or publicly endorsed at least 28 different mines and mineral exploration projects, according to a review of Bureau of Land Management notices and federal permitting databases.” HEATMAP One example: permitting a Utah uranium mine has been expedited. NEW YORK TIMES
On the California coast, new questions about private beaches and undermined highways. “A foundational assumption of private property law is that land is static enough to be mapped, gridded, and divided. The trouble with this assumption is that the space where the ocean meets the sand is ambulant.” PLACE JOURNAL The town of Carlsbad plans to move its coastal highway to get out of the way of erosion. BLOOMBERG
A research program has pilots shadowing atmospheric rivers from Japan across the Pacific as they head for the West Coast. “The more accurate information you have about a storm further [west], the more you can understand how it’s going to evolve,” said an extreme weather specialist working at U.C. San Diego’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. BBC
Getting along with grizzly bears. More and more human outposts are being established in grizzly bear territory. “…As biologists study how bears can coexist with people here and elsewhere, they are learning that coexistence is a two-way street: Bears change their behavior in order to survive, but to share this habitat harmoniously, the people living here must be willing to change, too.” KNOWABLE MAGAZINE
Articles worth reading: May 12, 2025
House panel backs public land sales for housing; Colorado Supreme Court lets Boulder lawsuit against fossil-fuel firms proceed; Arizona towns push back on new mining; California faces land subsidence and seismic risks; and more environmental news from the American West.
House panel backs public land sales for housing. House Republicans advanced a budget amendment authorizing the sale of thousands of acres of federal land in Nevada and Utah for affordable housing and other local uses. Environmental groups warn it amounts to a broader push to privatize public lands for short-term gains. NPR
Colorado Supreme Court lets Boulder’s suit against fossil fuel companies proceed. The Denver Post reports the ruling “will allow … a lawsuit seeking to hold two of the state’s largest oil and gas companies responsible for climate-change harms to move forward.”The lawsuit against Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil was filed seven years ago. DENVER POST Taking Big Oil to court: an overview. COVERING CLIMATE NOW
Court halts Oak Flat transfer. An Arizona federal judge temporarily blocked the planned June 16 transfer of Oak Flat, sacred to the Apache, to a mining company after finding Apache Stronghold raised “serious questions” about religious freedom and irreparable harm. NATIVE NEWS ONLINE
Mexico to transfer water to U.S. to meet treaty obligations. Facing drought-driven shortfalls and rising U.S. pressure, Mexico will release 1.3 million acre-feet of water to meet 1944 treaty obligations and avoid new tariffs. The move follows partial treaty renegotiations allowing Mexico to substitute alternative water sources for the drought-stricken Rio Grande. EOS
Northwest braces for severe wildfire season. After one of the driest springs on record and an exceptionally dry April, Pacific Northwest officials warned of an early and intense wildfire season with above-normal danger by August, unless late rains arrive. Governor Tina Kotek said the state will prepare for “an even more aggressive” response amid federal staffing cuts. REGISTER-GUARD
West Coast gray-whale die-off. Observers report emaciated adult gray whales with visible ribs and a record-low number of calves migrating north this spring, and at least 80 whale deaths in Baja California’s breeding lagoons this winter, a trend scientists link to changing ocean conditions and diminished Arctic prey. KLCC
Signs of renewed efforts to raise Shasta dam were evident as the House Natural Resources Committee designated $2 billion “for construction and associated activities that increase the capacity of existing Bureau of Reclamation surface water storage facilities.” As Barry Nelson of the Golden State Salmon Association said, “There’s no mystery here. That language is designed to push the Shasta raise.” Raising the dam, which would cost an estimated $1.8 billion, has been a dream of California farmers for decades. CAL MATTERS
Endangered Species Act “harm” rollback proposed. In an April 17 proposal, federal wildlife agencies moved to narrow the Act’s definition of “harm” by excluding habitat destruction, arguing the current interpretation exceeds the law’s text—a change conservationists warn would “significantly change the landscape” of species protection. SOUTHERN AG TODAY
Southern Arizona towns push back on new mining. Communities in towns like Mammoth are mobilizing against new mining proposals amid concerns over water-intensive operations, environmental damage, and the boom-to-bust cycles that left towns economically hollow. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Many California areas face land subsidence and seismic risk. A Nature Cities study using 2015 to 2021 satellite data finds all twenty-eight U.S. cities over six hundred thousand population experienced land subsidence, with Houston leading at twenty millimeters per year and San Francisco sinking about one millimeter per year, while a PNAS study warns a Cascadia megaquake could cause up to six point six feet of sudden coastal subsidence, expanding flood-prone areas by one hundred sixteen square miles. LOS ANGELES TIMES
New California desert monument faces lawsuit. A suit filed May 1 seeks to overturn President Biden’s January designation of the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument under the Antiquities Act, brought by a mining claimant and an off-road group backed by a Texas think tank, alleging unlawful overreach even as conservationists note the order preserves existing access. DESERT SUN
Thousands gather in New Mexico for the largest powwow in North America. Elaborate regalia, drumming, and horse parades filled Albuquerque’s Gathering of Nations as participants celebrated Indigenous identity, healing, and resilience. “It’s not just for show. It’s for healing,” said Deshava Apachee, Mescalero Apache and Navajo. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Articles worth reading: April 29, 2025
Trump administration rescinds key fishing protections; Wyoming tribe reclassifies buffalo; South Dakota denies permit for multi-billion dollar carbon pipeline; toxic debris raises concerns after Los Angeles wildfires; Oregon officials to begin search for next state forester; EPA Administrator tours polluted Tijuana River; and more environmental news from the American West.
