Natural Resources

The story about wolves, elk, and the Yellowstone ecosystem has been told and retold by U.S. news media. The gist is that the reintroduction of wolves restored balance in overgrown elk populations -- which in turn allowed restoration of aspen groves which the elk had been overbrowsing. But new evidence suggests the story isn't really true -- or that a true understanding of the ecosystem is far more complex. That in turn raises issues about how U.S. news media cover the environment.

"A lawsuit against oil and gas companies for damage to the coast has become a symbol of the state’s environmental future."

"WASHINGTON -- In a setback to the U.S. government's long-running policy of converting abandoned railroads into public trails, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled for a Wyoming property owner who objected to a plan to extend a pathway across his land."

"President Obama on Tuesday will use his executive powers to expand the California Coastal National Monument by adding the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands on the Mendocino County coast."

"The Canadian government is increasingly worried that the growing clout of aboriginal peoples’ rights could obstruct its aggressive resource development plans, documents reveal."

"SEATTLE — Federal environmental regulators, citing risks to water quality and salmon spawning grounds in one of the world’s richest fisheries, moved on Friday to block the development of a giant open-pit copper mine in the watershed of Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska."

"A federal court [Thursday] scrapped the so-called Stream Buffer Zone Rule promulgated under President George W. Bush to govern strip-mining activities."

"Scientists are raising the alarm about the possible environmental consequences of a huge shipping canal that could cut across Nicaragua, from the Pacific to the Atlantic."

"If you think the roads you're driving on seem worse than usual this winter, you're probably right. The waves of snowstorms in much of the country have exhausted supplies of rock salt, the main tool that road crews use to melt ice and snow."

"As Brazil struggles to solve land disputes between Indians and farmers on the expanding frontier of its agricultural heartland, more tensions over forest and mineral resources are brewing in the remote Amazon."