May 6, 2022

'A crisis ignored'

'A crisis ignored'

By Mountain West News • Issue #297 • View online

Looking for answers on MMIP Awareness Day

From “A Crisis Ignored,” a USA TODAY Network series on the missing and murdered Indigenous women epidemic:

'My daughter is missing': New laws fail to shield Indigenous women from higher murder rates

There are so many missing and murdered Indigenous women it has its own acronym: MMIW. It keeps happening, despite new laws, federal vows to do more.

www.greatfallstribune.com • Share

'Don't overlook us': Slow Amber Alert rollout reflects missing, murdered Indigenous crisis

Ashlynne Mike’s 2016 murder sparked lasting changes in Navajo Nation, which had been slow to adopt the Amber Alert warnings that might have saved her.

www.greatfallstribune.com • Share

'Just another dead Indian': Indigenous woman's murder shows systemic struggles in MMIW cases

Kris Jake never returned from a night of dancing on Valentine’s Day in 1998. After her body was found, 20 years passed with no apparent effort to pursue the investigation. Her family wonders: Why?

www.greatfallstribune.com • Share

And more reporting on the crisis:

‘There’s just no answers’: Families and tribes plead for resources on MMIWG Day

On May 5, activists and Native communities wore wear red and held events to raise awareness of the the epidemic known as missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls—as well as the fact that native men, boys and LGBTQ community members also go missing—with National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day.

www.sltrib.com • Share

U.S. panel to focus on Native American missing, slain cases

Nearly 40 law enforcement officials, tribal leaders, social workers and survivors of violence have been named to a federal commission tasked with helping improve how the government addresses a decades-long crisis of missing and murdered Native Americans and Alaska Natives, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Thursday.

apnews.com • Share

Views from above

NOAA image catches wildfire smoke and dust on collision course

The video is mesmerizing: As three whitish-gray geysers gush eastward from the mountains of New Mexico, a sheet of brown spills down from the north like swash on a beach. What it represents is far more destructive. The image, a time-lapse captured by a NOAA satellite, shows two devastating events happening in the Western U.S. The first is a wildfire outbreak in northern New Mexico that started last month and has intensified in the past two weeks, fueled by extreme drought and high winds. The second is a dust storm caused by violent winds in Colorado. Both are examples of the sorts of natural disasters that are becoming more severe and frequent as a result of climate change.

www.nytimes.com • Share

Taking stock of Rocky Mountain snowpack

This year, with drought-related moisture deficits in the soil and atmosphere, researchers are seeing widespread and severe low-snow and low-runoff conditions across the West, said Benjamin Hatchett, a hydroclimatologist at the Desert Research Institute who studies snow droughts. “Usually, some regions will be bad, some will be doing okay, and others will be doing great,” Hatchett noted. “But when everywhere [in the West] is in this low-snow condition, it’s pretty concerning.”

earthobservatory.nasa.gov • Share

Satellite imagery reveals ‘unprecedented’ die-off of junipers in Northern Arizona

“Mortality was actually so widespread that some stands in the region showed 80 to 100 percent mortality according to our classification,” NASA ecologist Nicole Ramberg-Pihil said.

www.knau.org • Share

Satellite images show disappearance of iconic Canadian glacier

The Peyto Glacier in Canada’s Banff National Park has shrunk by around 70 percent over the last half-century, a dramatic change highlighted in newly released satellite imagery from NASA.

e360.yale.edu • Share

Growing pains

Poll finds three-quarters of Montanans worried about housing affordability

Housing affordability, development and Montana’s changing character topped the list of issues Montanans identified as serious problems facing the state in a poll commissioned by University of Montana researchers last month. A striking majority of poll respondents identified “lack of affordable housing” as a problem in Montana, with 77% calling the issue “extremely” or “very” serious.

montanafreepress.org • Share

New growth estimates show Treasure Valley saw big increase in last two years

COMPASS’s 2022 population estimates show that Ada and Canyon counties grew 7.8% from 2020 to 2022, from 726,000 to over 781,000, an increase of about 55,000 people.

www.idahopress.com • Share

New study shows development, human activity threatening wildlife

Mark Hebblewhite, a wildlife biologist at the University of Montana, said the study’s findings are important to decision-making around land use planning in the Bow Valley, including development at Three Sisters. “I’ll put it bluntly… expanding development at the doorstep of Banff National Park surrounding Canmore has the potential to markedly affect ecological integrity in Banff in its detrimental effects on connectivity across all species, not just the two we studied in this paper,” he said.

www.rmotoday.com • Share

Million-dollar lake homes in Montana and Idaho sell for double what they did two years ago

Demand is high for luxury homes in northwestern lake regions, which have experienced an influx of buyers from “everywhere around the world.”

