High Country News

A Colorado newspaperman fights for his valley's water

Bob Rawlings, publisher of the Pueblo Chieftain, has battled for decades to bring water to southeastern Colorado and, once it's there, to keep it no matter what.

by Matt Jenkins, Mar 26, 2012
A federal agency tries to hold on to what it's built

As climate change and water shortages bring an end to the era of dams, the federal Bureau of Reclamation seeks to reinvent itself.

by Allen Best , Dec 01, 2009
A green obsession

Westerners, like most Americans, are deeply in love with their lawns – but in an time of increasing drought, the Kentucky bluegrass is going to have to go

by Paul Larmer, Aug 21, 2006
A massive restoration program may have nothing left to save

Fish populations are plunging in the California Delta even as the CalFed Bay-Delta Authority considers exporting yet more water

by Matt Weiser, May 30, 2005
A world built on groundwater

In Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the Great Plains, William Ashworth examines the effects of groundwater dependency in a dry land

by Matt Jenkins, Jul 24, 2006
Against the current

For a long time, the West used water as if the supply were endless, but nowadays environmentalists are finding that too much efficiency causes problems of its own, especially in fragile ecosystems like the Colorado River Delta.

by John Mecklin, Feb 05, 2007
Arizona returns to the desert

Rampant growth in the Phoenix area and a severe drought on the Colorado River challenge Arizona's water sustainability.

by Matt Jenkins, Mar 21, 2005
Balancing fish and farms on a Washington estuary

A restoration effort at Fisher Slough in Washington's Skagit River Delta has encouraged cooperation between farmers and environmentalists - and might even help endangered chinook salmon.

by Eric Wagner, May 08, 2012
Columbia River dams revived

In Washington, tribes have been shut out of a plan for new Columbia River dams that are being touted as good for salmon as well as farmers

by Matt Jenkins, Apr 03, 2006
Coping with two-headed fish and other effects of selenium

Researchers try to determine if unhealthy amounts of selenium are entering Western soil and water due to energy development.

by Danielle Venton, May 29, 2012