"An internal Interior Department memo has proposed lifting restrictions on exploratory seismic studies in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a possible first step toward opening the pristine wilderness area to oil and gas drilling."

"Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending that six of 27 national monuments under review by the Trump administration be reduced in size, with changes to several others proposed."

"The chief executives of some of the largest coal and mining companies in the country have chosen the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., for a private conference next month, according to documents obtained by The Intercept."

"Democratic members of New Mexico's congressional delegation are pushing federal officials to uphold an agreement that limits oil and gas leasing on public land near Chaco Culture National Historical Park."

The renaming of facilities at Yosemite National Park, because of a contract-related trademark dispute, "is an opportunity for the National Park Service to dump dozens of place names that are the linguistic equivalents of Confederate statues."

"The Elwha River starts at Dodwell-Rixon Pass, a high crack in Washington’s Olympic Mountains. There, a hiker who crossed would find the Elwha Snowfinger, formed by heavy winter storms and the avalanches that pour off the surrounding mountainsides."

"In a move that's drawing fierce criticism, the acting head of the National Park Service has rescinded a 2016 order by the Obama administration that called for a focus on climate change in managing natural resources in U.S. parks."

"The Trump administration violated the law when it tried to delay a fossil fuel regulation that had already taken effect, a federal court ruled yesterday."

"President Donald Trump on Saturday indicated he has chosen as the nation’s top mine safety official the former chief executive of Rhino Resources, a coal company that repeatedly clashed with federal regulators when the Obama administration Labor Department tried to step up industry-wide enforcement in the wake of the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in a generation."

"Oil and gas producers might have a harder time breaking even in shale plays containing federally controlled land, but that may have little to do with the regulatory and permitting burdens associated with extracting hydrocarbons from public acreage, energy researchers say."