Amelia Templeton

 The Secretary of Interior has formed a task force to determine if coal companies are underpaying royalties for coal mined on public land and sold in Asia. And it has confirmed it is investigating one coal company for potential criminal wrongdoing.

Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced today he will step down from his post in March.

If you read the fine print of the tax bill Congress passed this week, it includes a shout-out to algae, cyanobacteria and duckweed. For the first time, algae biofuels are eligible for a dollar a gallon tax credit.

The population of a reclusive northwest sea bird has declined by about a third in just 10 years. That’s

according to a new federal study of the marbled murrelet.

The murrelet is a relative of the puffin that nests in coastal old growth forest.

Trained observers on boats off the coast of Oregon, Washington, and California tallied the number of murrelets they saw each summer, for 10 years.

Steve Holmer is with the American Bird Conservancy.

In Portland today, a federal appeals court heard a challenge to Idaho’s roadless rule. Environmental groups argued the rule gives the Forest Service too much flexibility to build new roads.

A new study from Oregon State University shows that declining snowpack is allowing trees to invade some grassy alpine meadows in the Cascades.

Top brass from the Army Corps of Engineers traveled to Port Orford today to deliver bad news. The corps says it can’t afford to dredge the fishing port now or in the foreseeable future. Other small ports in the Northwest will face similar cuts.

Residents of the Northwest see urban stormwater runoff as a top source of water pollution, according to a poll commissioned by EarthFix.

Biologists say the sea lions that scoop up fish at the foot of Bonneville dam on the Columbia river have killed more sturgeon this year than salmon. Amelia Templeton reports.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has created a panel to try to end a stalemate over federal forest lands that once belonged to the corrupt Oregon and California railroad.