Interior Department

The U.S. Interior Department is delaying the Trump administration’s last-minute roll-back of federal protections for the northern spotted owl. On February 22nd, federal officials said the changes will be reviewed, delaying their effective date from March 16th to April 15th. D ...

On Friday, a senior adviser in the U.S. Department of Interior rescinded a January Trump administration decision to grant grazing allotments to Hammond Ranches in the Burns, OR area. Steven Hammond and his father Dwight were both convicted of arson for setting fire to rangeland that eventually spilled on to federal property ...

President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday that his administration said will help restore balance on public lands and waters. The executive action focused on climate change directs the Interior Department to outline steps to achieve the President's commitment to conserving at least 30% each of lands and waters by the year 2030 ...

Wildlife advocates and environmental groups have announced that they are challenging the removal of federal protections for gray wolves across most of the U.S. Two coalitions filed formal notices over the past several days that they plan to sue the U ...

Last week’s announced by the Department of the Interior that the gray wolf will be removed from the Endangered Species List is, according to Todd Myers, Director of the Environmental Center at the Washington Policy Center, a victory of the Endangered Species Act. He ...

On Thursday, the Department of the Interior announced it has removed the gray wolf from the endangered species list, signaling a successful recovery under the Endangered Species Act. The gray wolf spent more than four decades on the endangered species list, and federal officials say the population is now thriving in the lower 48 states ...

This week, President Trump signed an executive order seeking to modernize water management and infrastructure. The order creates a Water Policy Committee that the White House calls the Water Subcabinet. The subcabinet will be co-chaired by the Secretary of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator ...

On Thursday, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that three irrigation districts across central Washington were selected to receive federal water efficiency grants.  The grants are part of the Department of Interior’s WaterSMART program.  The goal...

The Department of Interior continues to look at delisting the gray wolf in the Lower 48.  When a proposal was announced earlier this year, a comment period was opened.  That comment period came to a close earlier this month.  Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse said at this point, Interior plans to go through those comments with a fine-toothed comb.   “My underst...

On Tuesday, Representatives Dan Newhouse and Minnesota’s Collin Peterson led a bipartisan letter calling for the gray wolf to be removed from the Endangered Species List in the lower 48.  The letter sent to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and U.S. Fish and Wil...