Southeast Utah Bureau

Park advocates and local officials say a reservation system is needed to deal with record visitation at Arches this year. But efforts to implement reservations have failed in the past.

Gov. Spencer Cox has said Utah will likely sue if President Joe Biden enlarges Bears Ears National Monument. But experts say that could be a hard case to win.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland met with tribal and Utah state leaders Wednesday in San Juan County to talk about Bears Ears National Monument. She’s visiting southern Utah to meet with stakeholders before issuing a recommendation on the monuments’ fate.

Recent studies found there’s likely less water in Moab’s aquifer than previously thought. Now, the tightening water supply has led to a reckoning over the consequences of development and the virtues of conservation.

Time is running out to create a new state park north of Moab. The measure received a lot of support in the Utah House of Representatives last week, but it still has to pass the Senate.

Most students are back in the classroom now. But that’s not the case on the Navajo Nation. Teachers and parents there have had to find creative ways to help students with limited internet access learn at home because of the pandemic.

Vaccination is moving quickly on the Navajo Nation in San Juan County. People there over the age of 45 are now eligible to get the shot, but it’s hard to say exactly what percent of the county’s Navajo population has been vaccinated.

When Kristen Ramirez started the Full Circle Intertribal Center in 2019, her goal was to build community among Native people in Moab. A year and a half later, the nonprofit has grown into a COVID-relief group focused on Native elders, as well as a resource center.

After years of negotiation and delays, the Navajo Utah Water Rights Settlement Act passed the U.S. House and Senate on Monday as part of a federal coronavirus relief package. It gives the Navajo Nation the right to use water from the Colorado River and includes $220 million to treat and move the water.

Native American Utahns shared stories of losing family members Wednesday night with a state task force formed to study the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis. But the group has only met twice so far because of COVID-19 and few people showed up to testify.

Over 20 cities in Utah are trying to build a nuclear power plant in eastern Idaho. The Carbon Free Power Project would replace the energy those towns will lose when coal plants shut down, but there’s a big financial risk that comes with investing in the $6 billion project.

The Utah Navajo Water Rights Settlement contains over $200 million for water infrastructure development. It passed the U.S. Senate this summer and is now stuck in the House. Despite the delay, some groups are already making plans for how that money could be used.