"Plans for protecting sage grouse in five Western states are being changed in ways that will conserve habitat while allowing ranchers to maintain their livelihoods, federal officials said Thursday. ... Environmental groups blasted the plan based on the Forest Service’s three-bullet-point summary released Thursday ...."

"The Justice Department is investigating whether former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke used personal email accounts for official business, a matter that has become part of a larger criminal probe into the departed official, according to a letter released by House Democrats on Tuesday."

"EPA has lifted the Obama-era proposed 'veto' of the Pebble mine, reversing a decision last year not to scrap the pending mining restrictions on the massive copper and gold project upstream from Alaska's Bristol Bay."

"The Bureau of Land Management is about to open public lands to oil, gas, mining, and road construction as an outspoken opponent of federal land ownership takes the helm of the agency, former Interior Department officials and advocacy groups said July 30."

"Every year, hundreds of petroleum industry executives gather in Anchorage for the annual conference of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, where they discuss policy and celebrate their achievements with the state’s political establishment. In May 2018, they again filed into the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, but they had a new reason to celebrate."

"An EPA memo that could alter the fate of the Pebble mine caught many of its foes off guard last month. But not investors."

"Extreme climate events such as heatwaves, floods and drought damaged 45% of the marine ecosystems along Australia’s coast in a seven-year period, CSIRO research shows."

"Nearly two years after dramatically shrinking the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, the Trump administration finalized a management plan Friday that would allow trees to be plowed down using heavy chains, as well as utility lines and more ranching, in the smaller area that is still preserved."

"Driven by fears of rapid erosion that threatens to expose a crude oil pipeline to rushing water, a Native American tribe is suing pipeline giant Enbridge to force it to remove an aging pipeline whose easement through the reservation has expired."

"Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has once again revived a proposed land exchange that would clear the way for a controversial gravel road to be built through wilderness within Alaska's Izembek National Wildlife Refuge."