When giants fall, we need to listen
“God has cared for these trees …but he cannot save them from fools.”— John Muir In just two years, wildfire…
MoreAtmospheric rivers endanger the West
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
MoreWhat a long strange trip to kill four dams
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
MoreThe “energy gap” nobody wants to tussle with
Many Western states have declared they will achieve all-renewable electrical goals in just two decades. Call me naïve, but haven’t…
Clouds over a windmill farm near Oakley, Kansas
MoreComing soon, the Apocalypse, maybe
Just about every video game, young adult novel and buzz-worthy streaming series agree that we need to prepare for a…
Photo by Intricate Explorer, Via Unsplash
MoreBusiness as usual for the Colorado River
It seemed inevitable that the dwindling Colorado River would be divvied up by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. On June…
Winterhaven, CA, Imperial Dam, where 90% of the Colorado River is desilted and sent to numerous irrigation districts in CA and AZ. Courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation
MoreThe Colorado River comes alive even as it ebbs
The Colorado River is revealing its secrets. For decades a World War II landing craft lay submerged 200 feet beneath…
MoreDitches are a vanishing paradise
Annette Choszczyk lives in rural western Colorado these days, but when she was a kid, the Highline Canal in Denver…
Photo of North Fork Valley, Co, courtesy of Kenita Burns Moore
MoreThe Colorado River Compact Hasn’t Aged Well
The Colorado River Compact turns 100 this year, but any celebration is damped down by the drying-up of the big…
The public launch ramp at Antelope Point, late March, 2021
MoreUnusual Coalition Unites for Clean Energy
Communities in the West can stand up to giant outside corporations if they want to win a renewable energy future,…
Packed State and federal hearings were packed with so many ranchers, farmers, climate activists, Tribal members, anglers, and others that it was often “sitting room only.”
MoreDon’t blame the Upper Basin states
But the Bureau of Reclamation has regularly and faithfully released to the Lower Basin, from Powell Reservoir, the Colorado River Compact and Mexican Treaty allotments –- 8.23 million acre-feet only dropping a little below those allotments half a dozen times since Powell began to fill in the 1960s.
Bryan Egner US Dept. of energy Glen Canyon Dam 2018
MoreImagine a great river, flowing free
Some environmental groups and water honchos have sponsored a “Rewilding of Glen Canyon” contest, with the winner getting $4,000 “and…
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