Environment
In 1997, after a difficult divorce, Utah rancher Heidi Redd was able to resist the temptation to sell off her land to developers. To preserve it, she sold it to the environmental group The Nature Conservancy in exchange for a promise that she would be allowed to keep working the place. Now that they've paved the road it will take you about an hour's drive south of Moab to get to the Dugout Ranch. Heidi has said as soon as she first saw the Dugout more than forty years ago she knew it was home.
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This week on Utah NOW, the story of Tim DeChristopher. He's the 27-year-old college student and environmental activist who disrupted a public land auction last month by bidding up several parcels intended for oil and gas development. Join us as we take a closer look at what some are calling a case of modern-day monkey wrenching. (rebroadcast)
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The Ken Burns' series on National Parks has gotten us thinking about the different facets in that relationship between Americans and Land. This week on Utah NOW we're exploring that relationship, from history and art to politics and spirituality... we'll talk about how land moves people and spurs them to action.
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Filmmaker Ken Burns joins us this week to talk about America's best idea, the National Parks. It's his latest documentary project and it took him to the country's most spectacular places. The film however, isn't as much about the places as the people who fought to protect them.
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This week on Utah NOW, we're exploring the fate of the Snake Valley groundwater and the proposal to pipe it to Las Vegas. Recently, Utah and Nevada announced an agreement to share the remaining aquifer water. But in this arid desert landscape, some see it as a water grab, not a water share. Join us for a closer look at the future of water in the west.
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This week on Utah NOW a new twist in the mystery of Everett Ruess. Ruess disappeared in the Red Rock Desert in 1934. Now, 75 years later, it seems his remains have been found. The writer David Roberts will be with us to go through the evidence and the details of the story and tell us what it means for the legend of Everett Ruess.
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This week on Utah NOW, we're repeating our profile of Moab as a community and as a model for the "new west". Environmentalists had hoped the city would be a new economic model for the rural American West, that it would shift away from industries like mining and cattle and instead use as its centerpiece the beauty of the land and its remarkable terrain. A few decades into this experiment and we'll see how it's working out.
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This week on Utah NOW we're exploring the latest questions about global warming. We'll profile a new film from the documentary series FRONTLINE, that asks "What is Big Business doing to address the climate problem?"
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This week on Utah NOW, we're profiling Moab as a community and as a model for the "new west".
Environmentalists had hoped the city would be a new economic model for the rural American West, that it would shift away from industries like mining and cattle and instead use as its centerpiece the beauty of the land and its remarkable terrain. A few decades into this experiment and we'll see how it's working out.
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This week on Utah NOW--we're talking about the Bear River. It's part of an evolving story of water in the West.
People in this region have always worried about water and a growing population is making new demands.
The debate over whether to divert the Bear River may provide lessons or even a cautionary tale for the future.
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This week on Utah NOW--as people in Central Utah cling to the hope that six trapped miners are still alive, we're talking about the safety in a coal mine.
It's an evolving story about standards, working conditions and the culture of an industry where there have always been risks.
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Dozens of fires are racing through the West this summer. In Utah--the state's largest wildfire ever continues to burn.
This week on Utah NOW, we're talking about wildfire; about the efforts to fight them and understand them, and the long-term consequences for the Western landscape.
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This week on Utah NOW, guest host Ken Verdoia re-visits the enduring questions of hazardous waste in Utah. We’ll update the prospects of storing the lethal leftovers of America's nuclear program in the state's west desert. Is Utah any closer to a resolution in this contentious issue?
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The BLM is gearing up for its largest oil and gas lease sale in the U.S.'s history. On May 16th parcels of our public lands will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. While the U.S. is trying to repress its “addiction” to foreign oil, gas and oil wells and drills are dotting Utah’s wilderness areas. What are the implications for Utah’s natural landscape? The Utah NOW team traveled east, to Vernal, Utah, to capture the portrait of a boom town and to investigate one of eight BLM pilot offices in the U.S.
