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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=california&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/california/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:56:14 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>California environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/california/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>California solar project threatens Mojave wildlife corridor, scientists say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/california-solar-project-threatens-mojave-wildlife-corridor-scientists-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/california-solar-project-threatens-mojave-wildlife-corridor-scientists-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2026 14:33:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hyeyoon Cho]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/09114442/Desert-Solitaire_Bighorn-in-Joshua-Tree-National-Park-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322961</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deserts, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Habitat, Natural Resources, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Mojave Desert may look like a flat, brown stretch of nothing between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. But threading through its rocky mountain ranges is an intricate network of wildlife movement that has sustained desert species for thousands of years. Now, scientists and advocates say a solar project approved by the state of California [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Mojave Desert may look like a flat, brown stretch of nothing between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. But threading through its rocky mountain ranges is an intricate network of wildlife movement that has sustained desert species for thousands of years. Now, scientists and advocates say a solar project approved by the state of California threatens to sever it. In April, the California Energy Commission, the state agency that oversees energy infrastructure, voted 4-0 to approve a $700 million, 1,080-hectare (2,670-acre) solar facility proposed by New Jersey-based developer VC Renewables on federal land adjacent to the Mojave National Preserve. The preserve, spanning more than 1.6 million acres, is one of the largest in the U.S. National Park System and is located in Southern California. The project, known as Soda Mountain Solar, sits in the migration corridor that desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) use to move between mountain ranges. This large solar array would also obstruct desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) habitat, which has already undergone significant loss due to climate change and land developments. The energy commission&#8217;s environmental review found the project would cause significant and unavoidable harm to wildlife. Scientists and conservation advocates say the approval threatens one of the last intact desert ecosystems in California. But the commission’s final order memo states that ecological mitigation incorporated into the solar project would reduce the impacts on desert wildlife to “less than significant” and that the commission expects the project will bring more renewable energy to the state. Scientists and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/california-solar-project-threatens-mojave-wildlife-corridor-scientists-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/california-solar-project-threatens-mojave-wildlife-corridor-scientists-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322961</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Light pollution reshapes predator-prey dynamics at California&#8217;s urban edge, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/light-pollution-reshapes-predator-prey-dynamics-at-californias-urban-edge-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/light-pollution-reshapes-predator-prey-dynamics-at-californias-urban-edge-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2026 19:28:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/15191816/puma-dark-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319568</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Environment, Green, Mammals, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study from two California counties finds that artificial light at night is a stronger driver of wildlife behavior at the edge of urban environments than noise. This has ripple effects for predators and prey. Researchers analyzed more than 35,000 camera-trap days from 61 stations in San Mateo county, on California&#8217;s central coast, and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study from two California counties finds that artificial light at night is a stronger driver of wildlife behavior at the edge of urban environments than noise. This has ripple effects for predators and prey. Researchers analyzed more than 35,000 camera-trap days from 61 stations in San Mateo county, on California&#8217;s central coast, and Orange county, in Southern California, between 2022 and 2024. They tracked an apex predator, the puma (Puma concolor); the bobcat (Lynx rufus); and an ungulate prey species, the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). The paper was published in Urban Ecosystems. “While scientists have known for a while that wildlife change their behavior around cities, often becoming more nocturnal to avoid humans, our study isolated one part of the urban environment that is driving this,”co-author Zara McDonald, biologist and president of the Felidae Conservation Fund, told Mongabay by email. “Our key finding is that artificial light pollution is actually altering the predator-prey dynamic.” Predators like pumas and bobcats avoided bright lights at night, such as areas lit by streetlights and other electric lighting. Mule deer, however, were more active in those same areas, though they avoided bright moonlight and noisy areas. The authors say the deer use human-modified spaces that predators avoid. A puma on the urban edge in California. Camera trap image courtesy of Felidae Conservation Fund “Essentially, artificial light is acting as a spatial barrier for carnivores and a &#8216;protective shield&#8217; for prey,” McDonald said. The contrast was visually striking in the images and footage&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/light-pollution-reshapes-predator-prey-dynamics-at-californias-urban-edge-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/light-pollution-reshapes-predator-prey-dynamics-at-californias-urban-edge-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319568</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tierney Thys, marine biologist and interpreter of the sunfish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tierney-thys-marine-biologist-and-interpreter-of-the-sunfish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tierney-thys-marine-biologist-and-interpreter-of-the-sunfish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 May 2026 00:22:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/02151218/Tierney-Thys-with-sunfish-bw-banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318622</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Communication, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Green, Hope and optimism, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Obituary, Oceans, Plastic, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the open ocean, far from coasts and categories, there is a fish that seems to defy the logic of design. It is round where others are tapered, truncated where others trail into a tail. It drifts and dives, basks and vanishes, a presence that appears accidental until one looks more closely. For those who [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the open ocean, far from coasts and categories, there is a fish that seems to defy the logic of design. It is round where others are tapered, truncated where others trail into a tail. It drifts and dives, basks and vanishes, a presence that appears accidental until one looks more closely. For those who did, the giant ocean sunfish became less an oddity than a set of questions—about form, movement, and how life adapts to a vast and changing sea. A sunfish (Mola mola). Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler/Mongabay. Tierney M. Thys, who died in March at 59, spent much of her life asking those questions, and then finding ways to share them. She was a marine biologist by training, though that title alone does not quite capture her range. She was also a filmmaker, a science editor, a National Geographic Explorer, and an advocate for the ocean who moved between research, storytelling, and public engagement. Her work, much of it beyond the ocean, was anchored in curiosity, and in a conviction that understanding the natural world required both analysis and attention. Her fascination with the ocean began early. Born in California, she was put into a homemade wetsuit by her parents so she could stay longer in cold water. She later moved to Vermont, where she learned to explore the outdoors on her own, and to see nature as both playground and teacher. That sense of immersion stayed with her. She studied biology at Brown University, returned to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tierney-thys-marine-biologist-and-interpreter-of-the-sunfish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tierney-thys-marine-biologist-and-interpreter-of-the-sunfish/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318622</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>California condors nesting in Pacific Northwest for first time in a century, on Yurok territory</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/california-condors-nesting-in-pacific-northwest-for-first-time-in-a-century-on-yurok-territory/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/california-condors-nesting-in-pacific-northwest-for-first-time-in-a-century-on-yurok-territory/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2026 13:05:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/20041329/1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316022</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Raptors, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A pair of California condors reintroduced to the Pacific Northwest by the Yurok Tribe appears to have established the species’ first nest in the region in more than 100 years, program officials announced in early March. Based on shifts in behavior and satellite flight data, biologists with the Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP) determined [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A pair of California condors reintroduced to the Pacific Northwest by the Yurok Tribe appears to have established the species’ first nest in the region in more than 100 years, program officials announced in early March. Based on shifts in behavior and satellite flight data, biologists with the Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP) determined that the female condor, known by her Yurok name Ney-gem&#8217; Ne-chween-kah (&#8220;She carries our prayers&#8221;), likely laid an egg inside a hollow in an old-growth redwood tree along Redwood Creek drainage in early February. Her mate, called Hlow Hoo-let (&#8220;At last I fly&#8221;), has been sharing incubation duties. Both birds are roughly 6 years and 10 months old, right at the cusp of sexual maturity for the species, which typically begins breeding between the ages of 6 and 7. &#8220;This is a huge moment for our Northern California flock,&#8221; said Chris West, the NCCRP program manager and Yurok Wildlife Department senior biologist. &#8220;It is important to remember that these are wild birds. We trap them occasionally for health monitoring, but if they nest, and how successful they are, is totally up to them, with as little interference from us as possible.&#8221; The nest site is too remote for direct visual confirmation, so staff are relying on wing-mounted transmitters and field observations to monitor the pair&#8217;s progress. The program is exploring the use of drones to get a look at the nest. The egg, if present, would take 55-58 days to hatch, with both parents taking&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/california-condors-nesting-in-pacific-northwest-for-first-time-in-a-century-on-yurok-territory/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/california-condors-nesting-in-pacific-northwest-for-first-time-in-a-century-on-yurok-territory/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316022</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Avian flu strikes California’s northern elephant seals; area quarantined</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/avian-flu-strikes-californias-northern-elephant-seals-area-quarantined/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/avian-flu-strikes-californias-northern-elephant-seals-area-quarantined/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Feb 2026 05:04:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Christine Heinrichs]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/26221349/SwabFar__AnoNuevo_Feb242026_Frans-Lanting-for-Beltran-Lab-UC-Santa-Cruz-NMFS-permit-28742-1-e1772144471819-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314922</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, California, North America, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ever since a deadly strain of avian influenza, H5N1, killed some 17,000 southern elephant seal pups on South American coastlines in 2023 and 2024, researchers and public officials have kept an extra-close eye on California’s northern elephant seals. Fears of infection have now become reality: Lab tests just proved the virus has breached this colony. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ever since a deadly strain of avian influenza, H5N1, killed some 17,000 southern elephant seal pups on South American coastlines in 2023 and 2024, researchers and public officials have kept an extra-close eye on California’s northern elephant seals. Fears of infection have now become reality: Lab tests just proved the virus has breached this colony. In mid-February, six young, newly weaned seals on Año Nuevo State Park beaches fell ill. They had obvious respiratory problems and also suffered from neurological symptoms, including weakness, tremors and seizures — all of which pointed to H5N1. The research team collected samples from sick and dead elephant seals, which were analyzed at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System. Initial screening revealed that the samples were positive for avian influenza; it was then confirmed to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain. A mother northern elephant seal and her pup rest on a beach at the Piedras Blancas viewing area in California, south of Año Nuevo, where seven young seals have been infected with a deadly strain of avian influenza. Image by Christine Heinrichs. As of Feb. 24, seven pups had tested