NEWSWIRE: The soaking of the Southwest continues, plus a lot more

The La Plata Mountains in full autumnal splendor. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

⛈️ WACKY WEATHER WATCH⚡️

Welcome to another totally human-curated (and a bit late) edition of the Land Desk’s Newswire, a weekly compendium of important news happening around the Four Corners Country and beyond. Once again, the big news is the weird weather, which includes soaking rain, snow, big rivers, and even a tornado.

The Paria River where it meets the Colorado swelled up to about 2,000 cubic feet per second two days ago, and had I stuck around Lees Ferry for an hour or so longer I might have witnessed it. Instead, I headed south and east under a constant gray sky and passing through squalls on the way.

“Forrest Gump Hill” in Monument Valley, the place to where people travel from far far away to take a photo of themselves in the middle of the road, was as crowded — and hazardous — as ever. The buttes and bluffs near Montezuma and Aneth were carpeted with such green that I was disoriented, and in McElmo Canyon, where it looks like farmers will easily get another cutting of hay, the vibe was much more August monsoon than October storm.

The landscape around Aneth, Utah, is unusually verdant this October. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

• Tropical Storm Rachel has brought significant moisture to a big swath of the Southwest and beyond over the last few days. Observers with the CoCoRaHS network reported 24-hour rainfall totals of as much as two inches (in the Hermosa area north of Durango), bringing the Animas River through Durango up to 2,380 cubic feet per second and rising, as of noon on Oct. 14. A bit to the east of there, the Piedra River near Arboles shot up to 2,190 cfs, and Vallecito Creek has topped 1,000 cfs as I write this around noon on Oct. 14.

• As of the morning of Oct. 14, very wet, slushy snow — or, as the Germans call it, Schneeregen — was falling on Dove Creek, Colorado, elevation 6,800 feet. It wasn’t sticking there, yet, but folks in Silverton (9,318 feet) woke up to a dusting on the ground, marking the first SNOTEL station-detected snowpack in the Animas River watershed (a .6” snow water equivalent).

• Southwest Colorado residents reported a tornado between Tiffany and Allison, near the New Mexico border on the afternoon of Oct. 13. One Facebook poster said it hit her dad’s property and damaged outbuildings, while others reported that it took out barns, ripped up fencing, and uprooted trees.

• Social media posts show that there’s enough snow on Grand Mesa in western Colorado for some ski touring.

• SNOTEL stations on the Upper Colorado River Basin are showing well above normal precipitation accumulation for the first two weeks of Water Year 2027.

And in other weather and climate related news …

• The heat has once again taken its toll in the Phoenix area. The city’s fire department recorded 1,744 heat-related calls — significantly more than last year — between May 1 and Aug. 31, including 98 rescues from mountain trails and 14 patients that had to be hoisted by helicopter. Maricopa County has recorded 389 confirmed heat-related fatalities this summer, with another 383 under investigation. (ABC15, Maricopa County)

🛢️ FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES 📈

• The Bureau of Land Management moves ahead with plans to lease 113 parcels covering 126,440 acres of public land in Colorado for oil and gas drilling, despite widespread opposition. Among the land to be on the auction block in December are 5,000 acres on the Roan Plateau and several parcels in the HD Mountains and near Chimney Rock National Monument just north of the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in southwestern Colorado. The protest period ends on Nov. 8. (Aspen Daily News, BLM)

• A New Mexico advocate laments Permian Basin oil and gas drilling’s effects on residents, the landscape, and the Pecos River, calling it a “beautiful river in the middle of a hellscape.” (Capital & Main)

• An analysis finds Arizona utility Salt River Project customers could pay up to eight times more to operate the Craig coal plant under the Trump administration’s emergency orders than for solar-plus-storage resources. The plant was scheduled to shut down at the end of last year. (Energy & Policy Institute)

• A coalition of environmental groups files a lawsuit seeking to block the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of a road construction project, aka hydrocarbon highway, in Gate Canyon in eastern Utah designed to expedite oil-hauling in the Uinta Basin. Gate Canyon feeds into the culturally significant Nine Mile Canyon. (SUWA, BLM)

🌵 PUBLIC LANDS 🌲

• A federal court temporarily blocks the Trump administration’s plans to reorganize — some would say dismantle — the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which included moving the Forest Service headquarters to Salt Lake City and shuttering multiple research facilities. “These forced moves were never about efficiency. They were about pushing experienced people out the door,” said American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley in a statement. (Politico)

• U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) introduces legislation that would require congressional approval for federal land withdrawals of more than 5,000 acres, including for presidential designations of national monuments under the Antiquities Act. (Navajo-Hopi Observer)

🦫 WILDLIFE WATCH 🦅

• The Preregrine Fund releases four more California condors into the wild at Marble Canyon in northern Arizona, bringing the area’s flock of the endangered birds up to 96. (Arizona Republic)

California condor at Navajo Bridge which spans Marble Canyon in northern Arizona. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

• Wyoming wildlife officials say 14% of the Sublette Pronghorn Herd died over six weeks this summer, and attribute the unusually high mortality rate to malnutrition resulting from drought-parched forage. (WyoFile)

