U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., ruled that the didn’t have the authority to block benefits from being used to buy soda or sugary drinks.

Twenty-three states have sought to ban SNAP recipients from using the funds to buy soda or candy, and at least five have already implemented such policies. Federal officials haven’t said if they intend to appeal Monday’s ruling.

Colorado’s proposal, known as the , awaited a final vote by the state Board of Human Services, whose members had expressed skepticism of the plan.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were that had sought waivers, including Colorado. Unless the USDA convinces an appeals court to overturn the ruling, Colorado’s proposal likely can’t move forward.

When states want to make changes to SNAP, once known as food stamps, they have to get a waiver from the USDA. Jackson ruled that the federal agency has the authority to grant waivers when states want to make administrative changes, laid down by Congress.

The law that created SNAP excludes alcoholic beverages and hot prepared foods, but allows soft drink purchases.

“The federal defendants and the states may have a genuine desire to improve the health of SNAP households by encouraging healthy choices at the store, and they can take lawful steps to meet those goals,” Jackson wrote. “But what they cannot do is violate the law and their own regulations along the way.”

Colorado’s proposed waiver would have banned SNAP from paying for drinks containing added sugar or artificial sweeteners unless they also contained milk, plant milk or at least 50% juice. That would mean chocolate milk, unsweetened seltzers, bottled coffee drinks containing milk, and juices with small amounts of added sugar or sweeteners would be allowed.

People would have to use their own funds to buy fruit drinks with little juice, energy drinks and sodas, whether diet or sugar-sweetened.

The state Board of Human Services punted on a vote in March after hearing from low-income people who said they needed sweetened drinks to manage medical conditions, were confused about which products they would be able to buy, or were worried about stigma.

The board removed discussion of the ban from its April agenda and still hadn’t scheduled another vote as of late June. If the board didn’t approve the plan by mid-August, the state would have had to start the process of seeking approval over again.

Tiana Blackmon, a SNAP recipient living in Windsor, said they use electrolyte drinks such as Gatorade to manage postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which causes dizziness or fainting when a person stands up.

Their doctor recommends 5,000 milligrams of sodium per day, or , and four to five liters of fluids. Increasing salt and fluids raises the body’s blood volume and can improve POTS symptoms, .

“I do salt my food and take salt capsules, but without drinks like Gatorade or Liquid I.V., I would struggle to meet my medical needs,” they said in an email. “I can’t afford these drinks without SNAP due to my disabilities, so it is essential that they are included.”

State agency heads and medical groups spoke in favor of a ban, and Gov. Jared Polis backed it as part of a healthy eating package, alongside an executive order that prohibited state agencies from buying sugary drinks and alcohol for official events.

Polis said in a statement Tuesday that state attorneys are reviewing whether the ruling leaves any room for the waiver to move forward, and that he hopes Congress will amend the law to allow for soft-drink bans.

“I’m disappointed in this ruling, which will lead to higher diabetes rates and more tooth decay and dental bills for people,” he said in a statement. “Supporting Coloradans who rely on taxpayer-funded SNAP benefits to make healthy choices, including avoiding sugary drinks, is an important way to improve health and lower healthcare costs.”

The Colorado Department of Human Services estimated 9.2% of SNAP dollars in the state go toward sweetened beverages, making it the second-largest spending category behind the meat, poultry and seafood. Spokeswoman Haysel Hernandez said the department will continue working to implement Polis’ executive order and programs that incentivize healthy eating.

“This important waiver would have potentially curtailed negative health impacts caused by high sugar consumption,” she said in a statement. “CDHS continues supporting the over 615,000 Coloradans who rely on SNAP with healthy food initiatives, including expanded access to farmer’s markets through the SNAP Produce Bonus and access to more fruits and vegetables with Double Up Food Bucks.”

States will pay a larger share of SNAP’s costs in the coming years as H.R. 1, known as the “big beautiful bill,” takes effect. The number of recipients also will likely drop as SNAP work requirements expand to people between 55 and 64, and those with children who are 14 or older.

, about 6% fewer Coloradans received SNAP in March 2026 than at the same time a year earlier.

Soda bans wouldn’t have saved states any money, because people would receive the same number of dollars to spend on eligible foods and drinks.

Observational studies have found possible benefits to limiting sugar. People who experienced sugar rationing as toddlers in Britain during World War II had when they reached middle age than those who were born a few years earlier or later.

A simulation in healthcare costs if all states prohibited SNAP from paying for sweetened drinks, mostly because of reductions in obesity. States only started putting the policy in place in January, though, so real-world evidence about health outcomes is years away.

found that restricting sugar-sweetened beverages, candy and sweet baked goods reduced calorie intake, but didn’t otherwise improve diet quality. People’s diets did somewhat improve when they had both a restriction on sweets and an incentive to buy more produce, mostly because they ate more fruit.

