Late summer is county fair season around the country and in Colorado, and the festivities are finally returning to normal this third summer of the pandemic. In the coming weeks, Lincoln and Routt counties, among others, will have their fairs, and it all builds up to the state fair at the end of this month in Pueblo. But in Yuma, the focus is on the farm and future farmers.

On this episode of Colorado Edition, we talk to the first nonbinary winner of FireKracker 5K. We take a trip down the Colorado River as Lake Powell reaches historic lows. We hear about a small bug causing big problems for wheat farmers. Finally, we have a preview of the new season of the Colorado Dream podcast.

Dryland wheat farming on Colorado’s Eastern Plains has never been easy. But there’s a new and growing challenge. A native bug that has lived on the plains for at least 150 years has now become a scourge of the wheat fields.

As states consider their response to the federal government's call for 2-4 million acre-feet of water conservation, tribal groups say their voices aren't being heard.

Since Glen Canyon Dam was commissioned in 1964 and it first began filling, Lake Powell has never been like it is right now, at just 27% of its capacity. It’s threatening to dip below the minimum elevation needed to produce hydropower within the next year. A string of dry winters could push it to dead pool status.

The Boston-based student was on a trip with the Lander, Wyo.-based National Outdoor Leadership School, or NOLS. The case is the first fatality caused by a lightning strike in Wyoming in more than ten years.

A new report reveals the U.S. cities with the highest rates of home sellers dropping their asking prices, and many of those markets are in the Mountain West.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a massive wildfire and drought response bill last week mostly along party lines. The legislation now moves to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain future. The package comprises more than 40 previously introduced bills. It would authorize $500 million for forest management projects, including prescribed fire, and it would pump another $500 million into the Interior Department's efforts to "reduce the near-term likelihood of Lake Mead and Lake Powell declining critically low water elevations."

A paper out of the University of Utah shows that plume heights are increasing more than 300 feet every year in mountain ranges in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

The FBI in New Mexico recently released a public list of almost 180 missing Indigenous people throughout the state and Navajo Nation. They’re hoping that groundwork could be a model around the Mountain West and the nation to create similar lists.