President Trump’s rollback of Obama-era fishing protections in a swath of ocean between Hawaii and American Samoa brings praise from Republicans and concern from environmentalists, who warn about the effects of commercial fishing on fragile ecosystems. The executive orders reintroduce industrial operations to one of the world’s largest ocean reserves, ease fishing regulations, and call for a review of all marine monuments for potential commercial use. THE NEW YORK TIMES
In Wyoming, the Eastern Shoshone are reclassifying buffalo as wildlife, not livestock. The move challenges Western land management norms and bolsters cultural sovereignty on the land, but comes with unexpected climate benefits as well: buffalos’ habit of wandering as they forage spreads seeds and increases biodiversity. This has the potential to increase drought resistance in grasslands. The Northern Arapaho, who share the land with the Eastern Shoshone, are also expected to vote on the reclassification. GRIST
South Dakota’s Public Utility Commission denied a bid to reroute a carbon capture pipeline through the state, killing a plan by Summit Carbon Solutions. Local landowners expressed gratitude at the “common sense decision.” ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trump administration’s policy on the sale of public lands is at odds with large majority of U.S. population. Recent rule changes in Congress could make it easier to dispose of public lands without fiscal scrutiny, alarming conservationists; one environmentalist lawyer calls staffing cuts by DOGE a “deliberate effort to set federalist land management agencies up to fail.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Climate change warning labels on gas pumps blocked in Colorado. Lawmakers have killed a measure that would have required warning labels on gasoline pumps statewide. The labels informed viewers about the health and climate impacts of burning fossil fuels. The bill, which narrowly passed the state House in early April, was supported by environmental groups but faced strong opposition from gas station owners and the governor’s office. COLORADO SUN
As DOGE, the Trump administration’s cost-cutting initiative, pushes budget cuts, farmers across the West grapple with the effects. Grants are frozen, staffing is gutted, and programs supporting conservation, loans, and technical help are stalled; farmers scramble to adjust as critical federal support dries up just as climate pressures grow. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
There’s a hidden danger in LA wildfire cleanups: toxic debris. Recent fires have left ash laced with lead, arsenic, and asbestos; thousands of immigrant workers, many of them working in informal employment arrangements, serve as vulnerable “second responders” in these potentially hazardous conditions. Advocates worry that resources are stretched too thin to fully protect them. THE GUARDIAN
Oregon officials have launched a recruitment plan for new state forester after the former’s sudden resignation more than four months ago. The department previously made headlines due to budgetary and workplace conduct concerns; now, as they face reduced staff and a “potentially dire” wildfire season ahead, officials express lofty hopes for the next individual to fill the role. OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING
This Earth Day, U.S. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin visited the Tijuana River and called for a “100 percent solution” to the sewage crisis that plagues the waterway. Decades of pollution have led to beach closures and public health concerns in U.S. border communities; The U.S. has allocated more than $650 million to upgrade wastewater infrastructure, but progress has been slow. LOS ANGELES TIMES
In northwestern Alaska, the Western Arctic caribou herd has altered its migration patterns, shifting away from traditional winter grounds south of the Kobuk River. Research shows that caribou remember previous winters’ high death tolls and adjust their routes accordingly; this change is linked to broader environmental shifts, including warming temperatures and changing vegetation. BIOGRAPHIC
A 19th-century photograph of a young Indigenous girl surrounded by white members of a “Peace Commission” to avert military clashes reveals the power dynamics and violence that undergirded America’s westward expansion. LITERARY HUB
Articles worth reading: April 14, 2025
Interior scraps environmental reviews for 3,244 oil leases across the West; Boebert pushes to delist wolves; rural western towns demand release of frozen climate funds; Tribes still lack access to Colorado River water; California salmon fishing faces another shutdown; wildfire season expected to intensify; and more environmental news from the American West.
The Interior Department will no longer require environmental studies of more than 3,000 oil and gas leases across seven Western states, reversing an earlier plan and aligning with President Trump’s push to fast-track energy development by scaling back NEPA reviews. Environmental groups warn the decision risks significant harm to public lands and wildlife. REUTERS
The U.S. Forest Service declares an emergency, allowing expedited tree harvests with limited environmental review on 112 million acres of national forests, much of the land in the West. To end the declared emergency in timber supply and forest health, regional foresters were ordered to develop plans to increase timber harvests by 25 percent over the next five years. SEATTLE TIMES California, with 18 national forests, more than any other state, will feel the immediate impact of the order. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Colorado’s success in recovering wolves now in jeopardy as bill targets wolf protections. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) reintroduced legislation to remove gray wolves from the federal Endangered Species list, aiming to revive a 2020 rule. While state officials tout early signs of success in Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program, conservationists say the bill and a possible anti-wolf state ballot measure could derail the species’ recovery. THE COLORADO SUN
Western leaders call for the release of climate funds. Rural officials from eight western states and Alaska traveled to D.C. urging Congress to unfreeze climate-related federal grants and loans halted under the Trump administration. BOISE STATE PUBLIC RADIO Projects ranging from renewable energy to infrastructure upgrades remain stalled, disproportionately impacting tribal and low-income communities. THE COLORADO SUN
Tribes denied full access to Colorado River water. Despite holding rights to nearly a quarter of the river’s flow, many Native tribes lack the infrastructure to receive their water. A PBS NewsHour report highlights decades of delays, legal barriers, and underinvestment—issues advocates call central to equity and climate resilience. PBS NEWSHOUR
Can the seven states in the Colorado River basin end their impasse and make a deal before a looming federal deadline in May? After prior talks stalled, states have resumed negotiations to propose a new water-sharing plan for water management after 2026. They must quickly resolve sharp conflicts on how to allocate the river’s waters if they hope to avoid a federally imposed agreement. THE COLORADO SUN
Salmon return to Klamath River post-dam removal. For the first time in 60 years, endangered salmon are migrating past former dam sites on the Klamath River following the demolition of four hydroelectric dams in 2024. The Yurok and Karuk Tribes celebrate a key milestone, with long-term efforts now focused on restoring habitat and improving water quality. OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING
Sierra snowpack returns to near-normal. Snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada sits at 90 to 96 percent of average for early April. Though drought lingers in parts of Southern California, three years of solid snowfall have improved statewide water reserves heading into summer. CAL MATTERS
High wildfire risk looms with rapid spring grass growth in areas with rain and dried-out vegetation in regions without. Officials warn of an intense wildfire season across California and the Southwest. A dry spring could turn fresh vegetation into fuel by early summer. One Forest Service meteorologist expects a “big fire season” as early as June. WASHINGTON POST
Trump reopens Arctic lands to oil drilling. The Interior Department announced plans to resume oil leasing in 1.56 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and expand access in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska. The agency also approved a new liquid natural gas pipeline project. While Alaska leaders welcomed the move, environmentalists condemned threats to fragile Arctic ecosystems. REUTERS
California salmon fishing likely to be shut down again. Chinook salmon populations remain critically low, and regulators are expected to cancel or heavily restrict the 2025 commercial and recreational salmon season. It would mark the third straight year of shutdowns to protect imperiled stocks. LOS ANGELES TIMES
What will happen to the pack animals essential to maintaining trails on U.S. Forest Service land now that many of their handlers have lost their jobs? “Whether the agency’s equines find a refuge or get auctioned off to questionable handlers, the impact of their loss is bigger than the fate of any individual creature. The stock handlers represent the ancient tradition of animal and human working together.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Articles worth reading: March 31, 2025
Court verdict in the Dakota pipeline case could bankrupt Greenpeace; a former Wyoming game warden takes over the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; underwater desalination tried in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California; court rules hunters who reach public land by cutting corners over private land are not trespassing; in mid-March, total storage in 46 Colorado River reservoir was the third lowest in 25 years, and more environmental news from the West.
