Environment

Wildfire smoke has help deflect solar radiation and kept the river relatively cool. But aquatic biologists warn hot weather, low water levels and sediment in the river could combine to starve trout of oxygen and future bans.

Darwin, a German shorthaired pointer, was trained as a conservation detection dog to seek out bumblebees and their nests

Parched residents’ questions answered, from how much water the Front Range takes from the Western Slope, to how a power dam near Glenwood Springs saves Colorado River fishies

Well-heeled owners offer clean up of the Coal Basin mine and perpetual access to a new trail network there. The unusual public-private collaboration could serve as a model for restoring environmental danger zones.

Drought made an expected 2.5 million acre-feet of water disappear before it ever reached the key reservoir in the Colorado River Compact, forcing federal officials to siphon from Blue Mesa Reservoir and other big pools to protect the electric grid.

Hot temperatures and less snowpack have decreased the amount of water that flows from the Rocky Mountains down through the arid deserts of the Southwest into the Gulf of California

"It is a story of cascading impacts," climate scientist John Abatzoglou said, as the West weathers "an epically dry year followed by incredible heat the last two months and now we have fires."

Outdoor use accounts for as much as half of all domestic water consumption and cities that tightened the spigot have significantly reduced per-person use. But permanent watering rules are just one conservation tool.

Plummeting reservoir levels at Mead and Powell solidify Arizona cutbacks next year and near-future threats to all the Compact states, from Colorado to California

In Montana and Idaho, state officials are pushing to decrease the wolf population through expanded hunting seasons, night hunting and snare traps.

Biden campaigned last year on a pledge to end new drilling on federal lands to rein in climate-changing emissions

COGCC spent four years chasing a rogue oil company that left a mess in Huerfano County. Levying a fine it can’t collect lets the state grab a bond posted by Alta Mesa Resources to do the clean up.

As the state mulls paying irrigators to leave water in the Colorado River instead of flooding fields, Audubon Rockies is using bird counts in the northwest part of the state to gauge the implications of intentionally drying the landscape.

Solving the problem of range anxiety is key to getting Colorado drivers to switch to electric vehicles and it would help to have chargers at interstate highway rest areas. The statehopes the new $715 billion transportation bill will get federal rules prohibiting them out of the way.

Both the developer and wildlife advocates oppose the road accessing the inholding — but for different reasons

Every year, Colorado’s indefatigable trail builders chip away at complex new sections of a connector they imagine stretching from Wyoming to New Mexico. Next up: Castle Rock and the Cache la Poudre.

Colorado River flows at two U.S. Geological Survey monitoring stations are less than half of historic levels

Hundreds of thousands of razorback suckers once thrived in the Colorado River and its tributaries, which flow across seven states and Mexico

Earlier this year, officials called the river “over-appropriated.” Last week, Gov. Jared Polis declared 21 counties are in a drought emergency.