Caroline Llanes

Millions of acres across 11 Western states would be up for sale. Republicans say it will help solve the affordable housing crisis, but environmental advocates say it’s not a serious solution.

In 2023, several western Colorado counties put moratoria on utility- or large-scale solar developments while they drafted land-use rules. Montrose County commissioners recently voted to extend their ban to August, despite having regulations drafted.

The proposed railroad would transport crude oil from Utah through the Colorado Rockies to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. The Supreme Court has ruled in the railway developers’ favor, after hearing oral arguments in December.

The Velvet-Wood Mine is located southeast of Moab and just miles from the Colorado state line. It hasn’t been operational since the 1980s, but it’s now become part of the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up mineral extraction and energy production.

Cities like Grand Junction, Colorado and Moab, Utah, which experience many days over 90 and even 100 degrees, are looking at ways to make themselves more resilient to extreme heat. That includes public health services, education and public messaging, and urban tree canopies.

Farmers and ranchers in Western Colorado rely heavily on the Colorado River to irrigate their crops. Groups like the Colorado Water Trust want to make it as easy as possible for these water users to participate in conservation efforts, but aging infrastructure can be a barrier.

A new study from Headwaters Economics shows that housing on public lands would have only a minimal impact on the West’s housing crisis, with most potential development being focused in a small number of states. Economist Megan Lawson also says that wildfire danger would be a huge risk to these potential homes.

Democrats said the bill was anti-public lands and anti-environment, even before Utah and Nevada representatives introduced an amendment to sell public lands in their states.

Scientists have known that dust settling on snowpack speeds up snowmelt, but new research shows that nearly all of the Upper Colorado River Basin has experienced dust on snow events in the last 23 years, making the problem more widespread than initially realized.

Hydrologists say that hotter temperatures have been drying out soils and vegetation in the west, leading to less water flowing to rivers and streams when snow melts.