WASHINGTON - October 13 - The Interior Department is preparing to jettison a two-decade old regulation that protects parks in favor of opening more backcountry trails to mountain bicycles, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The plan would eliminate public review and comment for new bike trails, which could be opened in any park area not prohibited by law.

WASHINGTON - October 8 -  Today, the nation's highest Court heard arguments to determine whether President Bush had the authority earlier this year to exempt the U.S. Navy from federal environmental laws governing the use of high-intensity sonar. The White House issued the exemptions after a federal court ordered the Navy to safeguard marine mammals against harm from high-intensity, mid-frequency active sonar being used in a series of exercises off southern California. Those safeguards were sought by a coalition of conservation groups led by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

DENVER - October 7 - WildEarth Guardians and Earthjustice today called on federal agencies to withdraw a permit for a Western Colorado coal mine expansion that would waste massive amounts of methane and contribute to global warming.

Methane -- also known as natural gas -- is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, yet is also a valuable energy source.

RIO GRANDE, Brazil - October 6 - Close to 400 rescued penguins took to the skies on a C-130 Hercules military aircraft bound for Pelotas, in southern Brazil where they were released back to their ocean home. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.ifaw.org ) assisted the Instituto Mamíferos Aquáticos (IMA) and Brazilian officials to save hundreds of juvenile Magellanic penguins that mysteriously stranded on the warm beaches of Salvador, 1,400 kilometers north of Sao Paulo.

BRADENTON, Fla. - October 6 - Earthjustice scored a major win today when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended a permit that gave Mosaic Phosphate the go-ahead to destroy 480 acres of high-quality wetlands within the Peace River watershed.

"This permit suspension is a victory for the people of Manatee County and everyone who lives in the Peace River basin" said Earthjustice attorney Monica Reimer. "This establishes that the permit should never have been granted. It didn't comply with the law."

OAKLAND, Calif. - October 6 - The Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Greenpeace have reached a partial settlement with the federal government of the conservation groups' lawsuit that seeks to strengthen protections for the polar bear under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and other laws. The agreement, filed today in federal court, sets deadlines for the Secretary of Interior to designate "critical habitat" for the polar bear, as well as to issue guidelines on non-lethal strategies to deal with bears that pose a threat to public safety under the U.S.