Proposed updates to the Western Solar Plan would also close sensitive areas to utility-scale solar projects.
Bureau of Land Management
Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024
Big-eared bats, badass boulders and very determined hikers
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Is Biden waging a war on energy? Or on the climate?
A year-end review of the administration’s policy on fossil fuels and public lands.
Posted inArticles
Outrage, disinformation and threats rise up in Wyoming around a BLM land plan
Is there a new Sagebrush Rebellion flaring in the Cowboy State?
Posted inOctober 2, 2023: The Dark Side of the Sheepherding Industry
The dangerous consequences of wildland fire dispatcher burnout
An internal Forest Service survey shows a critical link in the wildfire fighting apparatus is struggling.
Posted inArticles
Public-land recreation management near Moab gets an overhaul
BLM releases new high-profile travel plan for Labyrinth Canyon area.
Posted inArticles
Myth and mending in the true West
People in the region are willing to take time for self-reflection, support and tolerance of differences.
Posted inArticles
The state of tribal co-management of public lands
As National Public Lands Day approaches, Indigenous leaders discuss working with agencies to manage dispossessed lands.
Posted inArticles
Conservation groups sue BLM for rangeland degradation
The lawsuit alleges the agency isn’t conducting environmental assessments before renewing grazing permits.
Posted inArticles
What are the real impacts on Burning Man’s playa?
Viral attention on Black Rock City’s annual festival highlight environmental consequences.
Posted inArticles
BLM has a plan to tackle booming recreation — at least in theory
The agency is taking a hard look at how to protect land and wildlife while welcoming ever more visitors.
Posted inArticles
Public lands had a roller coaster month
Rounding up the Biden administration’s ups and downs on land policy.
Posted inAugust 1, 2023: In the Line of Fire
An antiquated law rules mining in the West
Can the U.S. finally vanquish one of the most enduring Lords of Yesterday?
Posted inArticles
New public-land drilling rules would overhaul the Western oil industry
The potential new rules would hike the amount companies must pay in order to drill, in addition to other changes.
Posted inArticles
Public Lands Rule rhetoric gets wacky
Conservatives aren’t so keen on conservation.
Posted inArticles
BLM aims to grow wind and solar development on public lands
A proposed rule decreases the fee for renewable power production that experts say currently bolsters fossil fuel extraction.
Posted inMay 1, 2023: Reemergence
How a dinosaur is redefining a rural coal town
The 74 million-year-old fossil of Walter the hadrosaur brings paleo-tourism to Craig, Colorado.
Posted inArticles
Free, prior and informed consent ‘is more than just a checklist’
Avoiding a new wave of green colonialism is an urgent concern among attendees of the world’s largest gathering of Indigenous peoples.
Posted inArticles
BLM approves plans for a massive transmission line across the West
The $3 billion TransWest Express would send wind power from Wyoming to California.
Posted inArticles
A ‘seismic shift’ for public lands?
The new Public Lands Rule would put conservation on par with other uses.