Biophilia Hypothesis

Environment. Climate change. Urban ecology. Animals (domestic, farm, wild).  Desert. Prairies. Farms. Wilderness. My photography (never photoshopped). Issues that scratch my progressive mind. Take the kids outside. You go outside. Hike, bike, climb. Blackhawks. Chicago. Southern California.

[rjzimmerman]

Nature no longer smells so natural—and that's our fault

Pollution, fertilizers, and fungicides change how plants and animals communicate, creating problems for insects and crops.

Excerpt from this story from Mother Jones:

Across the globe, human activities are changing the way our planet smells. In Egypt, increasing temperatures are shrinking yields of aromatic jasmine flowers; in France, extreme drought has reduced the production of fragrant, night-blooming tuberose, a major ingredient in many perfumes; in Italy, climatic extremes are altering the characteristic floral, citrusy scent of bergamot. 

But anthropogenic factors are also reshaping environmental smellscapes, a word coined in the 1980s to describe the totality of scents in a given geographic area, in ways that are far more subtle—and potentially much more harmful.

While humans largely rely on sight and sound in our interactions with each other and with the world around us, many other creatures rely on smells. Ants, for example, require scents for colony cohesion; turkey vultures let scent guide them to far-away carrion; and male moths use scent to find females hundreds of meters away. “Scent is very important because it mediates so many interactions within an ecosystem,” says James Blande, a chemical ecologist at the University of Eastern Finland. 

These scent-based interactions are crucial for the maintenance of ecosystem services that directly benefit humans, from the bees and moths that pollinate crops to the flies and dung beetles that recycle the nutrients from dead and decomposing matter. Intact channels of scent communication are likely also important for the preservation of biodiversity. For example, many rare orchid species use scent to attract the co-evolved pollinators they need in order to reproduce, and scent helps guide monarch butterflies to the single type of plant on which they lay their eggs.

But just as we are discovering how important these chemical communication channels are to the fabric of the natural world—and the many benefits we reap from it—we are also learning how drastically they can be disrupted by our activities, including climate change and air pollution.

Now, scientists are working to document human-induced changes in smellscapes across the planet—to understand how these changes affect communication between different organisms, and to try to figure out which systems are capable of adaptation and which may be at risk of failure.

[rjzimmerman]

Last Abraham Lincoln ‘witness tree,’ planted by his Springfield neighbors, is felled by storm

The last “witness tree” across the street from Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield was destroyed by last week’s storm.

Excerpt from this Chicago Tribune story:

There was no indication that the American linden across the street from Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield was any different than any of the other 270 trees that populate the four-block National Historic Site along Eighth Street.

On Friday, a cloud of irritated bees swarmed the linden’s trunk about 20 feet up, where wind from strong storms the night before had snapped it. Yellow caution tape surrounded the former treetop, now resting in the street and front yard of the Dean House, named for the mother and son who planted the linden tree in the 1850s when they were Lincoln’s neighbors.

As visitors skirted the dying tree, few realized they were seeing the remains of history. The linden was what park officials termed a “witness tree” — one that was alive when Lincoln lived in the home across the street, one he could gaze out upon from the front windows and porch of his home.

“When Lincoln came out his front door, it would be one of the first things he saw,” said John Popolis, museum technician at the National Park Service site.

The tree was the last one in the park that officials had positively identified as being there at the same time as the future president. It was the last remaining of four lindens planted by the Deans in the 1850s. A ring count on a cross section of one of the four that was cut down in 1993 dated them to 1856 or ’57, according to Susan Haake, curator and acting chief of interpretation at the Lincoln Home site.

Nobody was on site about 7:30 or 8 p.m. Thursday night when the witness tree came down. The city had shut down as the city endured a second day of severe weather that brought nine confirmed tornadoes to central Illinois June 10 and 11, according to the National Weather Service.

Haake said the toppled tree was discovered early Friday morning by a maintenance worker.

“It’s a sad day for everyone here,” Haake said.

[rjzimmerman]

I would not have paid attention to this song, but this Facebook story from the "Americana Music Society" and "The Problem from John Stewart" Facebook pages (shared with me by a friend) forced me to listen. Paul McCartney was warning us about trump years ago, from the UK, through this song. (If I did the copy link thing correctly, if you click on the underscored words a few lines up, you should be taken to the site and can read the whole story.)

