"Scientists have detected microplastic pollution in Lake Tahoe’s deep blue waters for the first time. Now they are trying to determine its source and potential harm to the lake’s flora and fauna."
"Oil drilling in Nevada is a risky bet—the geology is complicated and drillers say the odds are small that they will actually find oil in a state where there are only 120 producing wells. But since President Donald Trump took office pledging to expand oil and gas leasing on federal lands, Nevada has become the Wild West for oil speculation."
"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday restored federal protections to grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park, abiding by a court ruling last year that removal of the bears’ threatened status violated the Endangered Species Act."
"Nearly two years after dramatically shrinking the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, the Trump administration finalized a management plan Friday that would allow trees to be plowed down using heavy chains, as well as utility lines and more ranching, in the smaller area that is still preserved."
"Development and climate change are top threats to wildlife habitat and biodiversity, and in the arid west, water supply is a consistent concern for all kinds of life. But ecologists see a simple, natural way for ecosystems to be more resilient: beavers."
"A mining company says it won’t carry out cleanup work ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of a Superfund project in southwest Colorado."
"The Treasure State looks poised to permit its first new copper mine in decades. Sandfire says it will raise the environmental bar — a promise Montanans have heard before."
"WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, Montana ― In the late 1800s, a homesteader named Johnny Lee settled in a remote gulch along Sheep Creek, a tributary of the Smith River that zigzags west through the rolling Little Belt Mountains of central Montana. For two decades, Lee toiled on a nearby hillside where a small amount of copper had been found, hoping to uncover a large underground deposit of the valuable ore.
While environmental journalists often focus on regulatory wrestling matches in Washington, D.C., a seasoned New York Times investigative reporter argues the most important stories are those in the real communities where bureaucratic impacts are felt. Three-time Pulitzer winner Eric Lipton makes the case for public service in journalism that tells the environment story from the outside in.
"Upstream mining has left a toxic legacy at the bottom of Coeur d’Alene Lake."
"An invasive mussel that has taken up residence in Lake Powell on the Colorado River is threatening Utah’s push to develop a $1.8 billion pipeline to deliver water to fast-growing areas."
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