Biodiversity

"After British journalist Dom Phillips was shot and killed while researching an ambitious book on how to protect the world’s largest rainforest, friends vowed to finish the project. Three years later, their task is complete."

"After rebounding in recent decades due to conservation efforts, the number of once-imperiled peregrine falcons in the U.S. has been dropping again in some places due to the bird flu that has decimated other avian populations in recent years."

"Scientists have learned that another species of fungus found in Europe and Asia causes white-nose disease, which has ravaged bat populations in the United States and Canada." 

"The United Nations is warning countries in northwest Africa to boost monitoring and begin early control measures as swarms of desert locusts move into the region."

"A planned fish farm off Florida’s Gulf Coast has received an environmental permit allowing operators to discharge nutrient-laden water from what could be the first commercial-scale saltwater aquaculture operation in the Gulf of Mexico."

"Environmentalists are challenging in court President Trump’s executive order that they say strips core protections from the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument and opens the area to harmful commercial fishing."

"Multiple efforts are underway to stop a parasitic fly from swarming Texas and the rest of the U.S. and wreaking havoc on the nation’s multi-billion-dollar cattle industry."

"House Republicans have scrapped public land sales from the latest version of their tax cut, energy and border security megabill, according to text released Wednesday evening."

"Bees and other pollinators have been on the decline for years, and experts blame a combination of factors: insecticides, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply. A significant part of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by bees — not just honeybees, but hundreds of species of lesser-known wild bees, many of which are endangered."

"Debra Shankland was a kid when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire in 1969. ... Shankland was one of many speakers at the latest listening session led by the EPA as the agency crafts a new definition for the long controversial language “waters of the United States” contained in the Clean Water Act. The interpretation of that phrase, commonly shorthanded as WOTUS, can have massive implications for the health of small streams, remote wetlands, creeks and other waters."