Dr. Michael Pramenko, a Grand Junction physician and former president of the Colorado Medical Society, said the ruling allows SNAP to continue effectively subsidizing soda companies.

He identifies as a Democrat and doesn’t agree with President Donald Trump’s other health care policies, but said not spending taxpayer dollars on products that make people sicker should be bipartisan.

“How is it economic justice to create chronic disease, obesity, diabetes in an already underserved group?” he said. “There has to be a change in behavior so we can move from a system of sick care to true healthcare.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

M-44s are designed to kill coyotes, foxes and feral dogs that sometimes prey on sheep and newborn cattle. They also kill at least 150 nontarget species.

On April 15, the Trump administration lifted former President Joe Biden’s M-44 ban on the Bureau of Land Management����ap 245 million acres, and once again, M-44s will be deployed by the .

“I’ve worked since 1994 with countless people who have lost their dogs to M-44s or been poisoned themselves,” said Brooks Fahy, director of , a nonprofit based in Eugene, Oregon. “M-44s can never be used safely. They are indiscriminate killers, and no young child, dog or wild animal can read a warning sign. I firmly believe it is only a matter of time until an M-44 kills a child.”

During Trump’s first term, M-44s were in widespread use but hugely unpopular. The public wanted them banned. In 2019, when Trump’s EPA issued a proposal to keep them registered for use, there was such public outcry that the agency pulled the proposal.

Four months later, EPA reissued its proposal. During the public comment period, it received 22,390 written responses. All, save 10, opposed continued M-44 registration. The Administrative Procedure Act requires federal agencies to consider all “relevant matter presented” in public comments. Yet Trump’s EPA ignored the law, and M-44s remained registered until Biden’s ban.

On April 15, the Trump administration bypassed any public comment period, reauthorizing M-44 use on BLM land via a memorandum of understanding between BLM and USDA.

Wildlife advocates are furious. Predator Defense called the Trump administration’s resurrection of M-44s “insane.” Project Coyote called it “devastating.”

And this from Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action: “Reinstituting use of poison bombs sounds like war tactics from 1970s rebel guerrillas in Angola and not the actions of public lands agencies. Their statutory and moral responsibility is to steward native wildlife, not poison the animals.”

So, who’s pushing M-44s back on public land? Whoever it is, it����ap not sheep producers, explained Carter Niemeyer, employed by Wildlife Services for 26 years and supervising field agents for much of that time. M-44s were created mostly for them, but they now use guard dogs. Littering public land with poison bombs scented to attract canids is the last thing sheep producers want, he said.

Still, Trump spokesmen claim that the M-44 ban was lifted to benefit the wool industry. There’s widespread speculation that Trump ended the ban simply because Biden imposed it.

“M-44s are unforgiving,” said Niemeyer. “Any animal that triggers one is dead. With traps and snares, you can usually release nontargets. Random coyote poisoning — ‘preventive control’ — is killing coyotes anywhere and everywhere because one might someday eat a sheep. When we had, say, two coyotes regularly killing sheep, we’d remove them. That����ap ‘corrective control.’”

Robert Crabtree, America’s leading coyote researcher, found that random killing creates more coyotes. In natural populations, average litter size at birth is five or six. But competition in summer decreases pup survival to one or two. Random killing reduces competition, resulting in higher survival.

Niemeyer found that random killing also creates chaos by replacing older coyotes that have learned the dangers of depredating livestock with younger, inexperienced coyotes that do depredate.

But random killing is precisely what will now be happening on BLM land.

There has been legislation to permanently ban M-44s on federal lands, but it has been in limbo for years. Thanks to public outrage, there’s new life in a bill called “Canyon’s Law,” named for teenager Canyon Mansfield from Pocatello, Idaho. In March 2017, when he was 14, Canyon encountered an M-44 on BLM land behind his house. He thought it was a lost sprinkler head.

When he picked it up, his 3-year-old yellow Lab, Kasey, got hit in the muzzle and died. Some of the cyanide also sprayed Canyon’s face, damaging his eyes. Until his late teens, Canyon suffered from chronic cyanide poisoning. It����ap unclear if he suffered permanent damage.

Americans who love public lands, their dogs and wildlife need to ask their legislators to support Canyon’s Law, H.R. 4180 and S. 2179, banning M-44s. Primary sponsors are Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon. At this writing, there are seven cosponsors.

Longtime wildlife writer and author Ted Williams is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. 

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

The first case reported in the U.S. for several years involves a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, about 50 miles from the Mexico border, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday. The Texas state veterinarian established a 12-mile quarantine zone that prohibits the movement of any warm-blooded animal without an inspection.

