location: California

location: California

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When does beaver reintroduction make sense?
- California has recently relocated beavers from spots where they were causing problems, like flooding, to tribal lands in Northern and Southern California.
- Many advocates say that relocating beavers to areas where they once existed brings back “ecosystem engineering” benefits to the landscapes they live in.
- But experts also caution that while beavers can help with fire resilience and improve water quality, they are only part of broader solutions to climate change and watershed restoration.
- Beaver advocates also note that learning to coexist peacefully with beavers is critical, both for the recovery of the species and for the ecosystem services they provide.

Gray wolves’ return to California tests human tolerance for coexistence
Gray wolves are making a comeback in the western U.S. state of California after a century-long absence. Conservationists say their return is a success, but it’s putting pressure on ranchers and rural communities as wolf attacks on livestock mount, Mongabay wildlife staff writer Spoorthy Raman reported. The state’s last wild wolf (Canis lupus) was shot […]
Timing, not traits, helps California’s jewelflowers adapt to diverse landscapes
- California’s native jewelflowers, a group of plants that belong to the mustard family, grow in widely diverse landscapes and microclimates across the state. But until now, scientists didn’t understand what allowed their wide distribution.
- To understand this, researchers analyzed information from nearly 2,000 specimens; dug into climate and geological databases; and amassed field observations to understand the climatic conditions that 14 species of jewelflowers need to grow and reproduce.
- Their study found that, despite living in different landscapes, from desert to valleys and mountains, jewelflowers prefer hotter and drier climates, timing their sprouting and flowering accordingly. Even those species growing in colder regions adjust their life cycle to flower later in the summer and seek drought-prone soils.
- The research shows how plants distributed across vast geographies may require specific microclimates and habitats to survive, which are potentially at risk in a warming world.

Beavers restored to tribal lands in California benefit ecosystems
- In 2023, California relocated beavers for the first time in more than seven decades.
- The state’s wildlife agency partnered with Native American tribes to move beavers from places where they were causing problems, such as flooding, to parts of their former range.
- The moves and the state’s broader beaver restoration program are the result of decades of advocacy to change an adversarial relationship to one focused on beaver conservation and the benefits beavers can provide, from increased fire resilience to more consistent water supplies.
- The change in mindset involved education and coexistence campaigns, as well as correcting long-held misconceptions about the limited extent of the beaver’s former range in California.

Researchers describe three new-to-science snailfish species off California coast
In 2019, researchers surveying the seafloor off the coast of California came upon three unusual species of small fishes with large heads: one with bumpy pink skin, and the other two both black in color. The team collected the fish using underwater research vehicles and later analyzed their DNA and bodies. Their analysis showed that […]
Post-Blob, California’s kelp crisis isn’t going away
- Kelp forests function as major habitat for marine biodiversity, but are in rapid decline worldwide, largely because of climate impacts on the oceans.
- A 2013 marine heat wave known as “the Blob,” combined with the mass die-off of sea stars, caused a 95% loss of Northern California’s kelp forests.
- The loss of sea stars allowed the purple urchins that they thrive on to spread rapidly, converting lush kelp forests into “urchin barrens” in parts of California. There’s been very little recovery since.
- Restoration of kelp forests is extremely difficult and requires far more resources than are currently being committed.