Breaking with its normal practice, the State Department denied a Mexican request for water deliveries to Tijuana. Why? Mexico hasn’t kept its end of the bargain made in a 1944 treaty governing water sharing on the Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers. State’s post on X said, “Mexico’s continued shortfalls in its water deliveries … are decimating American agriculture – particularly farmers in the Rio Grande valley.” Mexico blames severe drought for its curtailment of deliveries of Rio Grande water to Texas. ALAMOSA CITIZEN MEXICO BUSINESS NEWS Tijuana gets 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Verdict against Greenpeace in Dakota pipeline case. The environmental advocacy group Greenpeace was fined more than $660 million after a nine-person jury in North Dakota found it had incited illegal behavior – including libel and trespassing – in its support of 2016 and 2017 Native American protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. SOUTH DAKOTA SEARCHLIGHT The ruling in favor of pipeline developers Energy Transfer and Dakota Access LLP could mean bankruptcy for Greenpeace, which contends that the lawsuit is misusing the courts to quash public protest against the pipeline. DAN KENNEDY
Wyoming game warden taking over the federal Fish & Wildlife Service. Brian Nesvik, a former game warden turned Wyoming Game and Fish director, has been tapped to lead an agency charged with protecting plants and animals approaching the edge of extinction. The nomination comes as President Trump issued a pro-excavation executive order directing federal agencies to bypass the consultation requirements mandated by the Endangered Species Act. Sierra Magazine notes that “Under Nesvik’s leadership, the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish vigorously supported drilling and mining.” SIERRA MAGAZINE
A takeout on the history of uranium contamination in rural northwest New Mexico. For 32 years, the Homestake Mining Company pulled up tons of ore containing uranium near the town of Grants. It leached uranium out, then sent 21 million tons tailings to unlined earthen pits. Radioactive contaminants invaded four aquifers; a fifth is threatened. Homestake now says a full groundwater cleanup can’t be done. It wants to buy and demolish the homes affected, then turn 6,100 acres over to the Energy Department. “What they should be saying is, ‘We’ve contaminated everything we can, and there’s no way we can fix it,’” said Christine Lowery, a local county commissioner. SEARCHLIGHT NEW MEXICO
The push to increase mining on public lands is the thrust of a recent executive order. It also directs federal authorities to fast-track applications. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
New technology to desalinate water being tested off the southern California coast. The company OceanWell Co. has developed 40-foot-long devices it calls pods. These are attached to the seafloor miles offshore, where they take in salt water and pump out freshwater that is sent to the shore. “We pull fresh water only up out of the ocean, and the salt stays down there in low concentrations, where it’s not an environmental problem,” said the company’s water policy specialist. LOS ANGELES TIMES
The extra water Colorado River reservoirs had after the 2023 deluge is gone and the Southwest is heading into the dry season with little cushion. “In mid-March, total storage in 46 reservoirs tracked by [the Bureau of] Reclamation was the third lowest in the 21st century for this time of year,” John Fleck writes. “The total amount of storage was the same as it was in late July 2021 when water managers described the situation as “serious” and declared a shortage….” INKSTAIN Water outlook for Lake Powell this summer is problematic, despite significant snowpack in Colorado. DENVER POST
Appeals court rules there’s no trespassing when hunters cut corners to enter federal land in Wyoming, as the adjacent property owner claimed. These corners come in areas where a checkerboard of land ownership was created, with public and private squares of land alternating. The property owner had sued to block hunters from federal land and have the exclusive right to hunt deer and elk there. WYOFILE
Southeastern Colorado ranchers are furious at plans for a high-voltage power line. They fear that “towering pylons marching from New Mexico into three rural Colorado counties… could disturb a fragile short-grass prairie landscape in the state’s far-southeast corner, lowering land values and disrupting ranching and farming operations…” One fear is that the government will use its eminent domain rights to confiscate ranchland to further the Energy Department’s National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors initiative. DENVER POST
New legislation could end a longstanding fight between California’s environmentalists and. housing advocates. The measure proposed in the assembly by Oakland member Buffy Wicks would, as Ben Christopher wrote, “exempt most urban housing developments from the 55-year-old California Environmental Quality Act.” If passed “it would mean no more environmental lawsuits over proposed apartment buildings…and no more use of the law by environmental justice advocates, construction unions and anti-development homeowners to wrest concessions from developers or delay them indefinitely.” CAL MATTERS
The biodiversity of a Nevada lake is being reclaimed; California environmentalists are trying to learn how it happened. The first step was working with farmers. The Walker River is over-allocated, having more water rights than water. “For a sustainable long-term water supply, we must reduce irrigated acreage,” one environmentalist said. His group has acquired water rights from willing sellers; this has allowed restoration of 27,500 acre-feet of water per year into Walker Lake. PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE OF CALIFORNIA
A hungry whale is a quiet whale: a study in the waters of Monterey Bay showed that marine mammals vocalizations came less frequently after ocean warming. FINANCIAL POST
Articles worth reading: March 18, 2025
Two national monuments in California under threat; lithium mining in Nevada receives a $250 million boost; Columbia River negotiations put on pause; butterfly populations in decline; grizzlies at Yellowstone awaken; and other stories from around the American West.
