The Uinta Basin Railway, devoted almost exclusively to transporting oil, could allow oil production in the Uinta Basin to quadruple at a time when scientists say the world has less than a decade to wean itself from fossil fuels or face irreversible catastrophic impacts from climate change.
The railway would degrade up to 10,000 acres of wildlife habitat in northeastern Utah, potentially disrupting migration corridors and ruining wetlands, according to the EIS. The single-track railway would cross streams at 443 places, affecting 61 miles of waterways.
The route from Utah to refineries making gasoline, diesel and lubricants rolls through Colorado. Without permission to revive traffic on the Tennessee Pass Line, the oil would travel along the Colorado River from Grand Junction, through Gore Canyon, along the Fraser River through Winter Park, and through the Moffat Tunnel into Denver before heading east or south.
In “Camping Grounds: Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement,“ the historian Phoebe S. K. Young finds that Americans have long struggled to decide what camping is, and who is allowed to do it. Over the decades, the act of sleeping outside has served wildly varying ends: as a return to agrarian ideals, a means of survival, a rite of passage for the nuclear family, a route to self-improvement, and a form of First Amendment expression. In Young’s account, it becomes a proxy for disputes about race, class, and rootlessness—all the schisms in the American experiment.
A few weeks ago our host, Nate Hegyi, was on the edge of a very high cliff in Utah’s Zion National Park when he heard a little voice inside his head whisper… “jump.” He didn’t heed the call, thankfully, and when he got down safely he discovered that more than a third of all people might feel this urge, ominously known as “the call of the void.” Most of us can wave off these impulses. But what if you couldn’t? What if the call of the void was so intense that you almost acted? Is there a cure?
After fewer than two hours of deliberation Friday, a Carbon County jury found four Missouri hunters not guilty of trespassing for corner crossing at the Elk Mountain Ranch in 2021.
The possibility of a lasting legal precedent will depend largely on whether Wyoming District Chief Judge Scott Skavdahl digs deeply into the issue of whether the Unlawful Enclosures Act of 1885 contemplates access to public land via corner crossing, according to David Willms, a Wyoming legal expert and former advisor to the governor.
The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition—made up of leaders from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and Ute Indian Tribe—is working on a land management plan that keeps the interests of each tribe in mind as the federal government moves forward with its own plan.
Although the major bullet points of the plan have been discussed publicly during the past several weeks, Tanya Trujillo’s remarks Tuesday highlighted the urgency and scope of the challenge facing water managers across the Colorado River Basin.
The transition zone between flowing river and reservoir is what scientists refer to as the delta, and it’s migrating toward the Glen Canyon Dam as Lake Powell has dropped to record low levels.
Utah is under yet another drought emergency declaration, with farmers facing more shortages and homeowners bracing for another season of restrictions. As the West faces a drier future fueled by climate change, some green technology advocates are looking to tap the energy sector as a potential source of water savings.
A plan to release an additional 500,000 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge reservoir is welcome news to biologists conducting research to recover four species of endangered fish in the Colorado River Basin.
With drought and growth taking a toll on the Colorado River, the source of 90 percent of the region’s water, a new law in Las Vegas mandates the removal of turf, patch by patch.
With the snowy months coming to a close, the question on many Utahns mind is: Will our winter snowpack pull us out of the drought? It’s not looking good.
New Mexico’s governor on Tuesday asked President Joe Biden to declare a disaster as firefighters scrambled to clear brush, build fire lines and spray water to keep the largest blaze burning in the U.S. from destroying more homes in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Federal wildland fire forecasters have issued their summer outlook with a series of maps, showing ominous splotches of red that indicate above-normal fire potential expanding over much of the Mountain West.
In the 1970s American insurance companies paid less than $100 million a year toward wildfire losses; now the annual average reaches as high as $13 billion.
Gov. Greg Gianforte asked land managers for their commitment to aggressive initial attack to extinguish all wildfires at a 2022 wildfire briefing in Helena on Monday.
Two towns in Western Canada, both nestled in the heart of wildfire country, have begun the work of erecting permanent evacuation centres. In Spences Bridge, B.C., and High Level, Alta., summer fire season is becoming more powerful and erratic than ever before.
With the bulk of wildfire season on the horizon, officials in the Mountain West region are working to minimize risks. In Nevada, they’re getting help from sheep.
Commercial interest is heating up in Utah’s West Desert as a potential haven for geothermal-generated power. Last week the BLM issued leases to geothermal power developers on 32,000 acres in Millard and Beaver counties and also greenlighted exploratory drilling outside Milford.
At the world’s largest gathering of Indigenous leaders, women are talking about how to hold financial institutions accountable for fueling climate catastrophe through investments in the extractive industry.
Could looking at Wyoming’s economy through the lens of the “natural resource curse” help us bolster our economy, create resilience, and buoy the lives of our citizens?
As Colorado debates how to decarbonize its buildings, evidence arrives of the cost-effectiveness of air-source heat pumps and other technologies that work even in the coldest places.
President Joe Biden is turning to a Cold War-era law to boost production of lithium and other minerals used to power electric vehicles, but experts say the move by itself is unlikely to ensure the robust domestic mining Biden seeks as he promotes cleaner energy sources.
Interim review of Wyoming’s private trust and LLC laws began last week. Industry attorneys and professionals told lawmakers the status quo works just fine. Opponents say they have vested interest.
Despite limited access to information and tribally controlled media, Indigenous journalists persevere in their reporting—and gradually promote transparency and accountability.
Legal experts predict the Town of Vail’s plan to condemn land where Vail Resorts plans workforce housing will lead to protracted legal battle over the value of the parcel.
A study at Canyonlands National Park shows threats to soil crusts that hold the desert in place. When they crumble, it speeds erosion, diminishes snowpack and spreads disease.
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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