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Climate change is making it harder to revive damaged land
In the early 1980s, ecological restoration was much like cleaning up after a rowdy house party: trying to return a degraded habitat to its former pristine condition… “I’ve always been taught that restoration is about taking a degraded site and restoring it back to what it was before the disturbance,” Campbell said.
But increasingly, scientists who study ecosystems, as well as land managers who do restoration work, are questioning that model of ecological restoration, which relies on the idea of a stable “climax community,” even though many ecosystems are always changing…
Brilliant teen’s invention to remove all plastic from ocean is finally becoming a reality
A solution to the catastrophic plastic pollution in the ocean, now a problem even in the Great Lakes, is getting a major boost. When Boyan Slat was 16 years old, he found himself coming across more plastic than fish while diving in Greece. It was then that he decided to dedicate a high school project to investigating ocean plastic pollution and how he could make a difference.
Check out what’s about to happen off the coast of California this summer…
Oceanic changes that propelled mass extinction 252 million years ago resemble effects of climate change today
A recent study by scientists at Arizona State University warns that impacts of modern-day climate change are similar to the scenarios that had taken place before a mass extinction happened millions of years ago.
An event called Permian-Triassic mass extinction killed 90 percent of all animals on Earth some 252 million years ago. It took about another five million years for the ecosystems to recover from what happened…
One-third of forests aren’t growing back after wild fires, research finds
“Seedlings are more sensitive to warm, dry conditions than mature trees, so if the right conditions don’t exist within a few years following a wildfire, tree seedlings may not establish,” said Philip Higuera, a coauthor of the study.
Earlier this month, a separate study found that ponderosa pine and pinyon forests in the West are becoming less resilient due to droughts and…
Global warming can turn monarch butterflies’ favorite food into poison
Louisiana State University researchers have discovered a new relationship between climate change, monarch butterflies and milkweed plants.
It turns out that warming temperatures don’t just affect the monarch, Danaus plexippus, directly, but also affect this butterfly by potentially turning its favorite plant food into a poison…
Connecting people
“River Revitalization offers opportunities for people to connect with Milwaukee’s urban rivers. This connection to water and nature is central to our mission of protecting Milwaukee’s rivers. Community members help take care of land, open green space and trails. This work connects neighborhoods with each other, teaches and encourages safe interactions with urban land and rivers, and helps restore our river systems…”
Rural town, conservation groups integrate trails and conservation
Town forests, public conservation areas, connecting trails that create a Greenway, and conserved farmland, are some of the work the rural Town of Hopkinton, in New Hampshire, has made possible.
If you want to see their version of the famed Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace, or create one of your own, explore the Hopkinton Village Greenway. It’s a vision worth replicating.
Border collies run like the wind to bring new life to Chilean forest
The worst wildfire season in Chile’s history ravaged more than 1.4 million acres early in 2017, destroying nearly 1,500 homes and killing at least 11 people…
Study suggests estuaries may experience accelerated impacts of human-caused CO2
Rising anthropogenic, or human-caused, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may have up to twice the impact on coastal estuaries as it does in the oceans because the human-caused CO2 lowers the ecosystem’s ability to absorb natural fluctuations of the greenhouse gas, a new study suggests…
Finance Minister: Chile’s Forest Fires Will Cost Government $333M
Chile’s massive forest fires that have killed 11 people and destroyed nearly 1,500 homes will cost the government $333 million, Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdes told reporters on Friday.
The government will reallocate $100 million from the current budget to mitigate the effects of the blazes, while another $233 million will be taken out of a rainy day fund that the government maintains for such situations, Valdes said at a press conference.
“Those are the costs that the state will have to assume in the preliminary estimate that we’re doing,” Valdes said. “That situation can change when we have more information, and it will depend on how the wildfires evolve.”