positive for the virus, according to the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory. At time of publication, 30 seals had died, 29 of them weaned pups, but the cause has not yet been confirmed for all the victims. The outbreak marks the first cases of H5N1 in marine mammals in California and the first time it’s been found in northern elephant seals&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/avian-flu-strikes-californias-northern-elephant-seals-area-quarantined/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/avian-flu-strikes-californias-northern-elephant-seals-area-quarantined/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314922</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From chemistry to regeneration: Agriculture’s next transformation has begun (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-chemistry-to-regeneration-agricultures-next-transformation-has-begun-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-chemistry-to-regeneration-agricultures-next-transformation-has-begun-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 21:53:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sallie Calhoun]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/17213606/cover-crop-workshop-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314374</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Business, Chemicals, Commentary, Farming, Food, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture is on the cusp of its most profound transformation in a century. Just as the Green Revolution shifted farming from sun and soil to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, we are just beginning another revolution: returning to an agriculture based on biology rather than chemistry. This isn&#8217;t new knowledge; rather, it&#8217;s wisdom refined over millennia [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture is on the cusp of its most profound transformation in a century. Just as the Green Revolution shifted farming from sun and soil to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, we are just beginning another revolution: returning to an agriculture based on biology rather than chemistry. This isn&#8217;t new knowledge; rather, it&#8217;s wisdom refined over millennia that we temporarily abandoned. If we embrace it, this transition could restore ecosystems, strengthen rural economies, and secure a healthier food future for all. For most of human history, farming relied on natural systems: the symbiosis between plants, soil and sun. That changed in the 20th century when synthetic fertilizers and pesticides made soil little more than a prop to hold up a plant that was externally fed everything it needed, and was stripped of its biodiversity. The approach boosted yields, but at enormous costs that we’re just now beginning to grasp fully: degraded soils, contaminated water, rising chemical input dependence (and correlated rising costs to farmers, even as food gets cheaper), which all result in collapsing farm economics and ecosystems. The system is locked in a treadmill of toxicity and debt. Sheep graze in the vineyard at Paicines Ranch. Image by Alicia Arcidiacono / Paicines Ranch. Nature&#8217;s intelligence Regenerative agriculture offers a path forward, and away from agrichemicals and bare ground. It builds on thousands of years of Indigenous knowledge, farmer-led innovation, organic farming and agroecological science that challenge chemical dependency and center biology in agriculture, while avoiding rigid prescriptions that risk turning principles&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-chemistry-to-regeneration-agricultures-next-transformation-has-begun-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-chemistry-to-regeneration-agricultures-next-transformation-has-begun-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314374</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, guardian of a stolen lake</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/kathy-jefferson-bancroft-guardian-of-a-stolen-lake/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/kathy-jefferson-bancroft-guardian-of-a-stolen-lake/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 19:40:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/06193541/Kathy-Jefferson-Bancroft-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313907</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Lakes, Obituary, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In California’s interior, a long, straight aqueduct carries snowmelt south to a city that grew as if water were a birthright. Along the way it passes a valley that was once defined by water and birds, and is now defined, in part, by what remains when water is removed. A lakebed can become a workplace. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In California’s interior, a long, straight aqueduct carries snowmelt south to a city that grew as if water were a birthright. Along the way it passes a valley that was once defined by water and birds, and is now defined, in part, by what remains when water is removed. A lakebed can become a workplace. The wind can become a health hazard. And a landscape with thousands of years of human memory can be treated as a technical problem to be managed on a fiscal calendar. For the Paiute and Shoshone people of Payahüünadu, the land and water are not abstract inputs. They are history, responsibility, and relationship. That view often collided with the habits of agencies and companies that preferred smaller boxes: dust over here, hydrology over there, cultural sites as a checklist item, and tribal “consultation” at the end of a process rather than the beginning. Kathy Jefferson Bancroft spent decades refusing to accept that partition. Few people did more to insist that this valley be treated as a place with obligations, not just an asset with constraints. She died on January 25, 2026, at 71. Only after one understands the place she guarded does her work make sense. Bancroft was born and raised in Owens Valley. In a 2017 interview with Charlotte Cotton for Metabolic Studio, she described hearing, as a baby, stories from her grandmother about Owens Lake and about life when the lake was full. Her grandmother remembered migrating birds that “would darken the sky&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/kathy-jefferson-bancroft-guardian-of-a-stolen-lake/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313907</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Doug McConnell, interpreter of Northern California, has died, aged 80</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/doug-mcconnell-interpreter-of-northern-california-has-died-aged-80/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/doug-mcconnell-interpreter-of-northern-california-has-died-aged-80/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jan 2026 13:35:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/15133411/Doug-McConnell-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313001</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Celebrities, Environment, Green, Obituary, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Doug McConnell spent much of his adult life doing something that sounds simple and is not: he helped people look closely at the places where they lived. For decades he turned Northern California’s open spaces, back roads, and overlooked corners into familiar destinations people came to recognize and talk about, shown not as scenery but [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Doug McConnell spent much of