Natural Resources

"After spending $66 to buy a new 3-by-5-foot nylon rainbow flag, the National Park Service flew it high at one of the agency's newest monuments: the historic Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village, where a riot on June 28, 1969, launched the modern gay rights movement 50 years ago this week."

"As debate cranks up over mandatory funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are exploring ways to fix, nurture and maintain America's treasured public lands and waters on an increasingly tight budget."

"Upstream mining has left a toxic legacy at the bottom of Coeur d’Alene Lake."

"A House panel yesterday [Wednesday] advanced legislation that would address two hot-button natural resources issues: mandatory funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and offshore drilling."

"The Wilderness Society is suing the Trump administration to try to force the release of documents on its decision to lift restrictions on mining upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota."

"Bills that would reduce the massive deferred maintenance backlog on public lands and establish mandatory funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, among others, are poised to advance tomorrow [Wednesday] in the House."

"Virginia's longtime ban on uranium mining will remain in place after the Supreme Court issued a splintered decision upholding the policy."

"A number of conservation groups are asking the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate reports that political appointees are improperly interfering in the release of public records."

"Documents that the federal Environmental Protection Agency tried to keep confidential show that its staffers criticized how Minnesota regulators drafted a key permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine, and concluded that the permit would violate federal law because it lacked pollution limits based on the state’s water quality standards."