In Colorado, the state veterinarian’s office is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the livestock industry to prepare for potential impacts, particularly involving trade and interstate movement of livestock, the state agriculture department said in a release.

“Colorado has been diligently preparing for the eventuality of a New World Screwworm detection in the United States and we have a response plan ready,” said Maggie Baldwin, the state veterinarian.

While the case in Texas is concerning, there’s no reason to panic, said Erin Karney Spaur, executive director of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association.

“Producers should remain vigilant, monitor livestock closely, and contact their veterinarian if they observe unusual wounds or signs of infestation,” she said.

Colorado’s cattle industry has been working with state and federal partners to prepare for the possibility of the New World screwworm fly reaching the U.S., Karney Spaur added.

“I have been briefed and am monitoring the situation very closely and evaluating any next steps needed,” Gov. Jared Polis said.

The Texas case is the first time the New World screwworm fly has been detected in the state since 1966. Recent cases had been confirmed in Mexico as close as 25 miles from the border.

The Associated Press reported that efforts to keep the fly out of the U.S. have included dropping millions of sterile screwworm flies in the area to mate with wild females. The method was used successfully in the past.

The fly is a tropical species that infested cattle during warm weather across the southern U.S. decades ago. The parasite was contained in Panama until late in 2024.

An outbreak occurred in the Florida Keys in September 2016, mostly among wild deer, and was contained early the next year, according to the AP.

The female fly lays its eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes and they hatch into larvae that eat flesh. They can infest livestock, wild mammals, household pets and even humans. Infestations can lead to death if left untreated.

However, officials said the larvae don’t infest food. If properly treated, .

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A March heat wave shattered several records for high temperatures across Colorado. the source of at least 70% of the state’s stream flows and water in reservoirs, is the worst on record. Cities along the Front Range have enacted water restrictions.

At a time when snow in the mountains usually has barely begun to melt, several ski resorts have closed. And ranchers are looking for hay in case the rangeland and pastures can’t provide enough food for their cattle this summer.

Problems for Colorado’s cattle industry will ripple through the state’s economy. The state’s cattle herd was the nation’s 10th largest in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Beef is the state’s top agricultural export, totaling $1.26 billion in value in 2025, the Colorado Department of Agriculture said.

Beef, fresh and frozen, is Colorado’s No. 1 export overall.

“The producers that are in the business now are here for a reason. It’s because they continue to be optimistic. They just keep saying, ‘You know, it has to rain one day,’ ” said Erin Karney Spaur, executive vice president of the

But ranchers are also keeping their eyes on the sky and the forecasts. Karney Spaur said most ranchers have drought plans, which include stockpiling hay and moving cattle around to give the grass time to grow. Worst case scenario, ranchers might end up selling part of their herd.

In past dry spells, people have trucked their cattle to other parts of Colorado or other states in search of greener pastures. The problem this time is the broad sweep of the drought will make those places harder to find.

“What I haven’t seen in my lifetime is the widespread drought all throughout Colorado and the West, for that matter,” Karney Spaur said.

In most areas, cattle producers with federal grazing permits on U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management land have received letters saying to expect reductions in use of the sites unless conditions change, Karney Spaur said.

“Most BLM-managed public lands in Colorado are in severe to exceptional drought,” Colorado BLM spokesman Steven Hall said in an email.

The BLM staff regularly communicates with permittees and with industry associations, Hall said. “Typically the BLM and permittee agree on changes to grazing use during drought.”

Conditions in the Rio Grande National Forest in southwest Colorado range from moderate to exceptional drought, according to the . Ranchers have been advised that if dry conditions continue, the grazing season might have to be shortened or the number of cattle on a site reduced for part of the summer in some areas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an email.

Decisions will be made case by case and the Forest Service will work with ranchers to explore options, the USDA said.

Much of the federally managed land used for grazing is in western Colorado. On the Eastern Plains, several ranchers have grazing permits on state-owned lands.

Curtis Russell, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association president, ranches in Sugar City in southeast Colorado and is a member of a grazing association that leases state lands. While the area had a good grass-growing season last summer, Russell doesn’t expect producers to move their animals onto the state lands this season until it rains.

The State Land Board closely monitors drought conditions and manages grazing on a case-by-case basis in coordination with lessees, spokeswoman Emily Barbo said in email. The staff is in close communication with ranchers across the state, she said.

“Things are really trying to green up, but it’s just hard,” Russell said. “We had 90-degree days in March. It was pretty hard to keep moisture in the ground with the wind blowing and 90 degrees.”

Ranchers on the Western Slope were battling through a dry summer in 2025 when wildfires erupted and raced through the parched vegetation. The fires scorched some ranchers’ pastures and federal grazing allotments.

Off the charts

Retta Bruegger, a regional range management specialist with Colorado State University Extension, calls snowpack “money in the bank” for ranchers who depend on grasses and plants to feed their cattle. But with Colorado’s snowpack at its lowest-ever levels, the bank is close to tapped-out.

