Page 17 - Conservation Groups News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Win in court should protect sage grouse, endangered fish, groups say

When Reed Cammack hears the first meadowlark of spring, he knows his family has made it through another cold, snowy winter on the western South Dakota prairie. “It’s part of the flora and fauna of our Great Plains and it’s beautiful to hear,” says Cammack, 42, a sixth-generation rancher who raises cattle on 10,000 acres (4,047 hectares) of mostly unaltered native grasslands. “There are quite a few I don’t see any more and I don’t know for sure why,” says Cammack's 92-year-old grandfather, Floyd.

Lithium Americas has begun Thacker Pass construction and plans to spend $125 million this year on building the mine.

The U.S. government will settle a lawsuit with conservation groups and commit to releasing more endangered red wolves into the wilds of North Carolina, where nearly three dozen of the canine species are believed to still run free. The conservation groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2020 after it stopped releasing captive-bred wolves. Eastern North Carolina is the only place in the world where they roam wild outside of zoos and wildlife refuges.

The lawsuit pointed to issues such as development encroaching on gopher tortoise habitats and said the federal agency’s decision last year was “contrary to the best available science.”