Brian Maffly
Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake City, UT, United States
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Recent articles by Brian:
Arches, Canyonlands to reopen, thanks to state snowplowing the roads and nonprofits staffing the parks
Once again, Utah taxpayers and nonprofits are bailing out the national parks. → Read More
Along Utah’s Jordan River, birders of a feather count together at yuletide
Bluffdale • With a dozen other dedicated birders, Charles Hurd ambled slowly, deliberately Tuesday along the Jordan River. → Read More
Shutdown means no money to plow roads as snowfall closes Arches, Canyonlands
With fresh snow covering the roads and no personnel available to plow them, Arches and Canyonlands national parks shut their gates Monday as the federal government’s partial shutdown ground into its second week. → Read More
Feds hold biggest Utah oil and gas auction in years, setting off heightened concerns from environmentalists
The Trump administration’s “energy dominance” agenda reasserted itself in Utah on Tuesday with yet another near-record oil and gas lease auction that offered 154,000 acres to the highest bidder, drawing jeers from environmentalists who contend the Bureau of Land Management is sacrificing the state’s natural heritage. → Read More
Utah wants to put a price tag on its public lands, but is the effort worth it?
What would Utah’s 35 million acres of federally managed public lands be worth if they were privately owned? → Read More
Environmentalists, feds and Utahns agree: Don’t send Green River water to Colorado
If there is one issue that could unite environmentalists, rural Utah counties, power companies and federal agencies, it would be a proposal to funnel 55,000 acre-feet of water from the Beehive State across the Continental Divide to feed a neighboring state’s urban growth. → Read More
Utah says no to EnergySolutions accepting depleted uranium from military, but will it change course in the future?
Radioactive munitions won’t be buried in Utah’s West Desert anytime soon after a decision issued Thursday by state regulators, who rejected EnergySolutions’ emergency request to accept several thousand tons of armor-piercing projectile points made of heavier-than-lead depleted uranium. → Read More
A year after southern Utah’s Brian Head Fire, the aspens are bouncing back in a surprising way that could strengthen the forest
Brian Head • This past summer, a year after 72,000 acres of high-elevation woodlands burned around southwestern Utah’s Markagunt Plateau, residents of the nearby resort town of Brian Head noticed something strange: Tiny white cottony puffs drifted through the air and piled up on the ground like a downy blanket. → Read More
Hikers moaned when Zion Narrows was closed. Here are five other popular Utah destinations where private property questions could threaten access.
Zion National Park stunned visitors recently when it stopped issuing permits for one of its bucket-list hikes, the 16-mile slot-canyon journey through the Zion Narrows, after the family that owns land the route crosses posted signs indicating access was subject to “trespassing fees.” → Read More
Get a wild horse and $1k. It’s the latest offer to reduce the number of penned animals that some think should be slaughtered.
Federal land managers are so desperate to reduce the staggering number of wild horses held in permanent captivity they will pay $1,000 for every horse you adopt, as long as you promise to provide a good home. → Read More
Utah just experienced its driest year since scientists have kept records
Since official weather records have been kept, Utah has never experienced a year with as little precipitation as it did in 2018 and only one previous year registered higher average temperatures. → Read More
Criticism high, bidding low for Utah’s biggest oil, gas lease sale since the Bush years. Sensitive areas near Canyonlands auctioned.
Critics have been saying it for months. Under President Donald Trump, Utah’s scenic public lands are being sold off to the highest bidder. → Read More
Fires close part of southern Utah’s Bryce Canyon
Sparked by lightning several days ago, two wind-whipped wildfires burning near the southeastern edge of Bryce Canyon National Park expanded quickly Saturday, forcing some trail closures. → Read More
The fragile artifacts of John Wesley Powell’s famed expedition to Utah will be on display, but just for one day
Earlier this year, University of Utah geology professor Marjorie Chan was giving a speech at Illinois State University when she told her host, Dave Malone, about her interest in Western Americana and her desire to visit area antique shops. → Read More
Why is the Great Salt Lake half red and half blue?
A railroad causeway built in 1959 cut Utah’s Great Salt Lake into two very different lakes, ecologically speaking, as seen in this striking drone footage posted by ABC News on Wednesday. The water north of the causeway is a deep red, reflecting its highly saline chemistry. → Read More
Utah copes with drying streams, dying animals as drought tightens its grip — with no relief in sight
After one of the hottest and driest summers on record, Utah’s water supplies are so low that agricultural water deliveries have been cut short, stream gauges need to be repositioned to measure paltry flows, young deer and elk are dying and ranchers are liquidating their herds. → Read More
Why is Emigration Creek — a historic Utah waterway — dry? Blame runs from climate change to drought to development to water-sucking wells.
The creek winding down Emigration Canyon once sustained Mormon pioneers’ inaugural crops planted in the summer of 1847 and helped water the Intermountain West’s first major settlement for decades. → Read More
Is Utah coal bound for Baja California? Officials strike a deal with the Mexican state, where a port could ship it overseas.
The West’s coal country has long sought to offset declining domestic coal consumption through exports to Pacific Rim countries. But politically liberal West Coast cities and states have gotten in the way, obstructing proposals for new coal-handling terminals. → Read More
What the new plans mean for mining, grazing, recreation and artifacts in Grand Staircase and Bears Ears
Mining and drilling would not be allowed in the 1 million acres remaining in Grand Staircase, along with 210,000 acres removed from the monument. That would leave nearly 700,000 acres stripped from the monument open to mining for coal, tar sands and other minerals and drilling for oil and gas — with some stipulations to protect nonmineral resources. The Bureau of Land Management’s preferred… → Read More
Stay out of Utah Lake, health officials warn, as algal danger spreads
Utah Lake has become one big, toxic bowl of cyanobacteria soup. → Read More