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Nature and Environment

Traffic in downtown Tucson.

Local leaders advocate swift action on EPA’s greenhouse gas standards for vehicles

Dec 13, 2023 Driving change: Calls for accelerated emission standards gain momentum as communities look to embrace cleaner, safer transportation solutions
A participant waits at an information session on composting and Tucson's new FoodCycle at Home program in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023.

Tucson to launch at-home composting program next year

Dec 12, 2023 Composting keeps harmful greenhouse gases out of landfills.
The sun rises over a field in Northern Arizona.

UA’s College of Public Health secures $3.8 million NIH grant to pioneer climate change and health research

Dec 12, 2023 SCORCH initiative focuses on forecasting, adaptive responses and community resilience
An electric transmission line.

Construction resumes on SunZia Transmission Project following temporary suspension

Dec 8, 2023 Bureau of Land Management’s pause addresses cultural property concerns in the San Pedro Valley, work progresses on 520-mile transmission project
The San Pedro River post-Monsoon rain. September 14, 2023.

Fort Huachuca and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must re-assess water savings analysis

Dec 6, 2023 The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government and Army did not provide sufficient evidence of water savings through conservation efforts.
An endangered Red Squirrel partakes of a snack from a feeder placed on Mount Graham by the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Image taken by a remote camera.

Endangered red squirrel's numbers show decrease this year in southeastern Arizona

Dec 6, 2023 The annual survey conducted jointly by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Coronado National Forest and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service showed an estimate of 144 squirrels.
The San Pedro River post-Monsoon rain. September 14, 2023.

U.S. Department of Justice initiates water rights decree for San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area

Dec 5, 2023 Environmental group says decree prompts evaluation of existing water rights certificates
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes asked Cochise County residents to share their thoughts on the Kroger and Albertsons merger agreement at the Ethel Berger Center. July 26, 2023.

Arizona Attorney General initiates investigation into hazardous lead-covered cables, telecommunications infrastructure

Dec 5, 2023 Mayes takes action to safeguard environment, drinking water and public health
A diamondback rattlesnake flicks its tongue.

Arizona rattlesnakes could be affected by I-11 construction

Dec 2, 2023 A portion of the project cuts through desert land, which experts say could cause continuing concerns for wildlife.
We visit Altar Valley west of Tucson where various members from the community and different agencies have created the "Altar Valley Conservation Alliance" to try to protect the land for future generations while allowing ranchers and others to continue to make a living on it.

Federal initiative awards Altar Valley Watershed $1.2 million for flood resilience

Dec 1, 2023 The investment drives innovation for water infrastructure projects
"Six Ways to Get Bit by a Rattlesnake" is one of the bite-sized productions featured in Alejandro Canelos' "Ten Minute Dramas."

A new radio drama: "Six Ways to Get Bit by a Rattlesnake"

Nov 29, 2023 Also on Arizona Spotlight: Hydropower on the Navajo Nation; Preview the upcoming Oro Valley Arts Festival; Listen to a poem by Rick Wamer, and a new song from Gabrielle Pietrangelo.
A file image of the Sonoran Desert.

Pima County to Reorganize Environmental Departments next year

Nov 29, 2023 The new Conservation Lands and Resources Department is expected to be completed next summer.

40 years of Gould’s turkey restoration success in the Sky Islands

Nov 20, 2023 From local extinction to Thanksgiving triumph, the journey of North America’s largest wild turkey species in Arizona’s southeastern mountains
Treated wastewater, like this sample in Carson, California, could soon become a bigger part of the West's water portfolio. Cities in the drought-stricken Colorado River basin are putting big money behind project

ADEQ unveils Advanced Water Purification Program

Nov 20, 2023 The program looks to reuse wastewater into a purified water source
This June 7, 2023, photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a female Mexican gray wolf before she is released back into the wilds of Apache National Forest in eastern Arizona. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the wolf had been found wandering in New Mexico outside a zone created for the recovery of her subspecies.

US wildlife managers have no immediate plans to capture wandering Mexican gray wolf

Nov 17, 2023 Her paws have seen hundreds of miles now over the last five months.
John Kmiec, director of Tucson Water at the Sweetwater Wetlands Park in Tucson, Ariz., on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023. Kmiec says that the water that flows through the wetlands is highly treated water from the Pima County Agua Nueva facility that gos into the aquifer for future generations.

Tucson Water receives federal funding to combat PFAS, construct new water treatment facility

Nov 17, 2023 $30 million awarded through EPA from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

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