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WASHINGTON – Arizona wildlife groups launched a campaign Monday to block what they fear is a Trump administration effort to reopen 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon to uranium mining, saying the environmental risks are too great. The campaign by Trout Unlimited and the Arizona Wildlife Federation includes billboards along interstate highways in the.

GREELEY, Colo. – Reservoirs along the Colorado River are projected to be less than half full by summer’s end, potentially marking a historic low mark for the river system that supplies water to seven U.S. states and Mexico. Forecasters with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation expect the river’s reservoirs – Lakes Mead and Powell among.

PHOENIX – Some animals at the Phoenix Zoo come from cooler, wetter climates, which is a challenge for zookeepers to keep them cool in the scorching desert heat. Many of the animals have access to air-conditioned indoor spaces, but some, including the Bornean orangutans, prefer to be outside, said Jessica Petershick, a senior keeper of.

PHOENIX – Monsoon season is a time of peril in the Southwest. Summer storms develop quickly and play out furiously, and it’s important to know what to do when conditions turn dangerous. Monsoon storms spawn dust storms (sometimes called haboobs), lightning, torrents of rain and the resulting flash flooding. Stay safe this season with tips.

In the fourth episode of season three, we meet people who are trying to make the urban environment of the Phoenix area more sustainable. We’ll ride along with a bike share company that allows subscribers to leave their bikes anywhere and meet some experts who are trying to find solutions to the brutal summer heat.

PHOENIX – Wildfires have burned through about 75,000 acres in Arizona already this year, but experts say those numbers aren’t bad compared with last year. At this time last year, large fires had burned about 130,000 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Agencies Southwest Coordination Center. The agency considers “large” fires anything that has.

PHOENIX – The nearly 250 employees who work at Coreslab Structures in Phoenix could have looked up one June morning to see a yellow flag flying on top of their building. It was a signal to the employees, who often work outside, that the air quality that day was acceptable but possibly concerning to those.

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration may have pulled off the unlikely trick this month of uniting liberals and conservatives, energy industry executives and environmentalists. All those groups have come out against a White House plan to keep failing coal and nuclear power plants from closing by forcing electrical grid operators to buy a certain amount.

PHOENIX – Valley cities rely mostly on dams and reservoirs for their water needs, but the snowpack feeding those reservoirs was near record low this year. That means managers are looking to future water supplies underground. Flying in a helicopter over Bartlett Lake in the Tonto National Forest, Salt River Project surface-water manager Charlie Ester.

WASHINGTON – Federal fire officials warned a Senate panel this week that the West should prepare for another “challenging” wildfire season, after a 2017 season that was the most expensive on record in terms of firefighting costs. Officials with the Forest Service and the Interior Department said they think new funding approved by Congress earlier.

FLAGSTAFF – Americans recycle about 66 million tons of material each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About one-third of it is sent to China, where for three decades the materials have been used to create new products. But all that is changing, as China is taking drastic measures to clean up its own.

GRAND CANYON – Thousands of years ago, in what’s now Turkey, someone bred a horse with a donkey. The mule was born, and the sturdy hybrids soon were put to work across the globe. Cars and trucks have replaced mules in most places, but the beasts of burden still reign supreme at the Grand Canyon..

PHOENIX – Hungry, thirsty black bears are making their way from the wilderness into the city, and it hasn’t gone well for the animals. In the past week, the Arizona Game & Fish Department has put down three bears that posed threats to public safety. State wildlife officials are patrolling Show Low, Yarnell, Pinetop and.

PHOENIX – A new recycling ban goes into effect June 1 in Flagstaff as the city looks for ways to deal with China’s recent ban on the importation of several kinds of plastic. Flagstaff residents have been able to recycle any type of rigid plastic with recycling-symbol numbers 1 through 7. Now the city only.

In the third episode of season three, we meet residents in Arizona who have made sustainability part of their lives and communities. We’ll meet a woman who owns a local garden with a passion for her community and healthy eating, a couple who write books that teach kids about environmental issues in the desert and.

WASHINGTON – What’s a monsoon season without rain? Trouble, according to experts. With Arizona in the grip of a years-long drought, conditions are ripe for spawning intense wildfires and haboobs from the high winds and lightning that typically form the early part of monsoon season, which begins in two weeks. “As the monsoon season starts,.

PHOENIX – In parts of northern Arizona, golf courses over the past decade have stopped using drinking water to keep their greens vibrant. Instead, they use effluent or recycled water. However, in Phoenix, less than a quarter of the water used on golf courses is reclaimed wastewater. According to a 2014 University of Arizona study,.

NEW RIVER – Residents of New River and Desert Hills should have a new water source by the end of July. It’ll cap a long year of worry. A brief recap: Last summer, Phoenix announced it would cut off sales to companies that truck water to New River and Desert Hills, which are unincorporated. After.

WASHINGTON – Two Arizona cities were among the fastest-growing in the nation in 2017, according to population estimates released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The bureau’s “2017 City/Town Population and Housing Unit Estimates” said Phoenix saw the second-biggest increase among cities in nation, adding 65,852 new residents over the course of the year, or almost.

NEW RIVER – Ron Bentley has lived in New River since 1984. Back then, his was the only house on the hill. “Actually, when we first moved here, the deer would come and eat hay scraps along the fence line,” he recalled on a Sunday in April. “I haven’t seen a deer out here in.

FORT McDOWELL – Leah Vader’s alarm starts ringing at 4 a.m. She’s out of the tent by 4:40 and making coffee. By sunup, she has set up her telescope at “the office,” a hill overlooking the Verde River. Vader waits for an adult eagle to drop prey into the nest, a sure sign there’s a.

PHOENIX – A Trump administration plan calls for auctioning off about 4,200 acres of public land for oil and gas development in northern Arizona, but environmental groups are poised to block the measure in court. It’s been more than five months since the White House rolled back environmental protections for oil and gas leasing on.

CAGUAS, Puerto Rico – Hurricane Maria has reignited a small movement in Puerto Rico aimed at strengthening the local food system so the island can survive and thrive without dependence on the mainland U.S. Before the hurricane struck in September 2017, Puerto Rico imported about 85 percent of its food. And to make matters worse,.

In the second episode of season three, we meet animal conservationists who are taking steps to protect and conserve native species. We’ll ride along to southern Arizona with a wildlife manager who prevents poaching with Arizona Game & Fish, visit a raptor rescue center in Cave Creek that nurses owls and other birds back to.

PHOENIX – Yes, it’s dry. But Arizona’s continued lack of rain and snow doesn’t much bother Charlie Ester of the Salt River Project. “I consider SRP to be a consummate, full time, always thinking about drought. We were formed because of drought, so therefore we always plan for drought,” said Ester, the utility’s surface-water resources.

FLAGSTAFF – While most people might think seeds are free, the craft of seed saving – planting, harvesting and then sharing seeds – is illegal in some states. That’s because some corporations spend millions investing in seed development, and they have patents to protect their investments, according to agricultural giant Monsanto Co. State legislatures have.

TONOPAH — About 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, three massive concrete domes, spaced side-by-side on a 4,000-acre plot of land, dominate the skyline. The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station is the nation’s largest power producer, serving 4 million people across the Southwest and providing about 35 percent of Arizona’s electric power, according to the.

TUCSON – Michael Dixon has been interested in music for as long as he can remember. First, it was listening to his parents’ Creedence Clearwater Revival albums. Then, it was performing in bands that “weren’t very good.” Today, the Tucson entrepreneur owns five music-related businesses. Dixon has worked with such popular artists as Justin Timberlake,.

SIERRA VISTA – When the U.S. Army built the Mountain View Officers Club in Fort Huachuca, it was supposed to be temporary. More than 70 years later, the community has tried to ensure it will stand for decades to come. Preservationists call it one of the “most significant examples of a World War II-era military.

PHOENIX – Heather Grimes is a 24-year-old vegan who enjoys painting, making jewelry and playing in a band. She’s also a taxidermist. “I just appreciate animals,” Grimes said. “Especially if they’re already dead.” Grimes isn’t alone in her interest for the art of preserving, posing and mounting dead animals for posterity. Robert Mead, president of.

PHOENIX – A model in a pink bodysuit and a red, high-waisted couture skirt glides gracefully across the runway. But her elegant attire takes fashion beyond the traditional, featuring smart technology designed to ease a woman’s menstrual cramps. The bodysuit, called Empowerment, is one of several cutting-edge garments made this spring by students in Arizona.

The money team brings reports on new business opportunities, trade and funding sources fueling the Arizona economy

Sustainability reporters have stories on plastic bag recycling, bees and more

PINETOP – Forest fires, climate change and the wrath of non-native fish are threatening the survival of the Apache trout, a species found only in Arizona. Apache trout, dubbed the state fish of Arizona, mostly are found mostly near Pinetop, with a significant amount of their territory on Native American reservations. Conservation of the trout.

PHOENIX – It’s not easy to conserve energy use when typical summer days in Phoenix top 100 degrees. But the International Living Future Institute, a nonprofit that challenges communities to build sustainable environments, has certified DPR Construction’s Phoenix headquarters as a net zero energy building, the first building in Arizona to earn the distinction from.

In the first episode of season 3 of In Focus, we take a look at creative solutions people find to be more sustainable. We’ll meet local bee farmers who found a way to address killer bees without extermination, explore textile recycling plants that find new uses for old jeans and talk to a man who.

SUN CITY – Computers lining the rickety plastic shelves in Steve Irwin’s garage make him $450 a day – and eat energy that could power four homes every month. Irwin tinkers with the machines once in a while to monitor their operating temperature but mainly leaves them to do their job of mining for online.