“To be perfectly frank, this year is off the charts in terms of what it looks like and how it’s setting up so far,” Bruegger said. “I think people will be making a lot of hard decisions.”

On a recent trip just over the Colorado border into Utah, Bruegger said the forage looked better than she expected. The outlook could change if the weather does.

“In the world of all possibilities, it could start snowing tomorrow and snow until June 1. I don’t necessarily think that’s going to happen, but that would change some things if it does,” Bruegger said.

Janie VanWinkle and her family ranch in Mesa County. They graze their cattle on land they own and on leases with the federal government, the city of Grand Junction and Colorado Mesa University. The bulk of their grazing in the summer is on Forest Service land and they’re not sure whether use of the allotment will be restricted because of the drought.

“We’ll be having a meeting with our Forest Service range specialist in the next month or so. We’re kind of waiting to see what the weather is going to do,” VanWinkle said.

She finds the uncertainty unnerving after the  forced the family off their usual allotment to another area. VanWinkle and her husband, Howard, spent 122 days on horseback, moving their animals from water to food and at times through flames. The firefighters worked closely with the family to keep them and the cattle safe.

“The good news is we didn’t lose a single cow in the fire,” said VanWinkle, whose son works with her and husband.

As the family heads into what could be another dry summer, wildfires are a concern. “We’ve never talked about this, but I know this is the fear that’s been in my son’s heart. It’s the fear that’s in mine and my husband’s: What if there’s another one?” VanWinkle asks.

The statewide snowpack was at 21% of median Wednesday, the reported. This year’s level is the worst since measurements were recorded starting in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

In addition, the snow water equivalent, the amount of liquid water stored in the snow, was 3.3 inches, just 22% of the 30-year median, as of April 1, said Russ Schumacher, state climatologist and director of CSU’s Colorado Climate Center. The previous low was 9.1 inches in 1987.

“That’s the metric we pay attention to for water because that’s the water that’s going to flow into the rivers” and increase soil moisture, Schumacher said.

A year when the water content is 70% to 80% of average in early April would be considered a bad year, he added. “This year, we’re looking at 20% of the average, which is so far beyond that.”

Colorado has been hot as well as dry.

“That heat wave in March was just astonishing in terms of how unusually warm everything was across the state,” Schumacher said.

It was Colorado’s warmest March on record, according to the . Averaged across the state, the month was 13.1 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th century average and 4.3 degrees above any previous March.

Relief might come this summer in the form of El Niño, the weather phenomenon that warms the ocean surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

“Globally, it tends to raise temperatures. Here in Colorado, that tends not to be the case. We tend to be wetter and somewhat cooler, later in the summer and fall,” Schumacher said.

The said April 9 that the chance of an El Niño was 61% and a one-in-four chance that it might be strong.

David Gottenborg, whose family owns Eagle Rock Ranch in South Park, is hoping for a change. Park County typically doesn’t get a lot of moisture in winter, but this winter was even drier than usual. And warmer.

“We sit on Tarryall Creek and we’re running about 15, 14 cubic feet per second versus normally about 30 or so. So we’re about half,” Gottenborg said.

The Gottenborgs, who raise cattle and hay, irrigated a little in the last couple of weeks.

“Irrigation season typically starts April 1. In most years, it’s almost kind of a moot point because our head gates are frozen,” Gottenborg said.

Not this year. And there’s no ice now in Tarryall, a tributary of the South Platte River.

Besides cattle, hay is one of the Gottenborgs’ main income sources. They partnered with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to donate 48 tons of hay in December to Western Slope ranchers whose land was burned by the Lee wildfire last summer.

But their hay crop was down last year and they’ve halted sales for now.

“The old-timers here in the valley, they would always keep at least half of what they would need the following year in their stack yards. We’re trying to do that,” Gottenborg said.

The ranch gets calls almost every day from people looking to buy hay. Gottenborg said a woman told him that she had contacted more than 30 people. “We had to tell her ‘no’ as well.”

Karney Spaur of Colorado Cattlemen said she’s heard of hay selling for $300 to $350 a ton. This time of year, she said $150 to $175 a ton is more the norm.

One bright spot for ranchers is that in large part because of low cattle numbers nationwide.

“If you have to sell cows, it’s a good time to sell cows because they’re worth a lot of money,” said Russell, the rancher from Sugar City. “On the other hand, if El Nino comes in like they’re talking about this summer and we get a lot of rain and people have already sold cows and need to buy cows back, it’ll cost a lot of money.”

The proposed change would prevent the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, from paying for sweetened beverages unless they contain milk or at least 50% juice. People could still use SNAP to buy chocolate milk, unsweetened seltzers and some juice drinks, but not regular or diet sodas.

