

Teens' robot plants trees
Can technology help solve environmental problems facing our planet? Sometimes. And sometimes those solutions come from the youngest among us. This inspiring article in Smithsonian magazine about two teenagers in Portugal is bound to lift your spirits. Not only because of the utility of the invention they developed, but because at such a young age they did this. Since the early 2000s, Portugal has lost over half of its forest cover, triggering erosion, water l

Bruce Smith
5 days ago1 min read


Bird flu strikes elephant seals
Dead elephant seals Do you know what's happening to plant and animal species that Indigenous peoples rely on in Amazonia? How about Siberian tigers in the taiga? Or the miniscule Macaya breast-spot frog of Haiti? Because there are so many consequential environmental and conservation issues, taking in the full scope of the challenges facing nature can feel overwhelming to me. But if we don't know about them, we won't care. And if we don't care, we aren't spurred to a

Bruce Smith
Nov 142 min read


Congress nullifies resource plans
Congress has begun nullifying resource management plans that were developed and implemented to guide long-term stewardship of federal lands. Plans cooperatively developed by the federal Bureau of Land Management in Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska -- in consultation with scientists, conservation groups, indigenous peoples, industry, and other users of these tracts of federal lands -- are the first on the chopping block. These Resource Management Plans (RMPs) provide stabil

Bruce Smith
Nov 32 min read


History Found in Bearded Vulture Nests
Bearded vulture Investigation of human history includes many disciplines. Of these, ethnobiology -- the study of dynamic relationships...

Bruce Smith
Oct 52 min read


Conservation threatened by Trump administration
The Trump administration seeks to weaken conservation by rescinding a rule that governs public land use. The Conservation and Landscape...

Bruce Smith
Sep 292 min read


Restoring the Klamath River
The undammed Klamath In a previous  pos t on April 15, 2024, I shared a story about removal of four dams on California and Oregon's...

Bruce Smith
Sep 151 min read


Honeybees vs. Native Bees
Honeybee In one of the world's hot spots of bee biodiversity, scientists are finding that one species overwhelms total numbers of all...

Bruce Smith
Aug 261 min read


How Big Was It?
New spider discovered Okay, you arachnophobes, prepare to be freaked out. An article in Smithsonian magazine reports on a new...

Bruce Smith
Aug 162 min read


Facilitating Animal Movements; Reducing Roadkill
Highway underpass for wildlife I spent 4 days last week engaged in a favorite pastime -- fly fishing for trout. But fishing isn't what I...

Bruce Smith
Jul 312 min read


Legend Keepers wins awards
Nature Generation recommended book The third novel in the Legend Keepers eco-fiction trilogy has been recognized in three national book...

Bruce Smith
Jul 271 min read


More for the Have Mores
At an annual Al Smith dinner in New York City, then President George W. Bush joked that the crowd included his voting base, the "have...

Bruce Smith
Jul 111 min read


Youth Climate Warriors
Wildland fire Fresh off 2023's historic court decision in Montana, twenty-two plaintiffs aged 7 to 25 have filed suit against the Trump...

Bruce Smith
May 301 min read


Carnivorous Caterpillar, Really?
Bone collector caterpillar Seems if we look closely enough in nature--sleuthing every habitat nook and cranny, every possible niche and...

Bruce Smith
May 61 min read


The Tortoise Engineers
Aldabra tortoise It's easy to become overwhelmed by the distressing news coming from Washington, D.C. day after day. And in a recent...

Bruce Smith
Apr 211 min read


Habitat Protection = Wildlife Conservation
North American endangered species This proposal "threatens a half-century of progress in protecting and restoring endangered species," is...

Bruce Smith
Apr 181 min read


What's the real motive?
Protests against federal job purges Staff of crucial scientific and medical research CUT Stewards of our public lands: parks, forests,...

Bruce Smith
Mar 221 min read


Wilderness and Wildlife
Life on the Rocks cover Next month I'll be doing a series of speaking events about wilderness-obligate species of wildlife with a focus...

Bruce Smith
Feb 271 min read


Who doesn't think owls are cool?
Short-eared owl If you haven't discovered it already, The Cornell Lab's website offers a wealth of information on birds, including life...

Bruce Smith
Feb 161 min read


Biodiversity: A Primary Defense against Climate Change
Biodiversity in our hands "Climate change is a primary driver of biodiversity loss. And climate change depends on biodiversity as part...

Bruce Smith
Feb 51 min read


Elk, winter feeding, and CWD
Feeding of elk on the National Elk Refuge I haven't posted about this topic for a while, but this reporting in WyoFile is newsworthy. ...

Bruce Smith
Jan 271 min read