The bad news is that Colorado lawmakers have turned to savings accounts for dams, canals, and pipelines to cope with a budget crisis that's entering its third year.

The flooding that swamped large areas of the Midwest took with it some of the region's  most valuable resource: soil

Drought has returned to Southeastern Colorado and is stressing rangeland, according to the federal agency that oversees conservation of natural resources. The U.S. Drought Monitor this week shows some parts of the state entering moderate to severe drought conditions.

Climate scientists using computer models to simulate the 1930s Dust Bowl on the U.S Great Plains have found that dust raised by 

The state also started asking residents to prepare for what could be an active flood season, advising homeowners to check flood insurance and to buy coverage if none was in place. "It appears we have a very challenging year ahead of us," said Harris Sherman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

Snowfall in the mountains of southern Colorado - including the Animas, Dolores and San Juan river basins - exceeds its average by more than any other area in the state, according to the Natural Resource Conservation Service.<!-- end first_paragraph --> <!-- body -->The NRCS considers the Arkansas and Rio Grande river valleys as well as the three basins in Southwest Colorado as

Tracking snow levels is a job for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. In the mid-1930s, the U.S. Congress mandated the service, then the Soil Conservation Service, to measure and track snowpack in the Western United States and Alaska. Until 1980 these measurements were taken manually.