Wildlife

"Five decades ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the polluted Potomac River a “national disgrace.” Although it is now much cleaner, officials in Washington are still not convinced the water is safe for humans to swim in. But many miles downriver, where the Potomac widens to lakelike proportions as it flows toward the Chesapeake Bay, it teems with a different species of swimmers whose presence may signal healthier waters: dolphins."

"A small lizard found among the dunes straddling New Mexico and West Texas in one of the nation’s richest oil basins is at the center of a legal complaint filed Tuesday."

"Indonesia has decided it does not need to close the eastern island of Komodo next year as planned because its population of rare Komodo dragons is relatively stable and not under threat, the environment minister said on Monday."

"The U.S. government is keeping details secret about a cattle grazing program in six Western states that could be harming habitat and endangered species, an environmental group says."

"Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the US Fish and Wildlife Service has links to powerful agricultural interests opposed to protections for endangered species she would oversee, the Guardian has learned."

"William Perry Pendley, the sagebrush rebel-turned acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, has identified nearly five dozen organizations, companies and individuals that will trigger his recusal from decisionmaking, according to his ethics filing."

"Attorneys general in 17 states on Wednesday made good on a promise to sue the Trump administration over rule changes that substantially weakened how Endangered Species Act protections are considered and enforced."

"Ranchers and animal advocates finally made peace. But critics call it a betrayal."

"The number of birds in the United States and Canada has declined by 3 billion, or 29 percent, over the past half-century, scientists find."

"The Trump administration on Thursday said it would seek to open up the entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, picking the most aggressive development option for an area long closed to drilling."