Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY)

"Colorado, along with 15 other states, is poised to sue the federal government for ignoring endangered species regulations in a wide range of infrastructure projects on public lands. One of those projects, a controversial proposal to expand an oil shipping facility in Utah, would significantly increase hazardous rail shipments through Colorado."

"A pending ‘amendment’ to the BLM’s Rock Springs management plan is likely to open previously undeveloped areas to oil and gas drilling, observers say."

"Bison once moved across North America in herds that blackened the landscape in all directions, in numbers estimated not in the hundreds but in the tens of thousands."

"About two dozen investigators patrol neighborhoods throughout Las Vegas every day searching for signs of wasted water. They're known as water waste investigators who are part of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. For more than 20 years, they have been helping conserve water in the growing desert city."

"Hayden, a long-established coal community, is pitching companies to come take advantage of “reliable, cost-effective heating and cooling” at its light industrial park once its new geothermal network is complete."

"Dozens of dust events probably happen each year across the 120-square-mile playa once covered by the Great Salt Lake. But there are no comprehensive state or federal records of them."

"A Texas-based federal judge assented to a Trump administration request Tuesday and ended Endangered Species Act protections for the lesser prairie chicken."

"The Interior Department reversed the Biden-era approval of a contentious wind project in southern Idaho on Wednesday, part of a broader Trump administration effort to shift development on public lands away from renewable energy."

"The restoration of gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park has helped revive an aspen tree population unique to the region, a new study has found."