PHOENIX – In Tucson last year, a collision between a pickup truck and tractor trailer spilled nearly 4,500 gallons of gasoline, igniting the tanker and killing the passengers in the pickup. In March 2011, it took three hours and 80,000 gallons of water to contain a fuel tanker fire on a highway shoulder near Parker..

YUMA – Anticipating years of drought, officials built the Yuma Desalting Plant in 1992 to treat agricultural runoff and conserve water in Lake Mead. Over the past 26 years, however, the plant has operated just three times while costing millions of dollars to maintain. And it may need millions more, even to operate at a.

TEMPE – The desert is the last place most people search for water, but a team of scientists has tested a device in Arizona that extracts water from the desert air. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, have created a solar-powered device that can extract water from the.

PHOENIX – If you think it’s hot now, just wait: Some climate researchers predict Arizona’s warming climate will have a substantial effect on water supplies and demand by 2060. Not all climate forecasts are so dire, but experts say Arizonans need to prepare for extreme heat, drought and related events. The problem is not centuries.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK — More than 6 million people visited the Grand Canyon last year, but only a tiny fraction were people of color. A 2011 National Park Service report shows visitors to the national parks were mostly white. Just 9 percent were Hispanic, 7 percent were African American, 3 percent Asian and 1.

CAVE CREEK – Great horned owls, one of the most common raptors in the United States, are being threatened by rat poison in their prey. Since 2011, the Arizona Game & Fish Department has identified 50 cases of wildlife poisoning from pest control chemicals. Forty one of those involved anticoagulant rodenticide. From cities in Massachusetts.

ORANGE COUNTY, California – A company that manufactures workbenches and lab furniture is relocating to Goodyear to save money, while creating 30 new jobs in Arizona. Matt McConnell, director of sales and marketing for IAC Industries, said the move will increase the stability and longevity of his business. IAC is located in Brea, California. “The.

PHOENIX – States in the Upper Colorado River Basin are telling downstream neighbor Arizona to get its act together. Members of the Upper Colorado River Commission sent a letter late last week to Arizona water officials, saying the state is threatening the water supply for nearly 40 million people, according to the Nevada Independent. The.

DANVILLE, Calif. – A California nonprofit has collected more than 20 million discarded crayons from across the United States, melted and remolded them, then donated the new crayons to more than 100 children’s hospitals, including two in metro Phoenix. Bryan Ware is founder and president of the Crayon Initiative, which he began in 2011. He.

WASHINGTON – Witnesses and lawmakers called for action Thursday to head off the 2019 closure of the Navajo Generating Station, a move that could mean the loss of thousands of jobs at the plant and the coal mine that fuels it. But while seven of the eight panelists who testified to a House Natural Resources.

LOS ANGELES – Stroll the 21-mile stretch of beaches in Malibu, where $6 million homes hug the shoreline and high-end boutiques line the highway, and you’ll find trash – empty water bottles, candy wrappers and Styrofoam containers. Lots of it. Litter – specifically plastic – has become such a problem, the Malibu City Council voted.

SANTA TERESA, New Mexico – The sign flashes red, day and night, in English and in Spanish: “Be Prepared to Stop,” a warning to the thousands of vehicles and people passing through the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. Here in this stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is expediting the.

KINGMAN – The White Mountain Apache Tribe cleaned up contamination from meth labs in its tribal housing units. A Kearns Canyon school district got rid asbestos in some of its buildings. And South Tucson redeveloped areas once home to blighted hotels and gas stations. All three used federal grant money from the Brownfields Program, run.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK – A plaque dedicated to two Arizona icons who have championed the Grand Canyon – Sen. John McCain and the late Rep. Morris Udall – was unveiled in an emotional ceremony Wednesday on the South Rim. The plaque, sponsored by the National Park Service and the Grand Canyon Association, honors McCain.

FOUNTAIN HILLS – When Ted Blank sits in his backyard in Fountain Hills, he uses his own observatory to view the night sky. The skies are dark here, the stars are bright and the McDowell Mountains protect the town from the artificial glow of lights from Phoenix. This is part of the reason Blank and.

WASHINGTON – The number of solar jobs in the U.S. fell last year for the first time since 2010, but Arizona bucked the trend and remained one of the biggest states in the country for solar jobs, a new report says. The Solar Foundation’s annual Solar Census, released Wednesday, said jobs in Arizona grew 15.

WENDEN – Hundreds of boaters and anglers pass through this small rural farming community every year, headed to the Alamo Lake, 3,500 acres of crystal clear water touted as one of the best fishing spots in Arizona. The desert oasis, with a population of about 1,000, thrives on tourism this time of year because of.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of Elemental: Covering Sustainability, a new multimedia collaboration between Cronkite News, Arizona PBS, KJZZ, KPCC, Rocky Mountain PBS and PBS SoCal. PINE – The Salt River Project’s annual water expo this year featured a “snowpack simulator” – a pile of cold, wet, white stuff on a hot, sunny day.

SCOTTSDALE – Baseball fans from around the world descend on metro Phoenix each year for spring training, where they can enjoy the sun and up-close views of their favorite stars. For a group of Arizona State students, however, the six weeks of Cactus League play is a time for hard work and research on a.

LOS ANGELES – Younger generations are substituting their favorite milk products and indulging in what they feel is a healthier alternative to dairy from cows. According to Innova Market Insights, a company that analyzes global developments in food and drinks, in 2018, the milk-alternative industry is expected to top $16 billion in revenue worldwide. Kippy.

NIPTON, Calif. – A Phoenix company is using trash from the 2015 Super Bowl hosted in Phoenix to make durable, energy-absorbing concrete to rebuild a small township in the Mojave Desert. American Green Corp., which builds vending machines for marijuana products, purchased the small township last summer for $5 million. The company is investing in.

MARANA – After a two-hour hike through rocky, cactus-studded terrain west of Marana – with a left knee that no longer bends – 70-year-old Joe Sheehey arrived at Silverbell Peak and spotted an Arizona desert bighorn sheep. The ram stood at the edge of the summit, almost posing, looking straight at Sheehey over a huge.

TUCSON – Microchip IDs similar to those in pets have been embedded in hundreds of cacti at Saguaro National Park near Tucson to guard against theft. Officials said the chips can be used to identify stolen saguaros, but they acknowledge the technology can’t track them. Instead, officials are counting on the devices to deter thieves..

SASABE – Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke – arriving on horseback in full cowboy gear – met last weekend with law enforcement and local officials to tout the progress of President Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “Clearly, we are going to build a wall,” Zinke said. “Clearly, the design is not finished.” During.

GLOBE – The residents of Wind Spirit live on 16 acres surrounded by citrus and olive trees, stony hills and played-out mines. They’ve built their homes from materials ranging from a dirt-straw concrete mix called cob to canvas teepees to buses painted blue, purple and yellow. Outdoor sinks have signs requesting visitors use tree-friendly soap..

CHANDLER – Bonded Logic Inc. is in the business of turning blue things green. The south Chandler textile recycling company collects thousands of pounds of denim jeans, shorts and jackets each year and gives them new life as insulation for homes and office buildings and fiber for bedding. Clients of Bonded Logic, which has about.

FLAGSTAFF – Five dozen Arizona elk recently traveled more than 2,000 miles to West Virginia in an effort to restore the population in a state that hasn’t seen elk since the Civil War. The elk now roam the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area. Officials said they hope the reintroduction will contribute to the state’s tourism industry,.

LOS ANGELES – Several mayors from across the country – including Los Angeles, Phoenix and Mesa – have joined a coalition to find solutions to the lack of affordable housing in their cities. Fourteen mayors and CEOs have joined the Mayors & CEOs for U.S. Housing Investment coalition. Part of their goal is to form.

MARANA – Most people believe bats primarily live in caves, but the concrete crevices under the old Ina Road bridge in Marana have provided thousands of migratory Mexican free-tailed bats with perfect roosting habitat for years. However, the crevices – the bats’ usual winter and summer homes – are gone due to construction and replacement.

SUPAI – The beat of a single drum rang out as Dianna White Dove Uqualla sang a prayer for a group of runners about to climb out of the deep crevasse of the Grand Canyon. “This is a blessing song for all of you,” said Uqualla, who hails from a long line of respected healers.

MESA – With a new mobile app, Arizonans can now help monitor and preserve the state’s lakes, streams and rivers. The Water Watch App allows users to input their observations about wildlife, pollution and water flow, snap a few photos and share the information with the Arizona Department of Water Quality, adding to the department’s.

ALPINE – Ole Alcumbrac has just eight minutes. A wolf sprints across a field of dry grass, a helicopter clattering above. About 30 feet above ground, Alcumbrac – eyes glued to the wolf – leans out of an open door, into the turbulence, raises his dart gun and aims for its rump. The chase is.

PHOENIX – Congressman Ruben Gallego, along with environmental advocates in the Latino community, touted the importance of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan at a round table conference Thursday organized by National Council of La Raza Action Fund. “We need to consistently take positive action towards that, electing officials that are going to be in support.

CHINO VALLEY – Joseph Pravongviengkham slips a hood of red kangaroo leather over the head of his falcon, Sully. He wants to keep his bird calm for the 30-minute drive to an open field filled with quail, jackrabbits and cottontails. When they reach their destination, Pravongviengkham releases Sully from his box, removes the hood and.

PHOENIX – Consumer advocacy groups across the country are fighting to ban certain pesticides they say are rapidly killing the nation’s honeybee population. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group is among the organizations lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, which are commonly used on crops. When people treat seeds.

PHOENIX – Members of a nonprofit environmental advocacy group on Thursday urged the public to pay closer attention to “regressive” governmental policies they say could damage the solar power industry in Arizona, and they warned against proposed budget cuts that could cripple the Environmental Protection Agency. Tempe-based Defend Our Future, a student engagement group, held.

