In the Rockies today, heavy rains breach an earthen dam in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon, causing flooding, and the Arizona Republic provides a compelling read on evacuation efforts under way.
In Colorado, where new regulations on energy drilling operations are under consideration, wind energy projects are providing more of the state's electricity, making the state a microcosm of the nation's energy debate.
Also in the news, changing attitudes on letting forest fires burn, and a presidential contender's remarks on reworking the 1922 Colorado River Compact draws sharp responses from Colorado's U.S. Senate candidates.
Today in Headwaters News' A Look Ahead, we provide a preview of the Headwaters Summit: Re-visioning how we use water in a changing climate.
The conference, scheduled Sept. 15-17, in Missoula, Mont., will explore how climate change may affect water supplies in the Northern Rockies, and what residents of the region can do to adapt to a future with dwindling water supplies.
Rockies today
Evacuations under way in Grand Canyon after dam breaches
Heavy rains caused a small dam in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon to breach, forcing the evacuation of residents of Supai, along with a number of campers, who were ferried by helicopter to Hualapai Point, the Havasu Canyon trailhead, and then taken to a Red Cross shelter in a nearby Arizona town.
Arizona Republic; Aug. 18
Colorado the test state for old vs. new energy
Colorado's wind-generated power capacity has quadrupled over the past 18 months, and Xcel Energy is now the largest provider of wind power in the nation, and with a battle brewing over new regulations on the fossil-fuel industry to protect wildlife and public health from the effects of drilling, the state has become ground zero in the nation's energy debate.
Washington Post; Aug. 18
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Wind power projects provide economic boom to rural Wyoming
The construction of Rocky Mountain Power's Glenrock, Rolling Hills and Glenrock III wind farms in Wyoming's Converse County are not only providing hundreds of jobs to general laborers, crane operators, electricians, truck drivers, engineers and others, but those workers are filling up motels in the county's small towns and bringing new customers into other businesses.
Casper Star-Tribune; Aug. 17
Decades after Yellowstone fires, let-it-burn debate rages
Rowdy Muir said the 1988 Yellowstone fires that burned across 1.4 million acres of the national park and the national forests that surround it and killed two people over four months is still the longest fire season he ever worked, and now as an incident commander on the American River Complex fires, one of the 2,000 that have burned 1.2 million acres and destroyed 181 homes in California since June, he's hoping lessons learned in 1988 will help crews avoid the policy quagmire he encountered in Yellowstone.
Salt Lake Tribune; Aug. 18
Desert Rock's effect on Four Corners air quality still unknown
New Mexico environmental officials and environmental groups that oppose the 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock Power Plant proposed in New Mexico said the coal-fired power plant will further degrade air-quality in the Four Corners region, but Sithe Global officials said the plant will be the cleanest coal-fired plant ever built in the United States and will actually improve air quality in the region.
Farmington Daily Times; Aug. 17
Montana's Glacier Park losing icons of its name
The glaciers that earned Glacier National Park its name 100 years ago are melting away, just as changes are killing Joshua Trees in California's Joshua Tree National Park, and drying up the glades in Florida's Everglades.
Missoulian; Aug. 18
Wyoming begins probe of why methane wells producing just water
The state engineer's office has begun investigating why 1,000 coalbed methane wells in Wyoming's Powder River Basin have produced just water over the past five years, and if the water produced is meeting the state's standard for "beneficial use."
Casper Star-Tribune; Aug. 16
McCain's remark on Colorado River Compact prompts reaction
Both candidates in the U.S. Senate race in Colorado quickly criticized Republican presidential candidate Arizona Sen. John McCain's statement that he believed the 1922 Colorado River Compact needed to be reworked, with Republican Bob Schaffer voicing fierce opposition and Democrat Mark Udall saying McCain was completely wrong about the need for the accord to be revised.
Durango Herald; Aug. 18
Opinion
Clean energy summit could put Nevada's efforts into gear
Nevada's potential for clean energy has hardly been tapped, but the National Clean Energy Summit scheduled this week at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas could apply the gas.
Las Vegas Sun; Aug. 18
Beyond the region
Pelosi: Energy bill will contain provision on offshore drilling
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday that the House will take up sweeping energy legislation next month, which will contain a partial lifting of the 1981 moratorium on offshore drilling.
Christian Science Monitor; Aug. 17
Oregon fire managers pleased with flexible plan
The Ochoco National Forest in Oregon is the fifth federal forest in Oregon and Washington to adopt a fire management plan, which allows fire managers to make decisions on forest health rather than just suppression.
Portland Oregonian; Aug. 18
Firefighting disaster reflects USFS's reliance on private contractors
Only one of the nine people killed in the crash of a helicopter ferrying fire crews from a remote site in northern California earlier this month was a U.S. Forest Service employee; seven were privately contracted firefighters and the eighth was a pilot from a private contractor as well.
New York Times; Aug. 18
Alaska has record number of human-bear conflicts this year
A poor salmon season has made Alaskan bears a little less tolerant of their human neighbors, with eight maulings, three in five days in early August, reported this year, but no fatalities thus far.
Washington Post; Aug. 17
Rush to harness wind power in New York leads to corruption probe
Although there is plenty of wind to be harvested in southern New York state, producers are concentrating their efforts to build wind farms along the state's northern border, where the population is less wealthy and the cash from wind farms comes in handy, but the state attorney general has launched an investigation of some companies' tactics on getting wind farms approved.
New York Times; Aug. 18
In depth
Hotter temperatures send Glacier's 'rock rabbits' ever higher
Sightings of the pika, a small mammal related to rabbits, that live high above tree lines in nation's highest climates, are becoming increasingly rarer in Glacier National Park, and some say the pika may be the canary in the coal mine of climate change. Another in a series.
Missoulian; Aug. 18
New challenges confront Montana national park in its next century
Glacier National Park will celebrate its centennial on May 10, 2010, and while preparations are under way for the big anniversary, the Montana park's next century is fraught with changing climate conditions and uncertain funding for infrastructure projects. First in a series.
Missoulian; Aug. 17
Tourism numbers down in Glacier Park in Montana
The number of visitors to Glacier National Park during the first seven months of 2008 is down 8.6 percent when compared to the same period in 2007, with the sharpest declines reported in June.
Billings Gazette; Aug. 18
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