www.wsj.com • Share

An affordable housing fight in Vail is pitting the ski resort against some residents, the town, and bighorn sheep

Vail resorts and the town are facing off over the development as the need for affordable housing grows more urgent in mountain towns across Colorado. Vail’s city council voted this week to condemn the land where a habitat for bighorn sheep sits, giving the local government the right to seize the land using eminent domain in order to conserve it as habitat for the animals.

www.cpr.org • Share

How a mobile home park in Durango saved itself from the affordable housing crisis

A “David and Goliath story” ends with residents of the Westside mobile home park in Durango, Colorado, keeping their homes, with a lot of help from their neighbors.

www.boisestatepublicradio.org • Share

Fire scars

New Mexico wildfire is ‘burning down a way of life’

The country’s largest active blaze, a megafire that has ballooned across more than 165,000 acres in northern New Mexico, has evolved with such ferocity that it threatens a multigenerational culture that has endured for centuries.

www.nytimes.com • Share

Will massive Western wildfires leave more or less water in rivers?

Scientists at Colorado State University and elsewhere in the West are poking and prodding for clues into how wildfire impacts water supply.

coloradosun.com • Share

The Forest Service rushes to hire enough firefighters ahead of wildfire season

The U.S. Forest Service is scrambling to meet its hiring targets ahead of this summer’s fire season, though in some regions it is only halfway toward its goals.

www.govexec.com • Share

Small particles from wildfire smoke can lodge deep within your lungs, aerosol scientist explains

Wildfire smoke is a big deal, it hurts you, and there’s something you can do about it, aerosol scientist says.

sourcenm.com • Share

New drones could spot wildfires earlier, even help snuff them out

The U.S. Forest Service is preparing to use two new types of drones: one designed to spot new fires, and another that can set fires around existing wildfires to deprive them of fuel.

www.scientificamerican.com • Share

‘Stripped of everything,’ survivors of Colorado’s most destructive fire face slow recoveries and a growing climate threat

The winter wildfire destroyed communities, family mementos and senses of safety. Now, many who lost homes are finding insurance won’t pay enough for them to rebuild.

insideclimatenews.org • Share

Last summer's B.C., Alberta heat wave was among most extreme since 1960s, study shows

The record-breaking heat wave that scorched western North America last June was among the most extreme ever recorded globally, new modelling and analysis by researchers at universities in the United Kingdom shows. The study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances found just five other heat waves since the 1960s were more extreme, based on how far they surpassed average summertime heat over the previous 10 years.

www.cbc.ca • Share

Drought monitor

Stifling drought to take its toll on Great Salt Lake, lawns, wildlife and why recent rains won’t change that

Parts of Utah saw wet weather in recent days, but it wasn’t enough to dampen the state’s crippling drought. Water managers are bracing for another year of shortages, with the lack of moisture expected to impact wildlife populations and drop the Great Salt Lake to a record low for a second year in a row.

www.sltrib.com • Share

As Colorado River shrinks, pain of drought to spread

Some observers of the drought gripping the western U.S. predict future cuts to water use could trickle down to residential users sooner than expected.

www.eenews.net • Share

Invasive plants are slurping up precious water in drought-stricken southwest Colorado

Russian olives and salt cedars are using—and contaminating—a lot of water in Montezuma County, igniting an effort to remove and ban nonnative plants on the federal level.

coloradosun.com • Share

Drought prompts ‘unprecedented’ Flaming Gorge drawdown

Flaming Gorge Reservoir, on the Green River, straddles the Wyoming-Utah border south of Rock Springs.

wyofile.com • Share

To refine water forecasts, Western cities map snow by plane

For decades, Western U.S. states have been measuring snow through hundreds of remote sensing sites known as SNOTEL stations, which are operated by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service. But as climate change causes rising temperatures, snow at those sites—at around 9,000 feet above sea level—is melting earlier than normal and pushing water managers to look for other ways to finetune forecasting methods.

apnews.com • Share

Hey bear

Grizzly 399’s four cubs will soon reach a life-or-death crossroads

Most Wyoming grizzlies are now killed, not relocated, following the types of human interactions the soon-to-be-seperated subadults are conditioned for. “It would be tough to relocate them successfully,” said one manager.

wyofile.com • Share

Opinion: This grizzly family comes with paparazzi

Wildlife biologists have chosen not to name animals they study, instead giving them numbers for identification lest we anthropomorphize them. But that hasn’t worked for 399.

writersontherange.org • Share

Grizzly bear confirmed in North Moccasin Mountains near Lewistown

Montana wildlife managers say they have confirmed the presence of a grizzly bear in the North Moccasin Mountains near Lewistown—the first documented grizzly in the range in recent years. “Having a grizzly bear in this area is not surprising after what we’ve seen the last few years in terms of bears moving further east into central Montana,” FWP regional supervisor Gary Bertellotti said in a statement.

helenair.com • Share

Are grizzly attacks really on the rise?

