Shrinking snowpacks and low waterways will affect everyone from tourists to farmers.
Water
Posted inDecember 10, 2018: Critical Mass
The arresting quiet of a crane migration in Washington
Sandhill cranes, cattle and the surprising benefits of their coexistence in the West.
Posted inAugust 6, 2018: What Are We Doing Here?
In this rapaciously dry year, a quiet question grows louder: What are we doing here?
Drought, dread and family in the American Southwest.
Posted inAugust 6, 2018: What Are We Doing Here?
When climate change hits home
Northern New Mexicans weigh their future in a drying climate.
Posted inJuly 23, 2018: Pay for Prey
California’s rural-urban divide blurs in crucial House race
Water and immigration are key issues as Democrats seek to unseat an incumbent.
Posted inArticles
The future of Alaska’s Pebble Mine — and its salmon
A timeline shows Scott Pruitt’s EPA waffling between mining and fishing interests.
Posted inArticles
Supreme Court to states: Live up to your treaty obligations
Will future courts order states to take down fish-blocking dams?
Posted inJune 25, 2018: Little Weed, Big Problem
Aridity heads east; a geyser wakes up; activists young and old
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inAugust 6, 2018: What Are We Doing Here?
In the Southwest, ‘drought’ doesn’t tell the whole story
Why ‘aridification’ is a better term for our new, more parched reality.
Posted inArticles
Aspen may stockpile water under its golf course
As climate change looms, towns look to store water without dams.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
What the Ice Age West predicts about our future
An American creation story.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
How the Yurok Tribe is reclaiming the Klamath River
For the first time, the largest tribe in California has one of its own to lead its legal battles.
Posted inArticles
Arizona water utility chooses solar over coal
The decision tips the ailing Navajo Generating Station closer to its planned closure.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
Below Mount Shasta, a fight burbles over bottled water
Selling water to Nestlé, Crystal Geyser and others could strain aquifers.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
The dark secrets of the Animas River
A 2015 spill that turned the waterway orange is a reminder of mining’s disastrous legacy.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
Interior revives the push for a higher Shasta Dam
But the state of California and Winnemem Wintu Tribe oppose the project.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
Tribal nations hold some of the best water rights in the West
But to use them, tribes often must negotiate settlements that need federal approval.
Posted inArticles
Colorado says fishing next to private land is trespassing
But that could change on the Arkansas River if a legal decision declares it navigable.
Posted inArticles
The playground of Lake Powell isn’t worth drowned canyons
Before a writer knew the true cost of Glen Canyon Dam, ‘ignorance was bliss.’
Posted inArticles
A revolution in hydropower makes waves in rural Colorado
Big dams were the hydro giants of yesteryear. The future of hydropower is small.