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Volcano monitoring

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Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the U.S. Geological Survey have developed a radar-based volcano monitoring system.  The purpose is to provide situational awareness of volcano behavior and identify volcanoes that are becoming restless before other more obvious indications like earthquake activity occur.

The system is called VolcSARvatory and makes use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar to detect ground movement changes as small as one centimeter.  It utilizes two or more radar images from satellites taken at different times.  The images are used to create a time series of data from a single location.

The system has been in operation since early 2022 and proved to be valuable in studying the unexpected activity at the long-quiet Mount Edgecumbe volcano near Sitka, Alaska where conventional monitoring was not taking place.

According to the researchers, the technology has evolved to the point where it can be operational at a national level.  The goal is to provide a consistent approach to monitoring active volcanoes.

Volcanoes are not a rare and unlikely source of potential danger in this country.  The volcanoes of Hawaii are the best-known active volcanoes in the United States, but Alaska has about 140 volcanoes that are technically classified as active, with more than 50 that have been active within the past 300 years.  In total, 169 U.S. volcanoes are classified as active including ones in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

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Alaska-developed volcano monitoring system will expand across U.S.

Photo, posted March 18, 2013, courtesy of Jeffrey Wickett / USFS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The battle over wolves

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Thirty years ago, wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park.  Grey wolves had almost disappeared entirely throughout the northern Rockies.  They were listed as endangered by the federal government since 1974.  The reintroduction was hailed as a wildly successful effort yielding significant benefits to Yellowstone’s ecosystems.

Since then, wolf populations have increased greatly across the West.  There are at least 7,000 or 8,000 wolves living in Western States.  But this conservation triumph is considered a plague by some residents of those states.   Wolves kill livestock, game animals, and sometimes pets.

Because of this backlash, federal protections have been lifted in some states, leaving wolf management up to state agencies.  Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and parts of Utah have no federal protections and hunting wolves is legal.  Initial, careful hunting quotas in some states have given way to widespread killing driven by anti-wolf sentiment. 

Emotions run high with regard to wolves, and unlike that of other protected species, the fate of wolves is a matter of politics rather than science or law.  State legislatures have gotten involved, often trying to prove that they hate wolves more than the next guy. 

Wolves are resilient animals and are likely to survive unless there is an organized government strategy like what took place in the 1900s with unlimited poisoning and shooting.  But experts note that wolf populations must persist at a high enough level in order to play important ecological roles.

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As Wolf Populations Rebound, an Angry Backlash Intensifies

Photo, posted March 7, 2023, courtesy of Eric Kilby via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wildlife crossings

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Every year, there are one to two million collisions between motor vehicles and large animals in the U.S.  About 200 people are killed annually.  Counting smaller vertebrates, around a million animals are killed by vehicles each day.  Research has shown that global warming is triggering widespread species redistribution.  As a result, more and more animals are on the move, changing their habitats to escape warming temperatures and climate extremes.

This situation has created renewed interest in creating wildlife crossings.  These are various kinds of structures that allow animals to traverse human-made barriers like highways.  They include such things as a grassy overpass that allows pronghorn to run across a highway in Wyoming and a long underpass that allows tigers to scamper beneath a highway in India.

In the U.S., there are more than 1,000 wildlife crossings and there are more being built all the time.  Data shows that they are highly effective.  A study of wildlife crossings on Highway 9 through the Blue River Valley in Colorado found that they reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions by nearly 90%. 

Wildlife crossing structures can be expensive to build, costing between $500,000 and $6 million, but research has shown that the money saved by avoiding crashes can recoup these costs in just a few years along with the fact that they potentially save lives.  Federal funding is largely distributed based on areas with the highest number of wildlife-vehicle collisions, which is crucial for addressing public safety issues.  However, a recent study suggests that future proposals need to incorporate climate-driven changes in animal behavior and habitat.

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As Climate Changes Fuels Animal Movement, Will These Structures Still Help Species Cross the Road?

Photo, posted April 5, 2017, courtesy of Jeffrey Beall via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Solar energy on federal land

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Officials at the federal Bureau of Land Management announced late in August that they had finalized a plan to add Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming to the Western Solar Plan, which started during the Obama era.   The plan, created in 2012, provides permitting for solar projects on federal land.  The original plan included Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

The Western Solar Plan is a major expansion for clean energy production in the Bureau of Land Management’s land leasing portfolio.  For decades, the BLM has leased tens of millions of acres of federal land to fossil fuel companies for oil, coal, and natural gas exploration and production.

The new addition includes 1.1 million acres of land in Oregon, an area larger than the entire state of Rhode Island.  The land selected is deemed to be of low risk for any adverse environmental effects from solar installation, and the plots of land are all within 15 miles of existing or planned electrical transmission lines.  A little over 50% of Oregon’s land is owned by the federal government and is managed primarily by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.

The publication of the finalized plan at the end of August initiated a 30-day period for any participants in the initial planning to voice objections.  The governors of the 5 new states are reviewing the plan.  Final approval and adoption are expected later this year.

Western states need to expand solar and other clean energy production to meet their climate goals and federal lands will have to play an important role.

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Plan would make 1 million acres of federal land in Oregon available for solar energy projects

Photo, posted May 20, 2024, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Keeping The Colorado River Flowing | Earth Wise

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The Colorado River supplies drinking water to 40 million Americans in seven states as well as to many Mexicans and provides irrigation to 5.5 million acres of farmland.  Electricity generated by dams on the Colorado powers millions of homes and businesses in the West.

