In places with some of the harshest winter conditions in the lower 48, people are insulating their houses with straw. The alternative material is a way to lower carbon footprints and is surprisingly resilient.

The U.S. Forest Service has historically faced demands that exceed its budget and workforce capacity. And now, looming congressional budget cuts are only putting a finer point on this. That likely means looking for creative solutions for maintaining these public lands, which is nothing new for the third largest forest in the lower 48 – the Bridger-Teton. They’ve worked closely with a nonprofit to fill in some critical gaps. It’s a relatively novel concept in the forest world.

Coal has played a significant role in the United Kingdom – and British identity – since the Industrial Revolution. Coal first generated electricity in the country in the 1880s. It was the country’s largest bulk export until 1939. Even the word “smog” was coined in London for the hazy skyline coal power created. But now, the U.K. is the world’s first major economy to quit coal power, beating a climate-focused deadline the government set back in 2015.

Firefighters are battling longer fire seasons with less people. Volunteerism has dropped nationwide – and Wyoming is seeing that trend, too. Fire departments are asking themselves how to regain numbers for a vital community service.

Landfills are the nation’s third-largest source of methane, behind agriculture and fossil fuels. And a new study shows many landfills, including those in the Mountain West, are polluting the air even more than they are reporting.

The advocacy group the Wilderness Society has released an interactive map that allows users to locate the wildest places in their communities, even if they are far from formally designated protected areas.

Laramie will be celebrating a new trail that connects town to the nearby trail system this Saturday. It showcases an industry Wyoming towns are buying into more and more.

The Interior Department is spending another $90 million on restoring rivers and wetlands across the Western U.S., including several in the Mountain West region.

A public meeting tonight at 7 p.m. has been moved to the Tongue River Middle School in Ranchester. The Elk Fire is now estimated at 32,000 acres and is still zero percent contained.

Wyoming lawmakers officially advanced a bill that attempts to prevent a repeat of the inhumane treatment of a wolf in Sublette County earlier this year. But they didn’t choose to outlaw what many consider a key part of the incident: running a wolf over with a snowmobile.