The Mountain West News Bureau has six managing partner stations – Boise State Public Radio, KANW in New Mexico, KUNC in Colorado, KUNR Public Radio in Nevada, Nevada Public Radio, and Wyoming Public Media. Colorado Public Radio in Denver and KJZZ in Phoenix are associate partners and nearly a dozen other stations are affiliate members.
The bureau also produces “Our Living Lands,” a weekly radio segment exploring how climate change affects Indigenous communities, in partnership with Koahnic Broadcast Corp. and Native Public Media.
The Mountain West News Bureau was formed in 2018 and joined NPR’s network of regional newsrooms in 2025. It receives funding from Eric and Wendy Schmidt and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Managing Editor: Michael de Yoanna
KUNR Mountain West News Bureau Reporter: Kaleb Roedel
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Statehouses across the West are considering reforms to respond to the homeowners insurance crisis. While some are hitting headwinds, concern about the issue isn’t going away. -
Salt lakes in the American West are shrinking — from Utah’s Great Salt Lake to smaller lakes scattered across the Great Basin. In her new book “Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History,” writer Caroline Tracey explores why these unusual landscapes matter, and what their decline reveals about humans’ impact on the environment. -
Using a massive data set detailing some 70 million policies, researchers have found that “credit scores impact homeowners insurance premiums as much as disaster risk.” -
The National Park Service recorded 323 million visits in 2025 at parks, historic sites, monuments and recreation areas, about a 3% decline from 2024’s all-time high. -
The city used to auction off surplus animals to ranchers. But six years ago, it started donating them to tribes instead. More than 170 animals have been gifted so far. -
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Using new data, a team of scientists has assembled one of the first comprehensive analyses of emissions from homes burned in wildfires. What they found is that such pollution is serious, and in some cases can exceed emissions from all other human sources. -
Snowpack is often described as the West’s largest natural reservoir, storing water through the winter and slowly releasing it into rivers and reservoirs each spring. But new research suggests the way forests are managed can influence how much of that snow actually becomes part of the water supply. -
A new national report finds access to nearby nature in the United States is deeply unequal. And that the gap is closely tied to race, income and pollution exposure. Researchers say the pattern shows up across the country, including in the Mountain West. -
The Desert Research Institute and NASA to learn more about harmful effects to help communities stay healthy as wildfires are becoming more frequent and severe