Genetic rescue boosts survival of endangered Pacific pocket mice
Since 1970, wildlife populations globally have plummeted by about 73%. One driver is habitat fragmentation that isolates small populations, leading to inbreeding and fewer healthy offspring. California’s endangered Pacific pocket mouse, limited to three small populations, is a case in point. A new study finds that mixing individuals from these populations in a breeding program […]
The call of a native frog is heard again in Southern California thanks to help from Mexico and AI
THE SANTA ROSA PLATEAU ECOLOGICAL RESERVE, Calif. (AP) — Efforts to restore the red-legged frog to Southern California, where it had all but disappeared, seemed doomed when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and restrictions were put in place at the U.S.-Mexico border. But scientists were able to airlift coolers of frogs’ eggs from a tiny population […]
California lawmakers seek to curb oil imports from Amazon
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The California Senate has unanimously approved a resolution calling for a review of its imports of crude oil from the Amazon rainforest and an eventual phase-out, following years of advocacy from Indigenous leaders in South America. Environmental groups say oil drilling in the Amazon is driving deforestation, destroying biodiversity and violating Indigenous rights, […]
Wolves’ continued spread in California brings joy, controversy & conflicts
- After nearly a century’s absence, gray wolves continue to recolonize California, bringing changes and challenges to the state and its inhabitants.
- Ongoing research and monitoring programs are helping scientists understand growing wolf populations and their impact on prey species, other predators and alterations to the landscape.
- Gray wolves in California are protected under both federal and state laws. But balancing conservation, livestock predation and public safety concerns is complicated.
- The state has formulated a management plan for wolves: a compensation program for ranchers who lose livestock to wolves and efforts to mitigate conflicts.

Anchovy-rich diet linked to vitamin deficiency and deaths among salmon, study
A new study links widespread deficiency of vitamin B1, or thiamine, among California Chinook salmon to their deaths. This adds yet another challenge for this iconic species whose population is already imperiled by climate change, habitat loss and overfishing. Salmon serve a critical ecological role in the Pacific Northwest, transporting marine nutrients from the ocean […]
Devils Hole pupfish hit by micro-tsunami from 8.8-magnitude Russian earthquake
A powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 29 sent ripples nearly 4,000 miles across the Pacific, disturbing one of the most fragile ecosystems in the United States: Devils Hole in Nevada’s Mojave Desert, according to park officials. The quake generated 10-inch waves inside the narrow, water-filled cavern—a dramatic but […]
Killing barred owls to save spotted owls
Northern spotted owl numbers have continued to decline in North America’s Pacific Northwest, partly due to competition from barred owls considered invasive in the region. The spotted owl has been protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) since 1990. To help the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) recover, some conservationists advocate for culling […]
In a warming world, can California save its Joshua trees?
- Western Joshua trees in California are increasingly threatened by changing climate conditions, including rising heat, increasing drought, more frequent wildfires, and by expanding renewable energy and housing developments.
- Despite increasingly harsh conditions, adult Joshua trees are expected to remain common through the end of the century, but young trees will not survive across most of their current range, scientists warn.
- Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declined to protect eastern and western Joshua trees under the Endangered Species Act, California passed a state law to protect its western Joshua trees in 2023.
- Scientists warn that these trees need climate action to survive the century.

In California, an invasive mustard is destabilizing desert plant communities
- In desert ecosystems, plant species coexist by growing and flowering at different times, cued by rainfall and other triggers. This diversity strengthens community stability.
- The invasive Sahara mustard arrived in California a century ago, likely via the palm trade. But until now, its impacts on desert ecology have been difficult to measure.
- Scientists recently used long-term data to understand the mustard’s effects on native plant communities on sand dunes in the Mojave Desert.
- The study found that Sahara mustard can overtake desert plant communities, making them less diverse and less stable in an increasingly unpredictable environment.