🛻 TRANSPORTATION 🚂

• Len Necefer goes deep on the electric vehicle charging network — or lack thereof — on tribal nations’ land in Arizona. (All At Once by Dr. Len)

🤑 GENTRIFICATION JOURNAL💰

• Sublette County, Wyoming’s commissioners vote to eliminate a 2021 zoning change that cleared the way for billionaire Joe Rickett’s proposed upscale resort in the Upper Hoback River area. (WyoFile)

🌨️🦦🚣🏽 WATER WATCH 🌊

• Rural Arizonans in the Prescott area are forced to haul water as regional population growth and aridification draw down groundwater levels and dry out wells. (Cronkite News)

⛏️ MINING MONITOR ⛏️

• The Navajo Nation’s Coppermine Chapter passes a resolution “unequivocally” opposing Chakana Copper’s proposed Copper Mesa Project in a historically mined area near Page, Arizona; mining company executives say they won’t go forward unless the project is “wholeheartedly endorsed by the community.” (KJZZ, Essential Minerals)

• Hillsboro, New Mexico, residents push back on New Mexico Copper’s proposed Copper Flat mining project near the small community, with water consumption topping their list of concerns. (Searchlight New Mexico, New Mexico Copper)

🔭 OVERSIGHT (or lack thereof) 👮🏼

• Journalist and clean energy advocate Bill McKibben delves into the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, or permitting reform legislation, thoroughly exploring arguments for and agains. Though he is conflicted, and agrees on many points with proponents of the bill, he ultimately comes down in opposition to the legislation because it weakens bedrock environmental laws and would benefit fossil fuels. (The Crucial Years)

• An 18-year Interior Department veteran resigns to protest the Trump administration’s “deeply troubling assault on the rule of law” and its efforts to weaken or eviscerate environmental protections to benefit the fossil fuel industries. (Public Domain)

An outtake from John Murdock’s resignation letter from the Department of the Interior. Source: Public Domain.

• Leaked data show the Interior Department has lost nearly 10,000 permanent staffers since the Trump administration took office, with the Bureau of Land Management staff down by 45% since 2024. (Wes Siler’s Newsletter)

📊 ECONOMIC INDICATORS 💸

• Page, Arizona’s economy shows signs of a shift as the lodging, retail, restaurant, and grocery sectors fade while the construction, remote seller, amusements, and commercial leasing areas surge. (Choose Page)

🤖 DATA CENTER DIGEST 👾

• An analysis finds about 100 data centers have driven nearly all of the increased demand on Arizona Public Service’s power grid, and the utility is charging its entire customer base to purchase outside power to meet the growing load, prompting state Attorney General Kris Mayes to call for an investigation. (KJZZ, Abhay Padgaonkar)

• Arizona data show that the state’s sales and use tax exemption for data centers’ computer equipment cost the state $38.5 million in fiscal year 2025, up from $19.4 million in 2024. (Good Jobs First)

• Federal data show proposals for grid-connected gas-fired power plants have nearly tripled over the last three years, largely due to data center-driven electricity demand growth. At least 12 of the facilities in the planning pipeline are in the Western U.S. (Environment America)

• Oracle considers trucking natural gas to its Project Jupiter data center complex under construction in southern New Mexico after the state denied its proposed gas pipeline, prompting Energy Transfer LP to reroute it. Oracle also trucks gas to one of its data centers in Salt Lake City, adding to the facility’s environmental impacts. (Searchlight New Mexico)

🌞 GOOD NEWS! 😎

• The MacArthur Foundation awards Chip Thomas, aka Jetsonorama, a genius grant for his large-scale murals with social justice themes that can be found across the Southwest and on the Navajo Nation. (NPR)

• The High Desert Museum is accepting nominations for the Jordan Schnitzer Prize of the West, a $50,000 philanthropic award for leaders tackling the American West’s most pressing environmental challenges, from water scarcity to wildfire, that is awarded annually to an individual or small group who has contributed in practice, scholarship, or policy to the region’s future, with emphasis on innovation, social impact, uncommon collaborations, and scalability. Nominations are open through Dec. 31. (High Desert Museum)

📖 READING LIST 📰

• Heads up Four Corners area folks: I’ll be giving a presentation on the Dolores River as part of a Dolores River Boating Advocates’ event on Friday, Nov. 6, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Powerhouse in Durango. Following a short film about Snaggletooth Rapid I’ll speak about my personal relationship with the Dolores River, its history, the way it is a sort of microcosm of the Colorado River as a whole, and about its potential futures. I’ll also throw in a funny little tale about the time I saw Ed Abbey go through Snaggletooth. Tickets are $10 — which will help DRBA defray costs — and seating is limited. There will also be a cash bar. Reserve your spot now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-changing-dolores-river-a-conversation-with-drba-and-jonathan-thompson-tickets-2001390992334

POSTSCRIPT

I’m going to be out and about and on the road and often off grid for the next week, meaning these dispatches may come even more sporadically than this one! My apologies for any confusion or Land Desk withdrawal symptoms that may lead to.