Valley traffic returns, carbon emissions rise as COVID-19 restrictions ease
PHOENIX – COVID-19 reduced road traffic to unknown lows, but now it’s returning in full force. After carbon emissions dropped during a year of less travel, will they return to problematic levels?
Forest Service plan to extend forest maintenance program is put on hold
WASHINGTON - Arizona lawmakers and advocates said they were "blindsided" by the U.S. Forest Service's abrupt announcement this week that it would halt negotiations on a proposed extension of the Four Forests Restoration Initiative.
Feds deal another setback to Rosemont mine by upholding jaguar habitat
WASHINGTON - Federal regulators on Friday rejected a mining company's request to reduce critical habitat for endangered jaguars in the Santa Rita Mountains on land that overlaps the footprint of the proposed Rosemont Copper Mine.
On the crawl: Why so many caterpillars are wriggling around Arizona
PHOENIX — Arizona’s wet monsoon season helped spawn thousands of plump yellow caterpillars around the state. The caterpillars now are looking for a place to become white-lined sphinx moths.
Court rejects Trump clean water rule with ‘significant’ Arizona impact
WASHINGTON - Environmental groups welcomed a federal judge's decision this week to overturn Trump-era clean-water regulations that were so narrow that many waterways in Arizona ended up being excluded from federal oversight.
As wildfires rage, federal firefighters see bump in minimum hourly pay
WASHINGTON - Fighting wildfires did not get any easier this month, but it did get a little more profitable for thousands of full-time and temporary firefighters employed by the federal government, which raised their minimum wage from $13 an hour to $15 an hour.
Climate advocates, lawmaker urge Sens. Sinema and Kelly to support Biden budget plan
PHOENIX – Arizona’s senators are being urged to support the “Build Back Better” budget to provide funding for clean energy initiatives and jobs to address the effects of climate change as extreme heat becomes more common.
With water dwindling in the Southwest, Arizona plans for coming restrictions
The federal government declared a water shortage for much of the Southwest last week, resulting in the first mandatory cutbacks for some who draw from the Colorado River. The first to see cuts will be farmers in central Arizona.
Painstaking search for new planets begins on a mountaintop in Arizona
The NEID spectrometer is trying to detect more planets outside our solar system. It uses the gravitational influence a planet has on the star it revolves around to determine the planet’s mass.
From a raft in the Canyon, the West’s shifting water problems are evident
In 1990, the big problem for the Colorado River was managing too much water. Now, it's adjusting to too little, a problem likely to get worse as drought and climate change pose a profound challenge for the river that provides water for more than 40 million people.
Sonoran scientists start group for Latin American women in conservation fields
Women are increasingly finding a space in the historically male-dominated field of environmental conservation. But there are still significant barriers – from harassment to language hurdles – keeping their work in the shadows. Now, scientists in Sonora, Mexico, are fighting for their place in the profession.
Yurok Tribe in Northern California grows solutions in soil of crises
The COVID-19 pandemic, record drought in Northern California that has decimated fish populations and the persistent washout of the main highway have awakened the Yurok Tribe to food insecurity in the area.
