Biodiversity

"Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, leading to a staggering two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees, officials said Friday."

"There is a ray of hope for the vanishing orange-and-black Western monarch butterflies. The number wintering along California’s central coast is bouncing back after the population, whose presence is often a good indicator of ecosystem health, reached an all-time low last year."

"When lobster prices rose this year, it provided a boost for Zach Piper, a 27-year-old lobsterman who earns his living on Maine’s Frenchman Bay with 800 traps and a 31-foot boat named Overtime."

"Thanks to climate change, armadillos, native to southern America, are making their way up north. And there’s no sign of them stopping their relentless march".

"Scientists have found something strange has been happening among sensitive bird species in the Brazilian Amazon in recent years. Not only were the birds declining in number, but their bodies were also shrinking in size."

"Science shows beavers make landscapes more resistant to wildfire and drought, inspiring a growing movement to partner with them against the worst effects of climate change."

"Despite its burly stature, spiked back and bone-crushing bite, the alligator snapping turtle needs protection." "They were almost wiped out in 1960s and ‘70s because so many were harvested for soup".

"Political appointees in the Trump administration relied on faulty science to justify stripping habitat protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, U.S. wildlife officials said Tuesday as they struck down a rule that would have opened millions of acres of West Coast forest to potential logging."