St. George

There was little respite from the heat in Utah last year, even with overnight lows. Salt Lake City, Bountiful, Provo and Kanab all saw their warmest minimum temperatures on record, too.

Rural recycling is a challenge and it comes down to money and demand. Even southwest Utah’s largest city has to cross state lines to give its milk jugs and tin cans a new life.

Wreath ceremonies to honor fallen veterans are scheduled for Dec. 14 with several occurring in Utah, including in Salt Lake City, Ogden and St. George.

Some schools, parks and homes in St. George still use drinking water to water lawns. As the fast-growing desert community looks to stretch supplies, it’s connecting more of them to secondary water.

Water conservation is vital to southwest Utah’s future and removing irrigated grass at many of its golf courses would be a big step toward stretching that supply. But efforts have struggled to gain traction.

The Northern Corridor Highway alternative route chosen by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would avoid building a new road through prime Mojave Desert tortoise habitat.

For gateway and resort communities it’s a tale as old as time: High costs of living make it hard to attract the labor that keeps the wheels turning.

Zone 6 is a popular recreation spot and desert tortoise habitat that was protected as part of the deal to build a highway near St. George. Local leaders and the state now say if the highway doesn’t happen, the land is open for business.

From Salt Lake City to Brigham City to Cedar City, average temperatures were up both day and night over the summer. And according to forecasts, the above-average heat may not be over yet.

Replacing lawns with desert plants could help save water in drier parts of Utah, such as Washington County. But the shift can be daunting. The Parade of Gardens Southern Utah hopes to change that.

The push to build homes on federal land is gaining momentum. But just because Utah has plenty of public land, that doesn’t mean it’s ripe for development.

Southwest Utah residents are continuing grassroots efforts to highlight transit needs in communities outside the Wasatch Front — and to push local leaders to take action.