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.
-
A new research project in the Mountain West aims to improve forecasts of snowfall, and estimates of how climate change will affect the region’s snowpacks and water supplies.
-
The Bureau of Land Management recently held a series of public meetings about its new proposed sage grouse management plan. As the bird’s population continues to dwindle across the West, the agency is trying to add protections, all in an attempt to prevent the bird from being listed as an Endangered Species.
-
New findings about sublimation explain how snow is lost to evaporation before it can melt. The data can help form better predictions about water supplies from the Colorado River.
-
The northern lights were visible across parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah over the weekend.The colorful display was due to a geomagnetic storm which resulted in a burst of energy from the sun.
-
President Biden dramatically expanded two national monuments in California. But there are growing concerns that federal land managers are struggling to manage existing monuments designated since 2016.
-
The state's shed antler hunting season opened on May 1. The annual hunt in Jackson usually draws hundreds of vehicles from around the country. They come to search for antlers, which elk shed around this time every year. However, because of a new state law, only Wyoming residents can participate for the first week this year.
-
The Affordable Connectivity Program has helped millions of households get internet access with subsidies. The program will wind down at the end of April unless the federal government agrees to fund it through the end of the year.
-
This spring, the federal government is expected to finalize a rule that would require oil and gas companies to pay more to drill on public lands across the Western U.S.
-
A new report shows air pollution is affecting most national parks across the U.S., including parts of the Mountain West.
-
U.S. federal agencies and sovereign tribal agencies often work together on shared goals like managing wildfires, improving wildlife habitat, and other issues. A new repository collects a number of these co-stewardship - or sovereign-to-sovereign - agreements in an effort to help tribes and others better understand their possible uses.
-
A new paper finds that current wildfire suppression policies can increase fire severity as much as decades of fuel accumulation and climate change. Using fire models, the area burned annually grew much faster under the current suppression policy when compared to a policy of allowing low- and moderate-intensity blazes to burn.
-
In 2020, Congress passed the Not Invisible Act to help address the Missing and Murdered Persons Crisis. The bill formed a federal commission made up of tribal leaders, federal agencies, families, and survivors, who were tasked with developing recommendations on how best to address the crisis. The Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice responded to these recommendations in early March.
-
According to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, there were just five reported abortions in the state in 2023. A sharp decline from previous years, that number does not appear to reflect the reality of abortion access in the state since strict abortion bans went into effect.
-
Methane is a strong climate-warming pollutant. And a new study shows oil and gas operations in the Mountain West and beyond are leaking a lot more of it than the government thinks.
-
Here’s what you need to know about the five potential options for managing the use of Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah.
-
The United States Department of Agriculture announced tighter requirements this week for some country-of-origin labels on beef and pork. The change could impact Colorado’s sizable livestock industry.