WASHINGTON – Nogales rancher Dan Bell told lawmakers Thursday that the best way to help the environment at the border might actually be by removing environmental regulations that hinder access by Border Patrol agents. Bell, one of four witnesses at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing, said the tons of trash left behind by illegal.

MESA – Those golf balls that land in water hazards? It turns out many are brought back to life. An estimated 300 million golf balls are lost or discarded in the United States every year, according to research by the Danish Golf Union. Because it can take golf balls 100 to 1,000 years to decompose,.

CASA GRANDE – As water supplies in Arizona dwindle due to drought, groundwater pumping and a warming climate, farmers increasingly are facing poorer crop yields and, in some cases, resigning once-fertile farmland to unusable barren ground. “About two-thirds of this farm isn’t being used because of our water limitations,” Travis Hartman said of his family’s.

TUMACACORI-CARMEN – After a 70-year absence, the endangered Gila topminnow has re-emerged in the Santa Cruz River, a sign of health of a historically desiccated river basin. The cleaner water today can be attributed to upgrades in local water-treatment plants, according to ecologists and environmentalists in Tucson, who say they’re confident that improved treated wastewater.

TEMPE – The vinyl banners come in all shapes, sizes and patterns – maroon and gold stripes, camouflage, outlines of soldiers. When a new batch arrives in a workroom tucked into the Arizona State University campus in Tempe, workers from the Center for Habilitation get excited. They will turn these used banners into tote bags.

PHOENIX – Shutting down the Navajo Generating Station near Page not only would displace hundreds of workers, it also could raise rates for consumers, protesters who marched on the state Capitol said Tuesday. “It was built under a bond and paid for by a bond from the federal government. … There’s still a billion dollars.

SCOTTSDALE — Along with more than 600,000 people filtering through TPC Scottsdale for the Waste Management Phoenix Open comes a significant amount of garbage. Yet trash cans are nowhere to be found. Instead, 4,000 compost/recycle bins line the course, one of the reasons the tournament is the largest event to receive the Evergreen Certification from.

PHOENIX – City officials say they’ve made great strides in persuading residents to divert recyclable waste from landfills, but one big problem continues to plague them: plastic bags. Plastic bags routinely jam the machines at the recycling plant. Officials estimate they lose about $1 million a year in lost time because of improper recycling, mostly.

QUEEN CREEK – For the 500 miles of trails in the Maricopa County Park system, increasingly destructive monsoon storms are causing more erosion, more damage and potentially more costly repairs. Researchers predict the summer storms, likely driven by climate change, will become stronger and more intense in Arizona. For parks, storm damage affects everything from.

WASHINGTON – Leaders of five tribes accused lawmakers Tuesday of “cherry-picking” tribal members to support an 85 percent reduction in the Bears Ears monuments, and said proposed tribal management of the new monument would be in name only. The testimony from Navajo, Hopi and other leaders contradicted lawmakers from Utah and some local tribal officials..

LA SIERRA GORDA, Queretaro, Mexico – Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo has spent her life fighting for the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, a national conservation area that covers one-third of the central Mexican state of Queretaro. “The Sierra Gorda is a national treasure,” says Ruiz, who was the federal director of the reserve for 14.

PHOENIX – Some tap water might smell like chlorine. Or it looks a little cloudy. Or maybe it doesn’t taste quite right. Those are just some of the reasons millions of Americans turn to bottled water. Bottled water has become the No. 1 beverage choice in the U.S., with 12.8 billion gallons sold in 2016,.

NOGALES, AZ —The road turns from a dusty brown to a deep, red clay along the road to Buena Vista Ranch, where cattle rancher Dean Fish raises commercial cattle. Green vegetation dots the desert for miles from Fish’s ranch headquarters to the ranch’s edge on the Arizona-Mexico border. Black Angus cattle dip their heads to.

PHOENIX – After a season marked with catastrophic wildfires in the West, government forestry and conservation leaders in Arizona have accelerated a tree-thinning program in the Coconino National Forest. The partnership between the Nature Conservancy and U.S. Forest Service is supposed to jumpstart thinning under a Future Forest project, launched this fall with a 20,000-acre.

BUCKEYE — Sine Kerr cultivated her love for farming as a girl in rural Buckeye, participating in her local 4-H group and playing at friends’ houses whose families had farms and ranches. “At the age of 18 I became a farmer,” Kerr said, marrying Buckeye dairyman Bill Kerr. About 45 percent of the farmers in.

WASHINGTON – States, federal and Mexican officials hailed a binational agreement this fall that they said could lead to a radical shift in how the region prepares for and responds to drought. But three months later, they appear no closer to a drought contingency plan, as negotiations have pitted states and water districts against one.

BISBEE – Longtime Bisbee resident Renee Reed remembers how the dilapidated home across the street used to look. “It was really cute and quaint, but over the years I’ve had to sit here and watch it just disintegrate,” Reed said. Nearly three decades ago, the home was so beautiful an artist asked Reed if he.

SCOTTSDALE — Ever since Waste Management and the Thunderbirds partnered up for the Phoenix Open, sustainability and conservation have been a priority. Others have noticed. The 2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open was recognized as the first golf tournament in the world to reach GEO Certified Tournament status due to its sustainability efforts, it was announced.

WASHINGTON – Federal regulation of waterways may not be the first issue that comes to mind in a desert state like Arizona, but don’t tell that to Pima County cattle rancher Jim Chilton. Chilton was one of two Arizonans invited to testify Wednesday on the Waters of the United States rule, an Obama administration plan.

WASHINGTON – Environmental groups sued the Forest Service this week to block what they called the “dangerous” Rosemont copper mine, citing concerns ranging from habitat destruction to drinking water contamination at the project southeast of Tucson. The Forest Service said Tuesday it will not comment on pending litigation. But Hudbay Minerals, the Canada-based parent company.

PHOENIX – A lightning strike that set the Pinaleño Mountains in northern Arizona ablaze months ago decimated the population of the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel, leaving few survivors and lending urgency to conservation efforts to save the species from extinction. Arizona Game and Fish Department officials said only about 35 of the red squirrels.

FLAGSTAFF – If it wasn’t for little more than a mile stretch of man-made snow spanning 25 acres atop the Arizona Snowbowl, one might think it was summer in Flagstaff. It’s late November and the snow trail looks bleak among the surrounding greenery. But thanks to snow-making machines and freezing temperatures last weekend, ski and.

MESA – Hunters, conservationists, hikers and campers are being courted by Tonto National Forest to help determine a future that balances preservation and tourism. The U.S. Forest Service asks people to offer views on a preliminary plan on how the forest will be used, preserved and managed, including discussing whether to limit target shooting and restrict.

PHOENIX — Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman described the scene of a beautiful sunset — caused by pollution leading to ugly results like asthma. “We can feel thickness in our throats, and we can feel tightness in our chests,” Sharfman said. “Something is happening to our planet.” Arizona faith leaders, from rabbis to imams, on Tuesday, chastised.

GRAND CANYON – A spring used to rush through a hillside on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, nourishing bats, mule deer and other wildlife — that is, until bison trampled the watering hole into a mud puddle. The herd has proven to be an environmental nuisance, depleting water sources, mowing down once-flourishing meadows.

SECOND MESA – Houses and corn fields dot the Hopi reservation, spread across three mesas in northeastern Arizona and circled by the much larger Navajo Nation. The seemingly barren Hopi land carries a rich, centuries old history and, now, an uncertain economic future. New leadership – tribal members will choose a new chairman and vice.

Every November, volunteers from Copperstate 4 Wheelers spread out across Tonto National Forest on a mission to collect and haul out tons of trash. This year marked the eighth annual cleanup of the forest as trucks were driven into the desert and volunteers worked to maintain Arizona’s natural beauty in the Four Peaks area. They.

Arizona State hockey. Professional soccer. Goat yoga. If ASU administrators have their way, all three will find a home in Sun Devil Stadium soon. “There’s a reason why we beat MIT and Stanford three years in a row, and it’s going to be four and five,” Colleen Jennings-Roggensack said about ASU’s No. 1 ranking in.

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration may reverse a 20-year moratorium on new uranium mining claims on 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon, a move that environmental groups said could lead to long-term harm to water quality and wildlife in the region. The recommendation was one of 15 released Wednesday by the Agriculture Department in.

WASHINGTON – A divided House on Wednesday approved a bill that supporters said would boost wildfire prevention efforts, in part by excluding forests from environmental requirements. Streamlining regulations will allow more logging, which removes the forest undergrowth that can feed wildfires, thus reducing the chances of a catastrophic blaze, supporters said. But critics said the.

PHOENIX — Leaders of environmental, business and faith groups on Tuesday urged Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to take on climate change by embracing solutions such as renewable energy and battery technology. Sandy Bahr, president of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, said they sent a letter with more than 2,000 signatures asking Ducey to.

WASHINGTON – Bats can rest easy in Arizona. Literally. The state’s climate appears to have helped hold off, for now, a disease that has afflicted bats during hibernation in at least half of the country. Experts say Arizona, with its shorter winters and more dispersed bat populations, could act as a barrier against white-nose syndrome,.

WASHINGTON – Arizona lawmakers and advocates are condemning proposed fee increases at the Grand Canyon and 16 other parks, a move the National Park Service said is badly needed to fund billions in backlogged maintenance projects. The proposal unveiled this week would create a new peak-season entry fee that would at least double fees at.

