In the Rockies today, the U.S. Forest Service has decided not to pursue the merger of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho, saying the proposed merger just didn't pencil out in cost savings or management efficiencies.
Climate change is again in the news, with a new Greenpeace study that ranks the growth of fossil fuel development in terms of an increase in carbon emissions, with coal development in China and Australia ranked first and second for increasing such emissions.
A Utah legislator wants state lands managers to consider climate change when assessing wildfire potential and determining what steps to take to reduce that potential.
And in Montana, a state lawmaker has proposed a resolution to sue the federal government over watershed damage in the state caused by wildfires on federal lands.
Today in Western Perspective, Larry Swanson of the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West, of which Mountain West News is a program, writes about a two-year study of job growth trends in the Big Sky State.
While state legislators continue to focus on the importance of natural resource jobs, the study found that growth in that sector of the state's economy has remained relatively flat over the past two decades, even as the rest of the economy has grown and diversified.
The largest sector of jobs in the state is in "professional, technical, financial, and business services," which includes stockbrokers, attorneys, accountants and information technology," while the fastest-growing segment was in health care, not surprising given the state's aging population.
And tonight on Montana Public Radio, you can hear the latest edition of Mountain West Voices.
Tune in at 8:25 p.m. to listen to Clay Scott share his personal stories of health care, both in the U.S. and abroad.
If you miss tonight's broadcast, you can listen online via the Mountain West Voices website.