California wood pellet plants canceled amid market decline & public pushback
Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), a California nonprofit that focuses on rural economic development, has canceled plans to build two industrial-scale wood pellet plants in the state. The organization cited weakening market conditions and pushback from locals as the drivers of their decision. Conservation groups are hailing the move as a win for forests and […]
California is to examine its Amazon oil ties following pleas from Indigenous leaders from Ecuador
RICHMOND, California (AP) — The California Senate has introduced a landmark resolution to have the state examine its crude imports from the Amazon, following a visit this week by Indigenous leaders from Ecuador who urged lawmakers to help stop oil expansion in their territories. The development comes as the Ecuadorian government plans to auction off […]
The Yurok tribe have reclaimed Blue Creek, 138 years after it was taken from them
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The Yurok tribe of northern California has achieved what once seemed impossible: reclaiming the 19,000-hectare (47,000-acre) watershed of Blue Creek, a cold-water artery vital to salmon survival and tribal identity. This marks the largest land-back conservation deal in California […]
In a big win, Yurok Nation reclaims vital creek and watershed to restore major salmon run
- Four dams are now down on the Upper Klamath River in northern California in the largest river restoration project in U.S. history. But a rarely mentioned cold-water creek is essential to restoring health to what was once the third-largest salmon run on the West Coast of North America.
- Blue Creek is located just 25 km (16 mi) from the mouth of the Lower Klamath at the Pacific Ocean. Critically, it’s the first cold-water refuge for migrating salmon that enables the fish to cool down, survive, and move farther upriver to spawn. The dams and logging have damaged this important watershed for decades.
- The Yurok, California’s largest Indigenous tribe, lost ownership of Blue Creek to westward U.S. expansion in the late 1800s. In 2002, a timber company, negotiating with the Yurok, agreed to sell back the 19,000-hectare (47,100-acre) watershed to the tribe.
- It took Western Rivers Conservancy, an Oregon-based NGO, nearly two decades to raise the $60 million needed to buy the watershed. In a historic transition, Blue Creek returns this spring to the Yurok for conservation in its entirety. The tribe considers the watershed a sacred place.

‘Satellites for Biodiversity’ upgrades with new projects and launches insight hub
The Airbus Foundation and the Connected Conservation Foundation (CCF) recently announced the winners of their “Satellites for Biodiversity” grant, which now uses higher-resolution satellite imagery to aid conservation efforts. They also launched an Ecosystem Insight Hub, which comprehensively documents the processes and findings of their grantees. The latest batch of six “Satellites for Biodiversity” awardees […]
Ronan the sea lion outperforms humans at keeping a steady beat, study finds
A sea lion named Ronan is better able to keep a beat than the average human, a new study finds. Such ability in animals is generally thought to be unique to humans and some birds, but Ronan’s performance challenges those assumptions, the study’s researchers say. Ronan, a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), was born in […]
Listening to whales is key to their conservation
Biological oceanographer John Ryan joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss his team’s multiyear study that examined vocalizations of baleen whales, including blue (Balaenoptera musculus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), and how this science is critical for understanding their feeding habits, and thus informing their conservation. The study found that these whales’ songs rise […]
Indigenous nations fought for a new national monument. Will it survive Trump?
- After decades of activism by the Ajumawi–Atsugewi Nation (Pit River Nation) to protect its ancestral homelands from extractive industries, vandalism and looting, President Joe Biden created Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California in 2025.
- Sáttítla’s management plan supports co-stewardship by Indigenous nations with connections to the landscape.
- The Trump administration has sown confusion over Sáttítla’s fate by releasing and then deleting documents and proclamations online that said the monument would be rescinded.

David Myers, conservationist and land broker for nature, dies at 73
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay’s founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives, and story summaries. There was something almost subversive about David Myers’s approach to conservation. He spoke the language of developers, negotiated like one, and sometimes even thought like one — but his ambitions ran in the opposite direction. Where others saw […]
How bobcats protect us from diseases, Mongabay podcast explores
“Bobcats are disease defenders,” Zara McDonald, founder of the U.S.-based conservation nonprofit Felidae Conservation Fund, tells host Mike DiGirolamo on Mongabay’s weekly podcast Newscast in February. Today, bobcats (Lynx rufus) are North America’s most common small wildcat. But this wasn’t always the case: At the start of the 20th century, the bobcat population was close to […]
500,000 barrels of DDT in the sea: Interview with documentary directors on California coast crisis
- “Out of Plain Sight,” directed by journalist Rosanna Xia and filmmaker Daniel Straub, documents the legacy of mass amounts of DDT waste dumped off the California coast decades ago, with environmental consequences continuing today.
- The documentary features journalism as a main character, following Xia’s real-time investigation and highlighting both the process of science and storytelling through immersive cinematography and sound design.
- The film raises urgent questions about today’s “forever chemicals” and our relationship with the ocean environment.
- The film will be screened in Washington, D.C., on March 29 at the 2025 DC Environmental Film Festival, where Mongabay is a media partner.

