An initiative of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder

Salton Sea

California’s vanishing lake

Water conservation in California’s southern desert is causing an environmental disaster as the Salton Sea quickly shrinks. Lindsay Fendt reports. https://vimeo.com/400802260 Length: 2:04 Download script Download full resolution video

Paddling the Green River to report on Western water issues – Water Buffs Podcast...

Journalist Heather Hansman floated the Green River to explore water issues in the American West, then wrote a fascinating book about her journey.
Irrigation from the Crystal River photo

River District report highlights Western Slope concerns with state water-savings plan

The Colorado River Water Conservation District staff plans to present its own framework for a water-savings plan at its October board meeting.
The confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers in the Grand Canyon, shown here in a September 2020 aerial photo from Ecoflight, represents an area where the humpback chub has rebounded in the last decade. That progress is now threatened by declining water levels in Lake Powell, which could lead to non-native smallmouth bass becoming established in the canyon. CREDIT: JANE PARGITER/ECOFLIGHT

Declining levels at Lake Powell increase risk to humpback chub downstream

Low levels and warming waters threaten to increase invasive species in the Colorado River.

Photos: Animas River aerials, May 2023

This page in our free multimedia library features aerial photos of the Animas River in southwest Colorado. The Animas River begins high in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado,...

A Mexican water expert on what Arizona can learn from Hermosillo

As severe water scarcity becomes an increasingly real and dire prospect for Arizona, looking south to Sonora offers important insight.

Zebra mussels threaten infrastructure and native ecosystems. Colorado is ramping up efforts to detect...

On a bluebird day at West and East Lake in Grand Junction, Maddie Baker throws a plankton tow net into the water, and drags it back to her. “This is...

Farms use 80% of the West’s water. Some in Colorado use less, a lot...

A greenhouse in Colorado is using 95 percent less water to grow food compared to traditional agricultural practices.
Grand County rancher collects hay samples

These hay fields may know something we don’t: how to save the Colorado River

A $1 million science experiment on Colorado hay fields is backed by powerful water groups, farm interests, and environmentalists.

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...