Environment

Almost the entire southern half of Minnesota will have air quality unhealthy for some people on Friday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says.

North America's largest amphibian, the Hellbender salamander, is in trouble. They are endangered in several states. A team in Ohio is trying to save them before it's too late.

The United Nations estimates that by 2050, the planet's 9 billion people will need to rely on bugs as a critical source of protein. Chefs and scientists are trying to get children on board early.

Affected area include the Twin Cities, St. Cloud, Hinckley and the Tribal Nation of Mille Lacs, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said Wednesday. Conditions will make it unhealthy for some people to be outside.

Made up of cooking fat, wet wipes and other sanitary products, the mass is said to weigh as much as 11 double-decker buses. A water company official compared removing it to breaking up "concrete."

The massive demonstrations against the Dakota Access pipeline didn't stop the oil from flowing, and problems on the reservation remain. But protest leaders say they're stronger for what happened last year and are focused on the future.

A new study projects that by 2050, climate change could reduce the amount of ground usable to grow coffee in Latin America by up to 88 percent. Bees play a key role in increasing coffee yields.

The state Commerce Department dealt a setback Monday to a proposed controversial oil pipeline across northern Minnesota, ruling the environmental and socioeconomic risks of letting Enbridge replace its aging Line 3 pipeline outweigh the "limited benefits."

Pope Francis has sharply criticized climate change doubters, saying history will judge those who failed to take the necessary decisions to curb heat-trapping emissions blamed for the warming of the Earth.

Forest fires have brought a smoky haze to the West, along with stinging eyes, sore throats and headaches to people far from flames. Unseen particles of ash are also making it hard for some to breathe.

The furious shaking created a second national emergency for Mexican agencies already bracing for Hurricane Katia on the other side of the country.

The diversion plan calls for a large levee to be built south of Fargo-Moorhead to hold back flood waters from the Red River and divert them into a 30-mile-long channel around the cities

Stop complaining about all that summer rain. It's about to help deliver a spectacular fall, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said Thursday as it launched its seasonal fall color finder map.

Though Ryan Zinke promised to bring a balanced vision to managing public lands, hunters and other sportsmen now feel that he's not listening to their concerns.

When you're building a zoo disaster plan, there's one thing to keep in mind: If anything can go wrong, it will.

A new pilot project in North Dakota aims to get past frequent finger-pointing between beekeepers and farmers.

Fewer cases of West Nile were reported in Minnesota this summer compared to last year, but health officials say people should still be take precautions against mosquitoes.

Minnesota's pheasant population fell dramatically in the past year, the result of an ongoing decline in nesting areas as farmers pull land from conservation programs and into crop production, the DNR said Tuesday.

The DNR is gearing up for its fall assessment of Mille Lacs, which will be used to determine the health of the lake's fish population and to set next year's harvest levels.

Long a center of the nation's petrochemical industry, the Houston metro area has more than a dozen such Superfund sites, designated by the EPA as being among America's most intensely contaminated places.