his adult life doing something that sounds simple and is not: he helped people look closely at the places where they lived. For decades he turned Northern California’s open spaces, back roads, and overlooked corners into familiar destinations people came to recognize and talk about, shown not as scenery but as places shaped by human care and choice. He died on January 13th 2026, after nearly half a century on air and in the field, still working, still curious, still convinced that attention to land mattered. He was a broadcaster, but his real subject was place. McConnell’s programs treated public land as something worth learning about, not just visiting. He did not lecture or scold. He did not argue from a studio desk. He drove, walked, hiked, climbed, and filmed. He listened to rangers, volunteers, advocates, and scientists, and tried to explain what they were doing in plain terms to viewers who might never attend a planning meeting or read an environmental report. McConnell often described himself as someone fortunate to have joined two long-held interests: nature and storytelling. “Getting a chance to do what I have been now doing for so many decades, which is to go wander around, usually with a small camera team and put the spotlight on great people, great places and the wonderful people doing great things on our behalf, has really been a way for me to combine my two passions in life,” he once told the Midpeninsula Regional&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/doug-mcconnell-interpreter-of-northern-california-has-died-aged-80/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313001</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An inventory of life in California</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jan 2026 23:50:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/06234519/ca_huddart_park_180107197-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312680</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Conservation, DNA, Ecology, Environment, Fungi, Green, Insects, Invertebrates, and Plants]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; Why Mongabay is reporting on California’s biodiversity Mongabay’s coverage of biodiversity has long been associated with tropical forests and far-flung frontiers. Yet California—wealthy, populous, and intensively studied—presents a different kind of challenge. It is one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots, and yet much of its life remains undocumented, unnamed, and unaccounted for. That contradiction [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; Why Mongabay is reporting on California’s biodiversity Mongabay’s coverage of biodiversity has long been associated with tropical forests and far-flung frontiers. Yet California—wealthy, populous, and intensively studied—presents a different kind of challenge. It is one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots, and yet much of its life remains undocumented, unnamed, and unaccounted for. That contradiction sits at the heart of the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), a statewide effort to catalogue life before it disappears. Over the past several months, Mongabay has reported on CalATBI and its partners as they attempt something unusually comprehensive: to build a verifiable, statewide baseline robust enough to support decades of future decisions. What follows draws on Mongabay’s reporting on insects, fungi, museum collections, and field science in California. It is not a catalogue of threats, nor a tour of charismatic species. It is a portrait of an infrastructure project—scientific, institutional, and human—designed to answer a basic question that turns out to be surprisingly hard to settle: what lives here? Discovering what still lives here &nbsp; California has never lacked for ambition. Its 20th-century infrastructure projects—like dams, aqueducts, and freeways—are known for their scale and confidence. CalATBI belongs to that lineage, though its raw material is not concrete or steel, but beetles, spores, DNA fragments, and pinned moths. The premise is straightforward. California cannot protect what it has not documented. Despite centuries of natural history, thousands of species remain undescribed, particularly among insects, fungi, and soil organisms. Many exist only as fleeting presences, active for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312680</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How are California&#8217;s birds faring amid ever more frequent wildfires?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 14:33:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30150019/13-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312309</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, Sierra Nevada, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Air Pollution, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Monitoring, Owls, Research, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the forests of the Sierra Nevada, the black-backed woodpecker is without parallel. The bird appears almost born of fire, thriving on the flames that flicker through California’s coniferous forests every few years. Swooping in shortly after a blaze subsides, this woodpecker species, Picoides arcticus, nests in the hollowed-out trees the burn has left behind, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the forests of the Sierra Nevada, the black-backed woodpecker is without parallel. The bird appears almost born of fire, thriving on the flames that flicker through California’s coniferous forests every few years. Swooping in shortly after a blaze subsides, this woodpecker species, Picoides arcticus, nests in the hollowed-out trees the burn has left behind, gorging on an abundance of longhorn and bark beetles. Throughout the forest, a steady whack-whack can be heard from the birds&#8217; bills drilling into charred wood. The relationship between wildlife and wildfire is a complicated one. Many bird species, like the black-backed woodpecker, need the occasional inferno to create new habitat by opening up the forest canopy and increasing available food by kicking off a boom in insect populations. “While it’s ephemeral, it’s a native habitat of California that many species rely on and have evolved with over millions of years,” says ornithologist Morgan Tingley, whose research at the University of California, Los Angeles, focuses on the interplay of fire and bird populations. The black-backed woodpecker thrives on fires that burn through California’s coniferous forests every few years, opening the forest and creating an abundance  of insects they feed on. Image by Morgan Tingley/UCLA. But historically, this dynamic rested on moderate or mixed-severity fire — not the raging “megafires” that now scorch through the American West and leave little behind. In California, fires have burned more than 5.3 million hectares (13 million acres) over the past decade. In 2020 alone, blazes ripped through more than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312309</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In California’s redwoods, scientists rebuild lost ecosystems high up in the canopy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-californias-redwoods-scientists-rebuild-lost-ecosystems-high-up-in-the-canopy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-californias-redwoods-scientists-rebuild-lost-ecosystems-high-up-in-the-canopy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 