Trump moves to revoke two national monuments in California, the Chuckwalla National Monument and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument. In January, Biden called for the protection of some federal lands from energy development and established these monuments to honor the ancestral homelands of many Indigenous peoples. An executive order signed by Trump last week intends to rescind this decision, making hundreds of thousands of acres of land available for development. But his actions on social media confused the issue: he posted and then deleted a tweet announcing the abolition of the monuments. THE WASHINGTON POST THE MERCURY NEWS
Amidst trade tensions, the U.S. pauses water-sharing negotiations on the Columbia River. The Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada, first signed in 1961, regulates flood control, hydropower, and water use on the river basin. An update to the treaty was nearly finalized last summer. It would have allowed for more tribal engagement in decision-making and bolster salmon recovery efforts.The Trump administration has stopped talks to finalize this agreement. THE COLUMBIAN
Canadian mining company receives a $250 million investment to construct Nevada lithium mine. The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch called for a halt to the project at Thacker Pass in northern Nevada, citing its proximity to an ancestral burial site for the Northern Paiute and Western Shoshone people, and believe this funding underscores the need for reforms to U.S. mining laws. GRIST
Forty percent of a non-profit’s government funding is frozen following the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order from the Trump administration. The Arizona non-profit Borderlands Restoration Network works in wildlife preservation and recovery and is the second-largest employer in the town of Patagonia. BRN staff say funding cuts have pushed their urgent climate work “ten steps back.” INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
U.S. butterfly populations are down 22 percent since 2000 because of stress from insecticide use, climate change, and habitat loss. The largest decline in butterflies, with numbers falling by more than 50 percent in the last 20 years, was recorded in the Southwest. Entomologist David Wagner describes these findings as “catastrophic and saddening.” ASSOCIATED PRESS Interactive map: See How Butterflies Are Surviving, or Not, Near You New York Times
An eruption of Alaska’s Mount Spurr is imminent based on new data from the state’s volcano observatory. Researchers expect an eruption in the next few weeks or months after detecting increased gas emissions. An explosive event could carry ash for hundreds of miles, threatening the health of communities in nearby population centers and damaging plane engines and vehicles. ALASKA PUBLIC MEDIA At the active Augustine volcano, Alaska officials have been planning for a geothermal lease sale to allow for renewable projects to tap into its energy potential. ALASKA BEACON
Legacy of uranium mining: contaminated groundwater in New Mexico. From 1958 to the 1990’s, tailings from uranium mills were piped underground, where they decayed into radioactive materials that leaked into the region’s aquifers. Rather than clean up the area, the Homestake Mining Company has been buying out homes in the contaminated zone, pushing communities burdened by the health impacts of uranium exposure to relocate. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
DEI cuts dismantle wildland firefighting bootcamp for women. The Oregon-based training program aimed to increase retention of women wildland firefighters, who currently represent 13 percent of the profession. As climate change leads to more destructive fire seasons, advocates of the bootcamp fear that slashing diversity initiatives will shrink the disaster-response workforce. GRIST
Yellowstone staff spotted the first grizzly tracks of 2025, marking the start of spring at the park. Grizzly and black bears in the Northwest typically emerge from hibernation in mid-March, though a warming climate and an availability of human food from garbage are changing hibernation patterns. In Tahoe, it’s estimated that 20 percent of bears opted out of their winter slumber in 2022. SFGATE
Articles worth reading: March 4, 2025
Ash blankets California kelp forests; federal funding cuts imperil environmental protection and economic security in the rural West; Greenpeace heads to court over 2016 pipeline protests; sea otter reintroduction on Oregon’s coast; and other stories from around the West.
“A blanket over the ocean.” Los Angeles fires have deposited a three-foot layer of ash and debris onto coastal ecosystems, blocking sunlight and rock substrate that photosynthetic organisms rely on. The recovery rates of marine life after wildfire vary widely, yet the combination of fire stressors and existing environmental disturbances does not bode well for California’s kelp beds. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Termination of federal employees ripples across the rural West. With critical environmental funding slashed in states like Wyoming, services such as fire prevention on public lands, wastewater treatment, hydropower dam operations, and community solar projects have been left out to dry. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Logging in national forests set to accelerate thanks to a new executive order that calls on federal authorities to find their way around environmental regulations and seeks details about lumber imports from Canada. THE NEW YORK TIMES
Energy Transfer takes the environmental group Greenpeace to court for $300 million for involvement in protests that stalled the Dakota Access Pipeline operation. The 1,170-mile oil pipeline was approved in 2016, sparking outrage from Indigenous communities on the nearby Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Energy Transfer claims Greenpeace organized protests that interfered with business and spread misinformation. Activists who say the organization played only a supporting role in the protests believe this suit aims to suppress free speech. The jury trial began last Monday in North Dakota. THE NEW YORK TIMES
California bill would hold fossil fuel companies liable for their emissions. New legislation modeled after the federal Superfund program targets the largest oil and gas producers and refiners through a one-time fee, which will be paid into a state fund for climate disaster recovery and resiliency projects. Under the “Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act,” regulators at the California Environmental Protection Agency are tasked with determining the responsible parties and their damages. SIERRA MAGAZINE
Mount Denali has been renamed to Mount McKinley by the Trump administration, stripping the tallest mountain in North America of its Alaskan Native name. Taylar Dawn Stagner, a reporter on Indigenous Affairs, describes this pattern of federal designation as a form of “colonial dominance.” GRIST
California rice fields might help Sacramento River salmon populations thrive. Human infrastructure like levees have restricted access to the river’s floodplains, where Chinook salmon could once consume zooplankton in the shallow waters. However, the water used to flood rice fields each winter also is abundant with these nutrient-rich “bugs,” which farmers are opting to pump into the Sacramento River for fish feed. CAP RADIO
Utah county approves $550,000 study to investigate desalinating hot springs for drinking water. Springs in the region produce about 5,000 gallons of hot water per minute, but reverse osmosis technology is expensive and uses large amounts of energy. The study also hopes to identify environmentally sound disposal methods for concentrated brine. THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Utility-scale photovoltaic plant planned on brownfield site in Alberta, Canada. The city Medicine Hat, nicknamed “Gas City” because of its abundant fossil gas reserves, will host the largest urban solar power plant in North America on a 1,600-acre plot of contaminated land. If developed at full scale, the plant is expected to generate 75 megawatts of power for 65,000 residents. NATIONAL OBSERVER
Plans for sea otter reintroduction on Oregon and Northern California’s coast begin, following a $1.56 million grant awarded to the Siletz Tribe by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Populations of the fuzzy keystone species plummeted after the boom of the fur trade, but restoration hopes to revive vital kelp forests and gather traditional ecological knowledge about otters. LIVING ON EARTH The Elakha Alliance, a collaboration between Tribes, conservation groups, and nonprofit leaders, will direct the three-year planning effort. THE OREGONIAN
Articles worth reading: February 18, 2025
Updated hazard designations spotlight California’s high wildfire risk; national parks shudder under spending cuts; Trump blocks publication of a critical nature report; volcanic eruptions in Hawai‘i; and other stories from around the American West.
