With wildfire-prevention work, Flagstaff seeks to avoid the next devastating flood
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Five large wildfires have burned tens of thousands of acres in the forests around this northern Arizona city in the last 15 years. Monsoon floods after...
As flames scorch western forests, Flagstaff area offers roadmap for post-wildfire flood prevention
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – In July 2022, for the second time in a month, the landscape above the Wupatki Trails neighborhood took a beating.
The first blow was the Pipeline Fire,...
Indigenous youths finish historic journey down Klamath River after dams removed
KLAMATH, Calif. — In a thick forest along the remote northern California coast earlier this month, a group of mostly young Indigenous kayakers pushed off into the clear-emerald waters...
Once a showcase of American optimism and engineering, Hoover Dam faces new power generation...
The long-term drying of the American Southwest poses a gathering and measurable threat to hydropower generation in the Colorado River basin.
Should Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by Hoover Dam,...
Colorado communities have spent millions of dollars on whitewater parks. Are they worthwhile?
There’s an old catchphrase that Colorado kayak park proponents used in the early 2000s to sell the idea that keeping water in streams mattered just as much as water...
Colorado has unique protections for river recreation, but do they have enough legal muscle?
David Hajoglou sat on the rocks next to a rushing stretch of river in Golden, Colorado. As he scouted a kayak route through the riffles and waves, he thought...
Data centers a small, but growing factor in Arizona’s water budget
BUCKEYE, Ariz. – It was supposed to be called Cipriani, a master planned community with more than 9,700 homes at the western fringe of this sprawling desert city in...
Dwindling water supply, legal questions push Colorado River into ‘wildly uncharted territory’
Time is ticking for states that share the shrinking Colorado River to negotiate a new set of governing rules. One major sticking point, which has the potential to thrust...
As Colorado ramps up PFAS drinking water tests, small towns brace for costly fixes
Renee Hoffman was never thrilled about the water quality at her house in Sleepy Bear Mobile Home Park on the outskirts of Steamboat Springs.
“It just didn’t taste great,” she...
At Phoenix’s far edge, a housing boom grasps for water
BUCKEYE, Ariz. – Beneath the exhausting Sonoran sun, an hour’s drive west of Phoenix, heavy machines are methodically scraping the desert bare.
Where mesquite and saguaro once stood, the former...