wildlife

Freshman Representative Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) is sponsoring a bill that would require Bureau of Land Management field offices across the west to adopt plans that would open up more lands to oil and gas drilling.

Colorado Parks and WIldlife published the most recent collared gray wolf activity map last week.

This week on Regional Roundup: Exploring the need for diversity in climate research, new films from Sundance, and tracking wild turkeys in Boulder County.

Conservation groups are praising a scientific proposal to protect a large swath of Western land that could help restore wolf and beaver populations. And new legislation has been introduced in the US Senate that would protect parts of the Dolores River Canyon as a National Conservation Area.

A partnership between governmental agencies and university researchers has modern-day trappers searching Utah for beavers. But they aren’t after pelts. Instead they’re using the large rodent to lessen the effects of drought.

Quitobaquito Springs is a natural water source near the US-Mexico border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It’s a sacred site and historic homestead to a southern Arizona tribe. It's also now housing some of the state’s most endangered species. But the site is now in peril.

Bark beetles are common across the Western US. They’re tiny insects that burrow into the bark of pine trees to lay their eggs, often killing the tree in the process. They can also spread across huge areas of woodland. One way to mitigate beetle outbreaks is through prescribed burns. But as KSJD’s Lucas Brady Woods reports, the drought conditions fueling their spread aren’t so easy to address.

Bark beetles are common across the Western US. They’re tiny insects that burrow into the bark of pine trees to lay their eggs, often killing the tree in the process. They can also spread across huge areas of woodland. One way to mitigate beetle outbreaks is through prescribed burns. But as KSJD’s Lucas Brady Woods reports, the drought conditions fueling their spread aren’t so easy to address.

Colorado lawmakers are on the verge of passing a bill to address a spike in fentanyl overdose deaths. And the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is allocating 4 million dollars to fund habitat restoration across the state.

A local man was attacked by a mountain lion this week in Montezuma County. And Colorado lawmakers are advancing a plan to install a network of cameras to constantly monitor for the start of wildfires.