Biodiversity

"The fiscal 2027 legislation’s cuts are smaller than the White House proposed. The bill also blesses the Wildland Fire Service."

"The Chesapeake Bay’s blue crabs have clawed their way out of the cellar. The dredge survey conducted last winter by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Virginia Institute of Marine Science found that the Bay’s crab population — especially the young crustaceans — have rebounded from a protracted slump, despite an unusually harsh winter."

"White sage burning, Norma Meza Calles gathers guests at a Mexican wellness resort into a semicircle facing Kuuchamaa Mountain and asks everyone to close their eyes and feel its presence."

"Funding for wildlife crossings has been included in a bipartisan transportation bill that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to introduce to the House in the coming weeks. The BUILD America 250 Act would invest in roads, bridges and transit infrastructure across the country, as well as fund wildlife crossings through the reauthorization of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program."

"The Trump administration has determined that atrazine, a weedkiller used widely on corn and other crops, does not pose an extinction risk to threatened or endangered wildlife, effectively justifying its continued use, according to a federal review made public this week." "The finding effectively paves the way for continued use of atrazine, a widely used herbicide that has been linked to birth defects and cancer in humans."

"The Senate on Monday narrowly confirmed Steve Pearce, a former New Mexico congressman with a long history of pushing for federal public land sell-offs, to serve as director of the Bureau of Land Management."

"Emergency department visits for tick bites have surged to the highest level for this time of year since 2017, driven by warmer temperatures that are boosting tick activity especially in the Northeast and Midwest."

"Indigenous organizations from across the Amazon and Latin America sent a letter Monday to the United Nations warning that organized crime — including illegal mining, drug trafficking and logging — is driving violence and accelerating environmental destruction in rainforest communities. However, they urged governments to avoid heavily militarized responses in Indigenous territories."

"Today, under authority of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and the Real ID Act, the new Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin waived 29 environmental and conservation laws in the Big Bend Sector."

"In administrative cases before DOI, Interior Secretary Burgum intervened to make policy changes that involved or benefited the former legal clients of Karen Budd-Falen, one of his top deputies."