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

Photos: St. George, Utah and the Virgin River

This page features aerial and ground-based photos of St. George, Utah and the Virgin River outside of Hurricane, Utah. St. George in a city in southwestern Utah on the Arizona...

Map: New Mexico monthly precipitation

This map shows total rain and snowfall in the New Mexico every month from 1981 to the present. The map's color scale runs from white (no precipitation), to blue (significant precipitation) to red (intense precipitation)....

Video and photos: Captain Jack Mill drone flight, July 2019

This photo gallery contains images taken by drone for our story on acid mine drainage in Colorado, which featured the Captain Jack Mill Superfund site near Ward, Colorado. DateJuly 18,...

Major South Platte River basin project would maximize reuse of Western Slope water, report...

A multibillion-dollar reservoir and pipeline project may one day pull more than 50,000 acre-feet of water per year from the South Platte River.

As 2020 kicks in, historic Colorado River Drought Plan will get its first test

This year, the first-ever Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan is set to launch, and water officials expect 2020 to bring unprecedented changes to the way the river is run, including cutbacks in water use by some states.

Video story: California’s vanishing lake (full length)

Water conservation in California’s southern desert is causing an environmental disaster as the Salton Sea quickly shrinks.

Recreation groups ask for more inclusion in state Water Plan

Colorado’s river recreation community is asking for more recognition in the update to the state’s Water Plan.
A welcome sign in Price reminds residents to save water, Sept. 30, 2025. Consistent messaging is likely one of the reasons Carbon County has become a leading county for conservation in Utah.

Utah has county-by-county water goals. Which ones are hitting them?

One size fits all. That’s great for hats in the Zion National Park gift shop but not for water conservation goals. So at the start of this decade — and...
Ritschard dam photo 1

A dam in Grand County is showing an increasing risk of failure, prompting a...

Problems with a Grand County, Colorado dam are turning out to be worse than previously thought, and may be tough to plan for moving forward.
Liza Mitchell, a natural resource planner and ecologist with Pitkin County, shows off the recent work on a restoration project at a fen on North Star Nature Preserve, on Aug. 26. This fiber mat is plugging an old ditch that drained water from the wetland to the Roaring Fork River.

Pitkin County launches project to restore ancient wetland at North Star Preserve near Aspen

A fen-restoration project aims to enhance the wetland’s ability to provide habitat, store and filter groundwater, and sequester carbon.