Western United States

New economic surveys show rising farm debt, falling equipment sales, and growing financial stress for producers, as wolf programs add costs for western states.

The Fetcher ranch in northwest Colorado is on the frontlines this year of record-low snowpack across the West. It's adding a sense of urgency among seven states to finalize a plan for how to conserve the dwindling Colorado River.

An unusually warm and dry January has pushed much of the western U.S. into one of the worst snow droughts in decades, with record-low snowpack raising concerns for water supplies and wildfire risk.

On the eve of the high-stakes summit, negotiators from both the upper and lower river basins are not sounding confident they can reach an agreement with less than three weeks to go before a Feb. 14 deadline.

Four days of negotiations in a Salt Lake City conference room earlier this month did not appear to have sparked a breakthrough.

Steamboat Springs author and adventurer Eugene Buchanan has lived near the banks of the Yampa River long enough to notice it's rhythms and moods are often mirrored by the residents in his northwest Colorado ski town.

The proposals range from taking "no action" to a scenario that might result in water cuts to the lower basin states of California, Nevada and Arizona. One alternative developed in partnership with conservation groups would incentivize states and water users to proactively conserve the river.

Warm temperatures and a lack of snow have made for an anomalous winter in the Upper Colorado River Basin. While it's not "the new normal," winters are certainly warming up due to climate change.

The first year of President Trump’s second term saw sweeping changes to energy policy, environmental regulations, and public lands management across the West.

Keystone Resort in Colorado was the first resort in the country to open in 2025, in part due to their emphasis on early-season snowmaking. As climate change amplifies drought in the Mountain West, ski areas across the region are considering how best to use increasingly scarce water resources.