Drought

A black helicopter swoops past a group of wild horses running across western Utah’s high desert. It’s mid-morning and already hot.

Lisa Reid, a public affairs specialist for the Bureau of Land Management, is watching the action while sitting on a blanket under an umbrella. The chopper swoops past the herd again, trying to move them towards a corral.

“The helicopter works like a sheepdog,” she says. “It works the horses from side to side, guiding them in the direction it wants them to go.”

More than 200 of the world's leading climate scientists will begin meeting today to finalize a landmark report summarizing how Earth's climate has already changed, and what humans can expect for the rest of the century.

During years with average or above-average precipitation, both black and grizzly bears in the Mountain West are pretty good at finding food, whether that's insects, berries, or root-like plants. But those natural food sources are vulnerable to drought. It doesn't help that hot and dry conditions of historic levels are currently gripping the region.

The Interior Department is asking Congress for $17.6 billion next year, about $2.5 billion more than this year.

Parts of the Mountain West are experiencing the worst drought conditions in more than a century, prompting the Biden administration to pledge a government-wide response to the crisis.

On Tuesday, administration officials testified during a virtual congressional hearing on the drought. They included Craig McLean, the acting chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.