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Land Management on Friday recommended closing 53,300 acres of the Sonoran Desert National Monument to recreational shooting, but keeping the remaining 443,000 open to shooters. It is the latest twist in a years-long legal and administrative fight that saw federal officials at one point trying to prohibit shooting over the.

WASHINGTON – The Air Force will begin testing the groundwater at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for contamination from dangerous chemicals in firefighting foam that was used at the base, according to the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center. The Davis-Monthan inspection follows similar testing at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale and the former Williams.

PAGE –  Ecologist Mark Anderson still sometimes tears up thinking about March 3, 2013, when an adult quagga mussel was discovered — the definitive sign of a possible aquatic apocalypse — clinging to a boat hauled from the waters of Lake Powell. “We had finally lost the long-fought battle,” Anderson said. The adult quagga mussel.

WASHINGTON – Arizona utilities and regulators said they plan to continue working toward the lower carbon emission goals that had been set in the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, even though federal officials said this week that they are scrapping the program. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Tuesday that he will revoke the Obama-era.

TUCSON — Target shooting, hunting and fishing could be expanded on public lands under a federal proposal drawing attention in Arizona. United States Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke directed land managers to come up with a plan to expand recreational shooting in areas like Ironwood Forest National Monument in Tucson. Sitting at 129,000 acres,.

DEER VALLEY – Arizona firefighters are helping to battle northern California wildfires that have burned more than 222,000 acres, killed more than 30 people and left hundreds missing, state officials said. “We sent out about 55 engines and 150 firefighters between yesterday and first thing this morning,” Tiffany Davila said, spokeswoman for the Arizona Department.

WASHINGTON – A House committee gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a Republican bill that would sharply curtail the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to order the creation of national monuments. The House Natural Resources Committee also rejected, by the same party-line vote, a Democratic measure demanding that the Trump administration turn over documents in its.

TEMPE – Denis Hayes, a co-founder of Earth Day in 1970, is working toward a greener future that focuses on developing “living buildings” that rely on nature, the sun and the rain, to operate. Think of them as buildings that regenerate, harnessing solar power and harvesting rainwater for energy and other uses. Essentially, a building.

TUCSON — Tucson and other parched Arizona cities offer rebates for businesses and homes that harvest rainwater, but the practice struggles to gain momentum in the Valley. The ancient method can conserve thousands of gallons of water, reducing reliance on groundwater and other sources. Rebates can motivate people to put in water-collection tanks or landscape.

PHOENIX – Pavement originally built for durability and noise reduction can curb rising temperatures from urban heat islands – meaning the ribbons of freeways threading the Valley may lessen the effect of climate change, according to a new report. Arizona State University professor Kamil Kaloush, who has studied heat islands for decades, and leaders at.

COTTONWOOD – Some wine specialists foresee climate change eventually reducing the amount of wine produced. However, with every new harvesting season, winemakers find different ways to adapt to new weather challenges. As Earth’s climate changes, so is the way winemakers are harvesting their grapes. Well-known wine countries in Western Europe have seen the consequences of.

TEMPE – The volunteers stood in the shade of a bank parking lot, carrying water bottles, waiting for people to send relief to hurricane victims in Florida and Texas. The request for donations was for a much-needed item that may not come easily to mind – diapers. Diapers are needed for hurricane victims and for.

WASHINGTON – Metro Tech High School senior Axel Vargas doesn’t dislike all school buses – just the diesel ones whose emissions he says are hurting the air quality and affecting the health of him and his classmates. That’s why Vargas joined a group of doctors, teachers, parents and students from around the country on Capitol.

PHOENIX – Work is underway to transform the Grand Canal from barren paths to a well-lit, artistic magnet for bicyclists and hikers. Construction in central Phoenix started in early September and will extend into the fall of 2018. The Grand Canal cuts through the center of Phoenix, stretching from Glendale to Tempe. Plans for improvements.

WASHINGTON – Florence Copper officials could break ground on a $24 million “in-situ” copper mining facility by December, after an administrative appeals board last week turned down objections to the project from the Town of Florence and another opponent. The ruling by the Environmental Protection Agency’s EPA Environmental Appeals Board rejected challenges that the in-situ.

WASHINGTON – The 2017 wildfire season is already one of most expensive on record, with a $2.35 billion price tag burning through the Forest Service’s budget, lawmakers and Agriculture Department officials said Tuesday. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and five Western senators, including Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, called for an end to the ongoing underfunding of.

PHOENIX – Wastewater. We use it to irrigate fields, to flush toilets and to make one of America’s favorite beverages – beer. The inaugural Arizona Pure Water Brew Challenge brought together 26 breweries from across Arizona and tasked them with creating the best-tasting beer using treated wastewater. “We had no idea how many breweries would.

WASHINGTON – The Interior Department’s purchase of a plot of private land will allow public access to 32,600 acres of previously isolated forest land, a move that drew praise from wilderness advocates and hunters alike this week. The deal announced Wednesday opens up two parcels of public land, one in the Coronado National Forest and.

WASHINGTON – Environmentalists and livestock owners are pointing fingers after government agents killed an endangered Mexican gray wolf last month for preying on cattle, the first wolf killed for depredation in 10 years. The wolf was killed in August by the U.S. Department of Agriculture following an investigation into the deaths of four cattle in.

WASHINGTON – It may not be surprising that an “aquatic desert” turtle faces long odds in life, but environmentalists and biologists still welcomed this week’s endangered species designation for the Sonoyta mud turtle. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the designation Wednesday, citing threats from climate change to loss of habitat for the southern.

WASHINGTON – When overgrown forests clash with energy infrastructure – devastating fire and power outages can follow. But current law puts up bureaucratic hurdles that make it hard for utilities to do the forest clearing that could prevent those fires, and then holds them responsible when fires break out, an Arizona Public Service official told.

CASA GRANDE — Italian pasta chefs are known for crafting dishes that are as much local culture as they are food. What is less well-known is that Arizona’s desert durum wheat is a common ingredient in Italian pasta. Arizona plant geneticists have spent decades developing the desirable durum through seed breeding. By combining two ‘parent’.

WASHINGTON – Plans to reduce the size of a destructive herd of Grand Canyon bison took another step forward this week, when a House panel approved a bill to require culling, just weeks after the National Park Service approved its own plan. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, said his bill is needed as a backup to.

WASHINGTON – For Flagstaff, the wake-up call came seven years ago when the town suffered through the Schultz fire, a massive blizzard, floods, tornados and more. Those events spurred city officials to develop a large-scale resilience project that Flagstaff Sustainability Manager Nicole Woodman displayed Monday as an example of how cities can learn from their.

BUCKEYE — Local leaders say salt cedar trees are invading the Gila River, causing flood andfire hazards and choking native vegetation and wildlife habitats. They say it’s time for the trees, planted a century ago to slow erosion, to make their final stand. Buckeye Mayor Jackie Meck said the trees are an invasive species and.

WASHINGTON – The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality got $315 million in funding for specific federal programs over the past five years – funding that could be endangered by proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency budget. That was the finding of an Environmental Defense Fund analysis of the fiscal 2018 EPA budget request being.

WASHINGTON – Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said in his State of the City address this year that Phoenix had been “recognized for our leadership on sustainability,” but a new study suggests it may have room to improve. The study by a U.N.-backed nonprofit called the Sustainable Development Solutions Network scored the 100 most-populous U.S. cities.

PHOENIX – Local conservation and environmental organizations plan to expand efforts to protect and grow Sonoran bald eagle populations after a federal court decision to deny the birds a spot on the endangered species list. “We are for the most part on our own here in Arizona which is part of the reason we put.

WASHINGTON – A federal court has rejected a bid to declare the Sonoran Desert bald eagle an endangered species, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted properly when it determined the birds were no different than other bald eagles. The ruling Monday by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Thursday he will not call for the removal of any national monuments but will recommend downsizing an unnamed “handful” of monuments in a report to the White House. The report follows a four-month review of national monuments that were created or expanded since 1996 by presidents invoking the.

PHOENIX – A local grassroots environmental group gathered outside the Arizona state Capitol on Thursday to draw attention to diesel pollution. They want state officials to use the nearly $57 million the state will receive from the national Volkswagen settlement to replace diesel school buses with electric buses. Chispa, a Latino advocacy group for the.

PHOENIX – People began lining up near the Hayden Library on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus by 7 a.m. Monday to snag some free solar-safe glasses and watch the Great American Eclipse. By the time the eclipse actually started at 9:13 a.m., ASU had run out of its stock of 2,500 glasses at its two.

GRAND CANYON – An aging pipeline bringing water to residents, resorts and 6 million visitors a year at the Grand Canyon has broken about 80 times since 2010 and needs a multimillion-dollar replacement, park officials say. Officials have sutured the breaks over the years, but that is no longer enough, said Kirby-Lynn Shedlowski, Grand Canyon.

WASHINGTON – Arizona’s top water official told a congressional committee Wednesday that even though the state has done a lot right, years of drought still threaten to push the region into a water emergency in the next few years. Tom Buschatzke, the director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, said his office needs better.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security invoked a waiver of environmental and other regulations Tuesday to speed construction of border projects, a decision that critics said will “endanger wildlife and people.” DHS announced that it would exercise its authority under a 1996 law to exempt itself from “a variety of environmental, natural resource, and.

PHOENIX – Climate change that brings rising temperatures could lead to more grounded flights, according to a Columbia University study. More than 50 flights at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix were canceled earlier this summer as heat reached a record 118 degrees. The study suggests delays and cancellations could become routine. Since 1980, the average.

VERDE RIVER – State officials plan to open Arizona’s newest state park along the Verde River but neighboring landowners fear crowds will compromise safety. Arizona State Parks and Trails purchased Rockin’ River Ranch from the Nature Conservancy in 2008. Nearly a decade later, a $4 million budget appropriation is spurring plans to renovate the park.

