Associated Press

The number of monarch butterflies spending the winter in the western United States has dropped to its second-lowest mark in nearly three decades as pesticides, diminishing habitat and climate change take their toll on the beloved pollinator.

Environmental groups concerned about loss of protections for vanishing animals see one of President Donald Trump’s early executive orders as a method of subverting the Endangered Species Act in the name of fossil fuel extraction and corporate interests.
Trump declared an energy emergency via executive order earlier this week amid a promise to “drill, baby, drill.” One section of the order states that the long-standing Endangered Species Act can’t be allowed to serve as an obstacle to energy development.

Scottish environmental activists want to reintroduce the lynx into the forests of the Highlands. But not this way.
At least two lynx, a medium-sized wildcat extinct in Scotland for hundreds of years, were spotted in the Highlands on Wednesday, raising concerns that a private breeder had illegally released the predators into the wild.