“We cannot conclude that there is a trend in grizzly bear attacks, human injuries, or even that bears are becoming more aggressive,” says Frank van Manen, team leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, under the U.S. Geological Survey. “If you look at the data, there’s no evidence for that.”

www.outdoorlife.com • Share

Public lands report

What’s in Joe Manchin’s outdoor recreation bill, and how would it impact Utah?

The bill has been backed by a number of influential activists, politicians and sportsmen for environmental groups like the American Mountain Guides Association, REI and the Utah-based Mule Deer Foundation. But it has critics, including the National Parks and Conservation Association, which worries the bill would promote visitation without addressing the current workload and resources of parks’ workers.

www.deseret.com • Share

Could Biden's conservation plan boost overlooked BLM lands?

The Bureau of Land Management’s National Conservation Lands include millions of acres of important wilderness, including 28 national monuments. But conservationists say they have been underfunded for years.

subscriber.politicopro.com • Share

Bipartisan forces taking aim at 1872 mining law

Members of Congress across the political spectrum have expressed interest in a deal on mining law reform. Getting to “yes” will be a challenge.

subscriber.politicopro.com • Share

Hunters face new corner-crossing trespass charges in Wyoming

A jury found four Missouri men not guilty of trespassing when they corner-crossed in 2021. Now three of them face similar charges stemming from a hunting trip in 2020.

wyofile.com • Share

Skiers, public get more time to comment on Grand Teton's bighorn plans, possible closures

Grand Teton National Park has granted the public an additional 30 days to comment on its proposal for managing the Tetons’ bighorn sheep herd, responding to a request from five backcountry recreation advocacy groups.

www.jhnewsandguide.com • Share

BLM proposes significant cuts to Wyoming wild horse herds

The Bureau of Land Management is set to resolve a contentious and long-running dispute in southern Wyoming pitting federally protected wild horses against private ranching interests.

subscriber.politicopro.com • Share

What else we're reading today

Polluters are using forests as ‘carbon offsets.’ Climate change has other plans.

Billions of dollars hinge on forests soaking up CO2 for decades to come. What happens when drought and fire kill the trees?

www.nationalgeographic.com • Share

No more s’mores: Is this the end of campfires in Colorado?

The days of explorers ambling into Colorado’s backcountry, gathering kindling and sparking a fire for some supper and perhaps a s’more or two are gone. Long gone, experts say. Here’s the latest on campfire rules and bans in Colorado.

www.denverpost.com • Share

A rural Colorado high school teaches Indigenous traditions with help from Northern Arapaho Tribe

Principal Jeff Rasp can count the number of Indigenous students at Strasburg High School on one hand, but that tally hasn’t stopped the school from building a deep relationship with the Northern Arapaho Tribe over the last seven years.

www.cpr.org • Share

Standing on the Continental Divide, where wind energy could reshape the West

Highlights from an L.A. Times road trip across Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Nevada.

www.latimes.com • Share

How the oil and gas industry is trying to hold public schools hostage

Fossil fuel interest groups are telling New Mexicans: let us keep drilling or the state’s education system will collapse

www.theguardian.com • Share

History Repeats: The Rattlesnake Field and Aneth oil

A look back as helium development is pushed for Navajo Nation.

www.landdesk.org • Share

Ninth Circuit declines to stop tribal bison hunt in Montana

Annual bison hunts carried out by tribal members exercising their treaty rights will continue on public land adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, after a Ninth Circuit panel declined Tuesday to side with a neighbor who says the annual hunt poses a safety risk.

www.courthousenews.com • Share

Bird flu takes unheard-of toll on bald eagles, other birds

Bird flu is killing an alarming number of bald eagles and other wild birds, with many sick birds arriving at rehabilitation centers unsteady on their talons and unable to fly. “It’s quite a sight to see an eagle with a six-foot wingspan having uncontrollable seizures because of highly pathogenic avian influenza,” said Victoria Hall, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center. “At that point, they’re so far into the disease there’s no treatment options left.”

apnews.com • Share

Hundreds of local news job cuts expected at Lee Enterprises

Lee Enterprises has been quietly laying off dozens of employees across its local papers and at the corporate level as it continues to cut costs following the unsolicited takeover bid from hedge fund Alden Global Capital, sources tell Axios.

www.axios.com • Share

Rockies Today is edited by Matthew Frank, associate director of regional journalism at the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana.

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The big stories up and down the Rocky Mountains

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O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, 59812