Natural Resources

"A quarter century after the church’s attempted purchase fell flat, a renewed plan that would trade LDS land has emerged — and it’s garnering broad support."

"The world’s largest meat company is backing away from its climate and deforestation commitments after claiming for several years that reducing its greenhouse gas emissions was a key goal."

"The Trump administration has green-lighted plans for a road through 10 miles of wilderness lands in Alaska, despite pending litigation from environmentalists who say it would destroy sensitive wetlands and prime migratory bird habitat." "Residents of a remote coastal community have long sought the gravel road, which is opposed by environmentalists who say it will destroy important migratory bird habitat."

"President Donald Trump on Monday sharply reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, undoing protections established by former presidents on public lands that are sacred among many Native Americans. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah have ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and scenic canyons, as well as coal and uranium deposits that state officials want made available for development."

"Deep-sea mining threatens to drive to extinction more than half of the snails and other mollusks that rely on hydrothermal vents, according to the latest update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, the global scientific authority on the status of species."

"Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III issued a defense of the National Museum of American History to staffers on Tuesday, in response to a caustic White House report accusing the museum of pushing “extreme political activism.”

"Alabama officials are seeking federal permission to fill a stretch of wetlands and streams to move forward on the Birmingham Northern Beltline, a decades-long highway project that critics say is unnecessary and will destroy huge swaths of sensitive forests, wetlands and streams."

"Along most of the Atlantic coast, alewives are struggling after decades of damming and overfishing. But in Maine, the fish is rebounding—and towns’ historic harvests are growing."

"State regulators have approved exploratory drilling near the headwaters of the rugged flow that inspired “A River Runs Through It,” which is still recovering from a mining disaster more than 50 years ago."