Mountain West (CO ID MT NV UT WY)

"A quarter century after the church’s attempted purchase fell flat, a renewed plan that would trade LDS land has emerged — and it’s garnering broad support."

"President Donald Trump on Monday sharply reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, undoing protections established by former presidents on public lands that are sacred among many Native Americans. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah have ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and scenic canyons, as well as coal and uranium deposits that state officials want made available for development."

"Federal officials will begin rounding up wild horses in the Eastern Sierra on July 8, citing trampled wetlands and highway hazards, with the animals to be offered for adoption. The helicopter-assisted operation is praised by some environmentalists but condemned by others, including local tribes and animal advocates."

"Along most of the Atlantic coast, alewives are struggling after decades of damming and overfishing. But in Maine, the fish is rebounding—and towns’ historic harvests are growing."

"State regulators have approved exploratory drilling near the headwaters of the rugged flow that inspired “A River Runs Through It,” which is still recovering from a mining disaster more than 50 years ago."

"A deal to bring Colorado River water to Native American communities in northern Arizona, where a third of homes lack running water, is being blocked by neighboring states, caught up in a broader battle over how to divide the dwindling river."

"As the Colorado River and its once massive reservoirs shrink from overuse and climate change, officials are faced with a decision that pits conservation against ratepayer costs for electricity."

"Plans for a celebrity-backed “hyperscale” data center in rural Utah, so massive that it would consume more than double the state’s current electricity use, have generated an intense public and political backlash in a state where the motto is “industry” and a Republican supermajority tends to be deferential to development."

"The Senate on Monday narrowly confirmed Steve Pearce, a former New Mexico congressman with a long history of pushing for federal public land sell-offs, to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management."