PHOENIX – Monsoons can be tough on homes. Debbie Hernandez of Home Depot offers tips to keep a storm from wrecking a house or yard: – Prepare outside and inside your home by locking down pillows, cushions, umbrellas or anything that can blow away. Tie the items down or put them in a container. Encourage.

WASHINGTON – An Interior Department plan to review recently designated national monuments has drawn more than 1.4 million public comments, a “phenomenal” number that one advocate said he had not seen in 25 years of environmental activism. The comments came in response to President Donald Trump’s order that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke review the use.

WASHINGTON – Proposed federal rules that would require mining companies to have cash sufficient to clean up any environmental problems they might cause are “duplicative and unnecessary,” an Arizona environmental official told a House panel Thursday. Bret Parke, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, told a House Natural Resources subcommittee that the.

WASHINGTON – Democrats and Republicans agreed Wednesday that everybody wants to prevent extinction of endangered species – but they differ sharply on how to do that. That was the main issue as the House Natural Resources Committee took up five bills, what Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, called a “weird menu” of measures that would modify.

PHOENIX – Flash floods are second only to heat as a weather-related killer in Arizona, said meteorologist Daniel Henz of Maricopa County’s Flood Control District. Nine swimmers died and a 10th is missing after a flash flood on Saturday near Payson. Family and friends were gathered near a swimming hole in the Tonto National Forest.

PHOENIX – Storms that flooded Burton Barr Central Library over the weekend will leave it closed indefinitely, sending patrons and staff to other library branches in Phoenix. But the library’s rare book collection, kept in a vault, is safe, library officials said. Scott Krushak, assistant chief for the Phoenix Fire Department, said Monday a microburst.

MESA – Phoenix area residents, utility companies and city officials spent Monday cleaning up from weekend monsoons that flooded streets, toppled trees, cut off power to thousands of homes and forced the closure of a water-drenched central Phoenix library. More than 41,000 people were without power at the height of the storm on Sunday night,.

WASHINGTON – Sounds of toddlers laughing and playing echoed around her, but on stage the message from a Mesa teen was serious: Act on climate change, or we will suffer. Westwood High School sophomore Anna Rose Mohr-Almeida was one of scores of kids and parents who turned out on Capitol Hill Thursday for the annual.

WASHINGTON – An Arizona organic farmer told lawmakers Thursday that an advisory panel that is supposed to help the Agriculture Department develop standards is instead creating a sense of “uncertainty” in the future of the organic market. Theojary Crisantes Jr. said in testimony for the Senate Agriculture Committee that the National Organic Standards Board has.

PHOENIX – One researcher takes to the skies, while another is rooted to the ground. Both are on a mission to learn more about urban heat. Eventually, their work could reveal ways to improve how cities are designed. “Our goal with this research is to help us better understand the relationship, specifically here in Phoenix,.

BERKELEY, Calif. – Tucked behind a Whole Foods in a corner warehouse unit, Ron and Faye Mitchell grow 8,000 pounds of food each month without using any soil, and they recycle the water their plants don’t use. Hydroponic farming grows crops without soil. Instead, farmers add nutrients to the water the plants use. This method.

PHOENIX – Even a cactus has limits. The Arizona icon of desert survival can’t always take the heat. Record-breaking temperatures that draw shudders and international attention also have been rough on many types of succulents. “Certain deserts are so harsh that even cacti won’t live in them,” arborist Scott McMahon said, who has overseen the.

WASHINGTON – It used to be that firefighters’ biggest worries in a wildfire might be unpredictable winds, rocky terrain and scorching heat. That was before the advent of affordable, readily available aerial drones. Firefighters battling the Goodwin Fire in central Arizona had to suspend operations twice in one week after drones flew into airspace over.

MESA – Mesa police are investigating claims two officers beat a man who was jaywalking after a video emerged of them striking him as he struggled with them on the ground. Jason Barton, who ran from officers who were trying to stop him, said the police had only stopped him because he is black. “It.

PHOENIX – The call comes in. A woman is having chest pains. Four Phoenix firefighters at Station No. 30 jump onto a truck, ignoring the triple-digit temperatures, and speed to an apartment to tend to the woman sitting on her couch. How are you feeling? How long have you experienced this? The firefighters focus on.

WASHINGTON – After 24 years of waiting, is the Pima pineapple cactus finally having its day in the sun? The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week released a draft recovery plan for the cactus that has been on the endangered species list since 1993. But even as they welcomed the announcement, conservation advocates said.

PHOENIX – Socorro Carbajal had tears in her eyes. Days after Carbajal sweltered in her home with a broken air conditioner she couldn’t afford to have fixed, a donor and a repairman stepped in to help. A man donated $1,000 and Damir Ljubovic, owner of 365 Mechanical, replaced the AC compressor and made other repairs.

TUCSON – Tucson Electric Power proposes to slice $6 million from energy efficiency programs, a move an Arizona consumer-interest group said would hurt residents, small businesses and nonprofit organizations. The utility is seeking a 26 percent cut from a $23 million budget for two energy conservation programs and is no longer accepting applications for the.

PHOENIX – Socorro Carbajal is 76 years old, lives on the limits of Social Security and can’t afford to have her home’s central air conditioning unit repaired. She places wet towels on her neck for a brief reprieve. “All I can do is have all the fans on,” Carbajal said. “The night is rough but.

WASHINGTON – Federal officials said Friday they will remove the Hualapai Mexican vole from the endangered species list after 30 years, a move that one environmental group criticized as “premature” for an animal it says could still be at risk. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday that the original 1987 decision to protect.

PHOENIX – Arizona anglers can hook trout, bass and catfish at urban recreation areas in the Phoenix area and around the state after Arizona Game and Fish stocked waters with a quarter million fish. “We had some money unexpectedly come to us,” said Joann Hill, who oversees a community fishing program that brings fish to.

PHOENIX – The Deer Valley Treatment Plant cleans, tests and pumps out 150 million gallons of water a day. That would fill more than 225 Olympic swimming pools. A behind-the-scenes tour shows how water is managed and treated in the Valley. Editor’s note: This story was produced for Cronkite News in collaboration with the Walter.

As record heat continued to plague the Valley, Tempe residents and workers found ways to survive triple-digit temperatures.

MESA – Farmers depend on honey bees to produce one-third of our food and drink, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But experts say those same farmers may be killing those bees because of the pesticides they use. About 2.5 million honey bee colonies live in the U.S. today – a drop of more.

PHOENIX – The extreme heat in the Phoenix area, expected to reach 120 degrees on Tuesday, endangers the elderly and others with health risks and has lead to dozens of cancelled flights. The National Weather Service said temperatures rose to a scorching 118 degrees on Monday and was forecast to reach 120 degrees on Tuesday.

PHOENIX – Soaring temperatures and dry conditions are increasing the danger of wildfires in Arizona. About 850 wildfires ripped through more than 200 square miles in Arizona this year, according to Jeff Whitney, director of the Arizona State Forestry Division. None of the wildfires have been as catastrophic as the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013.

WASHINGTON – Southern Arizona is looking at a “very dangerous” wildfire season with a “tremendous amount of fire” after a spring of record dryness and above-average temperatures, fire officials say. While fire officials in northern parts of the state expect a fairly normal season, conditions in the southern Arizona – particularly the southwest – have.

LAKE MEAD – Arizona risks losing water rights because of a lingering, nearly two-decade long drought in the Colorado River that could restrict water use ranging from farmers’ crops to how many households receive water, state water experts say. Calcium rings around Lake Mead tell the story of declining water levels, with cream markings permanently.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court Tuesday agreed with two tribes who challenged a Freeport Minerals plan to divert water from the Gila River, saying the company had failed to show that its proposal would not affect the tribes. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the.

WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended reducing the size of the 1.5-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah, drawing immediate criticism from Democrats and environmental groups who called his plan “nonsense.” The recommendation came in an interim report Saturday to President Donald Trump, who had ordered a review of all national monument designations.

PHOENIX – A meteorite that landed on tribal land a year ago now bears an Apache name. Dishchii’bikoh Ts’iłsǫǫsé Tsee is the official name approved by an international meteorite organization. Called Cibecue Star Stone in English, the meteorite was named for the place where it was discovered, near the town of Cibecue on White Mountain.

PHOENIX — For Diamondbacks relief pitcher J.J. Hoover, signing with the team in January marked the beginning of a new chapter. Off the field, another experience has given birth and is in the early stages for the hard-throwing right-hander. Owning a farm. “I want to try and be as self-sustaining as possible,” he said. Last.

WASHINGTON – Republican and Democratic members of a House panel agreed Thursday that many factors have led to the rising number of wildfires in the U.S. That was all they agreed on. While Republican lawmakers said that burdensome litigation and “frivolous lawsuits” have led to widespread mismanagement of forests, setting the stage for wildfires, Democrats.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Forest Service faces a $970 million budget cut in 2018, but the chief of the agency told a Senate panel Wednesday he is confident the service will have the resources to battle wildfires next year. Chief Tom Tidwell acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget plan proposes “very difficult reductions.

WASHINGTON – Arizona cities Friday spurned President Donald Trump’s plan to pull the U.S. out of a global emissions compact, with at least three mayors pledging their cities would hew to the emission goals laid out in the Paris accord. Tucson and Flagstaff joined Phoenix in a letter that had been signed by 175 mayors.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Thursday the United States will withdraw from a global agreement on emissions that “handicaps” the economy, a move that Arizona critics charged will end up harming both the economy and the environment. Trump’s long-expected announcement pulls the U.S. out of the so-called Paris climate accords, which set goals for.