Here's the essence of the story:

When Paul McCartney released Egypt Station in 2018, one track immediately drew attention for its unmistakable political undercurrent. “Despite Repeated Warnings” is a sprawling, multi‑movement allegory about a reckless captain steering a ship toward catastrophe. While the song never names names, McCartney later acknowledged that the “mad captain” was inspired in part by then‑President Donald Trump, particularly his public stance on climate change.

The result is one of McCartney’s most pointed political works — a symbolic critique of leadership during a moment of global environmental and political tension.

In interviews promoting the album, McCartney said the captain was “obviously” influenced by Trump’s rhetoric on climate change. Trump had repeatedly questioned the scientific consensus on global warming, and McCartney — a longtime environmental advocate — used metaphor rather than direct confrontation to express concern.

The captain in the song:

Ignores warnings

Dismisses expert advice

Insists on his own infallibility

Steers the ship toward danger despite objections,

These traits mirror criticisms that were widely discussed in media coverage of Trump’s environmental policies at the time. McCartney’s approach is symbolic rather than literal, but the parallels are intentional.

McCartney has historically avoided naming political figures in his songs. Instead, he uses allegory to create distance — a technique that allows him to comment on political behavior without turning the song into a partisan attack.

[rjzimmerman]

The world's largest wildlife crossing and five others are coming to Southern California

While construction continues on the world's largest wildlife crossing in Agoura Hills, planning is underway for five more crossings in the M

I posted a story yesterday about the planning by the Mojave Desert Land Trust for two new wildlife crossings in the SoCal deserts. Well, this story tells us about that (sorry for the redunancy) and other planned crossings.

Excerpt from this story from the LA Times:

Several new wildlife crossings are underway in Southern California, including a $114-million project in Agoura Hills that is set to open over the 101 Freeway later this year.

Planning has also begun for two smaller crossings in the Mojave Desert and three more spanning Interstate 15.

Conservationists and policy makers are cooperating to build the crossings, which will allow mountain lions, bighorn sheep and black bears to safely move about their environment.

Similar projects in states including Utah and Washington have significantly reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions and encouraged biodiversity.

Construction for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway began in 2022 and and is scheduled to open in December after delays. It will be the world’s largest, covering ten lanes of traffic with 210 feet of vegetated bridge.

“With projects like this, we’re reconnecting and restoring habitats so future generations can continue to enjoy California’s unmatched natural beauty,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The 101 is a major divider of wildlife habitat, particularly where the bridge will be built over a heavily traveled route northwest of Los Angeles.

Mountain lions’ numbers have been dwindling as healthy lions get killed by vehicles while trying to access other areas, experts say.

The project will also advance California’s goal of conserving 30% of the state’s land and coastal waters by 2030, the governor’s office said.

About 150 miles to the east, two crossings are planned near the Morongo and Yucca grades on State Route 62. The bridges will offer safe passage for wildlife near Joshua Tree National Park, where the highway disrupts the habitat for deer and other animals.

The Mojave Desert Land Trust has been leading an effort to build the crossings for years, and recently secured a $5-million planning grant from the Wildlife Conservation Board.

Construction won’t begin for at least another three years, according to the land trust. It will take around that long to complete engineering evaluations and permitting, KTLA reported.

[rjzimmerman]

Hedge Funds Are Hiring Climate Scientists to Profit Off Extreme Weather Risks

Some climate scientists are getting over four to six times the profession's average salary to help Wall Street profit off climate change.

Excerpt from this story from Earther/Gizmodo:

Attention: DOGE’d and RIF’ed U.S. government meteorologists and climate scientists. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is looking to hire a new executive director focused on “catastrophe modeling.” Ideally, someone who could be a “subject matter expert in natural catastrophe and climate,” upping their portfolio’s “resilience to physical climate risks.”

And they’re not alone. Some hedge funds are offering as much as $1 million per year for the right extreme weather forecaster. As one recruiter who specializes in placing experts in this niche world of “insurance-linked securities” told Bloomberg News, anthropogenic climate change’s most canny and enterprising Cassandras have been netting “exponentially higher” pay bumps compared to their past salaries over the last two years.

