A thick, white band of newly exposed rock face stretches high above boaters’ heads at Lake Powell, creating a sharp contrast against the famous red desert terrain as their vessels weave through tight canyons that were once underwater.It’s a stark reminder of how far the water level has fallen at the massive reservoir on the Utah-Arizona border. Just last year, it was more than 15 meters higher. Now, the level at the popular destination for houseboat vacations is at a historic low amid a climate change-fueled megadrought engulfing the U.S. West.At Lake Powell, tents are tucked along shorelines that haven’t seen water for years. Bright-colored jet-skis fly across the water, passing kayakers, water-skiers and fishermen under a blistering desert sun. Closed boat ramps have forced some houseboats off the lake, leaving tourists and businesses scrambling. One ramp is so far above the water, people must carry kayaks and stand-up paddleboards down a steep cliff face to reach the surface.Houseboat-rental companies have had to cancel their bookings through August — one of their most popular months — after the National Park Service, which manages the lake, barred people from launching the vessels in mid-July.At the popular main launch point on Wahweap Bay, the bottom of the concrete ramp has been extended with steel pipes so boats can still get on the lake, but that solution will only last another week or two, the park service said.“It’s really sad that they’re allowing such a beautiful, beautiful place to fall apart,” said Bob Reed, who runs touring company Up Lake Adventures.Lake Powell is the second-largest reservoir in the United States, right behind Nevada’s Lake Mead, which also stores water from the Colorado River. Both are shrinking faster than expected, a dire concern for a seven-state region that relies on the river to supply water to 40 million people and a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry.They are among several large bodies of water in the U.S. West that have hit record lows this summer, including the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Lake Oroville in California is expected to reach a historic low by late August, with the state’s more than 1,500 reservoirs 50% lower than they should be this time of year.In 1983, Lake Powell’s water exceeded its maximum level of 1,127 meters and nearly overran Glen Canyon Dam. The lake is facing a new set of challenges having reached a record low of 1,082 meters last week.Government officials had to begin releasing water from sources upstream last month to keep the lake’s level from dropping so low it would have threatened hydropower supplied by the dam.A boat cruises along Lake Powell, July 31, 2021, near Page, Ariz.It comes as less snowpack flows into the Colorado River and its tributaries, and hot temperatures parch soil and cause more river water to evaporate as it streams through the drought-plagued American West. Studies have linked the region’s more than 20-year megadrought to human-caused climate change.Fluctuating water levels have long been a staple of Lake Powell, but National Park Service officials say the usual forecasts weren’t able to predict just how bad 2021 would be.Finger-pointing has started as boaters, local officials and the park service debate what to do now.“The park service has failed to plan,” area homeowner Bill Schneider said. “If it gets to the point where we’re so low that you can’t put boats in the water and you can’t come up with a solution to put boats in the water, why would you come to Lake Powell?”The 53-year-old bought a retirement home in nearby Page, Arizona, after completing 25 years of military service in February. He wanted to return to Wahweap Bay where he spent most of his childhood and teen years fishing, waterskiing and working odd jobs around the lake. But after watching how the lake has been managed, Schneider says he’s starting to regret it.Officials say they have solutions for families and boaters who sometimes plan years ahead to explore the glassy waters that extend into narrow red rock canyons and the tourism industry that depends on them.Visitors carry a kayak up a newly exposed cliff face beneath the closed Antelope Point launch ramp on Lake Powell, July 31, 2021, near Page, Ariz.Once the severity of the drought became clear, federal officials began looking for options to allow boat access at low water levels, said William Shott, superintendent of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where Lake Powell is located. The park service discovered an old ramp on Wahweap Bay that will be built out to support houseboats and smaller motorboats.Shott says he hopes the $3 million ramp can be completed by Labor Day weekend. The project is funded by the park service and lake concessionaire Aramark.The agency and officials from the town of Page, which relies on lake tourism, plan to open another old asphalt ramp to provide access for smaller boats while the larger one is updated.Tom Materna, who has been visiting Lake Powell for 20 years, launched his family’s 20-meter timeshare houseboat just hours before the main ramp closed but had to cut their vacation short as water levels dropped in mid-July.A houseboat rests in a cove at Lake Powell, July 30, 2021, near Page, Ariz.