"The towering maple trees and native hazelnut bushes on Salvatierra Farms break up the surrounding corn and soybean fields that sprawl across southern Minnesota."

"An ambitious bill to keep toxic “forever chemicals” off California produce lost its teeth after the chemical and agricultural industry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying against it."

"Rabies cases in the United States from July to August increased 17 percent compared to the same period last year, following several “high-profile rabies outbreaks” and exposure events, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday."

"Florida’s wildlife agency has proposed new rules to strengthen protections for sloths imported into the state, four months after an Inside Climate News investigation revealed dozens of wild sloths from South America died at a planned Orlando tourism attraction."

"The company will pay the sum over the next 15 years for contamination caused by its plant on the border of Cumberland and Bladen counties."

"Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s push for minerals and militarization raises fears about the violence more mining could inflict on local communities and critical ecosystems."

"The world is set to burn record amounts of coal this year, in large part because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday."

"A group representing more than 800 former employees of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday sounded the alarm over the health consequences of data centers. It warned that Trump administration policies to weaken pollution safeguards and speed up approvals of the facilities threatened to exacerbate those health harms."

"Bryce Black kneels in a wheat field battered by intense drought. He holds two strands, remarking on how small the seed head is compared with what’s normal."

"The birds are up with the sunrise — warblers, flycatchers, sparrows and towhees calling across the treetops. Deer browse on tender buds emerging from dense shrubs. Black bears scrounge for roots, insects and other edibles." "But it’s what’s underground that has drawn scientists and investors to this 23-square-mile (60-square-kilometer) tract: spongy, dense peat up to 15 feet (5 meters) deep."