Five individuals, including one Colorado resident, last month for approving “waivers” that allowed 22 states to ban SNAP from paying for soft drinks and, in some cases, candy.

The plaintiffs argued that USDA didn’t follow the appropriate process before approving a major change, and that it would harm their health because they rely on sodas to manage low blood sugar or maintain energy during the day.

Staff for the Colorado Department of Human Services told members of the state Board of Human Services at a meeting Friday morning that they wouldn’t bring the proposed change, known as the , for a final vote until they see how federal courts will respond.

Polis acknowledged in an interview Friday morning that he was working on an executive order to end state spending on sugary drinks and alcohol, which he said he would issue in a few weeks. State agencies are still discussing what they can do, within the constraint that executive orders can’t involve spending money. The order wouldn’t involve removing options from vending machines where state employees spend their money, he said.

At the end of the board’s , Department of Human Services Executive Director Michelle Barnes announced, , that Polis was pursuing an executive order so that the state government could “lead by example.”

“We’ve been persuaded this does feel like we’re only doing this to low-income people,” she said of the SNAP limits, according to a recording of the meeting. “We shouldn’t be buying (sweetened drinks) either.”

Polis didn’t directly answer whether he could order the change to SNAP if the board opted not to move forward. Adding a ban on most sweetened beverages would allow Colorado to keep working on other changes, such as allowing SNAP to pay for hot foods, which would otherwise be “dead in the water” at the USDA, he said.

“We are very optimistic that the board will approve the SNAP waiver,” he said.

But the board hasn’t shown much enthusiasm for the waiver, and an unofficial poll at the March meeting found four members opposed, three in favor and two undecided. They opted to delay an official vote and instructed state officials to bring a package of reforms that wouldn’t disproportionately hit low-income people.

The board had initially planned to take that final vote at its April meeting, but it has until August to make a choice.

The Colorado Medical Society has spoken in favor of the waiver as a way to prevent chronic diseases. Anti-hunger groups said the change would create confusion and increase stigma against people who use SNAP.

The change wouldn’t save Colorado money in the short term, because recipients would still get the same amount to spend on other foods and beverages.

, based on a possible reduction in type 2 diabetes and other weight-related health conditions, but real-world evidence is lacking, since states only .

Even more troubling, mountain snow accumulations peaked a month early and contained just half the average moisture.

As a warm winter with gave way to early springtime , snow is vanishing from all but the highest elevations in the West. It����ap a clear sign that water shortages could worsen the ongoing , barring an unexpected deluge.

Gutsch struggled to match the mood of the sunny, 56-degree weather as she stood in a section of the Rocky Mountains that����ap considered the headwaters of the Colorado River.

“We love being out here. We love being in the snow, taking these measurements. This year, it����ap kind of hard to enjoy it because it����ap slightly depressing with the conditions that we’ve seen,” said Gutsch, who is with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Department hydrologists told The Associated Press of the dismal, record-low snowpack after concluding their field assessments late Tuesday.

Cities in the region are imposing water-use restrictions, and ranchers are wondering how they will feed and water their cattle. Meanwhile, the threat of devastating wildfires looms.

High (country) and dry

Ranchers in Colorado’s scenic mountain valleys near the Continental Divide are, in a sense, among the first in the region affected by drought, being nearest to the melting mountain snowpack.

They hardly need Gutsch to tell them how parched this winter and spring have been. They remember past droughts — bad ones in 2002, 1981, 1977 — and wonder just what this dry winter will mean for their operations.

“I’ve never seen it so warm so early and no snow all winter long,” said Philip Anderson, a retired teacher who also has ranched most of his life in Colorado’s North Park valley.

The heaviest snows in the Rockies fall in late winter and early spring, including now. Snowfall isn’t unusual in the highest regions even into June.

Anderson’s place is at about 8,100 feet (2,500 meters) in elevation. There, in a typical year, a foot (30 centimeters) or more of snow will linger on his pastures until springtime, helping the grass to green up and stock water ponds to refill.

But without snow on the land, his cows are grazing his grass before it can grow high, and several of his ponds are dry. The ditch that would usually move water from the nearby Illinois River to his property is also dry — tapped already by neighbors with more senior water rights than his.

“A lot of the people which are closer to the mountains have to let the water go by and let those folks with the senior water rights have it,” Anderson said.

The last time Anderson had to haul water in his truck from a nearby wildlife refuge was in 2002. That same year, he had to sell off his herd.

North Park — about 100 miles (161 kilometers) from the South Park valley that inspired the cartoon TV show — is a headwaters of the eastward-flowing Platte River system. Thirty-five miles (56 kilometers) to the west of Anderson’s place, across the Continental Divide, is the Stanko Ranch on the Yampa River.

