The Mountain West News Bureau is a collaboration of public media stations that serve the Rocky Mountain states of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Our mission is to tell stories about the people, places and issues of the Rocky Mountain West.
From land and water management to growth in the expanding West to our unique culture and heritage, we'll explore the issues that define us and the challenges we face.
The Mountain West News Bureau is a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico with support from affiliate stations across the region.
Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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From the early 1800s til 1969 the federal government forced Indigenous children into boarding schools to assimilate them into white culture. Department of the Interior officials and tribal leaders testified in Congress Wednesday about an ongoing investigation into the over 400 federal schools. -
Colorado River water managers are facing a monumental task. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has asked seven western states to commit to an unprecedented amount of conservation and do it before a deadline later this summer. This comes amid shrinking water levels in the nation's largest reservoirs.
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Beavers create messy wetlands as safe places to live, and a new paper explains how their engineering is also a powerful tool in fending off the harms of climate change. Their dams, channels and ponds have positive side effects that reduce the damage caused by flood, drought and wildfire.
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Climate change and outdated dams are shrinking fish populations across the Mountain West and beyond. That includes a species that a Native American tribe in our region used to rely on.
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U.S. Senators talked about the West’s drought this week and what more they could be doing to address it. About $8.3 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure package is going to water systems, but as some lawmakers noted, water is drying up faster than some projects can get off the ground.
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U.S. life expectancy was already lower than other high-income nations and the gap was widening before 2019. Since then, things have gotten worse. New research found that in 2020, life expectancies here dropped disproportionately for marginalized, racialized populations. Especially for Native American and Alaska Native groups
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A study released recently by the U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado State University shows gelding wild horses didn’t really affect their behavior or have a long-term impact on herd size. But it's another tool worth considering while addressing the overpopulation of wild horses and burros on public lands.
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The goal of the Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee is to get input from tribal leaders on Department of the Interior issues impacting Indigenous communities before policy is made.
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Glacier National Park has re-instituted a mask mandate inside federal buildings, like visitor centers. Officials there say they’re following National Park Service and Interior Department guidance. That is, when the CDC reports a high level of COVID-19 community spread around a park, officials re-institute an indoor mask mandate. Other national parks could bring back mask requirements, too, if rates increase around the West.
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The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for parts of Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona this weekend. These warnings usually last one to three days, and mean that any new wildfires could exhibit extreme behavior. If you see these warnings, take extra precautions to prevent wildfires, like make sure campfires are completely out and stop smoking.
