Environment

You can now glide your way through downtown Winston-Salem.

New pumping and irrigation systems made it easy for farmers to extract billions of gallons of water from the High Plains Aquifer. But now, parts of the aquifer are dried out, prompting a debate over how to preserve what once seemed to be an almost inexhaustible resource.

Dense forests of old-growth pines and cypress once blanketed South Carolina. As farming spread, nearly all the state's virgin trees were logged, but some sank into rivers en route to the sawmills. Now, some entrepreneurs are raising the preserved trees from the muck — and selling them for big money.

The federal government held its first ever auction for the right to build offshore wind farms on Wednesday. After 11 rounds, a Rhode Island company was the highest bidder, at $3.8 million.

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California's Mojave Desert will power about 140,000 homes and be a boon to the state's renewable energy goals. But it was no slam dunk. Now, California is trying to bring conservationists and energy companies together to create a smoother path for future projects.

Ceiling fans help keep you cool — unless you're in Washington, where a battle over energy-efficiency standards for ceiling fans is raising temperatures between the White House and congressional Republicans.

Since the 1930s, Louisiana has steadily been losing land that protects it from hurricanes and other disasters. The government board charged with protecting New Orleans from flooding sued the oil and gas industry Wednesday, arguing they are responsible for a big part of the problem.

Water in all its forms has caused trouble at the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant this week. They are reminders that the problems are far from over.

Biologists have discovered they can track hard-to-see species in streams, ponds and even the ocean by sampling the water for DNA. Scientists say the technique is an important conservation tool: So far, it's been used to track declining giant salamanders and even locate a rare whale.

The Mount Charleston blue butterfly is found only in a couple of small patches high in Nevada's Spring Mountains. But the Carpenter 1 fire, which has been raging through the area since July 1, is threatening the land and scientists fear the fire could push the butterflies into extinction.