"A federal appeals court today [Wednesday] upheld the Trump-era approval of a land exchange agreement that could lead to the construction of a hotly contested road through congressionally designated wilderness within Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge."

"Conservation groups are suing [Montana] Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration to obtain records related to its decision to drop legal claims against a mining executive over decades of pollution from several mines."

"The transfer of a 34-mile section of a Adirondacks railbed from one state agency to another is being heralded as the start of a major phase to convert it into a recreational pathway."

"The Mining Law of 1872 lets miners pay no royalties for the precious minerals they dig from federal land and requires no restraints on their activities."

"Detected deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached a record high for the month of February following a similar record the prior month."

"Nearly all the world’s countries kicked off a U.N.-backed meeting Monday aimed at preventing the loss of biodiversity — seen as critical to avoiding the extinction of many vulnerable species, the emergence of pathogens like the coronavirus, and the damage to both lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Indigenous peoples in particular."

"A federal judge last week blocked five more Trump-era oil and gas lease sales for failing to comply with statutory protections for the greater sage grouse."

"In 1883, the public was transfixed by Yellowstone National Park, and not in a good way. This 2-million-acre natural treasure — mostly in Wyoming but with some land in Montana and Idaho — was being despoiled by commercial interests through the slaughter of wild animals, unrestricted logging and vandalism of hot springs."

"The world has a “once in a lifetime” chance to protect the high seas from exploitation, warned scientists and environmentalists, as negotiators meet at the UN headquarters in New York this week to hammer out a new treaty on the oceans."

"With the United States Supreme Court declining to hear the case, a protracted legal battle between two Indigenous communities has nowhere to go."