California ground squirrels shock scientists by hunting and eating voles
After more than a decade studying California ground squirrels, Jennifer Smith felt she had a solid understanding of their behavior. Then, in the summer of 2024, her students spotted something she never expected: one of the squirrels chased, killed and ate a vole, a small rodent common across the western coast of North America. Until […]
Climate change made LA fires more likely amid hot, dry conditions: Report
The devastating fires that swept through parts of Los Angeles, U.S., in January raged for more than three weeks before being fully contained. In that time, they burned through more than 20,200 hectares (50,000 acres) of forests and homes, killing at least 29 people. A recent report from World Weather Attribution (WWA) finds that climate […]
Firefighters in LA blaze face same toxic exposure as 9/11 responders
Smoke from wildfire poses a host of health concerns, but when fires burn through urban areas, like the ongoing inferno in Los Angeles, U.S., the health risks increase dramatically. “This is an entirely different situation because the wildfire smoke is bad enough, but when synthetic materials burn, they’re going to give off more toxics, not only in […]
Deadly wildfires force thousands to evacuate homes in Los Angeles
Wildfires in Southern California, U.S., have killed at least five people, forced some 130,000 to evacuate, and damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 buildings. Numerous fires are raging around Los Angeles county, a region famous for its beaches and Hollywood celebrities. Nearly 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) have burned in a quickly accelerating fire as of […]
50 years of geographic insight: In interview with Jack Dangermond on Esri’s journey and the future of GIS
- The digital mapping platforms developed by Esri, including ArcGIS, have revolutionized conservation and environmental planning, management and policymaking. Esri co-founder Jack Dangermond calls geographic information systems (GIS) “a sort of intelligent nervous system for our planet at a time when humanity desperately needs one to address the environmental and humanitarian crises at hand.”
- He credits Esri’s success to a sustainable trajectory of heavy investment in R&D, not being beholden to outside investors, and providing discounted and free use of its software to environmental nonprofits.
- In this interview with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler, Dangermond says that technology, amid the current fractured political climate, should be employed to encourage understanding rather than dwell on divisions.
- The text of the interview has been edited for clarity and flow.

Largest dam removal ever, driven by Tribes, kicks off Klamath River recovery
- The largest dam-removal project in history was completed in October, freeing 676 kilometers (420 miles) of the Klamath River and its tributaries in California and Oregon.
- The project involved removing four dams, built between 1918 and 1964 to provide electricity. They had devastating effects on salmon populations and tribal communities, leading to a decades-long, tribe-led movement for their removal.
- The $450 million project involved complex engineering to remove the dams and, now, to restore the river ecosystem, including replanting native vegetation and reshaping the river channel, incorporating tribal knowledge to improve habitats for salmon and other species.
- The first chinook salmon in more than 60 years are already spawning above the former Iron Gate dam and a fall-run Chinook salmon was identified in Oregon for the first time in more than 100 years. Experts expect coho salmon populations to recover in six to 12 years and Chinook salmon in 15 to 20 years in what was once the third-largest salmon producing river in the contiguous U.S.

