Western United States

The sluggish Colorado River negotiations have entered a new phase: Long and fiery letter writing.

A congressional resolution could roll back 2025 management rules for Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, sparking debate over land use and conservation.

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River need to figure out who will take cuts to water usage as climate change worsens drought in the basin. The federal government needs to start an environmental review process in order to have any new operating guidelines in place by October.

Leaders of environmental groups are issuing fresh warnings this week about the impacts the ongoing gridlock could have in the river basin.

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.