It includes critical habitat designations for the first time in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico.

More than $120 million in federal grant money is being earmarked to support conservation programs across the country, including in our region. Almost half of the funding will support efforts involving Indigenous communities.

Nationwide, nearly 17,000 homes on tribal lands still need electricity hook-ups. A majority of them are spread across the Navajo Nation, where climate change is making it harder for families to keep cool. In recent years, however, a mutual aid program has been helping change lives.

The Department of Justice says Utah gave up the rights to the federal lands within its boundaries when it joined the union in 1896.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spending $60 million to help tribal farmers in the Mountain West use less water amid drought – and still grow their crops.

Wyoming could be the second state to pass a law limiting utilities liability — if they agree to help mitigate fires.

Hunting – the word itself can immediately divide people. But what about wildlife killing contests? It’s surging in some states within our region while others have outlawed it.

The U.S. Forest Service is spending another $20 million to remove flammable underbrush and logs from forests to reduce wildfire risk. Some of the funding will be used to turn that chopped timber into firewood for Indigenous families in parts of the Mountain West to heat their homes.

Nationwide, the sector accounted for some 2.3% of GDP, or the value of final sales of goods and services. That figure is even higher for every Mountain West state, and about twice that in Montana and Wyoming.

Federal wildland firefighters have enjoyed substantial temporary raises for several years. But they’ve only been kept in place by a series of stopgap measures from Congress, and now advocates are hoping to get a permanent fix before President-elect Trump takes office.