U.S. government and Indigenous tribes to co-manage newest marine sanctuary
In advance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the U.S., the federal government announced a new national marine sanctuary off the coast of California that will be co-managed with tribes and Indigenous groups in the area. The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sactuary will be the third-largest federally protected stretch of water, encompassing more than 11,600 square […]
California sues ExxonMobil for ‘deceiving the public’ about plastic recycling
California is suing oil and gas giant ExxonMobil for allegedly lying to the public about the promise of plastic recycling, the state’s attorney general announced on Sept 22. “For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this […]
Andrea Vidaurre: Leading the clean transportation revolution
CALIFORNIA, United States – Andrea Vidaurre, co-founder of the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, received the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize for her pivotal role in advancing landmark transportation regulations that dramatically cut trucking and railway emissions in California. Thanks to Vidaurre’s relentless advocacy and strong community support, these regulations introduced the first national standards for […]
Biomass power grows in Japan despite new understanding of climate risks
- New biomass power plants continue to come online in Japan, requiring an ever-greater quantity of imported fuel. The government’s feed-in tariff scheme, which has been tweaked but not canceled, incentivized these projects.
- Although understanding of forest biomass’s negative environmental and climate impacts is growing in Japan, policy advocates say operators of existing biomass power plants need to pay back construction bank loans, and the government’s refusal to admit its mistake is keeping biomass plants running.
- A major biomass fuel type is wood pellets, which in Japan is presently primarily sourced from plantation forests in Vietnam and primary forests in British Columbia, Canada. While BC ecologists have spoken out against wood pellets, and found allies in Vietnam, the biomass issue has proved challenging for Japan’s forest advocates.
- Though historically a small source of wood pellets for Japan, the growing popularity in Indonesia of pellets for both export and domestic use risks tropical forests there being cleared to make way for biomass energy plantations, NGOs warn.

Studying snakes without rattling them? There’s now tech for that
- Scientists have used tiny, noninvasive radio transmitters and accelerometers to study the habitats and behaviors of red diamond rattlesnakes.
- While the radio transmitters help researchers keep track of the snakes, the accelerometers give them an in-depth understanding of the snakes’ physical movements as they hunt, eat and even mate.
- Historically, tracking snakes has involved surgically implanting telemetry radios into them, but this process is time-consuming and also risks infecting the animals.
- Red diamond rattlesnakes, native to southwest California in the U.S. and Baja California in Mexico, face increasing threats from habitat loss and vehicle strikes.

Otter-preneurs: Female sea otters lead the way in tool use for survival
- In Monterey Bay, California, southern sea otters face food scarcity as their preferred prey, urchins and abalone, have declined due to climate change, overfishing and other environmental factors.
- To adapt, some sea otters, particularly females, use tools like rocks, shells and even discarded glass bottles to crack open harder-shelled alternative prey like snails, clams and mussels.
- A study of 196 tagged sea otters found that frequent tool users, especially females, could consume prey up to 35% harder than non-tool users and had significantly less tooth damage.
- The findings highlight the importance of behavioral flexibility in the face of ecological challenges and underscore the need to protect the threatened southern sea otter population, which plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance of coastal ecosystems.

UK’s Drax targets California forests for two major wood pellet plants
- Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), a California state-funded nonprofit focused on rural economic development, along with the U.K.’s Drax, a global maker of biomass for energy, have signed an agreement to move ahead on a California project to build two of the biggest wood pellet mills in the United States.
- The mills, if approved by the state, would produce 1 million tons of pellets for export annually to Japan and South Korea, where they would be burned in converted coal power plants. The pellet mills would represent a major expansion of U.S. biomass production outside the U.S. Southeast, where most pellet making has been centered.
- GSNR promotes the pellet mills as providing jobs, preventing wildfires and reducing carbon emissions. California forest advocates say that cutting trees to make pellets —partly within eight national forests — will achieve none of those goals.
- Opponents note that the U.S. pellet industry is highly automated and offers few jobs, while the mills pollute rural communities. Clear-cutting trees, which is largely the model U.S. biomass firms use, does little to prevent fires and reduces carbon storage. Pellet burning also produces more emissions than coal per unit of energy produced.

Where sea otters play, salt marshes stay, new study shows
- A new study has found that sea otters are helping to slow down salt marsh erosion in Elkhorn Slough in California by eating burrowing crabs.
- Drawing on a range of data sources, which included surveys and field experiments, the authors found that in places where sea otters were abundant, the erosion of the salt marsh slowed by as much as 80-90% over the course of the study.
- Salt marshes worldwide are disappearing due to climate change-driven factors such as rising sea levels and other human pressures.

