Coal mines in New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming could go to revived coal plants and be exported through a new port in California.

Longer wildfire seasons can blanket communities in smoke. Summer heat records continue to rise. Drought remains a persistent concern for water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems.

More than 80 places in the Mountain West have been certified by the nonprofit DarkSky. The designation requires steps to reduce light pollution. But it also allows communities to market themselves as stargazing destinations.

The City of Denver along with other Colorado and Idaho counties have passed moratoriums on data center development. Cheyenne, Wyoming, opted to speed ahead.

Researchers looked at more than 750,000 wildfires in the West between 1992 and 2020. In the second half of that period, the number of reported wildfires were down by 31%, but acreage burned was up 40%.

Many visitors objected to what they saw as an attempt to downplay difficult chapters of American history.

Wildfire risk is rising across the West after a dry winter and ongoing drought left vegetation more vulnerable to fire. Now, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno are putting about $3.5 million in federal funding to work on a project aimed at reducing that risk in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

Alongside homeowners insurance premiums, costs for multi-family rental property policies and other insurance required in the business are also on the rise. That has big implications for tenants – especially those in subsidized or affordable housing.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said more than 95% of national refuge lands could be open to hunting after proposed expansions, which follow a Trump Administration order from earlier this year that directs agencies to remove barriers to hunting and fishing.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s wildfire reporter Murphy Woodhouse recently spoke at length with Chief Brian Fennessy, the inaugural head of the Department of Interior’s U.S. Wildland Fire Service. A major theme of their conversation was firefighter health and well-being.