Jo Stanko dreads low flows because they allow her cattle to wade across the Colorado River tributary. Then they need to be rounded up and brought back home.

This year, Stanko has been watering her parched meadow earlier than ever in her 50 years of ranching. She plans to cut hay before June and is considering buying hay soon to feed her 70 cows afterward.

“Hay’s always a good investment, you know, because it might be really expensive,” she said.

Go with the flow? Not when low

An old saying in the West is that whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting over. It applies all the more when water becomes scarce amid a decades-long drought driven in part by human-caused climate change.

Meanwhile, the river’s Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming remain at an impasse in negotiations with the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada to create new rules for managing the water during shortages.

Like the water itself, time is running short — the current rules expire in September.

A recent federal plan would conserve river water “completely on Arizona’s back,” Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce meeting in March.

Upper Basin states say their cities, farmers and ranchers already use far less water than they are entitled to under the existing agreements. That����ap because they honor senior water rights — some of which date to the 1880s — before those who own newer rights during droughts, Becky Mitchell, the Colorado River negotiator for Colorado, recently told other Upper Basin representatives.

“When there is less, we use less. This is not voluntary and no one gets paid as a result,” Mitchell said.

After missing multiple deadlines set by federal officials in recent months to, at least, create outlines of an agreement, the two sides are hiring more lawyers in case the dispute goes to court.

Cities cut back

After the driest and warmest winter on record, Salt Lake City announced a 10% daily cut in water use.

Reductions will be voluntary for residents, but the biggest nonresidential water users will have to consume no more than 200,000 gallons per day.

On the other side of the Rockies, Denver Water approved limits to watering lawns and other restrictions, with hopes of achieving a 20% cut.

Water officials urged even less watering. Lawns in the Front Range region are just beginning to green up and don’t need watering twice a week until at least mid-May, they pointed out.

The city gets much of its water from mountain snow that accumulates east of the Continental Divide and on the western side. Tunnels under the mountains divert half the city’s water from snow-fed streams on the western side.

“We’re 7 to 8 feet of snow short of where we need to be,” Nathan Elder, water supply manager for Denver Water, said in a statement. “It would take a tremendous amount of snow to recover at this point, so it����ap time to turn our attention to preserving what we have.”

Wildfire risk looms large

On the same day Denver approved the water restrictions, the city set a new high temperature record for March: 87 degrees (30 Celsius).

The previous record of 85 degrees (29 Celsius) was set just a week earlier.

Drought was bearing down west of the Rockies, too. In California, snowpack in the Sierra Nevada measured only 18% of the average for this time of year,

Hot, dry weather is a recipe for wildfires. While other parts of the U.S., including the South and Southwest, face higher fire risk this spring, forecasters expect the threat in the Rockies to rise as above-average temperatures and below-normal precipitation persist into summer.

This week, the region is getting a reprieve of cooler, damper weather, with snow back in the forecast by the end of the week in North Park. But Anderson said he needs a lot more — half an inch (1 centimeter) of rain every other day for several days — to get out of the drought.

Until then, he suggested that North Park senior and junior water-rights holders work together to ensure everybody has enough.

“It����ap pretty serious,” Anderson said. “If we just talk and communicate together and cooperate, we might be able to make it through this. But we’ll see.”

___

Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, contributed.

___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at .

A heat dome that’s expected to hover over the state and the Mountain West through Saturday is forecast to bring temperatures into the 80s at lower elevations and into the 50s and 60s at higher elevations. The heat this week follows the warmest winter recorded in Colorado since records began in 1895.

“It’s possible that many areas of the state at high elevations have already seen peak snowpack,” Peter Goble, the assistant state climatologist, the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s Water Conditions Monitoring Committee on Tuesday.

The temperatures expected from the heat dome will be high enough to spur melting, said Brian Domonkos, a hydrologist with the Colorado office of the federal . Statewide, snowpack depth typically peaks around April 8.

The National Weather Service — at an elevation of 11,020 feet — shows overnight lows are not expected to drop below freezing until Sunday night. Daytime highs could hit 60 degrees.

, located at nearly 11,000 feet in southern Colorado, is also not forecast to reach freezing temperatures overnight this week.

The record heat is expected to shrink an already anemic snowpack. Statewide snowpack , the lowest recorded since records began in 1986. Some river basins in southern Colorado — including the Rio Grande, the San Juan, the Animas and the Arkansas — had less than half of normal snowpack on Wednesday.

“We have very little winter left,” Domonkos said. “There’s essentially no chance for us to get back to normal snowpack.”

Colorado’s mountains and streams will begin to see increased water flows from the melting this week, according to the .

in Steamboat Springs will likely more than double in the next seven days, from 124 cubic feet per second on Wednesday to more than 400 cfs late next week. The Animas River in Durango could hop from winter flows hovering around 300 cfs to .

