After a wildfire, rivers and streams can take years to recover. Native plants and wildlife are often crowded out by invasive species in the aftermath. But in Nevada’s Virgin River watershed, a collaboration between federal agencies and conservation groups is pointing to early signs of recovery.

Quiet war in wilderness areas pit conservationists against the feds

Longer wildfire seasons can blanket communities in smoke. Summer heat records continue to rise. Drought remains a persistent concern for water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems.

Researchers looked at more than 750,000 wildfires in the West between 1992 and 2020. In the second half of that period, the number of reported wildfires were down by 31%, but acreage burned was up 40%.

A team of researchers at Arizona State University is building models to track the amount of water in snow, soils and streams.

After the Dragon Bravo Fire burned the Grand Canyon's North Rim, there's an increased risk of dangerous flooding and mudslides.

The consortium brings together the Four Corners states energy officials from New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah who want to scale geothermal as quickly and responsibly as possible.

At night, temperatures are often cooler and the air is wetter, which gives wildland firefighters a long window to make up significant ground when trying to suppress blazes. But that pattern is breaking down, a trend driven by human-caused climate change, according to a new study.

The world’s smallest rabbit is at the center of a new legal fight that conservation groups say could have broad implications for sagebrush ecosystems across the Mountain West.

Storms across the Western U.S. are dumping more rain in shorter bursts than in decades past. But according to new research, that doesn’t necessarily mean landscapes are holding onto more water.