First ever U.S. Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area declared in California
- The Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, Resighini Rancheria, and Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community designated the first ever Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area (IMSA) in the U.S. along the northern California coast.
- The tribes plan to steward nearly 700 mi2 (1,800 km2) of their ancestral ocean and coastal territories from the California-Oregon border to Little River near the town of Trinidad, California.
- As sovereign nations, the tribes say they’re not seeking state or federal agencies’ permission to assert tribally led stewardship rights and responsibilities; rather, they want to establish cooperative relationships recognizing their inherent Indigenous governance authority.
- The tribes aim to restore traditional ecological knowledge and management practices that sustained the area’s natural abundance before colonial disruption.

Marine conservation technology hub rises from old L.A. wharf (analysis)
- In 2014, the Port of Los Angeles gave a 50-year lease to an aging wharf called City Dock No. 1 to a project called AltaSea.
- AltaSea is a non-profit project founded in 2014 that in less than 10 years has become a leading ‘blue economy’ research hub focused on renewable ocean energy, sustainable aquaculture and other blue technologies.
- Hub tenants include marine renewable energy startups, sustainable aquaculture projects, a marine seed bank, a research effort aimed at decarbonizing oceanic shipping, and other projects.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Is there a ‘lighter side’ to our possible environmental apocalypse? (commentary)
- Ocean activist and author David Helvarg deals with dark thoughts about the state of the world environment with humor in a new op-ed.
- “As a professional ocean advocate, I try and see the bright side of environmental and climate impacts such as sea level rise. While the ocean today covers 71% of the planet, it could soon cover 75%. More ocean means more ocean to love,” he jokes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Gordon Moore, tech legend and conservation philanthropist, has died at 94
- Technology entrepreneur and conservation philanthropist Gordon Moore died on Friday, March 24, at the age of 94.
- While most widely known for his career in technology, including predicting the pace of semiconductor chip development — which became known as Moore’s Law — and co-founding chipmaker Intel, Moore and his wife Betty have been major backers of conservation efforts from the Arctic to the Amazon.
- In the Amazon, the Moore Foundation has committed more than $800 million since 2000 to a range of initiatives, making it the single largest private funder of conservation in Earth’s largest rainforest.

Climate change is exacerbating human-wildlife conflict, but solutions await: Study
- A review of 49 studies reveals that a variety of weather-related phenomena that are likely to become increasingly common due to climate change may increase human-wildlife conflict.
- The most commonly reported conflict outcomes were injury or death in people (43% of studies) and wildlife (45% of studies), and loss of crops or livestock (45% of studies). Many documented cases are occurring in the tropics, with animals such as Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii) in Mexico, and elephants in Africa and Asia, increasingly coming into conflict with local communities.
- The impacts of climate change on human-wildlife conflict may especially affect vulnerable human populations, particularly when combined with pressures that limit mobility and flexibility in humans and animals. These stressors should be minimized where possible, researchers suggest.
- A better understanding of the climatic drivers of human-wildlife conflict could help prevent or alleviate conflicts. Predicting the onset of extreme weather events such as droughts, and proactively responding with temporary measures to protect animals and people, could be one effective solution, as could sharing information on how to avoid the hazards of wildlife conflict.

Western monarch populations reach highest number in decades
- The western monarch butterfly population reached its highest number since the year 2000, with more than 335,000 butterflies counted during the annual Thanksgiving Western Monarch Count in California and Arizona.
- Western monarchs winter in California and migrate thousands of miles every year, in a migratory cycle that takes three or four generations. They are counted annually in their by volunteers at these sites.
- The population rebound is a positive development, but the species is still considered endangered and far from its population numbers in the 1980s when millions of butterflies could be seen in the trees.
- Conservation efforts include protecting overwintering sites, planting native plants, reducing pesticide use and supporting conservation initiatives; the public can also participate in community science projects and make simple changes in their gardens and communities.