“They said no more launching out of the Wahweap ramp, so we were glad we made it out,” the Los Angeles resident said. “Then the next day I think or two days later, they called us up and told us that all launch and retrieve houseboats had to be off the lake.”Page Mayor Bill Diak said losing boat access to the lake could have devastating financial consequences for the city of 7,500.He said local leaders were “slow” to address dropping water levels and limited boat access but that he’s been working closer with park officials and concessionaires on solutions.“We could have been a little bit more proactive on planning but we’re moving in the right direction now working together,” Diak said.He stressed that the impact of climate change needs to be addressed, noting that the U.S. West could be facing far more pressing issues than lake access if the drought continues for another 20 years.One silver lining, Shott says, is the park service can build boat ramps that are usable even during record drought years. Over $8 million in other low-water projects also are under way.“Even if we did have a crystal ball and we saw that these lake levels were going to get this low, we couldn’t have prevented it anyways,” Shott said. “With that said, we’re taking advantage of the low water now.”Troy Sherman, co-owner of a business renting environmentally friendly anchors to houseboats, said the marina housing Beach Bags Anchors shut down shortly after his company launched in spring 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. It relaunched this year but had to cancel 95% of its bookings in July when ramps closed to houseboats.“Until there’s really access to a ramp again to put houseboats in, my business is kind of in a holding pattern,” Sherman said. “But we’ll totally persevere; it’s what you have to do.” 
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A 3-week-old wildfire engulfed a tiny Northern California mountain town, leveling most of its historic downtown and leaving blocks of homes in ashes, while a new wind-whipped blaze also destroyed homes as crews braced for another explosive run of flames Thursday in the midst of dangerous weather.The Dixie Fire, fed by bone-dry vegetation and 64-kph gusts, raged through the northern Sierra Nevada community of Greenville on Wednesday evening. A gas station, church, hotel, museum and bar were among many fixtures gutted in the town, which dates to California’s Gold Rush era and had some structures more than a century old.The fire “burnt down our entire downtown. Our historical buildings, families’ homes, small businesses, and our children’s schools are completely lost,” Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss wrote on Facebook. The sheriff’s department said there was “widespread devastation throughout the area.””We lost Greenville tonight,” U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who represents the area, said in an emotional Facebook video. “There’s just no words.”As the fire’s north and eastern sides exploded Wednesday, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning online to the town’s approximately 800 residents: “You are in imminent danger and you MUST leave now!”A similar warning was issued Thursday for residents of another tiny mountain community, Taylorsville, as flames pushed toward the southeast. To the northwest, crews were protecting homes in the town of Chester. Thousands remained under evacuation orders or warnings.The growing blaze that broke out July 21 is the state’s largest current wildfire and had blackened more than 1,305 square kilometers, territory larger than the city of Los Angeles. The cause is under investigation, but Pacific Gas & Electric has said it may have been sparked when a tree fell on one of its power lines.Flames consume a home on Highway 89 as the Dixie Fire tears through the Greenville community of Plumas County, Calif., on Aug. 4, 2021.The fire was burning near the town of Paradise, which largely was destroyed in a 2018 wildfire that became the nation’s deadliest in at least a century and was blamed on PG&E equipment.Ken Donnell left Greenville on Wednesday, thinking he’d be right back after a quick errand a few towns over. He was unable to return as the flames swept through. All he has now are the clothes on his back and his old pickup truck, he said. He’s pretty sure his office and house, with the go-bag he had prepared, are gone.Donnell remembered assisting victims of 2018’s devastating Camp Fire, in which about 100 friends lost their homes. “Now I have a thousand friends lose their home in a day,” he said. “We’re all stunned.”By Thursday, the