An important federal database that tracks Arctic ice and snowmelt — which help address concerns like sea level rise and fresh water resources — is facing funding cuts and reductions in services. The latest Reporter’s Toolbox looks at the kind of high-quality information the National Snow and Ice Data Center can provide environmental reporters, including for local stories. That is, while it lasts.
"From carolling magpies to the lullaby of fairywrens, the nature and purpose of birdsong is more varied than you might think"
"A pending ‘amendment’ to the BLM’s Rock Springs management plan is likely to open previously undeveloped areas to oil and gas drilling, observers say."
"The Trump administration is poised to approve a deal that would allow a contentious road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wild area in southwestern Alaska, according to internal Interior Department documents reviewed by The New York Times."
"A UN treaty to protect marine diversity in the high seas was struck Friday after Morocco and Sierra Leone ratified the agreement, clinching the threshold of at least 60 ratifications needed to enact it as international law."
"The National Park Service has removed signs at Acadia National Park in Maine that make reference to climate change amid the Trump administration’s wider effort to remove information that it says undermines “the remarkable achievements of the United States.” A sign has also been removed from at least one additional park that referred to slavery, the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II and conflicts with Native Americans."
"At least 146 land and environmental defenders were killed or have gone missing around the world in 2024, with more than 80% of those cases in Latin America, according to a report released Wednesday by watchdog group Global Witness."
"A regulator has approved a world-first vaccine to protect koalas from chlamydia infections, which are causing infertility and death in the iconic native species that is listed as endangered in parts of Australia."
"While the Trump administration disincentivizes solar developments on farms, agrivoltaics continue anyway, with local and state support."
"The Trump administration has ordered several National Park Service sites to take down materials related to slavery and Native Americans, including an 1863 photograph of a formerly enslaved man with scars on his back that became one of the most powerful images of the Civil War era."
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