Questions remain over whether the bill prohibits certain data collection on federal land or just private and state.
Wyoming trespass law is the latest in grazing battle
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Obama’s preemptive strike to reform Endangered Species Act
The administration’s proposal is aimed at warding off a GOP overhaul of the law.
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Saving an island fox could be a benchmark
The recovery of the endangered fox on Channel Islands National Park off the Southern California coast might be a benchmark for modern conservation. With the cinnamon-colored fox due to come off the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species list in about two years, this could be the fastest recovery of a land mammal in […]
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Should states be responsible for protecting the atmosphere?
A youth-led climate action campaign in Oregon gets its days in court.
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Ranch Diaries: An orphaned calf gets rescued
Surrogate parenting after a cow dies at the Triangle P in New Mexico.
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Sightseeing at an open pit mine in Arizona copper country
The mines are still in business, yet towns that once flourished are now mostly gone.
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The taxpayer money that fuels federal land transfer demands
How the behind-the-scenes lobby group American Lands Council gets funding.
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Courts force feds to consider climate impacts of mining coal
A Colorado mine sees the latest in a string of rulings that may threaten the industry.
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A gathering of maritime minstrels on the Oregon coast
Pat Dixon wrote his first fishing poem in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. For 12 years, Dixon had gillnetted salmon in Cook Inlet, the finger of water that points from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage. But after the Valdez dumped its noxious cargo into nearby Prince William Sound, fishing in Cook […]
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More Alaskan forests are burning, not just due to climate change
Populated areas are seeing a large increase in wildfire, despite suppression efforts.
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Finding a confluence on the Bright Angel Trail
The young man who looked like he was from the Middle East was sitting against the wall of the Grand Canyon, a Go-Pro camera strapped to his chest. My aching quads begged for a break, so I stopped, said hello, and pulled out my own camera lest he think I was intruding. He had chosen a […]
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New border security bill would roll back public lands protections
Sen. John McCain’s proposal would give Border Patrol more immediate access to sensitive borderlands.
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Are cows drinking the West dry?
On a recent trip to California, I visited the North Coast, where spring usually means green hills with deep grass strewn with lupine and bright orange poppies bobbing in sea breezes. This year, we found stunted grass, browning hills and the local news obsessing on the worst drought in California’s recorded history. Suddenly, the most […]
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Western states wrestle with Obama’s Clean Power Plan
Closed-door sessions on the EPA’s proposal to cut coal-fired power plant emissions.
Posted inMay 11, 2015: The Wetland Wars
Wins for workers
Western cities lead the national movement for a higher minimum wage.
Posted inMay 11, 2015: The Wetland Wars
Wasting disease in wildlife inches toward Yellowstone
The illness affects moose, elk and deer and may be carried by long-distance migrations.
Posted inMay 11, 2015: The Wetland Wars
Walking the damp upper corners of America
This mysterious Oregon forest awakens hope in a local writer.
Posted inMay 11, 2015: The Wetland Wars
The view from 31,000 feet: A philosopher looks at fracking
I was flying the red-eye home to Portland, when the pilot spoke over the intercom. “We are currently over North Dakota. Below us are the famous Bakken shale-oil fracking fields.” I looked down into the night. As far as I could see toward every horizon, the plain was studded with flames — oil rigs flaring […]
Posted inMay 11, 2015: The Wetland Wars
The Los Angeles wetland wars
Environmentalists saved a wetland from developers a decade ago. Now they’re trying to save it from each other.
Posted inMay 11, 2015: The Wetland Wars
The Latest: New Navajo president may halt a remote development
Russell Begaye is an opponent of the proposed Grand Canyon Escalade $1 billion tourism project.