Another dry year pushes tribal nations, federal agencies and irrigators to find long-lasting solutions.
Agriculture
Posted inArticles
Colorado River water shortages highlight the urgency of reducing water waste
Conservation, water reuse and better irrigation technology all make more sense than proposed water pipelines.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
Will Klamath salmon outlast the dam removal process?
Their future comes down to a race between paperwork and a fish disease.
Posted inArticles
For dairy cows, where there’s smoke, there’s less milk
Scientists in Idaho are finding that wildfire smoke dampens milk production and coincides with increased risk of disease and even death in dairy cows.
Posted inAugust 1, 2021: A Mega-Dairy Comes to the Desert
A mega-dairy is transforming Arizona’s aquifer and farming lifestyles
Minnesota’s Riverview Dairy has deep pockets and long straws.
Posted inAugust 1, 2021: A Mega-Dairy Comes to the Desert
Expletive hot; lemur spotting; teacher cams
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inAugust 1, 2021: A Mega-Dairy Comes to the Desert
Reviving traditional Apsáalooke water sources
Tribal scientists and community members are testing wells, solving plumbing problems and delivering clean water to their neighbors.
Posted inArticles
How yellowcake shaped the West
The ghosts of the uranium boom continue to haunt the land, water and people.
Posted inArticles
Living Water: Three generations of Apsáalooke revive a river
On the Crow Nation, scientists, students and community members come together to study and protect the Little Bighorn River.
Posted inArticles
The orchardist rescuing fruit trees in New Mexico
Once-diverse apple varieties are declining. Gordon Tooley wants to save them before they are gone.
Posted inArticles
The once-perennial Gila River ebbs to an uncertain future
‘We are in uncharted territory.’
Posted inArticles
Will history repeat in a dry Klamath Basin this summer?
This year’s drought is worse than in 2001, when political and environmental tensions exploded into the national spotlight.
Posted inJune 1, 2021: Once and Future Fires
Will a Native-led initiative spur an agricultural revolution in rural Alaska?
A grassroots project to build biomass-heated greenhouses aims to alleviate food insecurity in the communities most affected by it.
Posted inJuly 1, 2021: An Urban Greenspace Revolution
Ongoing fish kill on the Klamath River is an ‘absolute worst-case scenario’
Unprecedented drought in the Klamath Basin leaves communities wondering how they will make it through the summer.
Posted inArticles
The Central California town that keeps sinking
The very ground upon which Corcoran was built is steadily collapsing, a situation caused primarily by agriculture.
Posted inJuly 1, 2021: An Urban Greenspace Revolution
Farmworker organizing in Washington is undoing discriminatory labor policies
‘The pandemic elevated the fact that farmworkers are killing themselves to keep our food system intact.’
Posted inArticles
A parched West heads into fire season
Several types of drought are converging, and all are at or near record levels.
Posted inArticles
Where land use and landscape photography converge
A would-be museum exhibit, canceled due to COVID, is now collected in the book ‘American Geography: Photographs of Land Use from 1840 to the Present.’
Posted inArticles
The Gila River Indian Community innovates for a drought-ridden future
Through partnerships and exchanges, the community is ensuring that its members have long-term access to their own resources while helping solve broader water supply problems.
Posted inJune 1, 2021: Once and Future Fires
How ‘sustainable’ is California’s groundwater sustainability act?
Numerous issues around equity and the plan’s rollout loom.