Bringing non-native zebra mussels into Glen Canyon National Recreation Area can be a costly proposition. One individual who failed to decontaminate their boat of the mussels recently was ordered to pay $2,500 in restitution costs.

As energy prices creep steadily higher, there's a growing segment of America that believes short-term relief can literally be tapped from fossil-fuel resources in the Western states. But many of those resources are found on public lands that buffer national parks, national wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas, and their development could have dire consequences for those landscapes.

In a bid to keep non-native and invasive Zebra and Quagga mussels out of Lake Powell, officials at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are beginning random inspections of boats heading to the reservoir.

Climate change is taking it on the chin in the Rockies this winter. So much snow has fallen in the Intermountain West that when it melts it's expected to raise the level of Lake Powell by some 50 feet, to the highest point it's been since 2002.