Biodiversity

"The federal government may not deem an area with imperiled plants and animals to be a “critical habitat” if doing so would cause economic harm or national security problems, under proposed rules announced Friday."

"The Trump administration on Friday proposed a sale that would allow logging across thousands of acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, which critics say will exacerbate climate change and harm wildlife habitats."

"It’s a good summer for the big cats who already have to deal with development, traffic, poisons and wildfires." "California mountain lions are in the middle of a baby boom."

"Uganda says it has recorded a baby boom among gorillas in a national park that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the East African country’s most prized tourist attractions."

"Veterinarians, farmers, and zookeepers could help prevent the next pandemic, but their expertise has been overlooked."

"As the Amazon rainforest’s human-inflicted fire season advances — now counting nearly 700 major fires and half a million hectares  burned over the last three months — the risk to Indigenous territories is growing: 86% of major fires detected in Indigenous Territories this year happened in the last two weeks, according to satellite data analyzed by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP)."

"The Trump administration plans to lift endangered species protections for gray wolves across most of the nation by the end of the year, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday."

"Researchers say that more microplastics pollution is getting into farm soil than oceans—and these tiny bits are showing up in our fruits, veggies, and bodies."

"Conservationists at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State have spotted a wolverine mother and her two offspring, known as kits. A reproductive female hasn’t been seen in this national park for over a century, which suggests ecological conditions in the area are improving."

"When a seabird is found with a belly full of plastic bags, or a turtle is strangled by six-pack rings, it's easy to see how our trash turns deadly when it enters the oceans. It's much harder to track the effects of the tens of thousands of chemicals that are dumped in the ocean every day, through sewage, agricultural runoff, and industrial waste—most of which have unknown effects on wild ecosystems."