14:14:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/24171113/2048px-California_Scrub-Jay_38808625355-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311969</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Recovery, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Logging, Old Growth Forests, Plants, Restoration, Sustainable Forest Management, Temperatures, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Van Eck Forest in northwestern California is home to iconic coast redwood trees, which store more above-ground carbon per acre than any other forest type. The oldest trees can grow to heights of more than 90 meters (300 feet) and may be more than 2,000 years old. But due to the region’s extensive logging, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Van Eck Forest in northwestern California is home to iconic coast redwood trees, which store more above-ground carbon per acre than any other forest type. The oldest trees can grow to heights of more than 90 meters (300 feet) and may be more than 2,000 years old. But due to the region’s extensive logging, which reduced old-growth redwood forests to just 5% of their original extent, very few large, old redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) exist today. Consequently, there are also fewer fern mats high up in the forest canopy: large masses of leather-leaf ferns (Polypodium scouleri), a keystone species that stores water, mitigates forest temperatures and provides habitat for other plants and animals. To help restore these historic forests, a conservation nonprofit and a university are experimenting with ways to transplant the mats back into redwood treetops. In a collaboration that began in 2021, the Pacific Forest Trust and scientists from California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, are taking fern mats that have fallen from old-growth trees and replanting them in younger trees to restore the canopy layer. As they grow over decades and centuries, these mats collect decomposing plant matter and germinate seeds, creating swaths of arboreal gardens that are home to salamanders, insects, birds and rare lichens. “It’s like having a little garden up there,” said Laurie Wayburn, co-founder and president of the Pacific Forest Trust. A great horned owl, a common redwood forest resident. Image by B. Washburn via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). ‘Putting back the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-californias-redwoods-scientists-rebuild-lost-ecosystems-high-up-in-the-canopy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311969</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Century-old corals reveal the Pacific Northwest is acidifying faster than expected</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/century-old-corals-reveal-the-pacific-northwest-is-acidifying-faster-than-expected/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/century-old-corals-reveal-the-pacific-northwest-is-acidifying-faster-than-expected/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 15:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Fitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/22044541/corals-and-orange-fish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311836</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Acidification, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1888, researchers aboard the R/V Albatross began the world&#8217;s first concentrated marine research expeditions off California&#8217;s Pacific coast. The team collected untold plant and animal specimens, including orange cup corals from the Salish Sea, which they carefully preserved and stored in collections at the Smithsonian Institution. These specimens have now become rare physical evidence [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1888, researchers aboard the R/V Albatross began the world&#8217;s first concentrated marine research expeditions off California&#8217;s Pacific coast. The team collected untold plant and animal specimens, including orange cup corals from the Salish Sea, which they carefully preserved and stored in collections at the Smithsonian Institution. These specimens have now become rare physical evidence of ongoing changes in the chemistry of the Pacific Ocean as seawater absorbs the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Researchers recently analyzed these 130-year-old samples, which come from a time before the Industrial Revolution&#8217;s greenhouse gas impacts had really kicked in. Then they compared them with new specimens collected in the same locations by a team aboard another research vessel, the R/V Rachel Carson, in 2020. They discovered that this region is acidifying, far faster than models have predicted, findings they recently published in the journal Nature Communications. “Ocean acidification is not a distant or abstract phenomenon. It is already underway, it is amplified in some regions, and it has real consequences for ecosystems and coastal economies today,” study lead author Mary Margaret Stoll, from the University of Washington, told Mongabay. This research focused on the Salish Sea and the cold California Current System, an interweave of four currents predominantly flowing south from the Canadian province of British Columbia to the Mexican state of Baja California. Prevailing winds push water away from the coast along these currents, drawing water up from the deep, bringing nutrient-rich sediments along with it. These&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/century-old-corals-reveal-the-pacific-northwest-is-acidifying-faster-than-expected/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311836</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2025 13:08:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19121458/Image_2-LAPTOP-7JODAAGR-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311724</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Citizen Science, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, data, DNA, Drought, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Fungi, Nitrogen Cycle, Plants, Soil Carbon, Species, Species Discovery, Surveying, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Getting to The Cedars, an ecological preserve in California’s Sonoma county, is a slog. Multiple rivers and creeks must be crossed, and it can be tough going on an often storm-destroyed road. But it’s home to a rich diversity of species found nowhere else on Earth that are uniquely adapted to serpentine soil, composed of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Getting to The Cedars, an ecological preserve in California’s Sonoma county, is a slog. Multiple rivers and creeks must be crossed, and it can be tough going on an often storm-destroyed road. But it’s home to a rich diversity of species found nowhere else on Earth that are uniquely adapted to serpentine soil, composed of decomposed rock and rich in heavy metals. If you’re a fungi collector, it’s well worth the trip. Over the past two years, a dedicated team of mycologists — specialists in the study of fungi — and experienced mushroom collectors have combed California’s forests, rivers and mountains in often remote locations such as this, searching for and collecting fungi. Those making the arduous journey out to The Cedars have identified more than 100 new species, 25 of which are only known from the area. They snapped photos, which were then uploaded with all pertinent data to iNaturalist, a citizen scientist biodiversity database. Collections have been sent to labs where scientists extracted DNA for sequencing. Dried specimens are stored for safe keeping at California State University, East Bay, and the University of California, Los Angeles. This is part of an expansive effort to map the state’s fungal diversity, which has yielded thousands of specimens and is the first of its kind in North America, says Harte Singer, who heads genetic research at the California Fungal Diversity Survey (CA FUNDIS). The CA FUNDIS team collected thousands of fungi species from across California. Many of those collected are undescribed.