New maps show that more than two million locally-controlled acres in northern California are at risk of destructive fires. “We are living in a new reality of extremes,” says Gov. Gavin Newsom. Updated maps are being released on a rolling schedule, after which local officials are required to adopt regulations for the new hazard rating. CAL MATTERS
Federal spending cuts incite crisis at national parks, as the United States Forest Service and National Park Service together fire about 4,400 probationary employees. Affected sites include the Appalachian Trail, Yellowstone, and the Sequoia National Forest. These new limits to national park funding threaten fire-mitigation programs and public safety amidst an increase in park visitation. THE GUARDIAN
A government report on the state of nature in the United States is cancelled on the eve of publication. The 12-chapter report, called the National Nature Assessment, measures the wellbeing of the nation’s lands, waters, and wildlife. Despite Trump’s executive order to eliminate the report, authors are working to publish it outside of the government. Christopher Schell, one of the authors, believes the work was targeted because of its focus on environmental justice. THE NEW YORK TIMES
A fountain of lava 330 feet high spewed from Hawai‘i’s Kīlauea volcano last week. This was the ninth upwelling of an eruption ongoing since this past December. The U.S. Geological Survey warns locals about volcanic gas emissions and “Pele’s hair,” glass threads that can result from gas bubbles in lava and contaminate drinking water sources. LIVE SCIENCE
LNG projects in British Columbia will receive a two-year grace period for paying for carbon emissions, according to a new carbon pricing system. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects typically emit the most during their start-up phase, which lasts up to two years, so industrial operations like LNG Canada will be exempt from payment while their emissions stabilize. Opponents of the grace period argue this slashes a key source of government revenue in favor of the fossil fuel industry. THE NARWHAL
Laser beams might revolutionize Colorado’s water management. Lidar technology uses light detection and ranging technology to generate a full picture of a watershed, allowing for more accurate predictions of how much water is available in snowpack each year. A legislative proposal seeks to create a statewide snowpack measurement program using lidar amidst declines in snow water of up to 80% from climate change, though the proposal is costly. POST INDEPENDENT
Alaska considers establishing a Department of Agriculture following an executive order from Governor Mike Dunleavy. Alaska is one of only two states without a cabinet-level agriculture department, but public fears during the COVID-19 pandemic have signaled the importance of food security. The new department would adopt some responsibilities from the Departments of Environmental Conservation and Natural Resources, requiring an increase of $2.7 million in funding. ALASKA BEACON
Nuclear facilities are poised to invigorate energy projects in Utah following the unanimous passage of legislation creating a nuclear energy consortium. The Utah House of Representatives sees nuclear generation as a pathway to address the state’s energy shortage and stimulate economic growth. DESERET NEWS
Feral pigs may be triggering “an ecological cascade” on Kaua‘i. Despite not being native to Hawai‘i, pigs are now found on six of its seven inhabited islands, and populations are growing. Their impact on local ecosystems cannot be overstated, from the contamination of drinking water supplies to the extinction of a native songbird. New hog-wire fences have proven controversial among native Hawaiians who are blocked from parts of their land. BIOGRAPHIC
Rewilding golf courses could be a key pathway to supporting biodiversity and public health. The sport has long been a target for environmental activists for its outsized use of water for irrigation (1.5 billion gallons day in the U.S.) and for runoff from fertilizers and pesticides used on the courses. The U.S. has the most golf courses of any nation, using more land for this sport than for wind or solar energy. Recent efforts to partially restore natural ecosystems on courses both reduce maintenance costs and allow wildlife to thrive. BBC
The California condor comeback story began on April 19, 1987. On that day, the capture of the last wild condor ended the birds’ independent lives. Saving the species from being wiped out by lead poisoning required raising them in captivity. Five years later, the first of the captive condors were returned to the wild. By 2023 there were 561 California condors, 344 of them living in the wild. The story of the “refaunation” of the condor could provide a template for saving other species threatened with extinction. KNOWLEDGE MAGAZINE
Articles worth reading: February 4, 2025
Amidst a wave of executive orders comes a disruption of water security in California; huge feats for renewable energy in 2024; wolf reintroduction in Colorado; mounting pressure for lithium; the gentrification of the Mountain West; and other stories from around the West.