Not unlike the mortgage-backed securities of the 2008 financial crisis, insurance-linked securities (ILS) reimagine an insurance company’s outstanding policy risks and potential rewards as assets that it can market to outside investors, like hedge funds. Imagine an insurance company is worried that potential floods might force it to lose millions fulfilling homeowners’ claims during an impending hurricane. It could issue a so-called catastrophe bond whose purchasers effectively backstop those insurance payments—unless, of course, those genius investors have better climate scientists on staff than the insurance company does.

If the storm passes with the investors’ climate bet victorious, that catastrophe bond “matures” just like a regular bond, with serious interest. Back in a more dignified age, as a fact page by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority notes, “cat bonds” were typically thought of as the high-stakes gambling they are, derided as “non-investment grade,” “high yield,” or “junk” bonds. Today, well, you can bet on impending weather disasters on Kalshi or Polymarket.

[rjzimmerman]

It's Official: US Declares El Niño Has Arrived

There's a good chance this El Niño could become one of the strongest on record. Now is the time to prepare.

A map of Pacific sea surface temperatures during the 2015 El Niño. © NASA Earth Observatory maps by Michala Garrison, data from the MUR SST

Excerpt from this story from Earther/Gizmodo:

After months of anticipation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officially declared the onset of El Niño today. It could become one of the strongest El Niño events in history.

According to the agency, there is now a 63% chance of El Niño intensifying to “very strong” status between November and January, potentially ranking among the largest events in the historical record going back to 1950. Extreme climate and weather impacts are more likely to occur during stronger El Niños. Over the past several weeks, meteorologists have warned that this event could lead to record-shattering temperatures, supercharged storms, regional droughts, wildfires, or floods, and global food shortages.

A so-called “super” El Niño would also have major implications for the climate crisis. “Starting soon all months will be the warmest on record once El Niño kicks into high gear,” Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist and climate specialist for WFLA Tampa Bay, posted on X yesterday. “Biggest impacts on global temp will be later this year into next year. It will set a new precedent… for a couple of years… until it’s broken again.”

El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a periodic fluctuation in sea surface temperature and air pressure over the equatorial Pacific Ocean. ENSO is the biggest, most influential year-to-year climate variation on the planet, so both El Niño and its cold-phase counterpart, La Niña, have significant consequences for global temperatures and weather patterns.

Human-caused climate change will add a layer of complexity to the 2026-2027 El Niño. As carbon emissions have continued to crank up Earth’s temperature, it’s become increasingly difficult for meteorologists to separate the affects of anthropogenic warming from the natural climate variation of ENSO, meteorologist Ben Noll explains in an article for the Washington Post.

To address that problem, NOAA and other agencies now use a climate change-adjusted El Niño index called the Relative Oceanic Niño index, or RONI. According to that index, sea surface temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific during this El Niño will get an additional boost of 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius) from climate change, Noll reports.

Even without factoring in climate change, models are predicting a potentially historic Pacific warmup. According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the ensemble shows sea surface temperatures rising up to 6.8 degrees F (3.8 degrees C) above average by December. That’s well into “super” El Niño territory.

[rjzimmerman]

America's Solar Just Hit a Critical Milestone That Won't Make Trump Happy

Despite the Trump administration's efforts to revitalize domestic coal power, renewables continue to set new records.

Excerpt from this story from Earther/Gizmodo:

In yet another blow to the Trump administration’s energy agenda, solar overtook coal power generation in the U.S. electricity mix for the first month on record in May, according to an analysis published Wednesday by the energy think tank Ember.

The data shows that solar supplied a record 12.8% of US power, while coal generation fell to 12.2%. That represents coal’s fourth-lowest monthly share ever, Ember reports. Also on Wednesday, the Solar Energy Industries Association and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie released their US Solar Market Insight Q2 report, which underscores the continued growth of solar and the decline of coal despite federal efforts to revitalize the domestic fossil fuel industry.

“U.S. solar power continues to set new records,” Nicolas Fulghum, a senior data analyst at Ember, said in a release. “Overtaking coal for the first month on record shows just how far solar has come, from a niche contributor to the third-largest and fastest-growing source of power in the U.S. electricity system.”

