Biodiversity

"At least 112 North American bird species have lost more than half their populations in the past 50 years, according to a new report published Thursday. Among the birds showing the steepest declines are Allen’s hummingbirds, Florida scrub jays, golden-cheeked warblers, tricolored blackbirds and yellow-billed magpies."

"The EPA will redefine waters of the US, or WOTUS, to comply with the US Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Sackett v. EPA, which lifted Clean Water Act jurisdiction on many wetlands, Administrator Lee Zeldin said Wednesday."

"Ingesting plastic is leaving seabird chicks with brain damage “akin to Alzheimer’s disease”, according to a new study – adding to growing evidence of the devastating impact of plastic pollution on marine wildlife."

"The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it will reconsider the reach of the nation’s bedrock clean water law and likely further limit the wetlands it covers, building on a Supreme Court decision two years ago that removed federal protections for significant areas."

"Co-mingling of tiny pieces of plastic with certain harmful bacteria can make the bacteria harder to fight with several common antibiotics, according to a new study that adds to global concerns about antibiotic resistance."

"The Interior Department has suspended a legal opinion that held companies liable for accidentally killing ducks, cranes, pelicans, owls and hundreds of other bird species."

Jack is a blue heeler mix and [Collette] Yee is his bounder, a term for people who work with conservation detection dogs at Rogue Detection Teams in Rice, Washington. Bounders and their dogs assist biologists in locating hidden, hard-to-find and invisible samples in the wild, from plants to pangolins to poop. And Yee and Jack proved to be the quite the duo."

"The escalating armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had significant — and overlooked — environmental impacts. The rate of tree cover loss in Kahuzi-Biega and Virunga National Parks has sharply increased since the conflict reignited in late 2021."

"On Feb. 8, Colette Delawalla, a graduate student in psychology at Emory University, nervously announced to the online world that she was planning a national protest in defense of science. “I’ve never done this before, but we gotta be the change we want to see in the world,” she wrote in a post on Bluesky, a social media platform."

"The number of butterflies in the contiguous United States declined by 22 percent this century, a collapse with potentially dire implications."

"Butterflies are rapidly fluttering out of existence from coast to coast, according to a new assessment published Thursday, at a rate that scientists worry could upend ecosystems and undercut pollination that sustains America’s crops.