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 .

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."

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.

Colorado senator taking another shot at government funded gun ranges | Colorado Springs Gazette, News

JULY 27: Catherine Williams fires her handgun during a Multi-State Concealed Carry class at the Centennial Gun Club shooting range in Centennial, CO July 27, 2013. Is it the nanny state if the gov'mint is building gun ranges? Does it matter if bureaucrats are doling out tax dollars from purchases of guns and ammo? Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Clintonite from Denver, is among a bipartisan quartet of senators behind legislation to use federal tax dollars to pay 90 percent of the cost for five years for states to build and run shooting ranges.

The Brief: What will a border wall do to the environment?

Scientists say Trump's border wall would devastate wildlife habitat At the U.S.-Mexico border, scientists say existing fencing is hurting endangered wildlife and warn that a continuous wall could devastate many species. Professor recruitment program - a top Abbott initiative - could lose funding Draft budgets by both the Texas House and Senate have zeroed out funding for the Governor's University Research Initiative, a project started by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2015.

Inside the fight to undo BLM’s planning overhaul

Republicans in Congress are enthusiastically using the Congressional Review Act to overturn regulations finalized during the last weeks of the Obama administration. One measure on their list is the Bureau of Land Management's new Planning 2.0 rule , which is designed to improve BLM's process for making decisions about ranching, energy development and other uses of public lands.

Environmentalists preparing to battle Trump, GOP in court28 min ago

Environmentalists facing a hostile Trump administration and a Republican-dominated Congress say the courts may offer their best chance to block changes they oppose. They are seeking donations, setting priorities and reviewing laws that could be the basis of lawsuits against Trump policies concerning climate change, endangered wildlife, pollution and other issues.