Reservoirs across the West are slowly losing space to store water as dirt, sand and other sediment pile up behind dams, according to new, sweeping, nationwide research.

The recent show was broadcast on Rocky Mountain Community Radio stations in the Four Corners, Aspen, Crested Butte, Boulder, and other locations. It focused on the challenges facing river management amid severe drought and new federal rules.

Much of the West sweltered through record-breaking heat this summer, as a strengthening El Niño, unusually warm oceans and ongoing human-caused climate change combined to push temperatures to historic levels.

Post-fire specialists are assessing soil damage, debris flows and watershed risks after the Ferris Fire, as parts of the burned landscape begin to recover.

Trees rely on water to perform their most basic functions, and by shutting down for winter earlier, they can conserve water… but that means fall colors arriving earlier.

Laurence Smith, a river surveyor and environmental studies professor at Brown University, recently dropped in for a chat with Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong about how scientists are turning a new page on managing the Colorado River.

The faster a fire burns, the more severe its ecological impacts. That's one of the findings of a new paper in the journal Science Advances. Climate change only promises to further accelerate those fires, according to its lead author.

Learning declines as students suffer mentally and physically in hot environments.

The weather pattern favors dry conditions in the northern Rockies and wet conditions in the southern Rockies with some uncertainty in between.

So-called process based restoration (PBR) has a number of ecological benefits. But it can make ecosystems more resilient to wildfires when they come, and better able to recover in their wake.