73 percent of agency scientists say political interference is too high.
State government
Posted inArticles
Groups sue Wyoming over ‘data trespassing’ law
The laws make it a crime to collect data on open land if the collector lacks certain permissions.
Posted inArticles
How crowded are private prisons in the West?
A riot in Arizona puts the spotlight on for-profit incarceration.
Posted inArticles
The counties that actively oppose a federal lands transfer
Commissioners fear states could reduce county power and remove public access.
Posted inArticles
New data released on violent threats to federal employees
Documents show 15 incidents in 2014, but don’t account for the Cliven Bundy standoff.
Posted inArticles
The taxpayer money that fuels federal land transfer demands
How the behind-the-scenes lobby group American Lands Council gets funding.
Posted inArticles
Western states wrestle with Obama’s Clean Power Plan
Closed-door sessions on the EPA’s proposal to cut coal-fired power plant emissions.
Posted inMay 11, 2015: The Wetland Wars
Counties use a ‘coordination’ clause to fight the feds
An obscure provision in two environmental laws is the weapon of choice in a bureaucratic Sagebrush Rebellion.
Posted inArticles
Recapture Canyon protesters found guilty in Utah
County commissioner and co-defendant face up to a year in jail for illegal ATV ride.
Posted inArticles
State bills to study federal-to-state land transfers
A rundown of the legislation in each state and a look into the motives behind them.
Posted inArticles
Dispatch from Cliven Bundy’s latest gathering
Who showed up at the one-year anniversary of the BLM standoff? Most of them weren’t ranchers.
Posted inArticles
Federal public land transfers get a Congressional boost
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and a majority of her colleagues signal support for the pro-transfer movement.
Posted inArticles
An update on Nevada scofflaw Cliven Bundy
The rancher still has influence in some circles, and has seen zero repercussions for trespass cattle and unpaid fees.
Posted inArticles
Utah bill aims to force an end to the land transfer debate
Plus, a roundup of federal-to-state land transfer battles across the West.
Posted inGoat
Colorado water users gird for first statewide plan
Last year, 14 years into a regional drought, forecasts predicted that as many as 2.5 million Coloradans could be without sufficient water supplies by 2050. And yet the state still had no official plan to deal with its looming water crisis. In response to the troubling situation, Governor Hickenlooper issued an executive order: Colorado needed […]
Posted inArticles
A reluctant rebellion in the Utah desert
For ATVers at Recapture Canyon, realpolitik meets out-of-town zeal.
Posted inGoat
Rancher vs the BLM: A 20-year standoff ends with tense roundup
‘As far as I’m concerned,’ Cliven Bundy says, ‘the BLM don’t exist.’
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
California’s Tangled Water Politics
The Sacramento and San Joaquin Delta, formed where the two rivers meet in California’s Central Valley before flowing into San Francisco Bay, is the largest estuary on the entire West Coast of the Americas. But much of the Delta is a remote, labyrinthine wateriness that, for most people, exists only in the mind, wrapped in […]