Natural Resources

"President Trump on Friday approved a bipartisan bill that funds several popular conservation grants."

"Under Donald Trump, the government has auctioned off millions of acres of public lands to the fossil fuel industry, the Guardian can reveal, in the most comprehensive accounting to date of how much public land the administration has handed over to oil and gas drillers over the past four years."

"The accession of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court will cement a conservative majority that is likely to give polluting industries freer rein, limit the ability of citizens to sue, and call into question the very basis of the EPA to issue and enforce regulations."

"U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt announced 30 new national recreation trails in 25 states, adding more than 1,275 miles to the National Trails System."

"Five tribal nations of southeast Alaska are objecting to a federal agency decision that leaves the U.S. Forest Service poised to open 9 million acres in the Tongass National Forest to logging."

"A mining company said Tuesday that it plans to dig for minerals without a federal permit at the edge of the vast wildlife refuge in the Okefenokee Swamp, a big step for a once-embattled project that’s now benefiting from the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental rules."

"A plan opening broad swaths of western Colorado to oil and gas development is among at least 14—and possibly several dozen—Bureau of Land Management plans and decisions that environmental groups say they expect to challenge in the wake of a recent Montana federal court decision."

"The elk are a main attraction in Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco. But ranchers who share the park say the elks’ numbers create problems."

"A federal judge's order invalidating three land use plans approved by the Bureau of Land Management during William Perry Pendley's "unlawful" tenure could spark a wave of litigation challenging oversight of millions of acres."

"A federal judge in Montana has once again handed the Bureau of Land Management and its embattled former de facto acting chief, William Perry Pendley, another major legal defeat. Chief Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana late yesterday [Friday] issued an order invalidating three major land-use plan revisions in Montana as a result of Pendley "unlawfully" leading BLM for more than a year."