Those flows are still far lower than peak runoff flows that will come later this spring and summer. But expected extended warm temperatures, paired with the “extremely grim” snowpack, mean those peak flows will also be lower than normal, said Cody Moser, a hydrologist with the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, at a briefing Wednesday.

Across the Colorado River Basin — which includes a large swath of western Colorado — those flows are expected to be at or below 70% of the average recorded between 1991 and 2020, he said.

Across the Colorado River Basin, “I think it’s highly likely that we’ve already seen peak snowpack,” Moser said.

The vast majority of Colorado’s water supply comes from its winter snowpack. The lack of snow has water providers across the state enacting drought restrictions or preparing to do so.

Denver Water — which serves 1.5 million people across the Front Range — will likely skip declaring a drought watch and instead skip to the next step by imposing Stage 1 water restrictions, Nathan Elder, the utility’s water supply manager, said Tuesday.

Those restrictions — last implemented in 2013 — in outdoor water use.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday activated the state Drought Task Force to address the dire conditions. The task force will monitor conditions across the state and recommend mitigation efforts to Polis. The governor last activated the task force in 2020.

If conditions continue to deteriorate, Polis could declare a drought emergency and seek federal disaster assistance.

“Colorado is experiencing the warmest year so far in our 131-year record, and one of the driest,” Polis said in a news release. “Activating the Drought Task Force will help ensure we are protecting one of our most precious resources by closely tracking impacts, supporting communities, and coordinating better as we prepare for the year ahead.”

The agency isn’t aware of anyone in Colorado receiving unsolicited seeds in the mail, yet, this year, but other states, including Texas and Alabama, have already started receiving such packages, said Wondirad Gebru, director of the department’s plant industry division.

“These incidents began in 2020 and ’21 — that was a peak year,” he said. “It’s just picking up.”

Coloradans have received unsolicited packages of seeds since 2020, which the Department of Agriculture said at the time appeared to come from China and other countries. More than 1,000 people have received unsolicited seeds since then, including at least two last year, Gebru said.

The investigated the packages along with the and discovered a “marketing blitz,” he said.

“They did not really find concrete (evidence) of bioterrorism, but there could always be the potential,” Gebru said. “These are not vetted (seeds).”

Resident should not plant any seed packages they receive unsolicited through the mail because they could be a potential biohazard, the agriculture agency warned.

The seeds could have invasive species, pests and plant diseases that could damage the state’s $47 billion agriculture economy, according to a news release.

Anyone who receives a package of seeds that they did not order should not open the packet nor throw them in the trash, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Instead, the seeds should be left in their original packet, which should be placed in a sealed plastic bag with the mailing label and sent to the Department of Agriculture for testing, according to the news release.

The address to mail the package is USDA APHIS PPQ, 3950 North Lewiston St., Suite 104, Aurora, Colorado 80011-1561.

The Colorado Healthy Choice Waiver would have limited the kinds of drinks people can buy using the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, starting April 30, although the board’s vote late Friday afternoon pushes back that timeline.

If the Colorado Board of Human Services ultimately votes for the waiver, people will no longer be able to use SNAP funds to pay for beverages with added sugar or artificial sweeteners unless they contain milk, a plant-based milk substitute or at least 50% juice.

Chocolate milk, unsweetened seltzers and some juice drinks will remain options, while diet and full-sugar sodas will no longer be eligible. SNAP recipients can use their other income to purchase ineligible drinks, if they have the resources to do so.

The nine-member board was evenly split at the end of a nearly eight-hour public meeting, with four members opposed, three in favor and two undecided.

If the board ultimately votes down the waiver, it would put Colorado in an unusual position of rejecting a change it had requested. The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave Colorado and 17 other states permission to limit SNAP from paying for soft drinks, but without the board’s approval, the Colorado Department of Human Services can’t write the regulations needed to make that change.

At a previous meeting in February, nearly every member of the public who spoke urged the board to reject the measure. The majority of comments still opposed it at Friday’s meeting, but state agency leaders and physicians’ groups spoke in favor of the change.

About 600,000 people in Colorado, approximately half of them children, received a combined $120 million in SNAP benefits in 2025.

Restricting recipients from buying soda won’t save states money, because they will still get the same allotment to spend on other foods. Workers for the Colorado Department of Human Services estimated about 9.2% of SNAP dollars go toward sugar- and artificially sweetened beverages, making it the second-largest category behind meat, poultry and seafood.

Hunger Free Colorado came out against the restrictions, arguing they will increase shame and stigma, causing families to forgo SNAP benefits. The policy also could increase hunger if retailers find the rules too difficult and decide to stop accepting SNAP, the group said.

