Sustainability
‘It’s a tinderbox situation’: Western governors ask Biden for better wildfire prevention
WASHINGTON–President Joe Biden met virtually with governors from Western and Midwestern states on Friday to discuss how federal intervention can best aid states battling wildfires, amid complaints from states about federal forest management. “We’ve got big, complex wildfires burning across multiple areas,” Biden said. “We’re in for a long fight this year, and the only […]
U.S. Senate advances nomination of Stone-Manning for public lands post
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate on Tuesday agreed 50-49 to bring to the floor the nomination of Montana’s Tracy Stone-Manning to head the Bureau of Land Management, following weeks of GOP attacks over her ties to a 1989 tree-spiking scheme. Due to a deadlocked 10-10 vote out of the U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-N.Y.), had to use […]
Southern Nevada needs half a million trees to reach ‘tree equity’
Nevada saw record high temperatures in July as part of a historic heat wave across the west, and a new study reveals how unevenly protective tree shade is distributed in Nevada’s cities, and how tree inequity disadvantages communities of color and the poor. The study by American Forests examined 3,810 municipalities, including 150,000 neighborhoods in […]
Stone-Manning nomination set to advance to full Senate
The U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee deadlocked 10-10 along party lines Thursday on approving Tracy Stone-Manning’s nomination as head of the Bureau of Land Management. That means an extra procedural vote will be forced before the full U.S. Senate takes up the nomination of Stone-Manning, aNational Wildlife Federation senior adviser whose career has […]
Democrats unite around ‘climate corps’ that could employ youth, prevent fires
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged on Tuesday to include a Civilian Climate Corps in a $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill later this year, as a broad swath of Democrats rallied around a framework of employing thousands of young people to do conservation work. Schumer, (D-N.Y.), appeared with a handful of congressional Democrats, led by […]
Broad coalition blasts ‘wasteful’ Colorado River pipeline proposal
Lake Mead, the largest reservoir on the Colorado River, hit record-low water levels last month. Now business leaders, farmers, conservation groups and elected leaders are asking the federal government to place a moratorium on new dams and other water diversions on the river. An unlikely coalition of organizations from across the Colorado River Basin gathered […]
Residential use drives overall increase in water consumption during pandemic
Residential water consumption in Southern Nevada spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Looking at water billing and usage from the Henderson Water District covering all users, the study identified a number of trends and shifts in habits around water usage, including that […]
Does McConnell’s salvo mean BLM director nomination is moving forward?
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday joined the ranks of GOP senators opposing the confirmation of Tracy Stone-Manning, the president’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management, possibly signaling the confirmation could soon move beyond the Energy Committee. The strongly critical statement from McConnell, of Kentucky, was not a surprise, but the […]
Lack of DNA evidence wins reprieve for Tahoe bear and cub
“Early in the morning today, a bear and her cub entered an open door on Tina Court. She awoke the resident by pawing at his leg as he slept,” said the email to residents last week from Janet Martell, manager of the Summit Village Homeowners Association. “Wildlife Services have set a trap at the dumpster […]
Rupert Murdoch is launching Fox Weather. What could possibly go wrong?
This is for real: Rupert Murdoch will soon launch a new platform, Fox Weather. Wrap your head around that one. Brian Wieser, a prominent media analyst, said it best the other day: “How do you address the fact that weather changes are caused to some degree by humans when you have a media property with […]
Over 100 fire scientists urge the West: Skip the fireworks this record-dry 4th of July
The heat wave hitting the northwestern U.S. and Canada has been shattering records, with temperatures 30 degrees Fahrenheit or more above normal. With drought already gripping the West, the intense heat has helped suck even more moisture from millions of acres of forests and grasslands, bringing dead vegetation in many regions to record-dry levels and […]
Biden to meet with Western governors about wildfires, vows to raise firefighter pay
WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he will host a meeting next week of Western governors, Cabinet members and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials “to prepare for heat, drought and wildfires in the West.” “There’s an old expression: God made man. Then he made a few firefighters. They have a higher incidence of severe injuries than […]