For more than half a century, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund has been supporting the purchase of land for public ownership and recreational access. The Appalachian Trail is just one of the beneficiaries.

With fast population growth in the Denver area and fierce competition for water, investors are behind a plan to import water from a Colorado mountain valley hundreds of miles away, a plan largely opposed by farmers and ranchers who depend on water in that valley.

Tiny spadefoot toads show scientists how they make drastic changes in their forms and behaviors in response to their environment.

Researchers explore how vertical migrations of giant swarms of marine animals like krill affect ocean circulation.

In Colorado, where climate change means less snowmelt and higher temperatures in rivers like the Yampa, residents are determined to do what they can to save the river by cooling it down.

In this age of recycling, researchers are trying to find recycling solutions for every kind of waste, and that includes human urine. Gary Strieker has the story.

Rock arches in the West, carved by water and wind, are amazing formations that scientists are finding can communicate to us.

Stricken by low flows and warming water that is lethal to trout, Colorado’s Yampa River suffers from climate change. Volunteers plant trees on its banks to provide cooling shade.

With nutrient runoff a problem where farms use poultry litter to fertilize fields, researchers are finding ways to recycle litter into nitrogen and other useful chemicals.

The federal Land and Water Conservation Fund has been essential in supporting the purchase of land for public ownership and recreation across the country. Congress let the Fund expire last year, then reauthorized it this year, and conservationists are now hoping that money will be authorized for the Fund to continue to protect natural treasures like Cape Romain in South Carolina. Gary Strieker reports.