Official says there is no straightforward explanation for the increase and it could be chance, but it has not helped that there are more people recreating in the Yellowstone region as the coronavirus pandemic has given them a reason to spend more time outdoors.
First listed as threatened in 1993, the owl is found in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, west Texas and Mexico. (National Park Service)People who rely on wood stoves to heat their homes in the winter are scrambling to find other options after a U.S. district court halted tree cutting on large swaths of national forests in the Southwest…
The system didn’t work when it first went live Jan. 30. The 1,200 to 1,300 people who managed to make reservations back then lost them when the system failed and will have to try again with everyone else.
Recent polar vortex won’t cause the insect to go extinct, but could buy landowners time to treat ash trees that haven’t been infected yet.
The issue involves a mystery: About half of the elk calves born in southwestern Colorado die within six months. Of the survivors, another 15 percent perish before they turn a year old. And researchers don’t know why.
Six meetings planned in October, November.
U.S. Forest Service advances changes to sage grouse protections in five Western states that environmental groups say are part of the Trump administration’s efforts favoring industry but that push the imperiled bird closer to extinction.
BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho ranch’s attempt to block U.S. efforts to protect the greater sage grouse has attracted the support of Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and other top state Republicans. Otter, House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill asked a federal judge last month for permission to intervene in a lawsuit targeting the federal government’s…
BOISE, Idaho — Three wolves have been killed by federal authorities in central Idaho near Stanley, an action blasted by an environmental group. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services said it killed the wolves over several days earlier this month at the request of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game after confirming wolves killed six sheep. The three…
The number of the bats in Minnesota has seen a steep decline due to white-nose syndrome.
Federal officials have agreed to settle a lawsuit with environmental groups that prevents domestic sheep from grazing in eastern Idaho until a scientific study addressing how they might threaten bighorn sheep with deadly diseases is completed.
(U.S. Forest Service)SANTA FE, N.M. — A bark beetle epidemic wiped out swaths of pinon trees around Santa Fe more than a decade ago, and now new research predicts that warming winters could spell more trouble. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have done a large-scale analysis to demonstrate that higher temperatures allow the destructive beetle to multiply rapidly and…
Bison injure one or two people in Yellowstone a year on average, usually when people approach the animals, according to a 2018 study. (recreation.gov)WILMINGTON, Ill. — Visitors to the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington in northeastern Illinois will soon be able to go on guided hikes to look for bison. The U.S. Forest Service says that, depending on the…
Trout and salmon are cold-water fish that suffer when water warms up above 70 degrees.MADISON, Wis. — An environmental organization and the U.S. Forest Service are working together to harvest timber in northern Wisconsin. The 2014 Farm Bill has allowed the two groups to enter into a stewardship agreement, Wisconsin Public Radio reported. The Nature Conservancy will hire loggers, sell…
PolyMet completed swapping 6,650 acres of federal land in the Superior National Forest for a similar amount of private land last June. (U.S. Forest Service)MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge has put on hold four lawsuits filed by eight environmental groups to block a land swap that the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota needs to move forward. U.S. District…
Changes could have major negative ramifications for forest ecosystems and industries that rely on them.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Federal officials who oversee a troubled forest-thinning project in northern Arizona are stepping on the brakes, saying they lack needed information. The massive project which aims to speed up forest restoration has been delayed indefinitely, the Arizona Daily Sun reported. The stoppage has surprised stakeholders, who had been under the impression that the Forest Service was making…
Says U.S. Forest Service is violating environmental laws by failing to do mandatory consulting on the 23 projects with other federal agencies and instead is continuing to authorize the irrigation diversions in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Thirty elk were fitted with radio collars to study their movements and understand how the disease may spread.CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s fledgling elk herd will get another boost from a recreation area in Kentucky. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area in Logan and Mingo counties will receive 17 elk from Land Between the Lakes in…
(Photo by Brian Peterson)ST. PAUL, Minn. — President Donald Trump’s administration has resurrected an effort to build a proposed copper-nickel mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area in northeastern Minnesota. In an opinion published Friday, a top attorney at the U.S. Interior Department concluded that the Bureau of Land Management erred last December when it determined that it had…
HOUSTON — A public-private partnership is granting nearly $1.4 million to test treatments to halt a disease threatening the nation’s bat population. The white-nose syndrome fungus, first detected in New York state in 2006, has spread to 31 states and five Canadian provinces. Texas and Nebraska are the most recent states infected. The grants announced Tuesday in Houston include more…
BOISE, Idaho — Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit contending the U.S. Forest Service is illegally jeopardizing bighorn sheep by allowing University of Idaho domestic sheep on two eastern Idaho grazing allotments as part of agricultural research activities. Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians in the 18-page lawsuit filed Tuesday contend the grazing through permits issued to the U.S. Department…
The 1906 Antiquities Act, enacted under President Theodore Roosevelt, empowers the president to declare as national monuments any landmarks, structures and other “objects of historic or scientific interest” on land owned or controlled by the federal government. (National Park Service photo)U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending boundary revisions for some national monuments but no eliminations. President Donald Trump ordered…
Extreme heat, extreme dryness, grass that’s too short and a lack of bugs all conspire to make being a baby bird of the prairie a losing proposition.
Known as Cowee Forest, the acquired lands provide critical connections to existing conserved areas and recreational resources, including access to the Taconic Crest Trail and the Rensselaer Plateau, as well as protection for important wildlife habitat within a short drive from Albany, N.Y., and Bennington, Vt.
U.S. Forest Service opens a new set of public meetings on its proposal to bar minerals exploration and development on more than 234,000 acres near the pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for up to 20 years.
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