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311724</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zombie urchins &#038; the Blob: California sea otters face new threats &#038; ecosystem shifts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/zombie-urchins-and-the-blob-california-sea-otters-face-new-threats-and-ecosystem-shifts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/zombie-urchins-and-the-blob-california-sea-otters-face-new-threats-and-ecosystem-shifts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 14:31:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Christine Heinrichs]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/17163420/1.-u-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311575</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Sharks, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The sea otter pup was tiny, probably less than 2 weeks old, alone in Morro Bay on an October morning earlier this year. A kayaker scooped it out of the water after listening to it endlessly crying for its mother. It was in growing danger, starting to float out toward the mouth of the bay. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The sea otter pup was tiny, probably less than 2 weeks old, alone in Morro Bay on an October morning earlier this year. A kayaker scooped it out of the water after listening to it endlessly crying for its mother. It was in growing danger, starting to float out toward the mouth of the bay. Back onshore, the rescuer wrapped the pup in a cloth, nestled it in a box and called the Marine Mammal Center to report it. A 10-person rescue team arrived, led by Shayla Zink, the center’s operations coordinator. They hoped to reunite this young pup with its mother: Raising a southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) pup is a long, difficult process. The team quickly unwrapped the pup, as otter pups are at risk of over-heating. Morro Bay is cold, generally 15-18°C (59-64°F), so the team brought ice along in case they needed to cool the animal down. “We kept a close eye on its temperature,” Zink said. “Pups may not have good thermoregulation. We could have dunked it to cool it down.” They put the pup in an animal carrier and boarded a Harbor Patrol boat to begin their search. Along the way, Zink recorded the pup’s cries and then played the audio through a Bluetooth speaker. If its mother was nearby, she’d come looking for her baby. “The vocalization between each mother and pup is unique,” Zink said. But the tape was also a way to let the baby rest. Orphaned or abandoned pups&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/zombie-urchins-and-the-blob-california-sea-otters-face-new-threats-and-ecosystem-shifts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311575</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Choosing coexistence over conflict: How some California ranchers are adapting to wolves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 10:37:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09032556/5039508124_3c17714711_o-e1765375705294-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308191</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Hunting, Law, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the fourth part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read Part 1,  Part 2 and Part 3. A lone gray wolf (Canis lupus) named OR-7 — then a 2 ½-year-old male — created history when he crossed over the state line from Oregon into California in 2011, becoming the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the fourth part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read Part 1,  Part 2 and Part 3. A lone gray wolf (Canis lupus) named OR-7 — then a 2 ½-year-old male — created history when he crossed over the state line from Oregon into California in 2011, becoming the first wolf to set foot in the state after nearly a century. His arrival, followed by his descendants who then established new packs, became a thumping conservation success for an endangered species in present-day California. Meandering the vast wilderness that straddles the border between the two states, OR-7 visited a few ranches in northern California on his 4,830-kilometer (3,000-mile) journey, including Mark Coats’ place in Siskiyou County. Coats, who was recuperating from an injury at the time, vividly remembers that visit. He’s raised cattle for more than five decades now. “My neighbor came over and said, ‘Mark, there&#8217;s a wolf on your ranch. Don&#8217;t shoot it. They’ll put you in jail,’” Coats said. That night, he found OR-7’s footprints on his property. Various predators had killed his cattle over the years: coyotes (C. latrans), black bears (Ursus americanus) and mountain lions (Puma concolor). But wolves were new. After the last gray wolves were shot down in the 1920s, generations of California’s ranchers raised their cattle without having to worry about — or prepare for — this predator in their landscape. OR-7’s visit panicked Coats and his fellow ranchers. “I was already losing five calves a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/choosing-coexistence-over-conflict-how-some-california-ranchers-are-adapting-to-wolves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308191</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With a target on their bellies, can California&#8217;s sturgeon survive?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/with-a-target-on-their-bellies-can-californias-sturgeon-survive/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/with-a-target-on-their-bellies-can-californias-sturgeon-survive/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Dec 2025 12:18:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laurel Neme]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09180637/15365961103_419799657f_4k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310850</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Consumption, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Illegal Fishing, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overconsumption, Overfishing, Rivers, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Following up on a tip to the state’s poaching hotline, game wardens in California rushed to a popular fishing spot, Clifton Court Forebay, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. They’d received a tipoff about an individual allegedly catching a green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) and stuffing it in his SUV. They tracked down the suspect using [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Following up on a tip to the state’s poaching hotline, game wardens in California rushed to a popular fishing spot, Clifton Court Forebay, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. They’d received a tipoff about an individual allegedly catching a green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) and stuffing it in his SUV. They tracked down the suspect using photographs submitted by the tipster. The fish was in the back of his vehicle, barely alive. The wardens quickly issued a citation and rushed the 165-centimeter (65-inch) ailing sturgeon to the nearby marina. For 90 minutes, they worked to revive the fish. They submerged it in the water and, crouching on the boat ramp, rocked the animal back and forth to run water through its gills and provide oxygen as if it were swimming. At last, the fish rallied and swam away, presumably healthy enough to survive. This was in 2022, but it’s far from an isolated incident, noteworthy because it had a happy ending. California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) officers periodically discover anglers taking sturgeon illegally, as they did while patrolling the Sacramento River early this year, when they spotted two groups of suspected sturgeon poachers. Each had caught a large fish and tied it off some 91 meters (100 yards) away in a seeming effort to conceal it. But the wardens weren’t fooled. They seized the fish and set them free. In California, and worldwide, poachers target sturgeon for their eggs, which become a coveted delicacy when processed into caviar. Caviar&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/with-a-target-on-their-bellies-can-californias-sturgeon-survive/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/with-a-target-on-their-bellies-can-californias-sturgeon-survive/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310850</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>First state-authorized killings mark escalation in California’s management of wolves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2025 08:24:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/24102253/RSGray_wolf_Minnesota_dalliedee_CC_BY-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Hunting, Law, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the third part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first, second and fourth parts. In late October, wildlife authorities in the U.S. state of California announced they captured and euthanized three adult gray wolves and shot a juvenile dead, all from the Beyem Seyo pack in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the third part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first, second and fourth parts. In late October, wildlife authorities in the U.S. state of California announced they captured and euthanized three adult gray wolves and shot a juvenile dead, all from the Beyem Seyo pack in the Sierra Valley. Wardens killed them, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said, because the wolves (Canis lupus) had become “habituated to preying on cattle” rather than hunting elk, deer and other wild prey. The wolves killed were a breeding pair, an adult female, and a juvenile male “mistaken” for the adult male. Officers also found the remains of two other juveniles from the same pack that were severely decomposed. The cause of death remains unknown, and authorities are investigating. This pack took down at least 88 head of cattle between January and October 2025 according to a new CDFW report — about half of the 175 livestock deaths statewide and one of the highest rates in any western U.S. state where wolves live. The killings follow months of using nonlethal deterrents to keep wolves away, including drones, all-terrain vehicles, flapping strips of bright-colored “fladry” strung along fences, and round-the-clock human presence. CDFW deployed a strike team in June, where officers spent more than 18,000 staff hours using these methods, also called hazing, but the wolves continued killing cattle. “The Beyem Seyo pack became so reliant on cattle at an unprecedented level, and we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/first-state-authorized-killings-mark-escalation-in-californias-management-of-wolves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s ‘whack-a-mole’: Alarming rise in pet trade fuels wildlife trafficking into California</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-whack-a-mole-alarming-rise-in-pet-trade-fuels-wildlife-trafficking-into-california/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-whack-a-mole-alarming-rise-in-pet-trade-fuels-wildlife-trafficking-into-california/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2025 13:38:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/20104758/orange-fronted-parakeet-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309886</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, Latin America, Mexico, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Pet Trade, Pets, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In October, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at California&#8217;s Otay Mesa border crossing noticed an odd bulge inside a man&#8217;s pants. Jesse Agus Martinez, a U.S. citizen who lives in Tijuana, repeatedly claimed the bump was “pirrin,” a Spanish word for penis. His history of smuggling birds into the U.S. prompted further examination, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In October, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at California&#8217;s Otay Mesa border crossing noticed an odd bulge inside a man&#8217;s pants. Jesse Agus Martinez, a U.S. citizen who lives in Tijuana, repeatedly claimed the bump was “pirrin,” a Spanish word for penis. His history of smuggling birds into the U.S. prompted further examination, and the officer found two brown sacks hidden in his underwear. Each contained an unconscious, heavily sedated orange-fronted parakeet (Eupsittula canicularis). He was indicted by a grand jury on November 14 for illegally importing the birds — a protected species native to Mexico and Costa Rica. Earlier that month, investigators with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) uncovered an alleged illegal trafficking operation dealing in rare animal parts that was linked to an unnamed Los Angeles-based business. Officials seized thousands of elephant ivory pieces, nine rhino horns, several carved tusks and a sea turtle shell, which will be analyzed at the department’s Wildlife Forensics Lab. As of publication, no arrests have been made. These incidents offer a glimpse into the range of wildlife flowing illegally into the state: birds, mammals, reptiles and invertebrates. “The recent trends in illegal wildlife trafficking into California show a marked rise in the smuggling of live, high-value species protected under CITES and the Endangered Species Act,” said Denise Larison, acting regional supervisor for wildlife inspection at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). “The top three right now that we&#8217;re seeing in California [are] live reptiles, live corals …&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-whack-a-mole-alarming-rise-in-pet-trade-fuels-wildlife-trafficking-into-california/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-whack-a-mole-alarming-rise-in-pet-trade-fuels-wildlife-trafficking-into-california/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309886</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Inside California’s race to document its insects: A conversation with Chris Grinter</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/inside-californias-race-to-document-its-insects-a-conversation-with-chris-grinter/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/inside-californias-race-to-document-its-insects-a-conversation-with-chris-grinter/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Nov 2025 21:08:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/20055234/cas-Chris_Grinter_Kathryn_WhitneyCCalifornia_Academy_of_Sciences-7098-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308687</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Insects, Interviews, and