drought

The Center for American Progress published a pair of reports this month highlighting funding challenges for rural areas in the context of climate resilience, offering recommendations for how decision-makers can better design federal programs to be more inclusive of rural communities as disasters like wildfires and floods become more frequent.

The "Sheridan County Water Supply Report" is slated to be followed by a series of regular reports that analyze the hydrological conditions in Sheridan County and the surrounding area. A survey that SCLT conducted earlier this year indicated that there's a need for more publicly available information about water and drought and how this information can inform decisions made in the community.

The Great Salt Lake shrunk to historic lows this year and water levels continue to drop. The largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River supports mineral extraction, recreation, brine shrimp and migratory birds.

The cost of goods has increased in America by about nine percent over the last year, which is the largest increase in 40 years. It has affected the price of everything, including groceries, gas, clothes and hay, an essential good for livestock in our region.

University of Arizona researchers forced a drought on a controlled rainforest environment to measure the scented gasses released by stressed plants. Their results could help scientists "sniff out" when forests are in distress.

States in the Colorado River Basin have failed to meet a federal deadline to conserve an unprecedented amount of water. The lack of consensus on how to wean off the river’s dwindling supply puts the water source for 40 million in the Southwest in jeopardy.

The seven states that rely on the river blew past an August 16 deadline without a plan to conserve 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water.

Climate change is causing the American West to experience what’s now being called a megadrought…the worst water shortage in 1,200 years. The Ogallala Aquifer is a huge underground water source supplying eight states where it may seem safely stored away. But as one ranching community in southeast Wyoming is finding out…that water is disappearing. Part of the problem is that water law hasn’t kept up with emerging science.

A summer deadline approaches for state leaders to agree on how to cut their water use from the Colorado River.

As water levels in Lake Powell keep dropping, activists say Glen Canyon Dam is in need of upgrades to its plumbing so it can keep sending water downstream.