The Colorado River Interim Guidelines will expire in 2025, and Indigenous officials like Daryl Vigil are pushing to replace them with a more inclusive framework.
Water
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
The digital world’s real-world impact on the environment
From data center warehouses to cryptocurrency, technology is another energy hog.
Posted inArticles
Can a modified invasive trout save the cutthroat?
To eliminate invasive fish species, scientists have created a ‘Trojan’ brook trout that’s intended to help native fish in the West.
Posted inMarch 1, 2022: The Cloning Conundrum
A new tundra, engineered by beavers
Once nonexistent in northwest Alaska, beavers are both benefiting from and changing a warming tundra.
Posted inArticles
A vision for more sustainable farmlands
Central California can’t continue to farm at its current industrial scale. As land is fallowed, what could take its place?
Posted inArticles
The Supreme Court is set to weigh in on the Clean Water Act’s reach
The high court is taking up an Idaho case that could obliterate federal protection for much of the West’s waters.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Tribal nations are locked inside the U.S. water regime
Phoebe Suina on the Rio Grande River, Pueblo inclusion and the need for holistic solutions to our man-made disaster.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Humble suckers: Pacific lamprey have survived 5 mass extinctions but are now under threat
Cooperative efforts between tribes and non-Native institutions are helping conserve the under-researched Devonian darlings.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
‘Cultural resources are not a renewable thing for us.’
The West’s largest green energy storage project would destroy a Yakama sacred site. Now, the nation is fighting back.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
Indigenous feminism flows through the fight for water rights on the Rio Grande
An intergenerational group of Pueblo women lead the way on water policy along the Middle Rio Grande Valley.
Posted inArticles
Harry Reid’s legacy will be remembered on the land
A reflection on what endures after the death of the longtime senator from Nevada.
Posted inArticles
Stories we wish we’d written
A look at some of the journalism from 2021 that inspired us, made us feel seen, and, sometimes, even made us cry.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
2021’s climate was one of contrasts, contradictions and extremes
There was one constant: Heat.
Posted inArticles
40 years after its closure, the Jackpile Mine’s toxic legacy continues
‘They have to look at it every day and wonder if that’s the reason why they’re dying.’
Posted inArticles
At the Colorado River conference, ‘It’s really no longer a drill’
Water managers announce new measures to deal with dwindling water supply.
Posted inArticles
In California’s Central Valley, the water is contaminated and solutions are slow
The communities dealing with the carcinogenic water worry and aren’t kept well informed.
Posted inArticles
Corporations are consolidating water and land rights in the West
With farms, ranches and rural communities facing unprecedented threats, a worrying trend leads to a critical question: Who owns the water?
Posted inArticles
Winter without snow is coming
Parts of the Mountain West could be nearly snowless for years at a time in just a few decades.
Posted inArticles
A federal drought relief program left southern Oregon parched
For two decades, the Bureau of Reclamation incentivized farmers to pump water faster than the resource could recover, despite warnings from its own scientists.