Biodiversity

"The White House announced last night the intention to nominate Martha Williams as director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, capping nine months in which she has already been leading the agency as the administration overhauls key policies."

"A judge on Friday halted Wisconsin’s fall wolf season two weeks before hunters were set to take to the woods, siding with wildlife advocacy groups who argued that holding the hunt would be unconstitutional."

"A new study stands as a striking reminder that logging watersheds has an outsized impact on salmon and trout."

"While global attention is currently focused on COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases that jump from animals to humans, diseases that breach the species barrier also pass from people and domestic animals to wild species."

"The humpback chub, a rare fish found only in the Colorado River basin, has been brought back from the brink of extinction after decades of protection, though work must continue to ensure its survival, federal authorities said Monday in reclassifying the species from endangered to threatened status."

"As Florida's record manatee die-off nears 1,000 victims so far this year, the state's top wildlife official asked lawmakers for $7 million more in 2022 to save starving sea cows and suggested that his agency temporarily do what would today get you a $500 fine and/or up to 60 days in prison: tossing them a few scraps of leafy blades."

"Dwindling populations of the American bumblebee and their complete disappearance from eight states has led to a call for the bee to be placed under the Endangered Species Act before they face extinction."

"Almost 90% of the 180 recognized RNA viruses that can harm humans are zoonotic in origin. But disease biosurveillance of the world’s wildlife markets and legal trade is largely absent, putting humanity at significant risk."

"In California, dissipating “June gloom” could bring a dismal future for some of the state’s redwoods and Torrey pines."