#us west

[americaisdead]

tucumcari, n. mex. august 2025

© tag christof

[hayderricks]

Hello occupants of the US Mountain West and surrounding locales. I am currently undergoing a project to locate as many surviving hay derricks as possible. They are a passion of mine. These are some models of various forms, though many have unique base constructions, so if you see something kinda similar to one of these images, its probably a regional variant (unless it's a grain auger, my mortal enemy). There will be examples throughout the blog if you're unsure.

If you know the location of one, please let me know. I have anon enabled to ensure there are no doxxing concerns, if you don't want to comment directly. If you like, I won't even publish the asks.

(Please be specific enough that I can find it on Google street view or something, you don't have to know the address, just say something like "X farm in X place", "near mile marker X on X highway," or "X street in X." Too many people on facebook and image websites will maybe list the state they took the photo in and nothing else, it drives me crazy, I spent hours searching the Salina area in Utah on maps until I finally found the specific location of a photo I found).

More of these are pulled down every year, and I want to try and find as many as I can to try and preserve some of the history surrounding old farm equipment.

[rjzimmerman]

Corporations Plunder US West’s Water Amid Worst Drought in 1,200 Years

Profiteering companies are lining up to buy water rights in the western US as the water supply dwindles.

Excerpt from this story from Truthout:

Rural La Paz County, Arizona, positioned on the Colorado River across from California, is at the center of a growing fight over water in the American Southwest. At the heart of the battle is a question: Should water be treated as a human right, to be allocated by governments with the priority of sustaining life? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold and invested in for the greatest profits?

As the West suffers its worst megadrought in 1,200 years, investors have increasingly eyed water as a valuable asset and a resource to be exploited. For years, investment firms have bought up farmland throughout the Southwest, drilling to new depths for their water-hungry crops and causing nearby wells to run dry. Now, new players have entered the scene: “Water management companies” are purchasing up thousands of acres of farmland, with the intention of selling the water rights at a profit to cities and suburbs elsewhere in the state. Some argue that treating water as a commodity can efficiently get it where it is needed most. But others fear that water markets open the door to profiteering and hoarding, leaving poorer communities in the dust.

In 2013 and 2014, GSC Farm, a subsidiary of a water management company called Greenstone Resource Partners, which is backed by MassMutual, bought nearly 500 acres of farmland in Cibola, a tiny town in Arizona’s La Paz County, for just under $10 million. The farmland comes with the rights to more than 2,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water a year. (An acre-foot is the amount of water it takes to cover one acre with one foot of water.) Then in 2018, Greenstone sold the water rights, in perpetuity, to Queen Creek, a rapidly growing suburb of Phoenix nearly 200 miles away, for $24 million.

The transfer marked the first time a water management company sold Colorado River water rights. La Paz and two other counties sued to block the transfer, arguing that the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that oversees water resource management, had conducted an insufficient environmental review before signing off. The counties’ request for a preliminary injunction was denied in April 2023 by a federal judge, and three months later the water began flowing down the Central Arizona Project, a 336-mile canal. Then, the judge seemingly backtracked in February 2024, ordering a more thorough environmental review.

“In the meantime, they’re still allowing for the water to flow, which we argued should have been stopped completely until the complete environmental studies have been done,” Holly Irwin, a La Paz County supervisor, told Truthout. “It’s really frustrating, not only for myself, but for the other leaders and elected officials in what we refer to as the river communities.”

The ultimate results of the lawsuit could affect how easily water management companies are able to transfer river water rights for profit in the future.

“I’ve had people already contacting me, asking, ‘Hey, look, I’m looking to buy this piece of property. It’s got water rights. Can it be transferred off the Colorado River?’” said Irwin. “Which is what we knew was going to happen. They just opened up Pandora’s box.”

Companies like Greenstone are betting that the price of water will increase. Western states generally allocate water through a “prior appropriation” policy of “first in time, first in right.” In times of shortage, those with the most senior water claims — often farmers and ranchers whose ancestors claimed Native land — are allotted their full share of water first. Now, companies like Greenstone are lining up to buy those increasingly valuable water rights.

The Colorado River provides drinking water to 40 million people across seven U.S. states, two Mexican states, and multiple tribal lands. Since 1922, its water has been allocated among the states through a framework created by the Colorado River Compact. But river volume has decreased 20 percent since the beginning of the century, leading to tense renegotiations, with the three “lower basin” states — California, Arizona and Nevada — agreeing to reduce their water shares.

