Biodiversity

"The Senate today [Thursday] confirmed Aurelia Skipwith as director of the Fish and Wildlife Service on a mostly party-line vote of 52 to 39."

"It came as a bittersweet surprise to biologists and government agencies monitoring the steadily shrinking Salton Sea’s slide toward death by choking dust storms and salt."

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with seven partners, unveiled a $97 million plan Monday to restore coral on seven reefs in the Florida Keys."

"Federal officials will review whether enough is being done to protect grizzly bears in the contiguous U.S. states after environmentalists sued the government to try to restore the fearsome animals to more areas, according to a court settlement approved Monday."

"Around the world, humans are fracturing vast forests. Highways snake through the Amazon’s rain forests, and Indonesia plans an ambitious transportation grid in Borneo, through some of the largest untouched expanses of tropical forests. ... Conservation biologists have intensely debated the dangers that the fracturing of woodlands poses to animals."

"On 'good' bad days, the shells lay open at the bottom of the river, shimmering in the refracted sunlight. Their insides, pearl white and picked clean of flesh, flicker against the dark riverbed like a beacon, alerting the world above to a problem below."

"The rate of listing new endangered and threatened species has slowed under the Trump administration, a trend that highlights an administrative push to shrink the number of animals ultimately placed on the endangered species list."

"Since 1978, researchers have scooped up and measured tens of thousands of birds that died after crashing into buildings in Chicago during spring and fall migrations. Their work has documented what might be called the incredible shrinking bird."

"Invasive species — everything from rats to Burmese pythons — have spread to more than half of national parks, according to new research published this week, which also offers suggestions for stopping non-native animals while safeguarding native species into the future."