Author: Darryl Fears
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Americans tell Interior to take a hike over proposed National Park fee increase
Interior Department officials are backing away from a plan to dramatically increase entrance fees at the most popular national parks after receiving more than 100,000 public comments from Americans nearly unanimously opposed to the idea. Last October, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proposed to increase peak-season entrance fees at 17 parks from $25 to $70 –…
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U.S. efforts once saved the red wolf. But missteps may push the species back to the brink.
CAN RED WOLVES BE SAVED AGAIN? This sprawling mix of swamp and forest is the only place in the world where red wolves live in the wild, and on a breezy afternoon Ron Sutherland set out to find one. He drove an SUV slowly on lumpy dirt roads for nearly four hours, scanning spindly trees,…
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Trump says he will shrink Bears Ears National Monument, sacred tribal site in Utah
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President Donald Trump informed Sen. Orrin Hatch, R, Friday that he will shrink Bears Ears National Monument, a 1.35 million-acre protected area in southeast Utah that is prized by many tribal leaders but opposed by several state and federal Republican officials. “I’m approving the Bears Ears recommendation for you, Orrin,” Trump told the senator in…
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Houston’s flood threatens to turn polluted Superfund sites into a toxic gumbo
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As rain poured and floodwaters inched toward his house in south Houston, Wes Highfield set out on a risky mission in his Jeep Cherokee. He drove in several directions to reach a nearby creek to collect water samples, but each time he was turned back when water washed against his floorboard. “Yesterday as these large…
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Why Americans are fighting over a gorgeous monument called Bears Ears
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The route to Newspaper Rock from the tiny city of Monticello, Utah, follows a narrow two-lane road through a breathtaking landscape. The land craters into canyons on stretches of Utah 211, causing uninitiated drivers to grip the steering wheel. Soon the earth rises into mountains that seem to glow red under the sun. On one…
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Investigation finds ‘credible evidence’ of sexual harassment at Yellowstone
The Interior Department on Thursday ordered additional harassment prevention training for managers and supervisors after an internal report found that men in a maintenance unit at Yellowstone National Park “created a work environment that included unwelcome and inappropriate comments and actions toward women.” According to the report released Wednesday by the department’s inspector general’s office,…
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Trump promised to bring back coal jobs. That promise ‘will not be kept,’ experts say
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump lifted a moratorium on federal coal leases Tuesday, paving the way for excavation of a fossil fuel on public land in the West that few mining companies seem to want. With coal miners gathered around him, Trump signed an executive order rolling back a temporary ban on mining coal and…
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Rogue Twitter accounts spring up to fight Donald Trump on climate change
What started as a gritty protest by a former Badlands National Park Service employee who wanted to give President Trump a piece of his mind snowballed overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday into a Twitter movement in support of climate change. An anonymous group of people who claim to be National Park Service employees created an…
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Few women fight wildfires. That’s not because they’re afraid of flames.
WHISKEYTOWN, Calif. — The burn boss scanned the snaking trail of the Swasey Recreation Area through thick black sunglasses. She saw firefighters scurrying on a hill above in a smoky blue haze. They were setting dozens of fires to burn away piles of sticks and shrubs that a lightning strike or cigarette butt could use…