SELIGMAN – Nearly 32 years after Route 66 lost its designation as an official highway, one of the most storied routes in America could face another road block. The program created to preserve the road and landmarks along it is set to expire in two years. “Route 66 is about yesterday and not just in.

PHOENIX – Farmers markets are gaining more attention from Valley residents, helping small businesses reach customers and find their footing in a competitive market. “I think that we’re seeing another beginning growth, a bloom of markets, and we’ll be seeing more of that,” Dee Logan, senior coordinator for the Arizona Community Farmers Markets Group, an.

PHOENIX – Theater starts with an idea – a dream, a passion or a problem. Diverse theater in Arizona takes another step, giving voice to communities that otherwise get little attention on stage. Diverse performing arts groups in Arizona range from the decades-old Black Theatre Troupe and Arizona Jewish Theatre Company to smaller groups like.

PHOENIX – A nearly decade-old practice of hauling a Christmas tree to the top of Camelback Mountain may be halted, with a Phoenix committee saying a need to leave the recreational area pristine triumphs over tradition. A city mountain-preserves committee recommended against the practice after several people who were passionate about the tradition advocated to.

WASHINGTON – An Arizona rancher and state legislator told a congressional committee Wednesday that he has been “held hostage” for years by the red tape that accompanies federal ownership of lands in the West. The testimony by state Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, came during a House hearing on the impact of federal land management “gone.

PHOENIX – The ancient Hohokam civilization first built Phoenix’s canal system more than 600 years ago. In the fall, Phoenix officials plan to start a project they hope will revive and improve the Grand Canal. The Grand Canalscape Project will include nearly 12 miles of trails along the canal, from Interstate 17 to the border.

WASHINGTON – Arizona’s top environmental official told separate House and Senate committees Tuesday that the federal government needs to back off and let states take care of environmental regulation on their own. Misael Cabrera, the director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said the Environmental Protection Agency is “well-intentioned” but the agency is unnecessarily.

PARKER – The moment you take a sharp right turn off State Route 95 and onto Cienega Springs Road near Parker, there’s no such thing as a pit stop along the 5-mile journey. The bumpy, winding road leads to The Desert Bar, a secluded, booze-friendly landmark that’s been a staple in the area for more.

Cronkite News reporters on the Sustainability beat bring you stories of Arizona water conservation, recycling efforts, energy innovations and new initiatives to protect the environment.

MONUMENT VALLEY – On the outskirts of Monument Valley, touching the Arizona-Utah border, a water well is encased in a brick building behind a barb-wired fence. A few cattle graze nearby, mooing to occasionally pierce the quiet. Residents say the well is one of two in the area, a couple miles from a small town.

WASHINGTON – In the nine years since the former smelter near her house in Dewey-Humboldt was added to the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of toxic Superfund sites, Rose Eitemiller said she’s seen some progress. But not much. The EPA removed surface soil from the Iron King Mine-Humboldt Smelter site, which is laced with arsenic, and.

PHOENIX – Old buildings have a story to tell. The story of Federal Pizza on Central Avenue, a restaurant that opened five years ago in a 1950s building, began with a surprise. When the restaurant’s construction team started to dig up the floor of what was the First Federal Savings and Loan to add plumbing.

SCOTTSDALE – Glacier lettuce. Thai Lavender Frog Egg Eggplant. Tigerella Tomato. The rare plants are among those grown at Brother Nature Farms in Scottsdale. Urban farmer Ian Beger, the owner and operator, grows more than 300 varieties of plants, including exotic plants from the Southwest and around the world. Any farmer can grow tomatoes, corn.

WASHINGTON – Solar power advocates say a 250-megawatt renewable-energy facility could be in place in time for the late-2019 closure of the Navajo Generating Station, if permitting and construction began right away. But that’s too soon for the Navajo and Hopi, who hold hope that the coal-fired power plant in Page – and its close.

PHOENIX – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established a goal in September 2015 to cut food waste in half by 2030. Several states have implemented plans in efforts to cut food waste. According to the U.S. Composting Council, California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New York City have all introduced policies to increase organic recycling and.

WASHINGTON – The 12 million people who visited national parks in Arizona last year spent more than $995 million with nearby businesses, a $63 million increase from the year before, the National Park Service said. The service’s annual Visitor Spending Effects Report said that spending supported more than 15,000 jobs and generated $1.5 billion in.

PHOENIX – The ground is 9 degrees hotter at night in Chandler and Gilbert than it was at the turn of the century, as increases in population and development in those areas resulted in changes in land use, according to a 2016 study. Arizona State University researcher Chuyuan Wang used satellites to study land surface.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump ordered the Interior Department Wednesday to review two decades of national monument designations, actions he said represent an “egregious use of government power” affecting millions of acres of land. The order could lead to the reversal of national monument designations made since 1996 under the Antiquities Act, an early 20th-century.

TUCSON – For the past several months, Morgan Smith has hunched over the framework for a small go-cart in a classroom littered with metal shavings at his Tucson high school. Smith, a senior at Palo Verde High Magnet School, will compete later this month in the sixth-annual Racing the Sun event. This is his second.

GILBERT – Inside a storage facility like any other, a husband and wife are working on a mission unlike any other. The walls of the storage unit are lined from front to back with cardboard boxes that are filled with bras and other women’s underwear. The towers of boxes create two makeshift and cramped aisles..

WASHINGTON – Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, and the Center for Biological Diversity challenged President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall on environmental grounds Wednesday, going to court to force the administration to follow environmental protection laws before starting construction. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson charges that the Department of Homeland Security and.

WICKENBURG – A hidden gem is getting revamped. Maricopa County, which will soon become the sole manager of the Hassayampa River Preserve, plans to expand parking and revamp the visitor’s center over several years. The Nature Conservancy will turn over operations to the county on April 16. “The first thing that we thought was important.

CAMP VERDE – Zach Hauser hopes that part of his family-owned property will remain a farm “forever.” Hauser and his dad have applied for conservation easements for much of their property. This sets restrictions on the land, essentially making it only usable for farming purposes. “My kids’ kids’ kids down the line, they can’t sell.

WASHINGTON – Phoenix fell from third to fifth place among cities for total installed solar capacity last year, slowed by charges imposed on Arizona solar users at time when other cities surged ahead with new installation. That was the finding of the annual “Shining Cities” report by Environment America, which ranks the 20 cities with.

SEDONA – Residents of a Sedona neighborhood are concerned their red rock oasis may soon get an unwelcome intruder: a 1.5 million gallon water tank. The proposed tank would be built on a corner lot near State Route 179 and West Mallard Drive in Mystic Hills, a community of high-end homes. Supporters of the tank.

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency was within its rights to impose certain standards on industrial sites in Arizona in place of state rules meant to ensure visibility in federal parks, a federal appeals court ruled. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday rejected arguments by the Arizona Department.

WASHINGTON – Arizona saw a 6 percent increase in solar jobs in 2016, bouncing back from a sharp drop the year before but still trailing well behind the national average growth of 25 percent in solar jobs. Arizona’s 7,310 solar-related jobs put it seventh-most among states last year, according to the Solar Foundation’s 2016 National.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s executive order rolling back at least a half-dozen Obama-era climate policies will not save coal jobs as the president claims, but it will definitely harm the environment, critics said Tuesday. The president, surrounded by a group of miners in an Environmental Protection Agency auditorium, signed the order calling for a.

PHOENIX – An app that tracks a garbage truck’s route in real time and bins that help users better separate trash from recyclables are among potential inventions vying for a $20,000 trash award. Cisco IoT Technologies and the Arizona Institute for Digital Progress are collaborating with the city on a contest asking inventors to find.

TUCSON – The University of Arizona has partnered with a private manufacturing firm to create a more eco-friendly version of concrete. Abraham Jalbout, CEO of Metoxs and Acrete, first approached Tech Launch at the University of Arizona with an idea to use leftovers from mining and coal plants for practical construction purposes. “Abe came to.

WASHINGTON – Arizona got more than $21 million to help low-income residents pay their heating bills last year and another $1 million for home weatherization – money that would be lost under the Trump administration’s proposed budget. President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget would eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Weatherization Assistance.

PHOENIX – City officials and residents have worked for years to solidify plans to improve South Mountain Park. And they’re finally ready to begin work on $23 million worth of improvements. The city held seven public meetings last year to gather information on how to better balance the needs and wants of the community with.

WASHINGTON – The Resolution Copper Mine in Arizona would be operating by now in most countries, but is still years away from getting all the permits it needs to begin mining in the U.S., a company official testified Tuesday. Nigel Steward, managing director of copper and diamonds for Rio Tinto, the multinational mining company developing.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court rejected two cases related to the Navajo Generating Station, one that aimed to tighten environmental restrictions on the coal-fired power plant and another questioned the process that calls for the plant’s closure. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday turned away an argument.

TEMPE – A chrome mannequin greets visitors entering a plain, red-brick building. The click of a sewing machine echoes in the warehouse as one worker hunches over a strip of cloth. Workers glide a steam iron over fabric. The Arizona Apparel Foundation, a startup for beginning designers, provides co-working space far removed from the fashion.

SCOTTSDALE — Harvest the rain. Think of it like changing the path of rain. Instead of directing water into puddles, send it toward desert shrubs, flowers and rocks you place in your yard. “By making some changes, by ‘planting the rain,’ we can plant the kind of plant life that likes the infrequency of rain,”.

SAN CARLOS – It’s a chilly Friday morning on highway AZ-170 on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. Thick clouds fill the sky, with slivers of sunshine breaking through here and there. Outside of the tribal administration building, someone shouts a 15-minute warning before march time. People pack up their gear, stop by the restroom,.

