"The Bureau of Land Management announced Monday that several parcels of land intended for oil and gas drilling in northwestern New Mexico will no longer be put up for bid at a leasing auction in October."
The Land and Water Conservation Fund, which takes money the feds get from offshore drilling and parcels it out to federal, state and local agencies for parks and conservation land, is a goldmine for environmental stories by enterprising reporters. And now InvestigateWest, a non-profit watchdog journalism outlet, has made LWCF sleuthing easier by compiling an easy-to-use database of LWCF grants made between 1965 and 2011.
"Regulators are wrangling with bankrupt coal companies to set aside enough money to clean up Appalachia’s polluted rivers and mountains so that taxpayers are not stuck with the $1 billion bill."
Humans have been influencing landscapes and ecosystems on a global scale for far longer than people usually think, archeologists said in a newly published study.
"RIM OF CEDAR MESA, Utah — For centuries, humans have used the red sandstone canyons here as a way to mark their existence. ... Now, President Obama is weighing whether and how he can leave his own permanent imprint on history by designating about 2 million acres of land, known as the Bears Ears, as a national monument."
"As the Park Service approaches its centennial, it is grappling with a puzzle: Why are employees so unhappy, even while they love the work they do? And how can the agency fix it?"
"The long-term fate of a major conservation program [the Land and Water Conservation Fund] could end up being a key sticking point in negotiations over federal energy policy reform."
"Andrew Herrington slips on a battered green backpack, stashes a .308 bolt-action rifle under his arm and steps off a boat onto the steep, rocky shores of Great Smoky Mountains National Park."
The U.S. Department of the Interior is not winning many awards for openness. A House subcommittee recently took up the complaint that Interior's Office of the Solicitor would not even honor the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ombudsman's office with a response to repeated letters.
"The Florida Everglades is a swampy wilderness the size of Delaware. .. But beneath the surface a different story is unfolding. Because of climate change and sea level rise, the ocean is starting to seep into the swampland. If the invasion grows worse, it could drastically change the Everglades, and a way of life for millions of residents in South Florida."
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