Environment

(Rick Bowmer | AP) A coyote travels across ice formed on the Great Salt Lake Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, on Antelope Island. Since 2012, Utah wildlife officials have paid a $50 bounty on coyotes. An unknown portion of those taxpayer-funded bounties are paid on coyotes taken in controversial killing contests, that critics blast as an insult to Utah's wildlife heritage.

Should Utah pay $50 bounties on coyotes killed in controversial contests?

By Brian Maffly | November 30, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Pivot irrigation on an alfalfa field in Mt. Carmel on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022.

Quiz: Utah’s biggest water user

By Brian Maffly | November 28, 2022, 4:26 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Three Rivers field west of the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge, pictured on Nov. 17, 2021, is among Utah’s most productive oil and gas fields. After a hiatus lasting more than two years, the federal government announced plans to resume leasing public land in Utah for development. This photograph was taken on a flight chartered by LightHawk.

Is oil and gas leasing returning to Utah?

By Brian Maffly | November 27, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dusty Reese on her family's farm in Mt. Carmel on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022.

One crop uses more than half of Utah’s water. Here’s why.

By Brian Maffly | Mark Eddington | November 29, 2022, 3:56 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune)
View of Monument Valley, with the Bears Ears in the distance, from the Pine Spring in Monument Valley, on Thursday, May 26, 2022.

Tribes move to intervene in Utah’s monument lawsuit

By Brian Maffly | November 24, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Inversion conditions deteriorate air quality near Farmington as the Frontrunner train and highway traffic move along the I-15 corridor on Friday Dec. 3, 2021.

West-siders are pushing back against I-15 expansion plans

By Sofia Jeremias | Alixel Cabrera | November 23, 2022, 10:11 p.m.

(Phil Douglass, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources) Trumpeter swans.

As the West’s trumpeter swans recover, more wind up shot in Utah

By Brian Maffly | November 23, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Spinning sprinkler in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.

Utahns are often knocked as the most wasteful water users in the U.S. Are the numbers misleading?

By Leia Larsen | November 19, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Great Salt Lake Marina near Saltair is rendered inoperable for all boats as ongoing drought conditions continue to drop lake levels on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022.

Gov. Cox put new water rights on hold. Will it actually help the Great Salt Lake?

By Leia Larsen | November 11, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

(Utah Geological Survey) These drill cores pulled from the West Desert in early 2022 reveal high concentrations of sphalerite, a mineral rich in zinc and copper. But at this site in the Fish Springs Range, the sphalerite also contain high levels of indium, a critical mineral used to manufacture touch screens.

Deposit of obscure mineral in Utah’s West Desert is worth a fortune

By Brian Maffly | November 10, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

(Brian Maffly | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Monument Butte oil and gas field, south of Myton in the Uinta Basin, is home to at least 1,000 producing wells and hundreds more that are idled. The Bureau of Land Management has reversed its approval of a program to allow 5,750 more wells to be drilled here, citing climate impacts.

Does Utah’s support for fossil fuel production violate youths’ constitutional rights?

By Brian Maffly | November 10, 2022, 12:23 a.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Great Salt Lake ever-growing exposed lakebed bakes in the sun during ongoing drought conditions on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. Scientists monitoring the lake's food web said its ecological collapse has begun as the lake continues to hit record-low elevations and dangerous salinity levels by the day.

The Great Salt Lake’s ecological collapse has begun

By Leia Larsen | November 8, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

(Rick Bowmer | Associated Press) State of Utah Department of Natural Resources geologists Paul Inkenbrandt, left, and Jeremiah Bernau walk along the Bonneville Salt Flats on Aug. 29, 2022, near Wendover, Utah. The glistening white salt of the world famous area is shrinking near the Utah-Nevada line.

Utah’s salt flats are shrinking, leaving racers in a lurch. Scientists are trying to figure out why.

By Sam Metz and Brady McCombs | The Associated Press | November 5, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

Francisco Kjolseth | Tribune File Photo

The Sun rises behind steam from a cooling unit at the coal-fired Hunter power plant south of Castle Dale.

Are utilities dragging their feet on coal ash contamination?

By Brian Maffly | November 4, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Great Salt Lake Marina near Saltair is rendered inoperable for all boats as ongoing drought conditions continue to drop lake levels on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022.

Gov. Cox has closed the Great Salt Lake basin to new water rights

By Leia Larsen | November 3, 2022, 11:48 p.m.

Attorney Steve Boos

Is SUWA too cozy with county commissions?

By Brian Maffly | November 2, 2022, 2:25 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) South Fork Canyon, in Glen Canyon Recreation Area, on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

Federal government takes step toward mandating water cuts to help Lake Powell, Lake Mead

By Felicia Fonseca and Kathleen Ronayne | The Associated Press | October 28, 2022, 9:03 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Spinning sprinkler in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, June 29, 2021. Outdoor watering amounts for most of Utah's municipal water use, which critics believe could be greatly reduced if Utah ended its reliance on property taxes in ways that subsidize wasteful practices.

Report: Utah water districts are swimming in tax revenues

By Brian Maffly | October 27, 2022, 12:22 a.m.

(Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining) Utah’s Lila Canyon coal mine, located in Emery County’s section of the Book Cliffs, caught fire Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, and continues burning underground. The BLM has authorized an aggressive drilling program in an effort to extinguish the fire without destroying the mine.

More than a third of Utah power at risk because of coal fire, BLM says

By Brian Maffly | November 9, 2022, 4:22 p.m.

(Ecoflight) An aerial view of Navajo Canyon on Lake Powell, Thursday, April 14, 2022. The high water mark is near the boundary between Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Navajo Nation.

Cultural sites are being revealed by a dwindling Lake Powell

By Zak Podmore | October 24, 2022, 11:58 a.m.