"The Interior Department office created to oversee billions of dollars of land appraisals is weak and undermined by other bureaus, leaving it unable to function efficiently, the Interior inspector general has found."

"After years of negotiations between environmentalists and industry groups, observers say efforts to reform a century-old law regulating mining may finally pick up steam in Congress."

"To quote a famous line from a famous movie, "It's the only thing that lasts" — land, that is. No wonder, then, that many see land as their legacy, something to pass down to future generations when they die. A landowner in Michigan wants to use death itself — her own — to leave a legacy that's unusually personal."

"A controversial roundup of 2,500 wild horses from public and private lands in Nevada began on Monday amid protests from activists who call it needless and inhumane."

"During a warm spell this fall, vandals hauled 18 decrepit televisions and computers down a narrow gravel road in Utah's picturesque Skull Valley, dumped them on a hillside, blasted them with guns and left them for dead."

"An agreement to protect a Utah canyon decorated by ancient American Indian art is expected to allow energy development in the area to move forward."

"Montana's top elected officials backed a plan Monday to put vast tracts of coal up for lease, bucking pressure from environmentalists who say digging up and burning the fuel will be an "abomination" that endangers the planet."

Some golf courses get a bad rap from environmentalists, but there's a budding green movement in the golf industry.

"The protected areas would encompass 1 million acres containing wildlife, extinct volcanoes, sand dunes and ancient petroglyphs. The senator says the bill could be enacted in late 2010."

"It was the slap heard 'round the coalfields: Cordelia Ruth Tucker, wearing the fluorescent-striped shirt of a miner, strode past West Virginia state troopers and into a stream of marchers protesting mountaintop removal mining to deliver an audible smack."

"A Canadian mining company's discovery last week of high-grade gold deposits north of Glacier National Park has raised alarm among environmentalists that development of the deposits could imperil Montana's Flathead River Valley and fragment North America's most prized grizzly habitat."

"In New Mexico, a tribal attempt to protect Mount Taylor sparks a battle over ancient claims to the land."

"The federal Minerals Management Service has approved a controversial plan by Shell Gulf of Mexico, Inc. to drill up to three exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea on leases it purchased in 2008."

"The new head of the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement promised Wednesday to find a way to reduce the impacts of mountaintop removal mining on Appalachian streams, forests and communities. But OSM Director Joe Pizarchik said he would not seek what most coalfield and national environmental groups are advocating: a ban on the practice."

"Sears Holdings, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, along with two other jewelry retailers last week signed on to the No Dirty Gold campaign's Golden Rules for responsible sourcing of precious metals."