"Under the banner of “Dig, Baby, Dig,” the Trump administration is supercharging an already powerful mining industry. What will happen to vulnerable plants and animals?"
"MCDERMITT CALDERA, Ore.—On a cold and overcast spring morning, Katie Fite stood in one of the country’s last sage-grouse strongholds, contemplating the wooden stakes in the ground that she fears warn of its destruction.
Every spring, males of the chunky bird species with spiky tail feathers come to a dwindling number of locations to strut, pop their inflatable white neck pouches and make a “paloop, paloop” sound in an attempt to court a mate. As their name suggests, sage-grouse need sagebrush, the green-brown shrub that once dominated arid Western landscapes. But both the bird and its habitat are rapidly disappearing due to climate change, invasive species, wildfires and energy development.
Now a mining company wants to extract lithium here."
