Ryan Zinke
Newly confirmed interior secretary suppressed information on pesticide risks, documents show
When Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke stepped down in January amid multiple ethics probes, his deputy secretary, David Bernhardt, filled in. Now, as the longtime oil and agribusiness lobbyist formally takes the reins at the Interior Department, criticism is mounting over alleged conflicts of interest and government documents indicate that Bernhardt interfered with a key US Fish and Wildlife Service report that detailed the risks pesticides can pose to endangered species.
New Interior ruling threatens to undo protections of migratory birds
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act and related rules have helped safeguard many millions of birds since 1918, but now the Trump Administration has reinterpreted the act in a way that would loosen its protections and shield from prosecution companies that kill birds.
Mining threatens Minnesota’s pristine Boundary Waters
The Obama administration had put a temporary stop to copper-nickel mining on the edge of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, pending environmental review. The Trump Interior Department reversed this policy, raising concerns about pollution in this hugely popular area that has been part of the National Wilderness Preservation System since 1964.
He can make national monuments, but many legal scholars say Trump can’t destroy them
The Trump administration plans to drastically shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah. Conservation and Native American groups have sued, saying only Congress can make that change.
