Biodiversity

"Federal agencies say opening these lands will reduce wildfire risks and make timber more accessible. Experts, however, say the government is contradicting itself."

"The towering maple trees and native hazelnut bushes on Salvatierra Farms break up the surrounding corn and soybean fields that sprawl across southern Minnesota."

"Indonesian authorities are working to repatriate five baby orang utans found motherless in India, suspected to be trafficked from Sumatra. The infants are critically endangered, healthy, and under care at a zoo while DNA tests confirm their origin."

"Rabies cases in the United States from July to August increased 17 percent compared to the same period last year, following several “high-profile rabies outbreaks” and exposure events, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday."

"Florida’s wildlife agency has proposed new rules to strengthen protections for sloths imported into the state, four months after an Inside Climate News investigation revealed dozens of wild sloths from South America died at a planned Orlando tourism attraction."

"Bryce Black kneels in a wheat field battered by intense drought. He holds two strands, remarking on how small the seed head is compared with what’s normal."

"The birds are up with the sunrise — warblers, flycatchers, sparrows and towhees calling across the treetops. Deer browse on tender buds emerging from dense shrubs. Black bears scrounge for roots, insects and other edibles." "But it’s what’s underground that has drawn scientists and investors to this 23-square-mile (60-square-kilometer) tract: spongy, dense peat up to 15 feet (5 meters) deep."

"New polling shows that two-thirds of registered voters in Utah support restoring protections for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments."

"In July, the Trump administration relegated endangered leatherback turtles, sea lions and whales to mere collateral damage in its race to profit from the oceans. Now, fisheries science is in the government’s crosshairs."

"Apparently, if a tree falls in Washington, people will notice — and even mourn its collapse."