Dozens of national monuments established in the last 20 years may lose their federally protected designation under a new order from the Trump administration. Find out which ones may have been targeted near you, how to find stories about the impact on public lands and who the players are in monument politics, in the latest TipSheet.
"President Trump's latest executive order opens the door to reducing or revoking two dozen national monuments, including Bears Ears in Utah. It's far from clear, however, that the president has the legal authority to do so."
"President Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday instructing the Interior Department to review national monument designations his three predecessors have made over the past 21 years, according to administration officials and GOP lawmakers, a move that could upend protections that previous presidents have put in place in Utah and elsewhere across the country."
"Federal officials have concluded that infrastructure for a proposed hydropower project — which would tap billions of gallons of groundwater in the California desert, just outside Joshua Tree National Park — wouldn't be especially harmful to the environment."
BookShelf takes a peek into the hidden life of trees, to understand how biologists believe plants may communicate and even assist others that are struggling, and what that may mean for modern forestry.
"The Interior Department no longer supports legislation that would transfer the National Bison Range to the tribes whose reservation it's located within."
"Eric Newman speeds through the maze of bayous at the Mississippi River's mouth with the confidence of someone who's done this for decades. He points to prime spots to catch redfish, where crabbers go for blues and the grassy channel where his grandfather had a fishing camp. Suddenly, he slows his boat."
"A Yellowstone National Park repair crew engaged in sexual harassment, drunkenness and crude comments on the job, an internal government watchdog said today."
"A bipartisan group of senators on Friday introduced a bill to permanently reauthorize the nation’s main conservation fund."
"President Donald Trump, who made a fortune in real estate before running for political office, has decided to donate his first-quarter salary of $78,333 to the National Park Service, the White House announced on Monday."
