Controlled Burns Help Prevent Wildfires, Experts Say. But Regulations Have Made It Nearly Impossible to Do These Burns. Even though the 2021 Marshall Fire made it clear that the fire threat posed by Colorado’s grasslands endangers large urban areas, federal… Photo: Chet Strange.

A small farming community is racing to secure rights that will protect the centuries old irrigation system they need to survive. On a sage-infused summer morning in the San Luis Valley, Robert Quintana steps from his worn silver pickup truck to check the acequia. Photo: Elliot Ross.

As suitable sites become scarce, commercial beekeepers are increasingly moving their hives to U.S. public lands. But scientists warn that the millions of introduced honey bees pose a risk to native species, outcompeting them for pollen and altering fragile plant communities.

When mountaineer Hilaree Nelson traveled to the nation’s capital last September to protest oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, she offset the 1,300 pounds of carbon generated by her trip by donating $4 to help restore a hardwood forest in Kansas.

The state of Colorado and three small businesses are trying a novel approach to reduce carbon emissions that sounds like something out of the fever dreams of Willie Nelson: using carbon dioxide produced from beer brewing to help marijuana plants grow.

Highway 285 was once a death zone for the dwindling herds of elk and mule deer on Colorado’s Western Slope. But today it offers a lifeline, helping them travel from their summer range high in the mountains to winter foraging grounds along the Arkansas River.

The U.S. is moving forward with a plan to create new cattle pasture and prevent fires despite what scientists say is meager environmental review. In among the quietest places in the continental United States, where the discordant whine of newly hatched cicadas is usually the loudest sound…

Now, the 13,000-year-old historical record of Native Americans who inhabited the outskirts of two national monuments near the Colorado-Utah border is facing an unprecedented threat.