Dixie Fire had become the sixth-largest fire in state history, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. Four of the state’s other five largest wildfires were all in 2020.To the north, Lassen Volcanic National Park was closed to all visitors.There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths. Dozens of homes had already burned before the flames made a new run on Wednesday.”We did everything we could,” fire spokesperson Mitch Matlow said. “Sometimes it’s just not enough.”About 160 kilometers to the south, officials said between 35 and 40 homes and other structures burned in the fast-moving River Fire that broke out Wednesday near Colfax, a town of about 2,000. Within hours it ripped through nearly 10 square kilometers of dry brush and trees. There was no containment and about 6,000 people were under evacuation orders across Placer and Nevada counties, according to Cal Fire.Flames from the Dixie Fire consume a pickup truck on Highway 89 south of Greenville on Aug. 5, 2021, in Plumas County, Calif. In Colfax, Jamie Brown ate breakfast Thursday morning in a downtown restaurant while waiting to learn if his house was still standing or not.He evacuated his property near Rollins Lake on Wednesday when “it looked like the whole town was going to burn down.” Conditions had calmed a bit by Thursday, and he was hoping for the best.”I figure I better have a nice breakfast before I lose my home,” he said. “My house is right in the way if the wind puts the fire on a separate path.”After firefighters made progress earlier in the week, red flag weather conditions of high heat, low humidity and gusty afternoon and evening winds erupted Wednesday and were expected to be a continued threat.Winds were expected to change direction multiple times on Thursday, putting pressure on firefighters at sections of the fire that haven’t seen activity in several days, officials said.The trees, grass and brush were so dry that “if an ember lands, you’re virtually guaranteed to start a new fire,” Matlow said.And about 240 kilometers to the west of the Dixie Fire, the lightning-sparked McFarland Fire threatened remote homes along the Trinity River in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The fire was only 7% contained after burning through nearly 85 square kilometers of drought-stricken vegetation.Similar risky weather was expected across Southern California, where heat advisories and warnings were issued for interior valleys, mountains and deserts for much of the week.Heat waves and historic drought tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in America’s West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.More than 20,000 firefighters and support personnel were battling 97 large, active wildfires covering 7,560 square kilometers in 13 U.S. states, the National Interagency Fire Center said. 
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Thursday it will begin releasing two new reports on cattle sales next week, after ranchers and members of Congress raised concerns about possible anti-competitive behavior in the market. The reports follow a July executive order from President Joe Biden that calls for the federal government to promote competition in the U.S. economy. Ranchers raised concerns about the beef market after cattle prices tumbled last year when COVID-19 outbreaks temporarily shut slaughterhouses, removing markets for livestock. At the same time, profit margins soared for companies like Tyson Foods Inc. and JBS USA that process beef for consumers. Four companies slaughter about 85% of U.S. grain-fattened cattle that are made into steaks, beef roasts and other cuts of meat. To increase transparency in the sector, the USDA will issue a daily report starting Monday that provides data on the base prices for cattle sold in a type of transaction called formula agreements, according to the agency. Often, the agreements base prices on cash market sales and later factor in certain premiums and discounts. The second report will be released weekly starting Tuesday and show the volume of cattle sales at weighted average prices for different transaction types, including formula agreements. Cash cattle trades have declined by about 30% since 2005, while formula transactions have increased at the same rate, according to the USDA. “Our new reports on formula transactions will bring needed clarity to the marketplace,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. Ranchers said they could use the reports to better negotiate cattle prices with meatpackers. “By USDA now reporting at least the base price, at least we have an idea what the market is,” said Lee Reichmuth, a Nebraska cattle feeder and board member for the United States Cattlemen’s Association. Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat company by sales, said the reports will make “information we currently report to the federal government more meaningful for cattle producers.” 
