Regional News
Vital news from around the Mountain West and Southwest. Explore coverage from the Mountain West News Bureau, Western Water Bureau, NPR, and Rocky Mountain Community Radio.
-
Prescribed fires and mechanical thinning efforts are increasingly common land management tools intended to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. However, research into their long-term effectiveness is somewhat limited. A recent study looked at the effects of such interventions over more than 20 years on a dry, low-elevation research forest in Montana and found that the combination of thinning and burning was the most likely to reduce fire risk.
-
A recent paper explored the challenges exacerbated by climate change faced by Latino farmworkers in Idaho, which are comparable to the issues faced by such workers across the West.
-
Weather is one of the most important and dynamic factors at play in wildfires, and it is the job of incident meteorologists to provide up-to-date forecasts so that the crews and managers can stay safe and accomplish their management goals.
-
Nevada has the second-highest grocery prices in the nation, with Colorado and New Mexico also placing in the top 10. High prices mean local food banks are having to help fill in the gaps for many working families.
-
The Western Governors' Association has been looking for ways for its member states to reduce their carbon footprint. One thing they're exploring is how government buildings are built and whether carbon can be stored in concrete.
-
The federal government says this is the nation’s warmest winter on record. And a new study shows human-caused climate change was the driver in many cities, including parts of the Mountain West region.
-
Nationwide, nearly 17,000 homes on tribal lands didn’t have electricity in 2022, according to federal data. The Biden administration is making new investments to address the issue.
-
Last ski season, a record number of skiers and snowboarders visited resorts in the Rocky Mountain region, including Colorado. The vast majority of them were white. There’s an effort in Summit County to make these snowsports more accessible to everyone, and it’s being led by a longtime resident who understands the immigrant experience.
-
New research shows cattle grazing can coexist with one of the most iconic and threatened birds in the West.
-
A national center for Native radio and TV broadcasters is leading an effort to establish a national alert code for missing and endangered adults.
-
More than 100 years ago, a professor in the Mountain West invented a tool and technique to measure the amount of water in a snowpack — a discovery that still lives on to this day.
-
The Forest Service’s recently released “Strategy to Expand Prescribed Fire Training in the West” document is blunt: “The prescribed fire implementation environment continues to grow in complexity, It reads, whereas the ability of practitioners to practice and hone their expertise has lagged, particularly in the Western United States.” The newly established Western Prescribed Fire Training Center is a major effort to address that workforce issue.
-
New research shows less snow is falling in many parts of the U.S., including the Mountain West, a region that relies heavily on snow.
-
A new report shows rooftop solar energy in the U.S. has increased tenfold over the past decade. Some states in the Mountain West lead the charge while others lag behind.
-
The group commemorated a similar ascent from the 10th, which was a specialized unit that helped hasten the end of the war and give birth to the outdoor recreation industry in the U.S.
-
The results of the 14th annual Conservation in the West Poll were released last week, and they again showed deep, bipartisan support for several pro-conservation policies, as well as concern about a range of serious environmental issues. This year, there was a separate presentation on findings among Latino respondents, which showed they are often among the most concerned about those issues and supportive of efforts to address them.