[rjzimmerman]

Scientists Tracked These Strange Arctic Icebergs and Found Something Unexpected on the Seafloor

Researchers traced new undersea ecosystems of soft coral, sea anemones, sponges, and more to large rocks and mineral deposits ferried by ice

Excerpt from this story from Earther/Gizmodo:

A polar research expedition back in 2021 noticed something weird along the Fram Strait, a marine passage into the Arctic Ocean between Greenland and Svalbard. “Some of the icebergs were carrying unusually large amounts of debris and looked almost black from above,” as one biologist on the team, Melanie Bergmann, recalled in a statement.

This strange floating mystery has yielded a series of surprising discoveries along this Arctic region’s ocean floor. Researchers led by Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have documented thriving and entirely new ecosystems of soft coral, sea stars, “moss animal” bryozoa, anemones, sponges, and more. These emerging habitats on the chilly Arctic seabed, the team argues in its new study, appear to have been seeded by “dropstones” released from those craggy melting icebergs, creating the “hard substrate” surfaces that sedentary marine animals have long adapted to colonize.

But the research doesn’t just show how sensitive these Arctic climes have become to the impacts of climate change. Their work may soon also be of use to sea vessels needing better data to navigate around this increasing number of icebergs calved from melting glaciers—as well as from their dropstones, which pose risks in shallow waters if left uncharted.

[rjzimmerman]

‘This Is Absolutely Crazy’: Antarctic Temperatures Hit a Record High This Month

Climate scientists are sounding the alarm after a stubborn Antarctic heat wave shattered the region's winter heat record.

Excerpt from this story from Earther/Gizmodo:

It’s the dead of winter in Antarctica, but for the past several weeks, the Antarctic Peninsula has been experiencing an unprecedented heatwave. Researchers are sounding the alarm after temperatures soared well above average earlier this month, smashing the previous winter heat record.

Temperatures at Argentina’s Esperanza base, situated in Hope Bay at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, reached 59.7 degrees Fahrenheit (15.4 degrees Celsius) on June 6, scientists told The Guardian. That’s 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C) higher than the previous record-high winter temperature logged at the base in 1998. According to France 24, two other Argentine research stations on the peninsula—Marambio and San Martin—also logged record-breaking temperatures between June 5 and 6.

“This is absolutely crazy,” Raúl Cordero, a climate scientist and assistant professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, told The Guardian. Esperanza’s new temperature record is about 36 degrees F (20 degrees C) above normal for this time of year, he explained. “That is a huge anomaly.”

Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world, but the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth. In fact, it’s been warming five times faster than the global average. The peninsula has experienced more warming since 1950 than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, with an average temperature increase of almost 5.4 degrees F (3 degrees C).

The reasons why are complex, but one of the main drivers is sea ice loss. When ice melts, it exposes the darker ocean surface, which has a lower albedo and therefore absorbs more heat from the Sun. This drives up regional temperatures and, in turn, accelerates ice melt, creating a feedback loop that has supercharged Antarctic warming.

The temperatures recorded on the Antarctic Peninsula this month underscore the consequences of this rapid warming trend. Scientists at the Esperanza base logged the June 6 temperature record during a winter heatwave that caused the maximum daily temperature to remain stubbornly above freezing for three consecutive weeks, The Guardian reports.

This relentless warmth has caused “large areas in the far north of the white continent to remain free of snow,” Cordero told France 24. He described it as “an unusual scene in the Antarctic landscape during winter.”

Thomas Caton Harrison, a polar climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, told the outlet that a “surprising amount” of precipitation has been falling as rain rather than snow. “This has implications for polar ecosystems such as penguin colonies,” he said, adding that “it poses a challenge to my colleagues working on Antarctic bases because a lot of liquid rain has been falling and creating runoff and ice.”

[rjzimmerman]

Desert wildlife crossings take shape with $5.5m injection from state — Mojave Desert Land Trust

The planning process for two wildlife crossings will begin in the California desert thanks to a $5.5m state-funded grant. The crossings over

For several years over the past 10 or so, I was a member of the Board of Directors of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, and for a few years was its President. During my tenure at MDLT, staff and the board were aware of the need for a wildlife crossing. Several staff members and directors were engaged in preliminary activities to cause the construction or one or two wildlife crossings over (or under) State Hwy 62 that connects the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs, etc.) with the high desert (Joshua Tree National Park, for example). This story from MDLT's web page tells us about the current plans, the importance of wildlife crossings, particularly in the ecological areas of concern, and funding for preliminary planning. Makes me happy! I'm hoping this all works out.

