"BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered Monday after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation."
"After a decades-long struggle, a Native American tribe won the right to resume its hunting traditions off Washington state's coast when federal regulators granted a waiver on Thursday allowing the Makah people to hunt up to 25 gray whales over a decade."
"Oregon authorities have expanded shellfish harvesting closures along the state’s entire coastline to include razor clams and bay clams, as already high levels of toxins that have contributed to a shellfish poisoning outbreak continue to rise."
"Agriculture drained this ecosystem. Now, under the specter of future drought, the same systems have started to bring back both water and wildlife."
"Tribal community plans a village that’s ‘as resilient as possible’"
Hundreds of hydropower dams in the United States will see their licenses expiring in the next decade, generating years-long federal relicensing processes. That prospect calls for close local and regional coverage of the complicated balance between renewable energy needs with negative environmental impacts. The latest TipSheet explains the licensing process and the dam backstory, along with a dozen story ideas and reporting resources.
While the name of Stewart Udall, U.S. interior secretary through the tumultuous 1960s, may have faded from public memory, his influence on environmental policies is still felt today. Contributor Francesca Lyman shines the spotlight on a new documentary about Udall and his legacy, and talks with director John de Graaf about Udall’s insights and inspiration.
"A group of 75 animal rights organizations, including several in California, signed a joint letter sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Monday urging her to nix a proposal by the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife to shoot nearly half a million “invasive” owls over the next 30 years."
"The famed coastal dunes that inspired the shifting sand landscape of the desert planet Arrakis in Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel “Dune” are also under siege — from climate change and human development."
"The legislation aimed to reformulate how Oregon funds the rising costs of fighting wildfires. It sparked debate within the Democratic-controlled Legislature about who should pay: taxpayers or big timber owners, who won steep tax cuts in the 1990s."
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