New Mexico is facing a potentially devastating wildfire season this year after experiencing record-setting fires during the last two years. This season is shaping up to be one of the worst as a decade of drought drains moisture from forest fuels and average temperatures continue to rise, The Albuquerque Journal reported.

According to a recent Durango Herald article, Sen. Ellen Roberts (R-Durango) recently won unanimous support for Senate Bill 41 in the agriculture committee. Her bill counteracts a 2011 Supreme Court ruling on the Yampa River that said reservoir owners cannot get an absolute right to water in their reservoirs unless it is all put to beneficial use. Colorado law has a use it or lose it approach to water in order to prevent hoarding or speculation. But legislators and their allies in the water business think the court took that doctrine to an extreme. “The Supreme Court basically issued us an invitation to do something different than what their case came up with,” Roberts said. Denver Water CEO Jim Lochhead said that unless the bill passes and reverses the Supreme Court ruling, utilities would have to suck their reservoirs dry before they could get new water rights. “It’s hopefully stepping back to a time where it’s a much more practical reading of the law,” Lochhead said. The bill says storing water for firefighting and drought mitigation is a beneficial use, and that water rights can’t be considered to be abandoned when the water is in long-term storage.

With persistent drought conditions across Colorado and low reservoir levels in the southwest, water resource managers are looking at a potentially long and arid summer. Following a dry 2012, the warmest year on record, reservoir levels were already on the low side. Reservoir storage exactly one year ago sat at 104 percent of average, which helped the area get through late summer shortages.

Lake Powell won’t be looking its best for its 50th birthday this year. The key reservoir in the Colorado River Basin is almost 100 feet below full pool and recently dipped to below 50 percent capacity, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s operations update. Specifically, the reservoir level was 98.5 feet below full as of March 11, and at 49 percent of capacity.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife recently stocked rainbow trout in three reservoirs in southwest Colorado and fishing should be excellent at those locations. The reservoirs are Totten Reservoir - 5,000 fish, just east of Cortez; Summit Reservoir, - 5,000 fish, located about 8 miles northwest of Mancos on Colo.

Some of the West’s biggest reservoirs could dry up completely as the region gets warmer and drier in coming decades, and major increases in storage capacity probably won’t help address regional water shortages, according to a new study authored by researchers with Colorado State University, Princeton and the U.S. Forest Service.

Colorado faces a "pretty dismal" outlook in terms of snow pack and reservoir storage over the next three months, according to one of the presenters Thursday participating in the National Drought Early Warning Outlook in Washington, D.C.

A Drought not only dries up the land, but also the pocket book. During the Colorado State University (CSU) Extension 2013 Southern Rocky Mountain Agricultural Conference held this week in Monte Vista, CSU Agriculture and Resource Economics Professor James Pritchett shared results from a 2012 survey asking producers from around the state about their relatio

Senators took action Thursday to deflect a state Supreme Court ruling that could make it difficult to keep water in reservoirs – just as drought is tightening its grip on much of the state. The bill is among several this year that add up to the Legislature’s biggest push in years to conserve water and store it for dry years. Sen.