Colorado Plateau Episodes

After the Dragon Bravo Fire, Grand Canyon trail staff warned that the North Kaibab Trail faced years of heightened danger from debris flows, flash floods and rockfall. Yet the entire trail reopened in May 2026. Journalist Joe Dana of Phoenix's 12 News joins 90 Miles from Needles to discuss his reporting on internal National Park Service recommendations, pressure to restore public access, and the decisions made before the deadly August 29 Grand Canyon flood.

Dr. Jackie Grant explains how a Congressional Review Act attack on Grand Staircase–Escalante’s management plan could destabilize public-land planning nationwide, despite extensive local participation and the monument’s ecological and economic importance.

Journalist Zak Podmore connects proposed nuclear-waste storage in southeastern Utah with the rapid ecological recovery emerging from Lake Powell, asking who bears the nuclear fuel cycle’s costs and what a restored Glen Canyon could become.

Diné leader Davina Smith explains Bears Ears as a living cultural landscape, the legacy of her grandmothers' resistance and the necessity of Indigenous leadership in protecting sacred lands.