Excerpt from this story from the MDLT web site:

The planning process for two wildlife crossings will begin in the California desert thanks to a $5.5m state-funded grant announced on Thursday. The crossings over State Route 62 will benefit local residents by reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions and will provide safe passage for numerous wildlife species including two threatened mountain lion populations. 

The two overpasses were designed for critical points at the Morongo and Yucca grades on SR-62 where multiple wildlife deaths have been documented, including mountain lion, black bear, deer, and bighorn sheep.  

The project is led by the Mojave Desert Land Trust, which protects land on either side of the busy highway in a strategic wildlife corridor that connects Joshua Tree National Park to Sand to Snow National Monument, San Gorgonio Wilderness, and San Bernardino National Forest. The area is part of a system of interconnected protected landscapes stretching from Mexico to Canada. 

California’s Wildlife Conservation Board awarded the Mojave Desert Land Trust with $5.5 million in grant funding for the planning phase of the wildlife crossings. The Land Trust will be the grantee, Caltrans will be the transportation agency, and the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission and the Mojave Desert Resource Conservation District will serve as local agency partners.  

The grant funding will bring two proposed crossing projects to 65% design completion, setting the stage for implementation. The three-year grant will include the technical studies and engineering work needed to design the crossing structures, the development of plans to encourage their use by wildlife, and the required environmental review. Stakeholder involvement and public information will also be important components of the project.   

Once the planning phase is completed, MDLT and their partners will work to secure funding for the implementation and construction phase.  

The future fate of two imperiled mountain lion populations may hinge on the wildlife crossings. The Eastern Peninsular Range and the San Gabriel-San Bernardino Mountains lions are two genetically isolated populations that meet in the vicinity of SR-62. Their numbers are now so low that they risk extinction if they cannot remain connected to other populations. Both populations are part of a group of lions that was listed in California on February 12 as a Threatened Evolutionarily Significant Unit under the California Endangered Species Act. 

“Desert communities exist at the intersection of people, wildlife, and wide-open landscapes. The proposed wildlife crossings would re-establish the natural movement of animals across the land, reducing dangerous wildlife-vehicle collisions, and strengthening the health of the ecosystems that sustain us,” said Kelly Herbinson, Executive Director, Mojave Desert Land Trust. “Thanks to the support of the Wildlife Conservation Board and our partners, we can invest in solutions that not just protect wildlife but support safer roads and more resilient communities that exist within, not apart from, nature.”  

[rjzimmerman]

Launched to Reduce Cancer-Linked Atrazine Pollution in Thousands of U.S. Waterways, Drinking-Water Supplies

Conservation and public health groups filed a formal notice with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin today to force the

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

Conservation and public health groups filed a formal notice with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin today to force the agency to develop water-quality standards for atrazine, a cancer-linked pesticide that has been found at dangerous levels in thousands of U.S. waterways and in drinking-water supplies.

The notice comes ten days after the Trump U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its finalized review of atrazine, concluding that the potent endocrine disruptor does not pose an extinction risk to any threatened or endangered animals or plants. This contrasts sharply with the EPA’s 2021 finding that widespread atrazine pollution is harming more than 1,000 threatened and endangered species.

“The Trump administration has failed to do anything to adequately protect our families and most endangered wildlife from the dangers of cancer-linked and hormone-disrupting pesticides, like atrazine,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s appalling that the United States is so far behind the rest of the world in banning this inherently dangerous pesticide.”

The Clean Water Act requires the EPA to develop water-quality criteria for pollutants, such as atrazine. The agency initiated that step in 1999 but never completed that requirement. The legal notice filed today by the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Environmental Health and Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network is required before any future lawsuit.

Atrazine pollution is caused by tens of millions of pounds of the pesticide being used each year by industrial agricultural operations in the United States.

The pesticide is banned as too dangerous in more than 60 countries but is the second most widely used pesticide in the United States. It is linked to birth defects, multiple cancers, and fertility problems like low sperm quality and irregular menstrual cycles.

In 2025 the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer found that atrazine is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Unlike the EPA, which relies heavily on confidential research by pesticide companies of their own products, the WHO’s scientists only include in their assessments the findings of pesticide safety studies that can be reviewed by independent scientists for validity and bias.

