Biodiversity

"The Trump administration proposed Tuesday to hand over management of grizzly bears to Western states, a win for advocates of local control that did not change the underlying imperiled status of the bears."

"For half a century, millions of workers have repeated a task across the deserts in northern China: inserting forearm-length sticks into shifting sand, ... The technique, known as “straw checkerboards,” is a simple yet widely used method to stabilize sand dunes against the wind and help plants take root by using water supplied through an irrigation system."

"The Trump administration’s decision to use the US Supreme Court’s unraveling of Chevron deference to delete the word “harm” from the Endangered Species Act is likely to expose the government to swift legal challenges seeking to restore environmental protections for endangered habitats."

"The world’s largest meat company is backing away from its climate and deforestation commitments after claiming for several years that reducing its greenhouse gas emissions was a key goal."

"President Donald Trump on Monday sharply reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah, undoing protections established by former presidents on public lands that are sacred among many Native Americans. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah have ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and scenic canyons, as well as coal and uranium deposits that state officials want made available for development."

"A year before Greenwater Services got a $1.7 million contract to clean the algae-infected Reflecting Pool, it had received another no-bid government contract to deploy at the trash-plagued Tijuana River."

"Destroying an imperiled species’ nest or habitat is no longer illegal unless it’s intentional under the Trump administration’s rollback of the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act finalized Friday."

"‘Sea cures’ are not new but the idea that exposure to oceans, rivers and lakes can be medicine for the brain is gaining traction"

"Large concentrated hog farms that send manure contamination into local waterways not only impact human health but threaten the existence of more than a dozen endangered species, according to a new study."