WASHINGTON – Populations of endangered Mexican gray wolves have reached their highest numbers since reintroduction efforts began nearly 20 years ago, but rather than cheer the success, environmentalists are worried it could backfire on the struggling animals. With wolf numbers – and wolf predation – on the rise, state, local and cattle industry officials have.

WASHINGTON – There are many factors behind declining Colorado River flows, but climate change plays a larger part than previously thought and the threat will continue to grow if global warming is not addressed, a recent report says. The report by researchers at the University of Arizona and Colorado State University found that an unprecedented.

WASHINGTON – Environmental groups said Wednesday they will keep a close eye on new Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a former Montana congressman who they see as having a mixed record on the environment. “Starting on day one at the Interior Department, we’ll see which Ryan Zinke shows up,” Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer.

Around 5 million people visit Grand Canyon National Park each year to see the highly distinguished natural landmark stretching 277 river miles, according to the National Park Service. Hikers and backpackers alike come to tackle the difficult terrain. Cronkite News is reaching out to all hikers, backpackers, explorers and nature junkies to share their experience.

SCOTTSDALE – Mackenzie Leblanc frowned at her lollipop in disappointment, trying to figure out why students in the group across from her were rewarded with the good lollipops – the ones with bubble gum in the middle – for doing the same exercise she had just completed. Students in Heather Robinson’s eighth-grade social studies class.

GLENDALE – Glendale resident Steven Lane had always wanted to know more about the mosque that moved into the former church down the block. Lane and two children joined 200 people of different faiths who walked into a mosque, placed their shoes against the wall and heard an Arabic prayer before listening to leaders discuss.

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WASHINGTON – Despite pledges to look for alternatives, closing the Navajo Generating Station in Page could devastate the local economy, where hundreds of jobs rely on the plant and affiliated coal mine and where experts see few, if any, workable solutions. To replace the 800 jobs that would be lost at the plant and the.

PHOENIX – Sixty students from six high schools listed a litany of environmental concerns Wednesday at the Arizona Capitol, urging legislators to stop uranium mining near national parks and work harder to conserve water. “When I was in fourth grade, there were seven kids in my class of 28 who had asthma, plus three kids.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is pushing to legalize recycled wastewater. This means water from toilets could go directly from a sewage treatment plant to a plant where it’s treated for drinking. Would you be willing to drink tap water recycled from the toilet, shower or other previous uses? Tell Cronkite News how you.

(Photo by Megan Bridgeman/Cronkite News) GOODYEAR – A climate-controlled office chair for workers, a rooftop solar-power array and an air-conditioning system that saves one million gallons of water per year are some environmentally savvy methods at REI’s Goodyear warehouse, its leaders said. (Video by Blake Hemmel/Cronkite News) The outdoor goods company is crowing about gaining.

WASHINGTON – The owners of the Navajo Generating Station in Page voted today to keep the plant operating until its lease ends in December 2019, pending agreement with the Navajo Nation on reclamation of the site. The coal-fired plant has been under financial pressure from historically low natural gas prices, but closing it would mean.

GLENDALE – There’s an aqua house tucked away in a residential neighborhood just off Bell Road in Glendale. It looks much like all the other homes in the neighborhood. But step behind the gates, and you’ll find rows and rows of tanks and a barn that collectively hold 20,000 gallons of water and about 15,000.

WASHINGTON – Multiple federal agencies were unable to provide disaster relief to the Navajo Nation after the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster that spilled 3 million gallons of toxins into the Animas River, the tribe’s president told a Senate panel Wednesday. President Russell Begaye said in testimony to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that when.

PHOENIX – Larissa Brewington channels a black woman from seven decades back, demure in a black polka-dotted dress with a doily collar and cat-eye glasses perched on her nose, convincing her way into a whites-only Oklahoma law school in 1940s’ America. Scene. It’s 1946, outside the university president’s office. “Can you imagine, colored people crossing.

WASHINGTON – With record-low natural gas prices continuing to undercut coal, owners of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station in Page could decide this spring whether they can afford to keep operating the plant or have to shut it down. A shutdown would be at least two years off, but it would mean the loss of.

KAYENTA – Electrical power lines are nowhere in sight from Helen Salazar’s home. She lives on a dirt road in Monument Valley, part of the Navajo Nation. Throughout her life, Salazar has adapted to the challenges of living in a remote, off-grid home. She uses an ice chest to help perishable foods last longer, makes.

Phoenix is looking for people who know how to talk trash. As in, get rid of trash. Those who come up with the right idea will win $20,000 to startup a business aimed at reducing waste in landfills to virtually zero in 2050. About 11 percent of garbage in Phoenix landfills were recyclable and 50.

PHOENIX – Solar-powered trash cans placed in downtown Phoenix compact and reduce trash, spur recycling and cut down on trash collections – and may herald a new way to get rid of trash, Phoenix officials say. The trash cans turn 15-minutes of daily sunshine into enough power to compact trash. That leaves room for more.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will leave office Friday without declaring a new 1.7 million acre national monument around the Grand Canyon, Arizona lawmakers said this week. Both congressional opponents and supporters of the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument Act said Obama will not make the declaration, which would permanently put affected lands off-limits.

WASHINGTON – Nearly a dozen Western mayors gathered Wednesday to discuss anything and everything “water” except the region’s drought contingency plan – what Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton called “the 800-pound gorilla in the room.” Stanton, speaking after a panel on the issue at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting here, said the federal contingency plan.

CAMP VERDE – A mountain lion cub clings to a tree high above ground, malnourished and frightened. The cub is rescued, given a name, rehabilitated and moved to a new home at Out of Africa Wildlife Park, where caretakers work to soothe the trauma that still lingers months later. Li:Bi’s journey is a story of.

TEMPE – Pristine white lab coats hang on a wheeled rack. Handwritten measurements and equations are crammed on whiteboards. And a long line of freezers are filled with containers of super-concentrated human waste. That’s right. At the Tempe lab of scientist Rolf Halden, researchers study samples of sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants across the.

WASHINGTON – A month after it announced plans to develop a new solar power plant in Gila Bend, Vasari Energy was back in November to double down on its Arizona investment, expanding the plant’s capacity to power more than 7,000 homes. For California-based Vasari Energy it was a smart business move to bolster the company’s.

ELOY – The prison squatted in the southeastern Arizona desert is as drab as the vegetation and soil that surrounds it, giving way to a room inside painted in bursts of California scenes: of skyscrapers, surf and Interstate 5, Hollywood movie reels, the Oakland Raiders and Cesar Chavez. Consider the inmates at La Palma Correctional.

SUPERIOR – Oak Flat, a desert landscape and 90-minute drive outside Phoenix, lies in the midst of an environmental and economic controversy. Members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe revere the federally owned land as sacred. Environmentalists consider it a sanctuary for wildlife and vegetation. Climbers, hikers and campers gravitate to Oak Flat for outdoor.

PARKER – The high was 96 degrees on the day the tap went dry at Terry Mestas’ house. Mestas was among several hundred residents who endured heat that climbed to 106 degrees over three days in August, when five water-line breaks and a weak pressure valve shut down the water. Mestas’ neighbors had their children.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama could cement his environmental legacy by taking executive action to designate nearly 4 million acres of Western land as national monuments before leaving office next month. And it may be one legacy of the Obama administration that incoming President Donald Trump will have a hard time unraveling after he takes.

On June 22, 2010, during President Obama’s second year in office, his administration unveiled a plan to end specific types of homelessness in the United States, with an initiative called “Opening Doors.” One of the main goals of the plan was to end homelessness for the nation’s military veterans by 2015. That plan has not.

MESA – As Thanksgiving inches closer, pounds of cold poultry await a crispy ending in the family fryer. After devouring the holiday feast, it’s time to turn to the leftovers. We’re talking turkey grease. Yes, the rather unappetizing remnants left for those who have decided to deep fry, rather than roast, a turkey. Recycle by.

PHOENIX — Smoke from lit bundles of sage swirled around protesters waving signs, “Water Is Life” and “Stand With Standing Rock” to oppose the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The protest in central Phoenix was among other planned, daylong protests across the country, including Flagstaff, Tucson, Prescott and Sierra Vista. Organizers had billed the.

PHOENIX – South Mountain Park, one of the nation’s largest city parks, has been showing the wear of hikers and picnickers over the years. Now it’s getting a $23 million makeover. “South Mountain Park has gotten a lot of love from the community,” said Phoenix Councilwoman Kate Gallego. “With that use comes some wear and.

SCOTTSDALE – According to the Navajo teachings Sam Anderson learned as a child, water is sacred. Anderson spoke Sunday at a Scottsdale benefit concert intended to aid Arizonans protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. About 50 people paid $18 each to attend the concert, where live performers played music beneath a blue light that shined on.

BUCKEYE – Arizona farmland has declined over the decades, leaving one generation of a Buckeye farming family concerned and another content. The Kerr family, longtime dairy farmers in Maricopa County, raised four generations of farmers in the Valley. Brothers David and Jerry Kerr, primary witnesses to the decrease in farmland over three decades, fear for.

PHOENIX – One Phoenix hair stylist is using his customers’ discarded hair to help the environment. Ellsworth Street Social Club, led by stylist Darryl Reynolds, stores his clients’ hair and sends packs to a Canadian-based company that will help process the hair into tools to clean up oil spills. “Coming into the industry and understanding.

WASHINGTON – Phoenix was held out as a model for the nation during a conference call Wednesday by transit officials pushing for approval of about $200 billion in transit projects on local ballots across the country next week. Mayor Greg Stanton, on the call organized by the Center for Transportation Excellence and the American Public.