[rjzimmerman]

When the Butterflies Come Home Again • The Revelator

A philosopher tells an environmental success story that speaks to the moral necessity of ongoing work for wild beings.

Fender's blue butterfly © John Sullivan (CC BY-NC) via iNaturalist

Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:

This may be true: That we live in a time of cosmic tragedy, when heedless human expansion has pushed many of the planet’s lives beyond bearing. Marvels such as the universe has never seen before — angels’ trumpets and vaquita porpoises — may be past saving. As ecosystems unravel, so do the cultures that depend on them, and the dreadful, dangerous human genius has not yet found the imagination or will to rescue them. I fear that this is so.

But this also is true: That a flock of butterflies is dancing around purple lupine in our field [in Oregon]. They are tiny, the size of a buttercup, but blue. So blue they look like slips of summer sky, taken flight. Fender’s blue butterflies, Icaricia icarioides fenderii. They once seemed to have vanished from the world in the 1930s, when farmers plowed up most of the prairie flowers. Scientists got ready to pronounce them extinct. But then, in 1989, a young U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist named Jarod Jebousek found a few butterflies on feral land next to our field.

So now, here they are. We see them lapping up nectar from the furry throats of wild iris. We find their eggs on the undersides of Kincaid lupine leaves. Butterflies gather to lick the mud. There are thousands, and it’s all because young acronym-agency scientists teamed up with landowners to save them. I know that this is so.

How is a person supposed to think about that? How do you hold both truths at the same time — the horror and the hope? How can you accept the truth that destroys hope and at the same time hold the hope that may be the only route toward recovery?

Essayist E.B. White made a joke of it: I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But it isn’t funny. It tears me apart. How can you love Earthly lives and know that forces are advancing to destroy them?

This is the question at the center of my life.

I once asked a group of students to pull out their pens and start writing a list of what they loved too much to lose. They started strong. My daughter. Smell of wet oak leaves. Bees in foxgloves. But the students couldn’t keep it up. Salmon coming home. Nettle soup. Sticky cottonwood buds. A student put his head in his hands. Do we have to do this, he asked. Dragonflies.

Yes, we have to do this, I whispered. We have to keep a list. We have to keep them in mind, all the small glories. We can’t let any of them escape our attention. Every day, every moment, we have to name what we love and stand to lose.

Here is what we will have to do: We will love the world with a tender and ferocious love, and we will do what we can to protect and renew it. Both of these. Even if it breaks our hearts. Even if we fail in the end. That’s what love means. That is why we are here.

[rjzimmerman]

Conservation groups file federal lawsuit to prevent SpaceX land swap

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is being sued by a local Native American tribe and some conservation groups to prevent the exchange of mo

A shallow-water fishing destination at South Bay, in the lower Laguna Madre, as seen Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Starbase at the SpaceX facility just north of Texas State Highway 4. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald)

Excerpt from this story from MyRGV.com:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is being sued by a local Native American tribe and some conservation groups to prevent the exchange of more than 700 acres of federally protected land in Cameron County.

According to the lawsuit, which was obtained by MyRGV.com, the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas Inc., the Center for Biological Diversity, Save RGV, and South Texas Environmental Justice Network are suing to stop a land trade between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and SpaceX.

The land trade would give SpaceX 715 acres of land from the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in exchange for 683 acres of private land.

The lawsuit named the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its director, Brian Nesvik, as defendants.

The exchange would give the agency land to be added to a separate refuge while allowing SpaceX to expand its operations in Cameron County, according to the complaint.

“Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgement that the Service violated the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act in approving the Exchange; and injunctive relief to prohibit the execution of the Exchange unless and until the Service fully complies with the law,” the lawsuit stated.

The complaint alleges the exchange violates the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, the law created to protect habitats for future prosperity. It further claims that the exchange will result in the refuge being permanently reduced and degraded.

A portion of the refuge is shared with the Palmito Ranch Battlefield National Historic Landmark, the site of the final battle of the Civil War. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

[rjzimmerman]

.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Finalizes Critical Habitat Protections for Endangered Rusty Patched Bumblebee

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today finalized the designation of 1.57 million acres of critical habitat for rusty patched bumblebees, s

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today finalized the designation of 1.57 million acres of critical habitat for rusty patched bumblebees, securing protections for places essential to the survival of one of America’s most imperiled pollinators.

