Natural Resources

"Ginseng is a prized root in demand for it's wide use in traditional Chinese medicine. Some of the most valuable ginseng grows wild in Appalachia, but supplies are dwindling."

"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced late Friday that he will not scrap the agency’s 2014 determination that a large-scale mining operation could irreparably harm Alaska’s Bristol Bay water­shed."

"Eating alligators will not save Louisiana's wetlands."

"New bipartisan polling finds widespread disapproval among Western voters of the Trump administration’s public land policies, including recent reductions to two Utah national monuments and the expansion of lands being made available for energy extraction."

"The Trump administration will curtail a detailed review of how cordoning off 230,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land in Minnesota from mining development will affect a neighboring wilderness area, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post."

"Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke today [Wednesday] appointed P. Daniel Smith as the new acting director of the National Park Service, replacing Mike Reynolds, who's taking over as superintendent of Yosemite National Park."

"Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed a land-swap agreement Monday to allow a small, remote Alaska town to construct a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wilderness area that has been protected for decades."

"The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin today filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claiming the agencies have failed to take 'primary responsibility' for wetland permitting on a controversial proposed open pit mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula."