Biodiversity

"The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed opening up more federally protected land for hunting and fishing in what it called a major expansion of those activities in the nation’s wildlife refuges."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday it is launching an investigation into the high number of gray whale deaths reported on the West Coast this year to determine whether environmental, human or disease-related causes are to blame."

"The story of the seabirds’ deaths likely starts at the bottom of the food chain, where warming water and climate change are changing the menu."

"Two environmental groups have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to demand that the federal government recognize several species native to the U.S. as endangered."

"The Trump administration is preparing to unveil a broad final rule that could represent the most significant change to the Endangered Species Act since its inception in 1973."

"Something happened to the population of North Atlantic right whales in the last decade, as their numbers shrank and fewer calves were born." "New evidence suggests that the endangered population lost much of a critical food source, but may be stabilizing slightly as it shifts territory to feed elsewhere."

"Real, visible and consequential ecological catastrophes are playing out all around us."

"Wander into the woods in most places in the eastern United States and you’re likely to come across a towering trunk with sandy-colored, diamond-shaped ridges rising to bare forking branches and little holes peppering the bark, signaling where small, green beetles have crawled out and flown away after doing their dirty work. This decaying monument is — or rather, was — an ash tree. Its kind will not be back in your lifetime, perhaps ever.

"The Chesapeake Bay’s recovery took a step back in 2018, but the estuary retained its “C” grade on an annual report card from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science."

"Worms are wriggling into Earth’s northernmost forests, creating major unknowns for climate-change models."