western water

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.

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 report finds 2025 brought widespread drought, massive wildfires and destructive windstorms across several Mountain West states — and underscores how closely connected those disasters have become.

Across the Mountain West, groundwater is the unseen force keeping springs flowing, wetlands green, and desert plants alive. Now, a new interactive tool is making that hidden water easier to see.

As much of the Mountain West faces another dry winter, researchers are turning their attention underground to the water many communities rely on but rarely see.

Cold temperatures have settled over much of the Mountain West this winter, but precipitation has been harder to come by, leaving large parts of the region unusually dry for late January.

Across the Mountain West, where drought and shrinking reservoirs are putting pressure on already limited water supplies, decisions about who uses how much water often hinge on imperfect data. A nonprofit collaboration called OpenET hopes to change that.

Large farms in parts of the Colorado River Basin are paying little — and in some cases nothing — for federally supplied water, even as cities and residents are being asked to conserve, according to a new report.

National monuments across the West do more than preserve iconic landscapes — they also help protect the rivers millions of people rely on for drinking water. But a new analysis warns those protections could weaken under the Trump administration’s push to redraw the boundaries of several monuments.

New research shows that mountain regions around the world are warming faster than the lowlands below them. Scientists say that could have big consequences for the Mountain West, where communities rely on snow and ice for their water supply.