California’s network of marine protected areas must be strengthened and expanded (commentary)
- During December 2022, California is holding its first 10-year review of its marine protected areas network, to be used to inform the network’s future.
- Previously, Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out a goal to protect 30% of the state’s land, water, and sea space over the decade.
- “As state regulators take account of the progress it has made of protecting marine ecosystems and wildlife, California should expand and strengthen upon its MPA success stories to ensure 30% of its state waters are fully protected by 2030,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Indigenous knowledge guides the conservation of culturally important plants
- The Karuk Tribe in northern California has traditionally managed plants for food, fiber, and medicine, but decades of fire suppression and climate change are threatening culturally important species.
- Researchers partnered with Karuk Tribe land stewards to understand how fire suppression and drought have affected the quality of four plants central to their food security and culture.
- In this long-term collaborative study, Indigenous Knowledge expands on western science methods, assessing the ecological health of plants and their cultural usefulness.

Tribe and partners light up a forest to restore landscape in California
- The Karuk Tribe partnered with the U.S. Forest Service and other stakeholders to reintroduce traditional burning to help restore forests in the Klamath Mountains.
- The four-year-old project aims to prevent wildfires and make overgrown forests in Northern California look more like they did thousands of years ago when the Tribe stewarded them.
- So far, the project’s successes have been encouraging, however, the Tribe and Forest Service have encountered hurdles in their relationship and have had difficulty agreeing on different fire techniques.
- The project hopes to make burning a seasonal and sustainable part of ecosystem management.

Biodiversity underpins all, as California is finding out the hard way
- A new episode of “Mongabay Explains” delves into the biodiversity crisis in California, which is known to be one of the most biodiverse states in the U.S., hosting about 6,500 animal species, subspecies and plants.
- California has been bearing the brunt of climate change in recent years as wildfires and drought transform the land.
- The film focuses on three species that are being negatively affected by the climate crisis: California tiger salamanders, acorn woodpeckers, and monarch butterflies.
- The filmmaker says California is the “poster child of what's happening to our ecosystems around the world.”

Monarch butterflies are officially endangered
- The iconic monarch butterfly has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, meaning the species is likely to go extinct without significant intervention.
- The number of migratory monarch butterflies has dropped more than 95% since the 1980s, according to counts at overwintering sites in California and Mexico.
- Renowned for their impressive migrations of more than 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) over several generations, the monarch decline is driven by habitat loss, herbicide and pesticide use, logging at overwintering sites in Mexico, urban development and drought.
- Experts say that planting milkweed, reducing pesticides and protecting overwintering sites for butterflies are measures needed to protect this beloved species.

Scientists strive to restore world’s embattled kelp forests
- Kelp forests grow along more than one-quarter of the world’s coastlines, and are among the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems. But these critical habitats are disappearing due to warming oceans and other human impacts.
- Sudden recent wipeouts of vast kelp forests along the coastlines of Tasmania and California highlighted how little was known about protecting or restoring these vital marine ecosystems.
- Scientists are finding new ways to help restore kelp, but promising small-scale successes need to be ramped up significantly to replace massive kelp losses in some regions.
- Global interest in studying seaweed for food, carbon storage and other uses, may help improve wild kelp restoration methods.

California court ruling opens door for protection of insects as endangered species
- A court ruled this week that the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) can apply to invertebrates, including insects.
- This means legal protections will be in place for four native, endangered bumblebee species in California.
- The decision marks the end of a court battle between conservation groups and a consortium of large-scale industrial agricultural interests.
- An estimated 28% of all bumblebees in North America are at risk of extinction, with consequences for ecosystems and crops, as one-third of food production depends on pollinators.

California subpoenas ExxonMobil over plastic pollution
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta has subpoenaed ExxonMobil as part of an investigation into the role fossil fuel and petrochemical industries have played in the widening plastics crisis.
- The California Department of Justice is looking into whether ExxonMobil deliberately misled the public about the harmful effects of plastic and the difficulties of recycling it.
- In response, ExxonMobil has said the company shares society’s concerns about the plastics crisis, and that it is working to address the issue with advanced recycling technology.
- Environmental experts have welcomed the investigation, saying it’s time for the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries to be held accountable for the role they have played in this environmental issue.

