Environment

Joe Downtown: Challenges daunting but foundation solid for conservation league, departing official says: Tuesday, May 21, 2013; By Joe Schoenmann; As Scot Rutledge prepares to leave Las Vegas after seven years heading the Nevada Conservation League, he has to take some pride in how far his organization has come since he took the reins. At the same time, he admits the environmental challenges facing his organization and the state are daunting. One of the biggest, he predicts, will be if and when the state starts to deal with climate changes brought on by global warming.

Big trout saved from close call with extinction: Thursday, May 16, 2013; conservation:; Tom Knudson, Sacramento Bee; Hour after hour, Brian Dunn lofted his fly line into the turquoise-blue water of this shimmering desert lake north of Reno. Finally, just after lunch, his line straightened and a smile spread on his face. Before long, a 6-pound, 25-inch-long cutthroat trout was splashing in the net.

To citizen legislator Mo Denis: Don't forget about the rest of us citizens: Friday, May 3, 2013; J. Patrick Coolican:; By J. Patrick Coolican; Catching up on the news after a little vacation, and, oh, look, it’s like I never left -- a state senator has offered up some cheesy legislation that would help his old boss.

PEPCON anniversary serves as reminder: Hazardous materials emergencies could occur in Clark County: Friday, May 3, 2013; Disaster preparedness:; By Tovin Lapan; After the 1988 PEPCON blast, Clark County commissioners attempted to encourage development of industrial sites farther away from population centers, and the Apex site was developed north of Las Vegas. Today the companies with the largest quantity of hazardous materials near large population centers in the valley are in and around the Basic Management Inc. complex, a 5,000-acre county island surrounded by Henderson.

No desert oasis necessary for plants offered at this sale: Thursday, April 25, 2013; By Brian Nordli; Nursery manager Amy Dunn tends to more plants at the Las Vegas State Tree Nursery than she can count. Tucked into the corner of Floyd Lamb Park off a gravel road, the nursery is home to hundreds of plants indigenous to Southern Nevada.Underneath a stretch of shaded area, there are rows upon rows of trees and shrubs sprouting up from buckets filled with soil, sand and fertilizer. There are desert willows and desert almonds, eucalyptus trees and honey mesquites. They range from older 3-foot-tall bright green shrubs to young tiny seedlings peeking out of a dirt-filled yellow test tube.

Which bills made the cut in the Nevada Legislature? Here are the biggest: Wednesday, April 24, 2013; Politics:; By Anjeanette Damon, Andrew Doughman; Tuesday was a big day for scores of bills in the Nevada Legislature — a day when measures died or traveled to the opposite house, where they may encounter more hostile territory for their second round of hearings.

Whole Foods' standards, labeling among industry's most stringent, analysts say: Thursday, April 18, 2013; Brian Gaar, Austin (Texas) American-Statesman; In the past few years, Whole Foods Market has gotten much stricter about where its products come from. The natural foods grocer has rolled out a series of standards regarding animal welfare, seafood sustainability and genetically modified ingredients — to name a few — that is unprecedented in scope for a major food retailer.

Las Vegas flips the switch on 15,000 solar panels: Thursday, April 18, 2013; By Conor Shine; With the flip of a switch, Las Vegas city officials today celebrated the powering up of 15,000 new solar panels that will provide energy to a nearby wastewater treatment plant.

Environmental group, opposed to pipeline, suggests ways to solve Las Vegas water woes: Wednesday, April 17, 2013; By Cy Ryan; An environmental group says tighter conservation restrictions and limiting development areas in the Las Vegas Valley should be imposed rather than siphoning water from rural Nevada to serve the growing urban needs in Southern Nevada.

Coalition of conservation groups dubs Colorado ‘America’s most endangered river’: Wednesday, April 17, 2013; By Tovin Lapan; American Rivers has named the Colorado River "America's most endangered river" for 2013.

High winds kick up brown cloud of dust in Las Vegas: Monday, April 15, 2013; By Sun Staff; High winds across the western Mojave Desert overnight have brought a brown cloud of dust into the valley, but the dust has not reached unhealthy levels, Clark County air quality officials said.

Hundreds of Las Vegas area schools conducting earthquake drills: Tuesday, April 9, 2013; By William D'Urso; Las Vegas area schools will conduct earthquake drills today to help students learn how to protect themselves if disaster strikes. Conducted by the Clark County Fire Department, the drills will cover about 450 schools.

With drought season off to a bad start, scientists forecast another bleak year: Tuesday, April 2, 2013; By Katherine Bagley, InsideClimate News; Drought conditions in more than half of the United States have slipped into a pattern that climatologists say is uncomfortably similar to the most severe droughts in recent U.S. history, including the 1930s Dust Bowl and the widespread 1950s drought.

Clark County issues air quality advisory, with nod to ozone effects: Monday, April 1, 2013; By Jackie Valley; It’s that time of year again. Officials have issued an air quality advisory, effective through Sept. 30, related to ground-level ozone in Southern Nevada.

Utah governor agonizing over Nevada's water play: Thursday, March 28, 2013; Paul Foy, Associated Press; Utah Gov. Gary Herbert is struggling over whether to let Las Vegas pump massive amounts of groundwater from the Nevada-Utah border.