Latest from The Spokesman-Review

• Parks offer fee-free days

  November 6, 2011 in Outdoors on Page C11 National parks will be waiving entrance fees for three days to celebrate Veterans Day weekend, Friday through next Sunday. Fee-free days have been offered the past two years as a …

• Ranchers plan to fight proposed monuments

  August 29, 2010 in Outdoors on Page C13 LEWISTOWN, Mont. – Ranchers in eastern Montana are digging in for what they said Friday would be a protracted fight against a tentative Interior Department proposal to designate more than … 1

• Grouse ruling challenge stymied

  April 30, 2010 in City, Idaho, Region on Page A8 A judge has dealt environmentalists an early setback in their attempt to challenge the federal government’s recent decision not to grant the sage grouse threatened or endangered species status.

• Judge rebuffs initial sage grouse lawsuit

  April 29, 2010 in City, Idaho A judge has dealt environmentalists an early setback in their attempt to challenge the federal government’s recent decision not to grant the sage grouse threatened or endangered species status.

• GOP: Border Patrol should control federal lands

  April 14, 2010 in Nation/World, Region A group of House Republicans say Border Patrol agents should be granted direct control over U.S. borders, even on federal lands managed by other agencies. 3

• Groups say they intend to sue over sage grouse

  March 29, 2010 in Outdoors, City Three environmental groups say they intend to sue the Interior Department for not protecting sage grouse as an endangered or threatened species. 4

• Energy groups relieved sage grouse won’t be listed

  March 5, 2010 in Outdoors, City An Interior Department announcement Friday that it won’t list sage grouse as an endangered or threatened species opens the way for continued development of the West’s wind energy and oil …

• U.S., tribes settle claims for $3 billion

  December 9, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A1 WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Tuesday proposed spending more than $3 billion to settle claims dating back more than a century that American Indian tribes were swindled out of … 1

• Bush shale-oil leases probed

  October 21, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A4 WASHINGTON – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asked the Interior Department’s inspector general Tuesday to investigate a controversial, last-minute move by the Bush administration to lock in favorable royalty rates and …

• Wild horses and burros overpopulating the West

  October 8, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A4 WASHINGTON – The government plans to aggressively sterilize wild horses and transplant thousands to new public preserves in the Midwest and East as a solution to the nearly 40-year-old problem … 2

• Officials move to overturn mine waste dumping rule

  April 28, 2009 in Business on Page A8 WASHINGTON – The Obama administration took steps Monday to reverse a last-minute Bush-era rule that allows mountaintop mining waste to be dumped near streams, saying it was bad public policy. …

• Interior blocks plan for oil shale development

  February 26, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A3 WASHINGTON – The Interior Department on Wednesday blocked a Bush administration plan to open parts of the Mountain West for oil shale development, announcing that it would first study the …

• Nation in brief: Offshore drilling plan delayed

  February 11, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A3 The Obama administration put the brakes Tuesday on a push to expand oil and gas drilling off America’s coasts and promised to speed development of offshore wind farms. Interior Secretary …

• Simpson named to lead GOP on enviro spending panel

  January 8, 2009 in Idaho WASHINGTON — Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson will serve as the top Republican for a House subcommittee that oversees spending for the Interior Department and environmental agencies.

• Obama adds Interior pick to energy team

  December 16, 2008 in Nation/World on Page A3 WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama plans to name Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado to run the Interior Department, rounding out an environmental and energy team charged with quickly tackling …