A bloom for the books: Rainfall, cool weather create spring wildflower spectacular
PHOENIX – Arizona’s wildflowers are covering the desert, creating an exceptional and unprecedented bloom this spring. Record rainfall combined with lower temperatures are behind this colorful flower display.
Scat party: To unlock the secrets of urban coyotes, biologists turn to poop
LOS ANGELES – The National Park Service is gathering, dissecting and cataloging poop to better understand how coyotes have carved out such a comfortable life in the hybrid ecosystem they share with humans.
To finish drought plan, Colorado River water managers ask Congress for approval
GREELEY, Colo. – Water managers in the Colorado River Basin are a step closer to approval of a drought contingency plan meant to buy the Southwest more time to adjust to climate change and overuse of scarce resources.
Deep snow in Rockies should stave off Colorado River water crisis – for now
GREELEY, Colo. – High snowpack in the southern Rocky Mountains this winter will likely stave off a shortage declaration in the Colorado River watershed in 2020, relieving pressure on water managers attempting to navigate future scarcity.
EPA plan to ease mercury standards raises ire of moms’ group, activists
WASHINGTON - A Phoenix mom joined dozens of activists who called the EPA's plan to relax standards on power plant emissions, like mercury, an "attack on American children," but one industry official said the ruls has cost billions for negligible benefits.
Arizona researchers find new ways to monitor snowpack – right down to your neighborhood
TUCSON – Researchers from the University of Arizona now are able to precisely track snowpack across the United States, which will help as the West gets drier and hotter..
Game track: Arizona, Sonora install cameras to monitor large animals along the border
EL RANCHO LAS AGUILAS, Mexico – Sonoran and Arizona game officials recently set up dozens of remote cameras to track large animals, many of whom range back and forth across the border with Mexico.
Court says hunters can off-road in national forest to retrieve big game
WASHINGTON - Big game hunters in Kaibab National Forest are free to drive off-road to collect their kills, a federal appeals court has ruled, rejecting claims by environment groups that off-road vehicles would threaten the forest and threatened species that live there.
Tribal officials worry Bears Ears cuts leave sacred spaces vulnerable
WASHINGTON - A Hopi leader joined officials from the Pueblo of Zuni and the Ute Indian tribes to tell the House Natural Resources Committee about worries over cultural stes at Bears Ears National Monument after the president slashed its size from 1.35 million acres to about 200,000.
‘A treasure for humanity’: Binational group looks for inventive ways to protect Sonoran Desert
EL DESEMBOQUE, Mexico – Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers was formed nearly a decade ago to tackle such conservation challenges as climate change, mega-development or a border wall in different ways.
Yuma mural highlights endangered pronghorn and marsh bird unique to the Southwest
YUMA - The latest mural from the Endangered Species Mural Project is in Yuma and focuses on the endangered Sonoran pronghorn and the Yuma Ridgway’s rail to bring awareness to these animals.
Mix of pesticide and fungicide suspected cause of bee deaths in California almond groves
PHOENIX – Researchers in Ohio blame a toxic mixture of a pesticide and fungicide for the destruction of thousands of the honeybee colonies shipped to California to pollinate almond trees in 2014.