Kelp, condors and Indigenous conservation
- On today's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we take a deep dive into two ambitious Indigenous-led conservation initiatives on the U.S. West Coast.
- We speak with Dune Lankard, founder and president of The Native Conservancy, who tells us about kelp farming pilot projects in Alaska's Prince William Sound and how the projects are intended to create a regenerative kelp economy based on conservation, restoration, and mitigation.
- We also speak with Tiana Williams-Claussen, director of the Yurok Tribe’s Wildlife Department, who tells us about efforts to bring condors back to her tribe’s territory in Northern California, which is set to culminate in the first four birds being released into the wild this April.

Western monarchs make a spectacular comeback in California
- The population of monarch butterflies overwintering in California has increased a hundredfold, according to an annual count: more than 247,000 butterflies were counted in 2021, up from 2,000 butterflies in 2020.
- Scientists are unsure why numbers have soared, but speculate it is due to a suite of environmental factors including climate and food resources.
- Although this year’s count is overwhelmingly positive, the population has still plummeted from historic numbers; more than 1.2 million butterflies were recorded in 1997.
- Pesticide- and herbicide‐intensive agriculture, urban sprawl, pollution, and climate change have contributed to the global decline of insects, including monarchs.

‘We scientists engage in soft diplomacy’: Q&A with Christine Wilkinson
- Christine Wilkinson is a carnivore ecologist, National Geographic Explorer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who uses technology to examine interactions between humans and wildlife in East Africa and California.
- Her work is interdisciplinary, using participatory mapping to include local communities in her work and learn about how peoples’ perceptions about carnivores affects conflicts with them.
- Wilkinson also notes that human-wildlife conflicts areas are rooted in human-human conflict, often based in socioeconomic and sociopolitical contexts as well as histories.
- Wilkinson spoke with Mongabay about why hyenas get such a bad rap, her dream of a solar-powered camera-trap grid, and her work bringing together other African American scientists in mammalogy.

‘Everyone is capable’ of climate action, say Kevin Patel and Julia Jackson
- Earlier this week climate activists Kevin J. Patel and Julia Jackson published a commentary in Newsweek that effectively accused the Biden Administration of betraying their climate commitment at last month’s U.N. Climate Change Conference by proceeding with an auction of 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for offshore drilling.
- Patel and Jackson have personal reasons for their climate activism: Patel has suffered life-long heart issues due to poor air quality in Los Angeles, while Jackson lost her home in Sonoma to a wildfire in 2019. Both run non-profits focused on rallying young people around climate action.
- Patel founded OneUpAction International in 2019 to empower traditionally marginalized youth communities with resources to press for change. Jackson, whose parents created a global wine company that emphasizes sustainability, founded Grounded in 2017 to identify and amplify solutions to planetary problems.
- Patel and Jackson spoke about their activism, their recent Newsweek commentary, and other issues in a December 2021 exchange with Mongabay Founder Rhett A. Butler.

How Andean Condors in Peru saved the California condor from extinction (commentary)
- The California Condor narrowly dodged extinction in the 1980s thanks to conservation efforts involving Andean Condors reintroduced to Peru’s Illescas peninsula.
- The Illescas wilderness will soon be officially protected as Illescas National Reserve, a development which spurred Enrique Ortiz, Senior Program Director at the Andes Amazon Fund, to recount the story of how Andean Condors helped save the California Condor.
- The Spanish version of this piece originally appeared on Mongabay-Latam.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Can we save the bees? Absolutely. Let’s start with the native species (commentary)
- To ‘save the bees’ we must begin with the most important question: which bees need saving?
- Honey bees are not native to North America, and generally prefer to pollinate non-native plants and crops, yet they enjoy mass appeal and major support campaigns via everyone from almond farmers to actress Angelina Jolie.
- North America’s native bees are adapted to the continent’s unique habitats and flowering plants that occur therein, therefore supporting native flora. But when floral resources are scarce, honey bees outcompete the natives for resources even in native ecosystems.
- The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

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