PHOENIX – Crispy corn dogs skewered on greasy sticks, Ferris wheels towering above the crowd, and toddler-sized teddy bears coveted as carnival-game prizes dominate Arizona State Fair culture. But one group is slipping in a glimpse of something more. Native Spirit members dance, chant and joke to debunk Native American stereotypes in several daily performances.

PHOENIX – The pumpkins are among us, waiting to be carved, baked and displayed around the Valley. But once the glow of jack-o’-lantern hearts fade to black, they usually are tossed out with the garbage. But pumpkins don’t have to be left to rot in the trash, their potential withering away amidst sediment and debris..

WASHINGTON – Some parts of southwest Arizona could experience more than 140 days of temperatures above 100 degrees within 20 years, according to a climate change model from the Environmental Protection Agency. The impact of rising temperatures would be most dramatic between Phoenix and Yuma, but areas all across Arizona could see greater vulnerability to.

WASHINGTON – Environmental advocates are challenging Arizona and states across the Southwest to use funds from a potential Volkswagen lawsuit settlement to invest in electric-vehicle charging stations and to electrify public transit. The states stand to share in a $2.7 billion fund Volkswagen is expected to pay as part of a $14.7 billion deal to.

WASHINGTON – The state of Arizona could get up to $53 million for clean-air programs as part of a $14.7 billion settlement of a U.S. government lawsuit that charged Volkswagen rigged its “clean diesel” vehicles to cheat on emissions tests. People who bought or leased those vehicles – as many as 10,000 of them in.

PHOENIX – Piggly’s Barbeque, one of nearly 100 vendors at the Arizona State Fair, will use 40 to 50 gallons of cooking oil every day to make their Piggly Fries and other fare. After fair customers buy and enjoy fried foods, the oil used isn’t going to waste. Biotane Pumping Company picks up the oil.

MESA – Debra Hartin’s family remembers a woman who lived her life fiercely, with few limits. She rowed canoes in the Minnesota wilderness, her clothes drenched from rain. She swam in a triathlon, sharing the running and biking with her sister and niece. She hiked trails in Usery Mountain Regional Park — her favorite park.

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers on Monday questioned the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute officials in connection with the Gold King Mine spill, which dumped nearly 3 million gallons of toxins into the Animas River last year. Congressional staffers learned in briefings last week that the Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General found violations of the Clean.

TONOPAH – Officials from the U.S. Navy, federal government and a power company gathered in the middle of the desert plains just outside of Tonopah last week. But they weren’t there to talk about the massive Palo Verde nuclear plant, the largest power producer in the country. Instead, these officials stood in front of solar.

Are you an Arizona resident with a passion for improving your neighborhood, city, county or state? Maybe you volunteer regularly or participate in civic engagement efforts. Maybe you’ve donated to a nonprofit organization or helped spark an effort to solve a local, emerging problem. Whatever your experience is, Cronkite News wants to hear from you..

GLENDALE – Chickens scratching, clucking and laying eggs in neighbors’ backyards could become more frequent under a proposed change to a Glendale ordinance, setting the groundwork for an anti-chicken and pro-chicken battle over lifestyle, property rights and the environment. On one side: supporters of an urban farming ethos who believe raising chickens leaves a sustainable.

PHOENIX – As a child, Renae Yellowhorse chased birds through the sagebrush on the Navajo reservation along the edge of the Grand Canyon. She remembers her great-grandmother talking reverently about the canyon. Yellowhorse considers the confluence of two rivers that run through the Grand Canyon as sacred space, where a storied past needs to be.

SCOTTSDALE – A controversial, $75-million desert center in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve is moving forward after two decades of wrangling, despite preservation activists’ attempts to stop it. Opponents and supporters packed into seats and aisles in Scottsdale City Council chambers in late September, with one side arguing the Desert Discovery Center would educate visitors about.

WASHINGTON – Anakarina Rodriguez traveled from southern Arizona to Washington with a message for President Barack Obama: designate 1.7 million acres around the Grand Canyon as a national monument. “I remember being a little girl and traveling to the Grand Canyon for the first time ever,” Rodriguez said. “I remember seeing vividly this amazing wonder.

WASHINGTON – National Park Service employees continue to suffer from a “toxic” work culture that has allowed for rampant sexual misconduct and a culture of retaliation, park workers told a House committee Thursday. The hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee followed an Interior Department report earlier this year describing “discrimination, retaliation and.

WASHINGTON – Navajo Nation locals joined Utah lawmakers Wednesday to express opposition to any attempt to designate land around the Bears Ears site in southeastern Utah as a national monument. The Navajo residents of San Juan County, Utah, joined their elected officials who said the decision on the 1.9-million acre site, which is sacred to.

WASHINGTON – Federal officials denied endangered status to a southern Arizona snail Wednesday after unexpectedly finding far more than were thought to exist, but moved to protect what one advocate called the “very imperiled” Sonoyta mud turtle. Both the turtle and the Huachuca springsnail are “highly aquatic” animals living in the Sonoran Desert, making them.

SIERRA VISTA – Dozens of hummingbirds congregate near a house in southeastern Arizona, delighting families who interact with the birds and the specialists who believe the creatures’ migration may help solve the mysteries of environmental health. Outside, children are oohing and ahhing as hummingbirds dart around them. The adults are transfixed on hummingbird expert Sherri.

WASHINGTON – When Valley gearheads line up Saturday night at the McDonald’s at Scottsdale Pavilions to show off their cars as they have for more than 20 years, Brian Perkins will be there to help showcase 19 cars. But the cars Perkins is showing are different than the classic hotrods and souped-up racers that typically.

VERDE VALLEY – The valley is tucked south of the red rocks of Sedona, lush with greenery and alive with wildlife that flock to the banks of the river running through it. One of the last remaining continually flowing rivers in Arizona, the Verde River is a lifeline not just for otters, beavers and bald.

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the Hualapai Tribe told a Senate committee Wednesday that a proposed 70-mile, $173 million water project would lay the groundwork for expansion of Grand Canyon West and increased tourism in the state. Damon Clarke told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that the Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2016.

WASHINGTON – Western lawmakers joined Olympic pentathlete Margaux Isaksen Thursday to warn against attempts to move federal lands into state or private hands and to call on the president to use his authority to expand national monuments. Isaksen joined Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada after writing a letter.

PHOENIX – Native American tribal leaders, archaeologists and Congressman Raúl Grijalva are seeking to designate more than 84,000 acres curving along the Gila River as a national monument. Grijalva introduced federal legislation to create the monument in southwest Arizona, starting west of Buckeye and extending 80 miles along some of the most arid areas of.

WASHINGTON – Environmental and tribal activists welcomed the government’s announcement Wednesday that it had designated the Gold King Mine a Superfund site, advancing the cleanup of an area contaminated by a multimillion-gallon toxic spill last year. The Colorado mine was one of dozens of sites designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as the nation’s most.

WASHINGTON – Federal officials took the first step this week toward a planned $1 billion cleanup of abandoned uranium mines in and around the Navajo Nation, seeking bids to assess the problem and begin planning the project. The Environmental Protection Agency expects to use about $85 million for the planning, part of a nearly $1.

TEMPE – Last month, record-setting floods swept through the suburbs of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For some within the Arizona State football program the disaster didn’t just hit home – it was home. ASU running backs coach John Simon came to Tempe from Baton Rouge and still has family in the area. “My mom’s house was.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK – Liliana Spurlock knew she wanted to be a U.S. citizen since the first moment she stepped on American soil 13 years ago. The 43-year-old, originally from Colombia, was one of 15 men and women who now call Arizona home and took oaths of citizenship Thursday morning at the Grand Canyon..

OATMAN, AZ – A wild burro approaches a saloon in the sleepy Arizona town of Oatman, and taps its hooves on the sun-weathered porch. Right on cue, the saloon owner comes out, pats its head and offers it a bite-sized hay cube. Oatman, with buildings aged by the dusty, hot air and freckled by lonely.

WASHINGTON – The National Park Service hopes to boost visits in honor of its centennial later this month, but its “Find Your Park” program has some environmental groups asking: How much is too much? “The Park Service’s current posture seems to be that there can’t be enough visitation,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public.

LAVEEN – A deal to trade Colorado River water for reclaimed water to irrigate fields on the Gila River Indian Community has been the source of a months-long battle between the Pii Paash people and the larger Gila River community. Concerned for potential health risks for themselves and the surrounding wildlife, the Pii Paash voted.

PHOENIX – Muslims in America have been burdened with a label of terrorism that colors others’ perceptions of Islam, a religion of peace and diverse followers, Arizona Muslims say. “You can’t put Islam in a box,” said Johnny Martin, 23, a Mesa resident who converted to the faith two years ago. Muslims in Arizona and.

PHOENIX — Just one letter – “x”– has spurred death threats, sparked arguments and reverberated throughout a community. Latinx. Lateen-eks. The “x” marks the intersection where masculine and feminine are dropped in the Latino/Latina culture, rolling out a new, controversial label for those who don’t identify as masculine or feminine. Those who identify as Latinx.

PHOENIX – The Arizona Game and Fish Department is asking the Sierra Club to cease fundraising endeavors by claiming the endangered condor population in the Grand Canyon is threatened by uranium mining. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune sent a fundraising letter to supporters, claiming that the nearly 3,000 proposed mining locations in northern Arizona.

PHILADELPHIA – Edward Manuel ticks off the issues – water shortages, federal approval of mining projects, allocation of scarce resources – all decisions made with what he thinks is insufficient input from the nation’s tribes. That’s why Manuel, the chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation, joined scores of tribal leaders who called on the next.