California’s beaches may amass the charred remains of infrastructure destroyed in Los Angeles wildfires, exacerbating pollution in the Pacific. Rainwaters can funnel contaminants into the ocean, and public health officials have discouraged contact with any beaches within several miles of evacuation zones. LOS ANGELES TIMES
President Trump issues an executive order that purports to route water to Southern California. Though Trump claimed the flow from two Tulare County lakes would provide fire relief in the Los Angeles area, the order instead delivered water hundreds of miles away to the Central Valley, where fervent and contentious farmers have long pushed Trump for more water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Environmental groups and farm advocates fear this action will override Endangered Species Act protections for fish and jeopardize reliable water supplies by allowing saltwater intrusion. CAL MATTERS SJV WATER
In the Mojave Desert, a controversial solar plant faces pressure to close. The Ivanpah plant on the Nevada-California border employs solar-thermal technology, harnessing the sun’s heat to generate steam that turns a turbine, which has higher operating costs than competing photovoltaics. It is now scaling back most of its operations. Environmentalists also criticize the plant for incinerating thousands of birds and threatening the habitat of desert tortoises. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Premature snowmelt in Alaska could catalyze a more dangerous fire season as spring approaches. Bright snow reflects the Sun’s radiation, but as this cover melts, the exposed ground absorbs more heat and warms the local environment. Wildfire managers urge Alaskans to reduce fuel around their homes. INTERNATIONAL ARCTIC RESEARCH CENTER
California proves renewable energy is increasingly reliable after the state supplied up to 10 hours of clean electricity for 98 days in 2024. At peak hours, more than 150 percent of the grid’s electricity needs were met solely by renewable sources. “This study really finds that we can keep the grid stable with more and more renewables,” said Stanford civil and environmental engineer Mark Z. Jacobson. GRIST
Fifteen gray wolves from Canada were successfully released in Colorado as part of the native predator reintroduction plan mandated in 2020. The state intends to release 10 to 15 wolves each year until the population stabilizes. Some ranchers have been in strong opposition and proposed a ballot measure to stop the initiative. It will be voted on in 2026. THE DENVER POST
Trump’s rollback of EV goals set by the Biden administration isn’t expected to curb global demand for critical minerals like lithium. Biden’s target mandated that 50 percent of vehicles sold in the United States be electric by 2030. North America accounts for a mere 10 percent of the electric vehicle market, while the industry grows at a rate of 27 percent annually in the rest of the world. REUTERS
A lithium mine proposed at the Salton Sea receives judicial approval, despite environmental advocates’ claim that the project failed to meet water and air quality requirements. The nonprofits Comite Civico del Valle and Earthworks filed a lawsuit requiring a more extensive environmental review as well as Tribal consultation, which stalled the project. Mining for the critical mineral, which promises to make California’s electric vehicle transition easier, is set to begin at the end of 2026 as is the operation of a new geothermal plant. CAL MATTERS
U.S. Supreme Court upholds the overturn of 2021 Montana voting laws that suppressed the rights of Native voters. The Montana Democratic Party successfully challenged the two bills, HB 176 and HB 530, which prohibited same-day voter registration and paid ballot collection, respectively. DAILY MONTANAN THE NATION
Utah legislature considers initiative to co-manage ‘Mighty Five’ national parks. The legislature, which has long argued Utah should take possession of the federal lands that make up about 68 percent of the state, is taking a new tack. The measure seeks to exert new control over some of the most popular parks and help the National Park Service deal with more than $400 million in deferred maintenance projects and staffing shortages. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
The mega-mansions of Jackson, Wyoming illustrate the extreme gentrification of the Mountain West. As one Jackson town council member says, “the umbilical cord that connects where you live and where you work is getting stretched and frayed and cut. Someone who’s a waiter here cannot compete against a hedge fund manager who’s moving here to take advantage of the tax situation.” THE NATION
The fallout from efforts to control private property near a public park on Colorado’s eastern slope. Taralyn Romero bought land in Kitteridge abutting a park; the previous owners had allowed park goers roam freely there. Ms. Romero started to continue the tradition, but when she tried to control dogs and children from digging up her land and failed, she blocked visitors. Thus she became an outcast in the town and the local government tried to take control of her land. When she put up TikTok videos showing her fellow-citizens harassing her, she provoked a groundswell of support for property rights and some of her neighbors backed off. SWORD AND SCALES
Articles worth reading: January 20, 2025
Unprecedented fires ravage southern California; uranium mine cleanups and hazardous waste exports; monitoring land-based pollution through fish embryos; backpacking parrots; and other stories from around the American West.
The wildland-urban interface is not to blame for the Los Angeles disaster, say wildfire experts. The embers fueling these costly fires spread so efficiently because of the burning of human structures, rather than the ignition of vegetation. Prevention strategies must prioritize resilient urban planning and fire protection engineering. LOS ANGELES TIMES Welcome to the Pyrocene: Los Angeles fires are part of a decades-old trend of building and development that tries to defy nature, and fails. STEPHEN J. PYNE
As Los Angeles works to recover, the threat of landslides looms. Burned soils struggle to absorb rainwater, leaving communities at risk of flash floods and snowballing sediment, disasters which insurance probably won’t cover. “The Los Angeles area and Southern California are the world capital for post-fire debris flows,” says Jason Kean of the United States Geological Survey. THE NEW YORK TIMES
To fight back or to flee: the debate over Pacifica’s future. The surf town has been a case study for how coastal communities will respond to climate change. In 30 to 60 years, rising tides are expected to cause more than $240 million in damages in the region. Seawalls may only delay the inevitable, but does managed retreat mean “giving up?” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Novel research on surf smelt embryos presents a “toxicology monitoring tool.” In the intertidal zone of the Pacific Northwest coast, scientists are turning to the keystone forage fish to understand the long-term impacts of pollution. BIOGRAPHIC
One million cubic yards of uranium waste rock will be moved off tribal land in the Navajo Nation. The EPA will deposit waste in a regional landfill, following the terms of a $1 billion settlement to clean up 50 uranium mines in the Navajo Nation. After nearly two decades of grassroots advocacy for radioactive waste removal, New Mexico attorney Eric Jantz deems this “a seismic shift in policy for Indigenous communities.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Legal protection for Native seeds acts as a safeguard for Indigenous knowledge. A $500,000 Rockefeller grant allows tribes in the Southwest to gather data on Indigenous seeds and dry-farming techniques, which would be shared with Native growers. The U.N. World Intellectual Property Organization also adopted an international treaty, the first of its kind, that requires businesses patenting genetic resources to disclose any traditional knowledge used or consulted. As of October, the U.S. has not signed on to this treaty, meaning knowledge of Indigenous heirloom seed growth is still not recognized under U.S. law. EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL
Developers are selling carbon credits to fund cleanups of abandoned oil and natural gas wells to compensate for limits on Congress’ infrastructure budget. These wells, if they remain unplugged, can leach methane, though the rate of leakage has been heavily debated by scientists. Carbon credit developers have generated about 5 million carbon credits in this market, with one credit equating to an offset of one metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions. GRIST
Drilling down to the mining threats to national parks. The Biden administration had rejected a mining road that would slice through an Alaskan national park, but mining adversaries fear the change in administrations will signal a wave of approvals for mineral extraction projects. NATIONAL PARKS TRAVELER
U.S. hazardous waste is polluting a neighborhood in Mexico. In 2022, almost half of all hazardous waste exported from the United States was sent to the Monterrey region. Heavy metal pollution in homes and schools near a major industrial plant there, run by Zinc Nacional, is at times hundreds of times higher than the health-risk threshold in the U.S. A Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab investigation finds that inadequate or outdated standards have hindered the ability of Mexican agencies to regulate the Zinc Nacional plant. THE GUARDIAN
Tiny backpacks trace migration corridors of Mexico’s endangered thick-billed parrots. Data from transmitter studies over four years revealed that less than 20 percent of the endemic species’ home range is formally protected. Mexico has since designated 43 new protected areas for the parrots, whose habitat has declined due to illegal logging and timber extraction. MONGABAY
Articles worth reading: January 6, 2025
How the carbon sink of permafrost in the far North is turning into a carbon emitter instead; two new national monuments honoring Native land; how federal renewable energy incentives could change the Nevada desert; the work of restoring prairie dogs and their habitat; and other recent environmental news from around the West.