Compared to Colorado River water, groundwater tends to be less regulated. Major investment banks have spent hundreds of millions buying up farms with claims to the groundwater beneath them — part of a larger movement by investors into physical assets like lumber, buildings and infrastructure.

Once pumped, groundwater aquifers in warm, dry places can take thousands of years to replenish. In an effort to conserve water basins, Arizona passed the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, heavily restricting groundwater pumping in several urban “active-management areas” (AMAs), including the Phoenix and Tucson areas. It also mandated that developers obtain a state Certificate of Assured Water Supply, demonstrating their new projects have enough water for 100 years. The law is credited as a success for protecting water levels in urban areas. But its lack of restrictions on groundwater removal from rural basins has become a concern as the state population swells and rural wells run dry.

[datarep]

COVID-19: Confirmed Cases, US West Coast 3/1 to 3/7

[placeswordsdreams]

Pacific Crest Trail

by Robin Lid

[rjzimmerman]

Clean Energy Solutions that Protect People and Nature in the West

Power of Place-West is The Nature Conservancy’s new report that evaluated energy, economic, environmental, and geospatial data to produce the most comprehensive clean energy analysis to date for the 11 Western grid states.

The results are very good news for the U.S. West

Western states can affordably and reliably meet all their future energy needs, achieve economy-wide net-zero greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2050, and avoid the loss of their most sensitive natural areas and working lands.

Energy planning that includes land use considerations can dramatically reduce impacts to wildlife and natural areas at minimal additional cost.

Combining rapid electrification, renewable energy, and the full array of carbon neutral energy technologies is an optimal approach to avoid conflicts and accelerate clean energy deployment.

High Electrification— the “Goldilocks” Solution

The economy-wide modeling scenario that emerged with the best balance of natural area and working lands conservation with energy deployment, net-zero emissions reductions by 2050, and minimal cost increases is called the High Electrification Scenario. This scenario combines solar, onshore and offshore wind, geothermal, biomass, hydrogen, some existing hydroelectric and nuclear, gas with carbon capture, direct air capture, and battery storage technologies.  The High Electrification Scenario would save nearly 50% more natural areas and working lands than pursuing current energy development practices, but cost only 3% more per year. It is also 7% cheaper per year than solely pursuing renewable energy technologies to meet 2050 goals.

[rjzimmerman]

More Wolves, Beavers Could Help Western Lands

Rewilding the American West with key species like wolves and beavers will revive the ecosystem, researchers say.

Excerpt from this story from Treehugger:

One of the areas hit hard by climate change is the American West. To help restore the faltering ecosystem, a team of researchers suggests rewilding the lands with wolves and beavers. They say adding the animals would help restore key ecological processes

“We were very concerned about the converging crises in the American West, including extreme droughts and heatwaves, loss of biodiversity, massive wildfires, and water scarcity,” co-lead author Christopher Wolf, a postdoctoral scholar in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, tells Treehugger.

“We felt these crises could be partially addressed through broad-scale rewilding of wolves and beaver, which can have many important co-benefits.”

Wolves and beavers have an important impact on the environment, the authors say, because they have far-reaching, rippling effects on their habitats.

In their paper, the team of 20 scientists suggests establishing a network of federal reserve areas. They propose an end to livestock grazing on some federal lands while restoring the gray wolf and North American beaver populations because the animals play such important roles.

“In the process of building dams, beavers have many important ecological effects such as improving water quality, enhancing riparian (river bank) habitat for plant and animal species and increasing carbon sequestration, which can help mitigate climate change,” Wolf explains.

“Likewise, gray wolves have many key ecological benefits. By controlling overabundant native ungulates (mammals with hooves), wolves support a variety of species, including aspen, which is a keystone species that in turn provides critical habitat for many plants and animals.”

The researchers suggest the rewilding effort to further President Joe Biden’s “America the Beautiful” plan to protect and conserve 30% of land and water in the United States by 2030. He challenged Americans to “conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife upon which we all depend.”

The team details a three-step approach focused on the gray wolf (Canis lupus) and the North American beaver (Castor canadensis). First, they suggest phasing down allotments for livestock grazing. Additionally, they propose restoring and protecting gray wolves and reintroducing beavers in appropriate areas.