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Glen Canyon Dam has created a world of mud

By Dave Marston

When the San Juan River flows out of the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, it contributes 15% of Lake…

Calving sediment below Clay Hills, UT San Juan River, courtesy Chad Niehaus

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A dogged reporter covers our roiling world

By Dave Marston

Usually seen with a camera slung around his neck, Allen Best edits a one-man online journalism shop he calls Big…

Allen Best at work

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Boondoggle on the Colorado River

By Gary Wockner

You’d think the Earth shook recently when the three states of California, Arizona and Nevada announced they’d reached a deal…

Glen Canyon Dam, Courtesy Bureau of Reclamation

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Rushing water closes a highway in Western Colorado

By Dave Marston

The small towns of Paonia and Hotchkiss in western Colorado are seeing fewer tourists this spring. Exceptionally high runoff blew…

Bear Creek digs a big ditch across Highway 133, Patti Kaech photo, May 15

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A Colorado reservoir gets ready for an epic snowmelt

By Dave Marston

Reservoir manager Ken Beck says wryly that he has lots of water coming his way, “and I need a hole…

Ken Beck at the Pine River Irrigation headquarters

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Colorado is conflicted about cutting its water use

By Dave Marston

In Colorado, farmers must enroll in a four-state program by March 1, if they want to get paid for fallowing…

Tom Kay in front of his John Deere tractor, image: Dave Marston

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It’s do or die for the Great Salt Lake

By Stephen Trimble

Last November, the Great Salt Lake, iconic landmark of the Great Basin Desert, fell to its lowest surface elevation ever…

Antelope Island Looking Over Great Salt Lake, photo courtesy of Michael Shoemaker

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Atmospheric rivers endanger the West

By Dave Marston

Moab, Utah, gets just eight inches of rain per year, yet rainwater flooded John Weisheit’s basement last summer. Extremes are…

Glen Canyon Dam under construction 1960-63, courtesy USBR

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What also counts is where the snow falls

By Dave Marston

This week Writers on the Range explores the possibility of dangerous flooding in the Colorado River Basin. But there’s something…

A girl and her dog sledding at Durango’s off-leash dog park Jan. 20, photo courtesy Dave Marston

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What a long strange trip to kill four dams

By Rocky Barker

Finally, after a 50-year effort, four massive dams on the Klamath River in northern California and Oregon will start coming…

Copco No. 1 dam Photo Credit Michael Wier

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New Mexico court upholds public access

By Reed Benson

Every state in the West has some type of law declaring that its waters belong to the public. But what this…

The Los Alamos and Rio Grande in NM, courtesy of Jonah Saleh via Unsplash

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The Colorado River comes alive even as it ebbs

By Char Miller

The Colorado River is revealing its secrets. For decades a World War II landing craft lay submerged 200 feet beneath…

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