wildlife

Human Impacts on Natural Systems

By Cristina Eisenberg / On January 17th, 2011

As a conservation biologist, I study the ecological effects of wolves on food webs, focusing on their primary prey (elk) and the foods their prey eat (aspens). My work takes place in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, which has many bears in it.

Geography of Hope

By Anthony Barnosky / On May 12th, 2009

People sometimes ask me what they will learn by reading Heatstroke. Basically there are two key messages. One I've already highlighted in past blogs and in a recent op-ed.

Getting to the Root of Recurring Water Conflicts

By Holly Doremus / On April 21st, 2009

The western United States is characterized by highly variable and seasonal rainfall patterns. To deal with the constant threat of drought, the West relies on intensively managed water systems. Today, those systems face two challenges that were not anticipated when they were developed decades ago: increased demands that water be left in streams to sustain aquatic systems; and global climate change, which will decrease snowfall, leaving less water for farms and cities.

Anthony D. Barnosky: Now for Some Good News

By Anthony Barnosky / On April 10th, 2009

My extended family tells me they're getting a little depressed about hearing all the bad things that might happen from global warming. So I guess it's time to point out that maybe it's not as bleak as it seems. Here's the good news. We live in a world that, despite the unwitting impacts of humanity, is still in pretty good shape.

So What's Wrong with a Little Global Warming

By Anthony Barnosky / On March 25th, 2009

Be afraid (but don't panic). On the first day of spring, the only thing I was afraid of (maybe even a little panicked) was that I didn't have enough warm clothes. I was in Boston, mid-afternoon, and the thermometer on my dashboard registered in the low 30's—that would be Fahrenheit. Spring? I don't think so. I could see my breath, even though the sun was shining. A couple of days later, as my wife and I were walking across a college campus in Maine that our California-bred daughter was checking out before applying, it was even colder, right around 18°F with a b

Can Pres. Obama restore the integrity of federal science?

By David Wilcove / On November 20th, 2008

A reporter recently called me, asking what changes in environmental policy I hoped to see in an Obama Administration. I immediately thought of the specific issues that have troubled me over the past eight years: unregulated oil and gas exploration in the West, too few species protected under the Endangered Species Act, too many snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, the reckless quest to drill, baby, drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, etc., etc. And then it struck me that there was something far more fundamental that President Obama needs to do.

Suspicious Absence of Conservation (SAC)

By [node:field_contributor] / On August 20th, 2008

Greenpeace is well known for non-violent direct action in support of conservation. Very recently, they took a bold step in the German North Sea when they placed large granite boulders, each weighing two to three tons, around the Sylt Outer Reef. This reef is one of the few areas of rocky sea bed in the North Sea and is designated as a Special Area of Conservation under European Law.