The Arctic’s ability to regulate global temperatures is compromised as tundra, once a major carbon sink, is melting so fast it is exposing the carbon-loaded soil beneath the permafrost. When this melts or, worse, when wildfires burn it, it turns the tundra into a carbon source. That’s what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in its most recent Arctic Report Card. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
President Biden creates two national monuments honoring Native American lands, both in California. The 644,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument would protect desert land south of Joshua Tree National Park and the Sáttítla National Monument in parts of three national forests – Shasta-Trinity, Modoc and Klamath. The area, now protected from development, is sacred to several bands of the Pit River tribe. SACRAMENTO BEE DESERT SUN
New cases of Valley Fever, the fungal respiratory disease, are spiking in California, breaking earlier records. Incidence of the disease, caused by dust-born spores from a fungus called coccidioides, had jumped to 11,076 cases, up 20 percent in the first 11 months of 2024, compared to that period a year earlier, and up 47 percent from 2022 levels. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Utah’s lawsuit to retake federal lands, a “Hail Mary” effort, still could reorder control of the West’s public lands. In August, the State of Utah filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court calling into question the Bureau of Land Management’s right to retain ownership of 18.5 million acres of public land in the state. This is the latest of several attempts to win control of federal lands; others have failed. SIERRA MAGAZINE
How the Nevada desert could change thanks to a renewable energy boom pushed by the outgoing administration in Washington. The changes could mean bringing large transmission lines and acres of solar farms to now-empty valleys like the one traversed by Route 50, dubbed by Life Magazine “the loneliest road in america.” Last summer the Biden administration proposed opening more than 31 million acres of federal lands in the West to solar development. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
The challenges and contradictions for Hawaiians about what constitutes sovereignty. “More than a century after the United States helped orchestrate the coup that conquered the nation of Hawai‘i, and more than 65 years since it became a state,” an Atlantic writer says, “people here have wildly different ideas about what America owes the Hawaiian people” – whether it should be treated as a separate entity, as Native tribes are, or whether the kingdom of Hawai’i should be restored. THE ATLANTIC
A federal clerical error handed 90,000 acres of land belonging to the Yakama tribe to Washington State’s control. They want it back. GRIST
A resurgence of wolves moving outward from Yellowstone National Park brings a resurgence of wolf-hating among the park’s neighbors. YALE E360 A history of the wolf’s near-extermination and dramatic return. MOUNTAIN JOURNAL
A new plan for California’s major water delivery systems is unveiled; opponents call out flaws. Federal and state proponents of the new operating rules for the Central Valley Project, a federal entity, and the state water project say they will “strike a balance between ensuring protections for imperiled fish species and providing a reliable water supply for farms and cities” and provide more certainty for water users, particularly farmers. Fishing groups and environmentalists say the rules will endanger fish. LOS ANGELES TIMES “A federal environmental review last month concluded that some salmon, which already are in dire shape, would be harmed by the new operating plan, with numbers of young salmon expected to drop.“ CAL MATTERS
Why the West needs prairie dogs and how to keep them: the efforts to conserve the small number that remain and help conserve the prairie they shaped. “The Lakota, Dakota and other Indigenous peoples of the prairie shaped and depended on the ecosystems prairie dogs created,” writes Christine Peterson. Colonists had a different view, killing them off in massive numbers. Now decades of work by tribal wildlife managers on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation means that “prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, swift foxes and bison are once again roaming the… reservation in north-central Montana, one of the few places in the world where all four species coexist.” HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Articles worth reading: December 10, 2024
In a week that brought an earthquake off the northern coast of California and snow across the Northeast, we also look at Oregon forests, Bay Area salmon, a tradeoff between saving homes from crumbling shorelines and saving the beaches beneath them, the negotiating impasse over the Colorado River, and the meaning of the word “wilderness.”
