Ground Truth

The Trump administration last week released plans to open more than 1 million acres in California to fracking, which would end a five-year moratorium on leasing public land in the state for oil and gas development. On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management released a...

A half dozen officials in President Trump’s Department of the Interior are under investigation for possible ethics violations, according to a Washington Post article published this week. All are accused of engaging with former employers or clients in their official...

A rare salamander that occupies a unique niche in the Pacific Northwest will likely have its day in court to decide whether it merits protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Siskiyou Mountains salamander depends on damp, deep-forest talus slopes. It survives...

David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and gas industry who has drawn intense criticism for alleged conflicts of interest during his stint as a top official in the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior, was confirmed as permanent Secretary of the...

A conservation group is suing the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management for approving a Canadian company’s request to explore for gold and other minerals just outside the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington’s Cascade Mountains. In...

The owners of a small Utah ski area have apparently withdrawn a request for a Forest Service permit that would clear the way for a major expansion into a roadless area of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Last year, Mountain Capital Partners, owners of the...

In a ruling that could reverberate across federally managed lands, a U.S. district court judge on Monday found that the Bureau of Land Management must take climate change into account when deciding whether to approve leases for oil and gas drilling. U.S. District...

The Forest Service has rejected a proposal to build a $1.2 billion hydroelectric facility in the mountains of West Virginia, saying the project would harm rare species and degrade federally protected wetlands. FreedomWorks LLC, based in Harpers Ferry, wants to build...

The bad news keeps coming for backers of a controversial natural gas pipeline that would span the Appalachian Mountains. Yesterday, a federal appellate court declined to reconsider its earlier finding that the Forest Service overstepped its authority when it granted...

The southern border isn’t the only place where Trump Administration proposals are stirring controversy. Last week, officials with the Idaho Panhandle National Forests issued a draft record of decision to rebuild a long-abandoned stretch of road just south of the...

More than 140,000 people submitted comments or signed petitions on a proposal to revise or rescind a rule that protects wild stretches of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest from road-building and logging, with the majority voicing support for keeping the rule as is....

Facing pressure from conservationists, Native American tribes and members of Congress, Bureau of Land Management officials have decided not to offer oil and natural gas leases near Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico. In a brief statement released on...

Construction has halted on the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, as the pipeline’s proponents grapple with adverse judicial rulings and growing skepticism that the project will go forward. Dominion Energy, the project’s lead developer, is also facing increasing costs....

A pair of environmental groups is suing the Forest Service for approving livestock grazing in an area of southwest Colorado that is home to bighorn sheep. In establishing a new grazing allotment for domestic sheep in the San Juan Mountains, officials with the Rio...