California

"For ecologists, the Covid-19 pandemic has presented a remarkable natural experiment in what can happen to wild animals when humans stay home."

"While Gov. Newsom touted the state’s environmental efforts at the UN climate summit, toxic spills and a new law speeding drilling tarnished its reputation at home."

"On a jagged coastline in Central California, brown pelicans gather on rock promontories, packed in like edgy commuters as they take flight to feed on a vast school of fish just offshore. The water churns in whitecaps as the big-billed birds plunge beneath the surface in search of northern anchovies, Pacific sardines and mackerel."

"Southwestern states are bracing for many of their streams to lose federal safeguards under the EPA’s proposal to lift Clean Water Act protections for many wetlands and waterways across the US. New Mexico, Arizona, California, and other arid states face the brunt of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal because it explicitly excludes streams that only run when it rains—one of the most common kinds of waterways in the desert Southwest."

"State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found."

"To many locals, the Los Angeles River — hugged by concrete embankments and heavy vehicle traffic — hardly seems like a river at all. ... But when Doug Rosenberg came upon a shopping cart tipped over in the river's shallow waters back in 2020, he saw the potential to meet nature halfway."

"California farms applied an average of 2.5m lb of Pfas “forever chemicals” per year on cropland from 2018 to 2023, or a total of about 15m lb, a new review of state records shows."

"Two Northern California tribes announced Wednesday that they signed a treaty last month, committing to jointly restore the Eel River and its fish populations."

"The Trump administration plans to allow new oil and gas drilling off the California coast for the first time in roughly four decades, according to three people briefed on the matter. The move would set up a confrontation with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has fought offshore drilling and who has emerged as one of President Trump’s chief political antagonists."