Natural Resources

"The United States will help other nations achieve a key pledge of an anticipated new global nature pact - to protect at least 30% of the planet's land and seas by 2030, Washington's top biodiversity envoy said."

"An oil spill in a creek in northeastern Kansas shut down a major pipeline that carries oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, briefly causing oil prices to rise Thursday."

"As thousands of people descend on Montreal this week for a crucial U.N. biodiversity summit, fears are growing among delegates over whether the countries involved can agree on an ambitious global pact to protect nature this decade."

"Despite pressure from development, flamingos seem to be thriving on the shores of one of the world’s most populous cities, and local people are becoming protective of the birds and their habitat."

"The city of Port Townsend, Washington, on Monday proclaimed that Southern Resident Orcas have legal rights, marking the first time a U.S. city council has made such a recognition."

"For the first time in almost three decades, the Bureau of Land Management is preparing a new rule to guide its management of cows and other livestock grazing on federal lands, a long divisive issue that has only grown more contentious in the West after two decades of drought."

"Soil’s microbial communities keep it healthy, just like the one in our guts. But new research finds we’re not doing a good enough job of protecting it."

"As talks begin this week to agree a global pact to protect nature at the COP15 summit in Montreal, one target is expected to become a leading focus of negotiations: "30 by 30".

"From a distance, they appear like autumn foliage: millions of endangered monarch butterflies blanketing trees in a kaleidoscope of brown, orange and black."