The Colorado Medical Society, which voted to support removing sugary beverages from SNAP in 2023, submitted a letter noting that studies repeatedly have linked those drinks to negative health outcomes, including obesity and diabetes.

Given limitations on funding to care for low-income people through Medicaid, the state shouldn’t subsidize products linked to worse health, the group said.

The would limit the types of beverages available for purchase using money from the federal government’s , or SNAP, starting on April 30.

Under the state’s proposal, people buying groceries in Colorado couldn’t use SNAP to pay for drinks containing sugar or artificial sweeteners, unless the products contained milk, a milk substitute or at least 50% fruit or vegetable juice.

Staff for the said chocolate milk, unsweetened seltzers, bottled coffee drinks containing milk, and juices with added sugar or sweeteners as a minor ingredient would remain eligible for SNAP. Sweetened coffee drinks without dairy and fruit drinks that contain little or no juice would be out, as would soda — including diet and sugar-free varieties.

The rule would apply only to foods covered by SNAP, so recipients could pay for those beverages separately if they have the money to do so.

Ending SNAP funding for soft drinks has been a priority for Gov. Jared Polis for years, and aligns with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement and its .

Before it can take effect, though, the policy must go before the for a final vote in March, and members expressed concerns about it at a meeting on Friday.

About 600,000 people in Colorado received $120 million in SNAP benefits in 2025, and roughly half were children. H.R. 1, commonly known as the “big beautiful bill,” forces states to take on a larger share of the program’s costs and expands work requirements to people between 55 and 64, and to adults with children who are 14 or older.

Restricting spending on soft drinks wouldn’t save the state money, because recipients could use that money for other foods.

Small-scale studies have found that people given restricted dollars for food , but their overall diet quality didn’t change much.

A simulation projected that the country could by not allowing SNAP to pay for sugary beverages, but real-world evidence is lacking, because . Ten states have already made the change, and Arkansas will implement it in July.

Colorado had proposed limiting soft drinks as part of a package of changes, including allowing food assistance to pay for ready-to-eat hot foods, such as grocery store rotisserie chickens, Colorado SNAP director Teri Chasten said at the Board of Human Services’ meeting Friday morning.

The asked the state to split the request into pieces and hasn’t said when it would give an answer on the hot-food portion, though it approved the sweetened-drink piece, she said.

While the USDA has already given its approval for the change, the human services board would have to update the state’s rules to actually implement it. Officials with the Department of Human Services weren’t sure what would happen next if the board declines to move forward, which appears possible.

Four of seven board members present Friday expressed discomfort with the proposed change and said it would be more palatable if they knew SNAP recipients would get something, such as the ability to buy hot foods, in exchange. The board has nine members, but can take votes with as few as five.

Mychael Dave, the board’s vice chairman, said he is concerned about increasing stigma for SNAP recipients and thinks the limit on soft drinks only makes sense if the USDA makes it a condition for allowing hot-food purchases.

“The only reason I’m going to vote for this is to get something in return” for vulnerable communities, he said.

People speaking during the public comment period overwhelmingly opposed the change, raising concerns about the stress families would experience from being uncertain which products SNAP would cover, and the possibility that grocery stores would opt out of accepting the benefits if compliance was too difficult.

Retailers’ point-of-sale systems don’t automatically update which products SNAP will cover, which would create burdens for small operators and could push them to opt out, further reducing access to healthy food, said Anjali Prasertong, SNAP electronic incentives manager at , a nonprofit focused on creating healthier food systems.

“Colorado should pursue policies that expand food access,” she said.

Officials from the Department of Human Services said they hadn’t heard significant concerns from retailers about the proposed change during listening sessions, and none have given notice that they plan to drop out of SNAP.

Adriana Miranda, who told the board her family sometimes has used SNAP to make ends meet, said grocery stores near her don’t have many beverage options without sugar, and that kids need drinks like Gatorade while playing sports. She didn’t specify where in the state she lives.

“Children really pay attention, and we have to ask ourselves, are we willing to create this stigma?” she said. “It would be very sad to take our children into grocery stores and tell them they can’t purchase certain items.”

Dr. Michael Pramenko, a family physician in Grand Junction, said he sympathizes with the embarrassment parents would feel if they couldn’t pay for a product their children wanted, but taxpayer money shouldn’t go to subsidize sugar-sweetened beverages because of their link to obesity and diabetes.

Multiple studies have found links between sweetened beverages and metabolic health problems, though, of course, proving cause and effect is tricky in nutrition research.

In 2023, the voted in favor of restricting SNAP from paying for sweetened beverages, Pramenko said. Soda companies have targeted their advertising at low-income people, and making it easier to buy those products harms the groups that the program is supposed to help, he said.

“I don’t see how it’s helpful or equitable to subsidize products that cause chronic disease,” he said.