"A growing number of scientists are backing laws recognizing that nature has inherent rights and intrinsic value. A group of wetlands scientists wants the critical ecosystems they study to be next."

"On March 1, under a clear sky, hundreds of people flocked to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park—not to picnic but to protest. Two weeks earlier, the National Park Service had fired roughly 1,000 employees."

"Nearly 85% of the 13.1 million acres the Trump administration is opening to coal leasing is private or state-owned and unlikely to be mined anytime soon, except for land adjacent to existing coal mines, analysts say."

"Jane Goodall, a scientist whose studies of wild chimpanzees made her a household name, has died at the age of 91, according to an announcement posted by the Jane Goodall Institute."

"With sizzling temperatures and a parched climate, it can be hard to survive in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. But some species have evolved to thrive in this extreme environment, including the iconic saguaro cactus. Part of the reason for this prickly plant’s success is its intimate relationship with a smaller—but similarly mighty—desert player: fungi."

"On Tuesday evening, with the federal government on the brink of a shutdown, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum took to social media to tout the agency’s deployment of autonomous lawnmowers on the National Mall and at several other National Park sites."

"Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced a $1 billion investment in the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) to support forest conservation this week at a United Nations event in New York."

"Even as scientists rush to identify the migratory paths of some endangered shark species to help better protect them, climate change and other threats shift this behavior, adding urgency to the research."

"After nearly 40 years, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, or ARCUS, will close September 30, a casualty of President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts and his administration’s focus on using the Arctic as an outpost for national security and energy dominance — and its push away from science."

"A project in western Alaska is being fast-tracked in a process that has not yet included legally required consultations with Inupiaq communities."