Isaac Windes, Cronkite News

Recent Articles from Isaac Windes, Cronkite News

This Oct. 22, 2012, file photo shows a view from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park in Ariz. The impending closure of a coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation could lend momentum to a project being considered by tribal leaders to build a tram at the Grand Canyon to fill the economic void. The Grand Canyon Escalade project was brought up to Navajo Nation lawmakers and tribal members last fall by former Navajo Nation President Albert Hale as a solution to shrinking revenues from nonrenewable energies, (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

AZ/DC October 30, 2017

Lawmakers, advocates blast ‘misguided’ Grand Canyon fee hike plan

Arizona lawmakers and advocates are condemning proposed fee increases at the Grand Canyon and 16 other parks, a move the National Park Service said is badly needed to fund billions of dollars in backlogged maintenance projects.

The coal-fired Navajo Generating Station in northeast Arizona provides almost 1,000 jobs between the plant and the mine that supplies it, but the plant's operators have said they plan to shut it down after 2019. (Photo by Amber Brown/Courtesy SRP)

Peabody says potential buyers could keep Navajo Generating Station open

Navajo leaders expressed hope October 2 that the Navajo Generating Station will be able to continue operations past 2019, after Peabody Energy said it had come up with a list of potential investors in the plant.

The Sonoyta mud turtle is an aquatic species that lives in the Sonoran Desert, a difficult enough existence that experts say is being made harder by climate change. The federal government granted the turtle endangered species status on September 20. (Photo by George Andrejko/Arizona Game and Fish Department)

With as few as 100 left, Arizona turtle wins endangered species status

It may not be surprising that an “aquatic desert” turtle faces long odds in life, but environmentalists and biologists still welcomed this week’s endangered species designation for the Sonoyta mud turtle.

courts August 31, 2017

Court rejects bid to declare Sonoran Desert bald eagle endangered

A federal court has rejected a bid to declare the Sonoran Desert bald eagle an endangered species, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted properly when it determined the birds were no different than other bald eagles.

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