Lorraine Marquez Eiler News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Budget legislation was signed into law in Utah this week that includes $20 million for building wildlife crossing infrastructure. Utah joins other Western states in enacting bills that allow them to receive millions of dollars in federal matching funds to install wildlife overpasses, underpasses and fencing. Bill Christensen, volunteer government relations representative for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, said Utah has a long history of investing in wildlife crossings, and the state's $20 million appropriation will turn into $100 million. ...

North Dakota's firearm deer-hunting season kicks off Nov. 10, and pheasant hunting is already underway. Conservation voices have some guidance on how to be a good steward of the land. ...

Bills in Congress would throw out comments for a proposed rule that would prioritize conservation and restoration on U.S. Bureau of Land Management public lands. House Resolution 3977 and Senate Bill 1435 would call for the BLM to stop gathering and discard public input on its draft Public Lands Rule, tossing out more than 216,000 public comments. ...

An Arizona-based coalition is calling on the Department of the Interior to expand the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in addition to returning the Darby Wells town site to the Tohono O'odham Nation and expanding the Hia-Ced O'odham cemetery. Lorraine Marquez Eiler, a Hia-Ced O'odham elder, board president and co-founder of the International Sonoran Desert Alliance, explained the proposal would transfer a parcel of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management near Ajo to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a part of the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge. ...

The U.S. is home to nearly 5,000 nonnative plant species. Most are not considered harmful but there are efforts to eliminate invasive ones from national parks, and South Dakota researchers are part of the project. ...