LDS real estate revelations

An investigation by Truth & Transparency into the landholdings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has shed light on how expansive and diverse their real estate portfolio is. While the church has never been listed among the largest private landowners in the U.S., this newly compiled data places them in the top five in terms of acreage and likely number one in terms of market value. Truth & Transparency’s investigation reveals that, in July 2020, the LDS Church owned 1,754,633 acres across the country with a minimum market value of $15.7 billion. 

A new report by a digital mapping company puts the acreage of public land in Wyoming that’s “corner-locked” at 2.44 million acres, far more than earlier estimates of 404,000 acres. The April 8 report by onX, estimates 8.3 million acres of public land from the Rockies to the Pacific are inaccessible to the public unless reached by corner crossing. The digital mapping company, whose Global Positioning System app is used by hunters, examined land records from 11 Western states to compile its report.

The EPA for the first time is proposing a measure that would force four Western states to reduce their harmful emissions because of the impact they’re having on air quality in neighboring states—including Colorado. If approved, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada would be required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and industrial manufacturing sites, while California would need to cut emissions from certain industries. National modeling shows those states’ emissions are blowing across the West and into metro Denver, adding to the already bad ground-level ozone pollution.

Selenium from a string of Teck Resources’ mines in southeastern B.C. is projected to contaminate the transboundary watershed connecting Canada to the U.S. for centuries to come. The Narwhal travelled the route of the pollutant to hear how scientists, Indigenous leaders and conservationists are tracking its impact in treasured fish species from the Elk Valley to the Libby Dam and beyond.

If you lease public lands for oil and gas, you may be on the hook for plugging old wells under reforms unveiled last week by the Interior Department and BLM.

While the public image may be that booming southwestern cities such as San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque are on the verge of a climate apocalypse, many experts agree that these metropolitan areas have enough of a water cushion to not only survive, but continue to grow into the surrounding desert for the foreseeable future, even during the worst drought in 1,200 years. Regardless of what the future holds, the search for water savings and more supply has so far been largely successful.