The administration and Congress divert funds away from conservation.
Law
Posted inArticles
Court delays land transfer that would enable copper mine at Oak Flat
The Western Apache and a coalition of environmental groups have fought for years against the Resolution Copper mine, which would become one of the country’s largest at the cost of a site revered by the tribe.
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The Trump team sets double standard on migratory bird rules
The administration said it will go hunting for cases of wind energy companies unintentionally killing migratory birds — something it has long argued is not a violation of federal law.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
Chicken buckets, baked beans, liters of coke: the final meals of death row inmates
Julie Green painted the last meals served to people sentenced to die in an attempt to humanize capital punishment.
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Mass layoffs can move forward, with devastating impacts for conservation and science
‘Shortsighted’ cuts could eliminate bird banding program, federal bee research and much more.
Posted inJuly 2025: Seeds as Sustenance
Western states step up to save their wetlands
The West’s vital wetlands are in trouble — but states are working to safeguard them.
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When we harm wolves, we harm ourselves
Anger over these wild creatures shows a lack of perspective.
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Inside Utah’s PR campaign to seize public lands
Utah used actors, AI, stagecraft and NDAs as it sought to sway public opinion and take control of 18.5 million acres of federal public land.
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DOJ says presidents can revoke monuments, not just create them
The 1906 Antiquities Act gave presidents the power to protect objects on public lands. A Justice Dept. memo said the Act also ”carries with it the power to revoke.”
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Supreme Court puts Utah’s oil train back on the rails
The 8-0 decision overturned the U.S. Court of Appeals decision that the project’s environmental impact statement was insufficient.
Posted inJune 2025: The Promised Land
Wolves return to the West
After being driven to near-extinction, these animals, and the politics around them, are back.
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A proposed Utah uranium mine gets the Trump treatment
Feds approve contested facility in just 11 days.
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USGS’ biological research arm could vanish
Trump is on a multipronged mission to eliminate a science agency that conservationists, toxicologists, universities and more call irreplaceable.
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Trump’s border wall expansion endangers wildlife and habitat
Migration pathways for animals will be further fragmented by the new additions to the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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At the 2025 U.N. Forum on Indigenous Issues Trump’s border policies will play a major role
At this year’s largest gathering of global Indigenous leaders, activists and policymakers, Borderlands issues are expected to have a big impact.
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Trump administration plans Endangered Species Act rollback
Revisions to the law center on ‘harm,’ which would allow far more mining, drilling and other development that threatens critical habitat.
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The crusade to end federal public lands in New Mexico
Howard Hutchinson, a private property rights activist, leads a coalition that’s quietly organizing a county-level rejection of the Antiquities Act.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
Montana’s youth climate activists aren’t stopping at their landmark court win
As lawmakers push back, the kids aren’t giving up.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
How a crucial homeless shelter in Boise was obstructed by neighbors
The Veterans Park Neighborhood Association sued to halt a shelter’s plans.
Posted inApril 2025: A Monumental Reckoning
The importance of Indigenous curators
These caretakers can help ensure museum collections are handled, and expanded, appropriately.