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Carissa Moore wore a white and yellow plumeria pinned next to her ear for her victory-lap interviews after making history as the first Olympic gold medalist at surfing’s historic debut.Her mother — crowned the Honolulu Lei Queen in 2016 — had given her the flower hair clip before she left for Tokyo to remind the only Native Hawaiian Olympic surfer of where she came from.At this pinnacle point, Moore is still in disbelief when she’s compared to Duke Kahanamoku, the godfather of modern surfing who is memorialized in Hawaii with a cherished monument.“I don’t think I’ll have a statue,” Moore said, grinning from ear to ear while her body bobbed into a quiet giggle at the suggestion. “Gosh, there’s only a few people in Hawaii that I think deserve that.”As celebrated at home as she is loved by fans and peers around the world, it was a characteristically modest statement from one of the world’s greatest surfers after she took home gold in the sport’s inaugural Olympic competition.The methodical Moore found her rhythm with the ocean to deliver the kind of standout, power-surfing performance that has defined her career. The picture-perfect ending even included a rainbow that popped into the sky as she shredded waves in the final against South African rival Bianca Buitendag.Moore has now become a realization of Kahanamoku’s dream, at once the symbol of the sport’s very best and a validating force for an Indigenous community that still struggles with its complex history.“It’s a reclaiming of that sport for our native community,” said Kūhiō Lewis, president of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, which convenes the largest annual gathering of Native Hawaiians.Lewis said all the locals he knew were texting each other during the competition, glued to the TV and elated, even relieved, by Moore’s “surreal” win. He called it a “come to home moment” for a community that may never reconcile its dispossession.FILE – Carissa Moore competes during the gold medal heat in the women’s surfing competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics at Tsurigasaki beach in Ichinomiya, Japan, July 27, 2021. Moore is the only Native Hawaiian surfer at the Games.After centuries of colonization by various European settlers, Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898 after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by U.S.-backed forces in 1893.“At times, we’re an invisible people. We’re lumped in to other ethnic groups. Our sport is being defined by other groups. This puts it into perspective,” Lewis said. “It feels like an emerging of a people, of a native community that has been invisible to many.”All eyes were on Moore when the Tokyo Games began, not only because she was the medal favorite as the reigning world champion but also because she was competing for the United States. Until then, Moore had always surfed for Hawaii in the professional World Surf League, which recognizes it as a “sovereign surfing nation.”Moore is biracial and grew up in the only majority Asian American and Pacific Islander state in the United States. Her white father, of Irish and German ancestry, taught her how to surf. Her mother is ethnically Native Hawaiian and Filipino and was adopted and raised in a Chinese-American family.“I’m proud to be representing the USA, but specifically the islands of Hawaii because there are just so many different kinds of people there, and I feel like such a connection to all of them,” Moore said. “And I wouldn’t be where I am today without the community of people that have really raised me.”U.S. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii this week honored both Moore and Kahanamoku on the Senate floor.“There’s a saying that the best surfer is the person having the most fun and that’s unquestionably the case with Carissa,” Schatz said. “She’s an intense competitor who wants to win every event she enters, but also one who wants to see her opponents — and more importantly the sport of surfing itself — succeed.”Kahanamoku was among the first athletes to break sports’ color barrier as an Olympic swimmer who medaled five times. It was at the 1912 Summer Games in Stockholm that he first pushed the International Olympic Committee to include surfing, though it was virtually unknown outside of his native Hawaii back then.Hawaii’s most famous son then dedicated his life to promoting surfing and his homeland, famously introducing the sport via exhibitions in places from California to New Jersey, Australia and Europe. Kahanamoku was the ultimate waterman: His legacy includes popularizing flutter swimming kicks and spreading the concept of lifeguarding and water rescue to the masses. On top of that, he dabbled in Hollywood movies and served as Honolulu’s sheriff.A century later, Moore was plenty accomplished in the sport before her Olympic Games. She became the youngest ever champion at age 18, and today has four world titles in addition to being the first Olympic gold medalist in her sport. She’s also recruiting young girls to take up a sport that once very much prioritized men, and has spoken publicly about her struggles with body image and disordered eating as a teenager.With this new global platform, Moore says she is proud of what she represents and wants to spread positivity as her idol did.“This was his dream to have surfing in the Olympics,” Moore said. “I hope I made him and my people proud.”
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