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Wednesday, February 26, 2025

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US strikes a deal with Ukraine that includes access to its rare earth minerals, officials say; California researchers explore crops that thrive on salt; Medicaid cuts could hurt low-income Alaskans, damage health care system; MI environmentalists alarmed about potential Line 5 emergency permit status.

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Trump faces backlash for restricting press access. The Defense Secretary's ties to a controversial church spark debate, Speaker Mike Johnson struggles with votes for a budget that includes health care cuts. Arkansas expands school meals, and Western voters push back against cuts to wilderness agencies.

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U.S. farmers in limbo due to the federal funding freeze worry their projects will go unrealized, mass firings could wreak havoc on tourists visiting public lands this summer, while money to fight wildfires in rural areas is also jeopardized.

Federal funding to help restore WY's Hoback River native fish habitat

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Monday, January 20, 2025   

Wyoming agencies will receive about $1.25 million in federal funding to help reconnect native fish migration routes on the Hoback River.

The money is part of $41 million of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for water resources and ecosystem health that the Biden administration announced this month. The Wyoming project will replace eight irrigation diversions currently acting as barriers to fish migration, reconnecting 18 miles of habitat across Dell and Jack Creeks.

Leslie Bahn Steen, Wyoming state director for Trout Unlimited, said it will help native cutthroat trout and other species deal with extreme weather threats.

"In a given year, if they're facing any threats from low water and high water temperatures and flood and fire and drought, they're able to move to the places where they're trying to get to," Steen explained.

Steen pointed out it is common knowledge that salmon migrate but so do many other native fish species. Updated irrigation structures will allow not only for fish passage but also for the farmers and ranchers who use them to do so more effectively.

Right now, Steen noted, it is hard for ranchers to conserve water.

"They don't have a way to control how much water they're taking," Steen observed. "By having rehabilitated irrigation ditches, our hope is that they'll be able to also take less water at certain times of the year."

Plans have been in the works for two years and, she added, the federal grant will allow groups to move forward with confidence.


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