As sea levels rise, a ruling in a debate over preserving private lands, or public beaches. In San Francisco, the First District Court of Appeal is making their decision. Seawall construction is known to reduce and eliminate beaches, but seawalls are also known to protect beach-side buildings from damage from rising waters. For California, this decision will affect all of its 1,100 mile coastline, and set a precedent for shorelines across the country. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
Colorado River cutback negotiations reach an impasse. During an annual conference of the seven basin states, the usual meeting of state representatives didn’t happen. The main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are at around one-third of capacity and climate change could drop water levels further. The upper-basin states – New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming – say future cuts are the responsibility of the lower-basin states of Nevada, Arizona and California. These disagree. Negotiating failure past the 2026 deadline for new use guidelines could send the fight to federal court. “The kids are fighting and it’s sad to watch,” said John Fleck, a water expert at the University of New Mexico. LOS ANGELES TIMES KUNM
Salmon have begun returning to many of their ancestral California streams in the wake of a recent atmospheric river, two years of higher than average rains, and ongoing efforts to restore streams. WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS
Joining a growing movement to give legal rights to ecosystems, the voters of Everett, Washington have agreed that the Snohomish River watershed is now a legal entity. If someone is to violate these rights, they will be expected to pay damages to the city government, and those funds will be used to further protect the river. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
As 13,000 resident Navajo families live without electricity, energy companies export it from Utah’s high desert. As climate change makes hot days hotter, it becomes more and more difficult for families to keep themselves, and their perishables, cool. For more on how this has happened, and the slow fight for change: KSUT
The virus that causes sudden oak death was found in almost one-third of trees in California’s Marin County The 2024 study of bay laurel and tanoak trees also noted that a more contagious strain, NA2 has been detected. This strain thrives in warm, wet weather – something increasingly common in California’s Bay Area. Scientists worry the region is facing a significant year for sudden oak deaths. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
In Oregon’s Coast Range, 80 percent of private forest land is owned by institutional investors, in the form of timber investment management organizations or real estate investment trusts. These institutions, which do pay no corporate tax, see clear cuts on thirty to forty year cycles as a lucrative approach – transforming the landscape into patches of stumps and twiggy second growth forest. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Real estate rush in the mining country of California’s Mojave Desert. With gold selling for $2,630 an ounce, an area of the Rand Mountains that was largely abandoned by miners decades ago is seeing a rebirth of interest. One real-estate agent said he sells mines to amateurs and professionals; small claims can fetch up to $50,000. Bigger sites sell for several hundred thousand dollars. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Drilling for oil in Alaska’s remote Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may not turn out to be profitable, yet the incoming Trump administration still seems determined to do it. Native and environmentalist groups fight against the push to open the refuge to oil companies, while other Native groups and certain members of the Republican party vehemently support potentially lucrative oil exploration in the region. The region’s populations of caribou, polar bears, muskox, wolves, wolverines, and birds could see big changes come 2025. MOTHER JONES
Check out the winners of the 2024 Nature Conservancy Oceania Photo Contest. Fantastical fungi, fish, fire, and fog. THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
The global concept of “wilderness” is examined in a long-form article for the MIT Press Reader, From Ansel Adams photographing everything in Yosemite but the Native people who cared for it, to myriad Indigenous groups who do not have a word for wilderness in their language, the author, MarkDowie, rethinks the meaning and value of legally designated wilderness. MIT PRESS
Articles worth reading: December 10, 2024
In a week that brought an earthquake off the northern coast of California and snow across the Northeast, we also look at Oregon forests, Bay Area salmon, a tradeoff between saving homes from crumbling shorelines and saving the beaches beneath them, the negotiating impasse over the Colorado River, and the meaning of the word “wilderness.”
As sea levels rise, a ruling in a debate over preserving private lands, or public beaches. In San Francisco, the First District Court of Appeal is making their decision. Seawall construction is known to reduce and eliminate beaches, but seawalls are also known to protect beach-side buildings from damage from rising waters. For California, this decision will affect all of its 1,100 mile coastline, and set a precedent for shorelines across the country. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
Colorado River cutback negotiations reach an impasse. During an annual conference of the seven basin states, the usual meeting of state representatives didn’t happen. The main reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are at around one-third of capacity and climate change could drop water levels further. The upper-basin states – New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming – say future cuts are the responsibility of the lower-basin states of Nevada, Arizona and California. These disagree. Negotiating failure past the 2026 deadline for new use guidelines could send the fight to federal court. “The kids are fighting and it’s sad to watch,” said John Fleck, a water expert at the University of New Mexico. LOS ANGELES TIMES KUNM
Salmon have begun returning to many of their ancestral California streams in the wake of a recent atmospheric river, two years of higher than average rains, and ongoing efforts to restore streams. WESTERN OUTDOOR NEWS
Joining a growing movement to give legal rights to ecosystems, the voters of Everett, Washington have agreed that the Snohomish River watershed is now a legal entity. If someone is to violate these rights, they will be expected to pay damages to the city government, and those funds will be used to further protect the river. INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
As 13,000 resident Navajo families live without electricity, energy companies export it from Utah’s high desert. As climate change makes hot days hotter, it becomes more and more difficult for families to keep themselves, and their perishables, cool. For more on how this has happened, and the slow fight for change: KSUT
The virus that causes sudden oak death was found in almost one-third of trees in California’s Marin County The 2024 study of bay laurel and tanoak trees also noted that a more contagious strain, NA2 has been detected. This strain thrives in warm, wet weather – something increasingly common in California’s Bay Area. Scientists worry the region is facing a significant year for sudden oak deaths. SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
In Oregon’s Coast Range, 80 percent of private forest land is owned by institutional investors, in the form of timber investment management organizations or real estate investment trusts. These institutions, which do pay no corporate tax, see clear cuts on thirty to forty year cycles as a lucrative approach – transforming the landscape into patches of stumps and twiggy second growth forest. HIGH COUNTRY NEWS
Real estate rush in the mining country of California’s Mojave Desert. With gold selling for $2,630 an ounce, an area of the Rand Mountains that was largely abandoned by miners decades ago is seeing a rebirth of interest. One real-estate agent said he sells mines to amateurs and professionals; small claims can fetch up to $50,000. Bigger sites sell for several hundred thousand dollars. LOS ANGELES TIMES
Drilling for oil in Alaska’s remote Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may not turn out to be profitable, yet the incoming Trump administration still seems determined to do it. Native and environmentalist groups fight against the push to open the refuge to oil companies, while other Native groups and certain members of the Republican party vehemently support potentially lucrative oil exploration in the region. The region’s populations of caribou, polar bears, muskox, wolves, wolverines, and birds could see big changes come 2025. MOTHER JONES
Check out the winners of the 2024 Nature Conservancy Oceania Photo Contest. Fantastical fungi, fish, fire, and fog. THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
The global concept of “wilderness” is examined in a long-form article for the MIT Press Reader, From Ansel Adams photographing everything in Yosemite but the Native people who cared for it, to myriad Indigenous groups who do not have a word for wilderness in their language, the author, MarkDowie, rethinks the meaning and value of legally designated wilderness. MIT PRESS
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Staff and Contributors
Geoff McGhee
Associate editor
Geoff McGhee specializes in interactive data visualization and multimedia storytelling. He is a veteran of the multimedia and infographics staffs at The New York Times, Le Monde and ABCNews.com. MORE »
Xavier Martinez
Editorial Assistant
Xavier graduated from Stanford in 2023 with a degree in economics and is currently a master’s student in Stanford’s journalism program. He has written about the high phone call costs faced by U.S. inmates, temporary Mexican workers’ interactions with the labor market and the efficacy of government healthcare assistance programs. A lifelong lover of charts and maps, he enjoys combining data journalism with narrative-style reporting.
‘& the West’ is published by the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University, which is dedicated to research, teaching, and journalism about the past, present, and future of the North American West.
Bruce E. Cain
Faculty Director
Kate Gibson
Associate Director
