Local, regional and state wildfire leaders are concerned about increased fire danger this summer as the Western Slope experiences its worst snowpack in over 40 years. But those agencies across the Roaring Fork Valley and the state are collaborating on fire mitigation and wildfire preparedness ahead of what is expected to be an extremely dry summer.

Highschoolers across six BIE-run schools in South Dakota, Oklahoma, Montana and New Mexico are already participating, including Northwest High School in Shiprock on the Navajo Nation.

The heat wave comes in the midst of an already challenging winter for the Rocky Mountains, compounding months of warm and dry conditions.

Commissioners narrowly agreed to advance a substantially reduced request for a wildlife crossing study. The board will consider final approval of the funding on March 25.

The city used to auction off surplus animals to ranchers. But six years ago, it started donating them to tribes instead. More than 170 animals have been gifted so far.

Rain Enhancement Technologies, a private company, is testing a different approach to cloud seeding at a couple of project sites in the Rocky Mountains. The method is known as ionization cloud seeding and doesn’t use silver iodide.

A new national report finds access to nearby nature in the United States is deeply unequal. And that the gap is closely tied to race, income and pollution exposure. Researchers say the pattern shows up across the country, including in the Mountain West.

The Trump administration is trying to repeal the Roadless Rule, which prohibits new road construction in large swaths of national forests. They say this will aid fire response, but new research is calling that into question.

The Western Slope utility is instituting a demand charge to cover rising infrastructure costs and encourage users to stagger their electricity use throughout the day.

During a tour of an Xcel natural gas plant, the secretary criticized the state’s climate plan and said that keeping coal plants open was saving lives.