Biodiversity

"Federal officials yesterday asked the Supreme Court to keep records related to Endangered Species Act decisions under lock and key. The government said a lower court's ruling that certain draft documents should be publicly disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act could have a chilling effect on discussions around federal decisionmaking."

"Tens of millions of voracious purple sea urchins that have already chomped their way through towering underwater kelp forests in California are spreading north to Oregon, sending the delicate marine ecosystem off the shore into such disarray that other critical species are starving to death."

"Environmentalists hoping to save the North Atlantic right whale won a case in federal court in Washington, D.C., Monday, banning walls of fishing net that entangle the species, which has been on the brink of extinction since the 1970s."

"Look up the next time you’re in a park — any park — in the Mid-Atlantic. You’re likely to see vines climbing toward the treetops. These invasive vines can be deadly — not just to the trees they are overtaking, but to the larger ecosystem."

"EPA must analyze the effects of eight widely used pesticides and other chemicals on plants and animals under a settlement reached yesterday [Tuesday] with conservation groups."

"BOA VISTA, Cape Verde — She emerged from the ocean just before midnight, clambering up the shore as her ancestors have for 200 million years."

"Brendan Cummings doesn’t need to go far to find a dying signature of Southern California’s desert landscape: He stands on his porch and eyes whole forests of Joshua trees that haven’t produced seedlings in decades."

"In Iowa, researchers and farmers are discovering that planting strips of native prairie amidst farmland benefits soil, water, biodiversity, and more."

"The Trump administration Tuesday proposed allowing logging on more than half of Alaska’s 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest in North America."

"Two-thirds of bird species in North America are at risk of extinction because of the climate crisis, according to a new report from researchers at the Audubon Society, a leading US conservation group."