Trump Jr.’s prairie dog hunt in Montana prompts backlash

Donald Trump Jr. will be targeting more than just Montana's Republican voters on Friday and Saturday when he helps Greg Gianforte campaign for an open U.S. House seat. A prairie dog hunt is also on the agenda for the four-city tour for President Donald Trump's son and Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur up against Democrat Rob Quist in the May 25 election for the seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Judge in endangered fish lawsuit lifts hold on Montana dam

A judge has lifted his hold on a proposed irrigation dam and fish passage that U.S. officials say is the best hope to save an endangered ancient species of fish in the Yellowstone River. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris on Wednesday sided with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation , despite arguments from wildlife groups that question whether the 125 wild pallid sturgeon in the river would use the fish passage.

Alaska’s senators want more offshore drilling in Arctic waters

Environmental protections are under attack on every front and the far North is no exception. Alaska's senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Republicans, appear willing to risk fragile ocean environments for a few more petrodollars, so they've opportunistically introduced a bill that would expand oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean and Cook Inlet, where a recent gas leak persisted for several months, according to InsideClimate News .

Forest land sale revived by lawmakers, environmentalists

Thirty parcels of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest would be sold if a bill from Georgia lawmakers introduced this legislative session clears Congress. Sen. David Perdue, R-Georgia, and Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, have restarted a years-old effort to sell 30 isolated parcels of the forest, almost 4,000 acres of federal land spotting the area around the national forest in Northeast Georgia, to willing buyers.

Marines move imperiled desert tortoises out of harma s way

Biologist Glenn Rink gives wind direction to the incoming helicopter as they work with the USMC, BLM, the California and US Fish & Wildlife Services to relocate about 1,100 to 1,500 Desert Tortoises from the Bessemer Mine area of Johnson Valley in Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Wednesday. Wildlife biologist Scott Welch looked out over the Mojave Desert and readied for action when he heard a distant helicopter flying in.

Appeals court restores lumber companiesa challenge to northern spotted owl habitat

A top federal appeals court has now added fuel to a long-running fight over federal protections for the northern spotted owl in California, Oregon and Washington. In a unanimous decision Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the lumber companies united as the American Forest Resource Council have the legal standing to challenge the owl's designated "critical habitat."

Refugee Drags Woman from Tent – Forces Boyfriend to Watch As He Rapes Her in Germany

A refugee from Ghana has been arrested for dragging a young woman from her tent and raping her while she was on a camping holiday with her boyfriend. The young couple were on a camping trip in the Siegaue Nature Reserve, north of the former German capital of Bonn, when they were approached by a machete-wielding man at about 12.30am on Sunday last week.

Senate votes to allow trapping, baiting and aerial shooting of Alaska grizzlies, wolves

The Senate voted Tuesday to abolish a rule restricting specific hunting practices on national wildlife refuges in Alaska - including trapping, baiting and aerial shooting - on the grounds that state officials should be able to set the terms for wildlife conservation on public land within their own borders. The 52-to-47 vote, which was almost entirely along party lines, represented the latest instance of Republicans using a powerful legislative tool - the Congressional Review Act - to eliminate regulations that Barack Obama 's administration finalized before he left office in January.

Canyon dwellers confront deputies, Marines and Forest Service on plan …

Darrell Vance, the Trabuco District ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, crouches along a bank overlooking a vintage dam and swimming hole in Orange County's Santiago Canyon, which is scheduled for demolition as part of an effort to bolster habitat and eliminate safety hazards. Darrell Vance, the Trabuco District ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, crouches along a bank overlooking a vintage dam and swimming hole in Orange County's Santiago Canyon, which is scheduled for demolition as part of an effort to bolster habitat and eliminate safety hazards.

Another catch-and-release summer for Mille Lacs walleyes

Anglers will have to release any walleyes they catch in Mille Lacs Lake again this summer and they will be barred from even catching the fish for three weeks during the peak of the season, state wildlife officials said Tuesday. The catch-and-release regulations for walleyes on Mille Lacs will be in effect when Minnesota's fishing season opens May 13, the state Department of Natural Resources said.

A grizzly betrayal by Alaska’s congressional delegation

In its zeal to repeal, the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to overturn a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule forbidding the baiting, trapping and "denning" of bears and wolves in Alaska's national wildlife refuges. Distilled to its essence, Alaska's politicians want to reduce bear and wolf populations so hunters will have more moose and caribou to kill.