"Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blasted Republicans on Thursday for refusing to take up a bill to reauthorize a federal conservation fund."

"Wednesday new funding runs dry for a program that has supported hundreds of parks around the country for 50 years."

"On ancestral lands, the Fond du Lac band in Minnesota is planting wild rice and restoring wetlands damaged by dams, industry, and logging. Their efforts are part of a growing trend by Native Americans to bring back traditional food sources and heal scarred landscapes."

"The Land and Water Conservation Fund, a pot of federal money used for parks and more, expires Sept. 30, and the latest draft of a budget resolution doesn’t include any language reauthorizing the fund, meaning new money won’t go into the fund after it expires."

"As the cal­en­dar flips closer to Sept. 30, the talk on Cap­it­ol Hill is dom­in­ated by Planned Par­ent­hood and the loom­ing gov­ern­ment shut­down. But some fear that lost in the shuffle is an­oth­er, much smal­ler dead­line that could go un­ad­dressed."

"More than half the members of the U.S. Senate are urging chamber leadership to pass a bill reauthorizing a federal conservation program before it expires at the end of the month."

"A popular fund that has supported hundreds of parks around the country is set to go away in less than two weeks, and Congressional dithering is to blame."

"Land degradation, such as a spread of deserts in parts of Africa, costs the world economy trillions of dollars a year and may drive tens of millions of people from their homes, a U.N.-backed study said on Tuesday."