conservation

A Day for the Birds

We revel in the glory of the African elephant, giant panda or Galapagos tortoise—the charismatic megafauna that gets most of attention, whether on television or at the zoo. But I think the group that deserves the award as the world’s number one animal group—perhaps we should call it the charismatic omnifauna—is the bird.
Photo Credit: Rockaway Youth on Banner by Flickr.com user Light Brigading

Environmentalist's Survival Guide to the Trump Administration

The environment is facing tough times in a Trump presidency. Within an hour of his inaguration, all mentions of climate change were removed from the White House website. Since then, key environmental regulations have been slashed, and a bill has been introduced calling for the abolishment of the EPA. So what's an environmentalist to do? Below, Island Press authors share their advice for agitating for action on climate change and continuing to push an environmental agenda forward in the face of an unsupportive administration. 

#ForewordFriday: Inspiring Conservationists Edition

In today’s divisive political climate, where meaningful change is often stalled by partisanship and bureaucracy, it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of environmental challenges like climate change, habitat loss, and disappearing species. But environmentalists are no strangers to opposition, and a look back at their stories may provide the inspiration needed to move forward. In Nature’s Allies, Larry A.

Ten Fun Facts about the Conservationists of Nature's Allies

Given election results that have further empowered political leaders who deny climate change, it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of environmental challenges like massive deforestation, biodiversity loss, and dying oceans. At a time when it seems like we are moving backwards and progress is stalled by partisanship and bureaucracy, conservation success stories provide the inspiration and courage needed to move forward.

A Community Approach to Climate Resilience

How to accumulate and leverage social capital to achieve healthy freshwater ecosystems, green infrastructure improvements, and triple-bottom-line benefits.

Aid, Poverty, and Global Biodiversity

International efforts to conserve biodiversity in developing coun­tries are recognizing the need to provide alternative livelihoods.

Guest Opinion: We need a moon-shot for the environment more than ever

This week, more than 193 nations will celebrate Earth Day. The annual event is a marker for the environmental movement begun on April 22, 1970, when Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson organized a peaceful teach-in. At the time, rivers were on fire, oil spills fouled Santa Barbara’s coastline, spaceships were headed to the moon, and the nation was at war.

This Earth Day, Focus on 21st Century Conservation

April 22 is not a moment to celebrate the wonder of this unique planet. It’s an opportunity to recognize what next steps we need to take to secure a better future.

Rants from the Hill: After many years of essay writing, a wave goodbye

The Rants from the Hill essay series has appeared in High Country News online every month, without fail, since July 2010. A lot has happened in those (almost) six years as we—my wife, Eryn, and our daughters, Hannah and Caroline—have lived as fully as possible our shared life here on a remote hill in western Nevada’s Great Basin Desert. And now, with this farewell Rant, I draw the essay series to a close.
Photo credit: Flock/bandada by Flickr.com user Rafael Edwards

Breaking Down the Human-Environment Barrier

While sitting in a board meeting of the Great Northern Large Landscape Cooperative recently the perennial question came up of if the organization that was working on a vast landscape from Yellowstone National Park to northern Canada needed more biological or social science in their program development. As I reflected on the question the answer came to me that my response would be that we need more of neither.

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