A combination of drought, population growth, and climate change has reduced the river’s flows by a third in recent years compared with historical averages.  Further reductions could trigger a water and power catastrophe across the Western states.

California, Arizona, and Nevada all get water from Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by the Colorado at Hoover Dam.  The Interior Department determines how much water each of these three states receives.  The other states that use Colorado River water get it directly from the river and its tributaries.  Last summer, water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell fell enough that officials feared that the hydroelectric turbines at the Colorado’s dams would soon cease functioning.

The three states have recently struck an agreement with the federal government to take less water from the Colorado.  The reductions amount to about 13% of the total water use in the lower Colorado.  The government will pay about $1.2 billion to irrigation districts, cities, and Native American tribes for temporarily using less water.  The states have also agreed to make additional cuts to generate the total reductions needed to prevent the collapse of the river.

The agreement runs only through the end of 2026.  At that point, all seven states that rely on the river – which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming – may well be facing a deeper reckoning.  The forces driving the decline of the Colorado are not going away.

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A Breakthrough Deal to Keep the Colorado River From Going Dry, for Now

Photo, posted June 16, 2017, courtesy Karen and Brad Emerson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

California Storms And The Megadrought | Earth Wise

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California experienced its wettest 10-day period in 25 years as a result of a series of storms driven by atmospheric rivers in January.  The Rocky Mountains got buried in snow from the same weather pattern.   For the drought-stricken West, the storms were good news.  But they are not the cure for what’s been ailing the region.

In California, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains has been greatly enhanced, containing twice as much snow as is considered average for this time of year.  Without a doubt, it will reduce the impact of the drought that has plagued the state for 23 years.  But one big storm or even a series of them is not enough to undo years of minimal precipitation and rising temperatures.  Many of the states’ largest reservoirs remain well below historical averages despite the record-breaking rain.  It would take several wet years to really allow the state to recover from the drought.

The snowfall in the Rockies is crucial because it is the source of more than two-thirds of the water in the Colorado River.  The Colorado River is the water lifeline for 40 million people from Wyoming to Mexico.

The ongoing shrinking of the Colorado River is a crisis that has created massive problems for the multibillion-dollar agriculture industry and for many large cities, including Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.  Two of the nation’s largest reservoirs – Lake Mead and Lake Powell – are filled by the Colorado River.  The historic low levels of these reservoirs have threatened the functioning of hydropower facilities that provide electricity to millions of people.

The January storms were good news for the West, but its problems are not over.

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This Winter’s Rain and Snow Won’t be Enough to Pull the West Out of Drought

Photo, posted September 18, 2022, courtesy of Sarah Stierch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon Capture In Wyoming | Earth Wise

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Wyoming produces about 40% of our country’s coal and many towns in the state were built because of and make their living from it.  With coal’s plummeting share in the nation’s electricity, there is a great deal of anxiety among residents of those towns.

As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to climb, there is a growing sense that cutting emissions will not happen quickly enough and it will be necessary to pull the greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.  The current long-term government climate strategy assumes that carbon removal will account for 6 to 8 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas reductions by 2050.

The Inflation Reduction Act passed in August provides $3.5 billion to help build “direct air capture hubs” around the country, with an emphasis on fossil fuel-dependent communities such as many in Wyoming. 

The town of Rock Springs, Wyoming is home to the Jim Bridger Coal Plant. A company called CarbonCapture, Inc., is launching Project Bison, which will build a direct air capture facility outside of town that is set to begin operations next year.  It will initially capture 10,000 metric tons of CO2 per year but plans to expand that to 5 million tons a year by 2030. 

That would be far more than any current carbon capture plant can do. The largest plant in the world, located in Iceland, pulls in only about 4,000 metric tons a year.

There are many problems associated with carbon capture.  It uses up very large amounts of energy, possibly presents environmental problems, and is very expensive.  In short, the technology has a long way to go before becoming viable.  However, this may ultimately be another example where necessity is the mother of invention.

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Carbon Removal Is Coming to Fossil Fuel Country. Can It Bring Jobs and Climate Action?

Photo, posted July 22, 2012, courtesy of Max Phillips via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Widespread Drought | Earth Wise

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As the U.S. enters the last part of the summer, fully one-third of the country is experiencing at least a moderate level of drought.   Much of the West is reaching severe drought conditions and New England has been unusually dry and hot.  In total, over 50 million Americans are living in drought-affected areas.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor program, more than 93% of Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico are experiencing drought to some degree.  More than 60% of both Utah and Colorado are in severe drought.   More than three-quarters of Oregon, Arizona, and Wyoming are also in drought.  And most of these areas had no sign of drought this time last year.

Severe drought conditions result in stunted and browning crops, limited pasture yields, dust storms, reduced well water levels, and an increase in the number and severity of wildfires.

Warm air temperatures and minimal snowfall in spring set the stage for this summer’s drought conditions.  A ridge of high pressure over the northeastern Pacific Ocean pushed the jet stream farther north than usual.  And, once again, there has been a failure of the southwestern monsoon in Arizona and New Mexico and the Four Corners region.  Monsoon rains provide half of the year’s precipitation in many of those areas. 

Instead, there has been extreme heat in the region.  Phoenix has already smashed the record for the most days over 110oF in a calendar year (42 as of August 18), with five months to go.  Las Vegas hasn’t seen measurable rainfall since April, and Cedar City, Utah has recorded a record low of 0.05 inches of rain this summer.

Conditions are not expected to get better for a couple of months.

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A Third of the U.S. Faces Drought

Photo, posted May 7, 2014, courtesy of Tyler Bell via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)