Leave it to Beaver
Returning to past practices for future water management
By Tesia Lin
In 2014, John Coffman arrived in Wyoming as The Nature Conservancy’s new steward for the Red Canyon Ranch and quickly encountered an unforgettable lesson.
Silver Linings
How Colorado coal country could save the Yampa River
By Randy Rea
The Yampa River Basin is in trouble.
Fighting Phragmites
Systematic landscape planning software improves the odds against a despised invasive reed
It’s a hot, sunny day in early April, and I’m out collecting GPS coordinates for stands of wetland vegetation in the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
Released to the Wild
Unwanted pets take a toll on ecosystems
Stepping through the tall grass, a family made their way to the edge of Kelly Warm Spring, a geothermal spring with a temperature that hovers around 77 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, in Grand Teton National Park.
Colonel Mustard, by the Dock, with the Bucket
A fish detective, the effort to stop illegal invasive species introductions, and a long history of a fish management culture clash
One summer day in 1992, two teenage boys fishing Lake Mary Ronan watched a man dump a cooler
The Four-Footed Watercraft Inspector
Can specially trained dogs keep invasive mussels out of western waterways?
A mile outside of Browning, Montana, a watercraft inspector sits on the side of the highway next to her kennel.
Cancer to the Rescue?
A potential solution to invasive mussels
One hundred thousand quagga mussels can live in a single square meter, and 450 trillion of them infest Lake Michigan alone.
Time to Revisit our Invasive Species Strategy
Perspective from Governor Mark Gordon
Invasive species are not a new phenomenon, but over the past few decades the West has seen an explosion of all types in all ecosystems.
Lost Seas
When the Soviets started draining their inland sea
to grow cotton in the desert,
a Kremlin engineer said it is obvious to everyone
Collaborate or Litigate
Local collaboration faces off against outsider litigation in the long, slow process to help a threatened species
From his Chevy Silverado, Phil Fine watched heavy rain fill up an irrigation ditch on his family farm in central Oregon.
Case of the Missing Otters
UW researchers search for answers in the Green River Basin
Brady Godwin was on the lookout for river otters.
Measuring Rain, Snow, and Hail
An international volunteer network bests the fanciest technologies
The second week of September 2013, rain pummeled Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Of Ranchers and Researchers
Trespassing to collect data in Wyoming is a crime
As early as 2006, employees of the environmental group Western Watersheds Project allegedly trespassed onto Wyoming ranches to gather water samples.
Tribes Tackle Drought
New and old approaches help the Wind River Reservation prepare for a changing climate
During the record-setting hot and dry years of 2012 and 2013, severe water shortages on the Wind River Indian Reservation turned fields to dust and forced cattle ranchers to sell their herds.
The True Value of Flood Irrigation
What’s seen as wasteful water use has hidden benefits
Ranchers today in the Upper Green River Basin say they are modern-day beavers.
The Forgotten River
A UW graduate student sees expedition potential in a neglected corner of the West
On May 31, 2015, a half dozen brightly colored rafts slipped past the Split Mountain take out at the bottom of Gates of Lodore
The West’s Water
Photo Essay
Water, or perhaps the absence of water, defines the Wyoming landscape and shapes the species that live on it. Big sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata) is one species particularly well adapted to Wyoming’s arid climate.
Measuring Return Flows
This story is a sidebar to One Irrigator’s Waste is Another’s Supply: Upstream Efficiencies Mean Less Water for Downstream Users in Nebraska’s Panhandle.
As a child in northeastern Wyoming, I remember my summers as irrigation season.
Dust on Snow
A Dirty Mountain Snow Pack Affects Communities Downstream
This story is a sidebar to Supercomputer-Powered Model Improves Water Planning: A Hi-Resolution Hydrologic Model Peers into the Future of Western Water.
The Great Water Transfer
Diverting Water from Basin to Basin
In the summer of 1860, farmers in central Colorado found Left Hand Creek dry.[1] They started looking for replacement water.