The final rule is the result of a lawsuit filed by NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), the Center for Biological Diversity, and Friends of Minnesota Scientific and Natural Areas, which successfully challenged the Fish and Wildlife Service’s earlier decision to deny critical habitat for the species. The critical habitat finalized in today’s action is less than the 1.65 million acres of critical habitat the Service proposed in November 2024.

Once common across the eastern and midwestern United States, the rusty patched bumblebee has already disappeared from nearly 90% of the places it once lived.

“This determination is the result of over a decade of fighting to secure protections for the rusty patched bumble bee and the areas it depends on to survive,” said Lucas Rhoads, senior attorney at NRDC. “Many of its native grasslands have been wiped out, so protecting its last remaining habitat from further destruction is just common sense. These legal protections will help give us the best chance of recovering this once-common pollinator.”

[rjzimmerman]

Trump administration waives environmental laws for Big Bend border wall construction

The border wall cuts across a stretch of land. The Department of Homeland Security waived dozens of environmental laws Monday to ease the wa

Excerpt from this story from the San Antonio Current:

The Department of Homeland Security waived dozens of environmental laws Monday to ease the way for construction of border barriers and roads through Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park.

DHS’s notice of determination, which goes into effect Tuesday, is the latest action by the federal government that environmentalists read as preparations to construct a physical border wall through the revered West Texas parkland.

Even though the Trump White House has given numerous assurances over the past few months that it doesn’t plan to build a physical wall through the public lands, watchdog groups argue the administration is still waiving laws and earmarking inflated budgets as if preparing to do just that.

Monday was the first time in U.S. history that the federal government has cast aside such a broad slate of environmental laws — including provisions to protect public lands, endangered species and fragile ecologies — in a national park, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

The dozens of laws waived by the Trump administration include the National Park Service Organic Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, officials with the organization said.

“The absolute disdain this administration has for our national parks is disgraceful, and now they’re targeting Texas’ most beloved national park,” Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release.

“The only people benefiting from this destruction are the billionaire contractors set to pad their pockets while paving over our natural heritage and permanently locking a great American river behind hideous steel barriers,” Jordahl added. “We won’t stop fighting for this crown-jewel national park and the Rio Grande.”

[rjzimmerman]

Keep Toxic Lead Out of Wildlife Refuges

Toxic lead ammo and fishing tackle don't belong in national wildlife refuges. Push back against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposa

From the Center for Biological Diversity:

Lead poses a serious poisoning threat to people, wildlife, and the environment — but this dangerous heavy metal is still allowed in hunting ammo and fishing tackle, including ammo used in many national wildlife refuges throughout the United States. 

The Center for Biological Diversity has long fought to get lead out of refuges. Thanks to an agreement between the Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in 2023 the agency finalized a rule banning lead ammo and tackle use in nine more of them, including Rachel Carson in Maine and Blackwater in Maryland, by September 2026.

That was a welcome step toward making these places safe for wildlife.

Now the Trump administration has proposed repealing the ban — mere months before it's supposed to take effect. 

Wildlife who ingest spent lead bullets or tackle can suffer for years before dying. Lead poisoning is infamous for killing endangered whooping cranes, and research has found that half of all bald and golden eagles endure chronic, toxic lead levels. People can be poisoned by eating animals contaminated with bullet fragments and lead dust.

There are plenty of affordable, nontoxic, nonlead bullets available on the market today. More than a dozen manufacturers sell hundreds of varieties and calibers of bullets made of steel, copper, and nonlead alloys with satisfactory-to-superior ballistics. Given the accessibility and effectiveness of nonlead alternatives, there's no need for hunters to continue using lead ammunition — especially in national wildlife refuges.

National wildlife refuges are the last places that lead poisoning should happen.

[herpsandbirds]

A record die-off of sea stars was followed by something that stunned biologists

The creatures almost went extinct along the West Coast a decade ago. Recently, they have been making a comeback.

Six months ago, Menge’s team published exciting research — five-legged sea stars were undergoing a significant “baby boom.” The tide pools were denser than they had been before the disease, and the juveniles were eating mussels and clearing space for other species. In short, something rare and wonderful was happening on the Oregon Coast: One of the intertidal zone’s most important predators had returned from the brink...

Read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/06/06/after-massive-die-off-west-coast-sea-stars-experience-resurgence/