Invertebrates]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Christopher C. Grinter has spent much of his life surrounded by insects, though not in the way most people imagine. As Senior Collection Manager of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, he oversees one of the world’s major scientific archives of insects, a record of life that stretches from the smallest moth to the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Christopher C. Grinter has spent much of his life surrounded by insects, though not in the way most people imagine. As Senior Collection Manager of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, he oversees one of the world’s major scientific archives of insects, a record of life that stretches from the smallest moth to the largest butterfly. His work helps support the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), an effort to document every species in the state before they vanish. Grinter’s fascination began far from California. Growing up in suburban Chicago, he watched butterflies drift through his backyard and wanted to know their names. “It all started with butterflies,” he says. His parents took him to a members’ night at the Field Museum, where he saw an insect collection for the first time. “I had my mind blown.” He began volunteering there, labeling and databasing specimens, and eventually joined scientists in the field. Butterflies led him to moths—far more numerous and largely unseen. “An urban backyard probably has at least a few species of microlepidoptera that still need a scientific name,” he says. Chris Grinter. Photo © California Academy of Sciences That early curiosity became a career in taxonomy and curation. When CalATBI launched, Grinter’s team received funding for large-scale fieldwork across California, collecting hundreds of thousands of insects and covering tens of thousands of miles. The scale of the effort was unlike anything seen in a generation. It produced both scientific treasure and the occasional misadventure—like the time their van&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/inside-californias-race-to-document-its-insects-a-conversation-with-chris-grinter/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308687</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Turning outdoor exploration into environmental discovery: Gregg Treinish and the rise of Adventure Scientists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2025 22:25:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/11173751/gregg-okavango-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308688</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Conservation, DNA, Environment, Insects, Interviews, Invertebrates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some revolutions begin not with technology, but with a feeling. For Gregg Treinish, that feeling was guilt. He was spending years on long wilderness expeditions—crossing ranges, sleeping rough, watching the world’s edges—and began to wonder what any of it added up to. “I was spending years in the wilderness, doing long expeditions, and I began [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some revolutions begin not with technology, but with a feeling. For Gregg Treinish, that feeling was guilt. He was spending years on long wilderness expeditions—crossing ranges, sleeping rough, watching the world’s edges—and began to wonder what any of it added up to. “I was spending years in the wilderness, doing long expeditions, and I began to feel selfish for being out there without making a difference,” he says. “I wanted to stay in the outdoors, but I also wanted my time to matter and to contribute to something bigger than myself.” Gregg Treinish in the Oakavango. National Geographic Society’s Okavango Wilderness Project carried out extensive exploration and data-collection across the Okavango River Basin — from the Angolan highlands through Namibia to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, producing one of the most detailed scientific baselines ever gathered for the ecosystem. Photo courtesy of Adventure Scientists. That reckoning became Adventure Scientists, an organization that mobilizes outdoor enthusiasts to collect data for research and conservation. Founded more than a decade ago, it has since grown from an idea scribbled between treks into an operation that partners with agencies, universities, and businesses to fill data gaps in biodiversity, climate, forests, and freshwater. Its volunteers—hikers, climbers, divers, paddlers—now deliver samples and observations that influence policy, corporate practices, and scientific understanding. Treinish insists the success of the project has little to do with personal brilliance. “I have no special skills as a scientist or as an adventurer,” he says. “That’s exactly why I believed this idea&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308688</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>California’s grand insect census</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/californias-grand-insect-census/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/californias-grand-insect-census/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2025 00:20:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/28235544/desert_20240416_102834-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308312</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Conservation, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Insects, Interviews, Invertebrates, Surveying, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[California has a way of exaggerating things—mountains, deserts, and egos. But its insects? They take excess to another level. Somewhere between the redwoods and the Salton Sea live perhaps 60,000, maybe over 100,000 species. Nobody really knows. That’s the problem—and the provocation—behind the California Insect Barcode Initiative, a monumental effort to document them all, one [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[California has a way of exaggerating things—mountains, deserts, and egos. But its insects? They take excess to another level. Somewhere between the redwoods and the Salton Sea live perhaps 60,000, maybe over 100,000 species. Nobody really knows. That’s the problem—and the provocation—behind the California Insect Barcode Initiative, a monumental effort to document them all, one DNA sequence at a time. Austin Baker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, is leading the charge. His brief is almost absurdly ambitious: to collect, sequence, and catalog every insect species in the state. Every fly, ant, and beetle that hums, crawls, or burrows across the Golden State. “You could visit any vegetated area across that state and potentially collect several new (undiscovered and unnamed) insect species,” he says. Insect collection locations across California for the barcoding initiative. Points are colored by the ecoregion where the collection occurred. The task sounds Sisyphean. California’s habitats are diverse—fog-draped coasts, alpine forests, and blistering high deserts. Baker and his colleagues, working under the umbrella of the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), are sampling every ecoregion recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency. Each biome gets its turn. “We’ve decided to try to sample every ecoregion within the state using as many collecting techniques as we can,” Baker explains. And not just once. Many insects emerge only for a few fleeting weeks each year, so the team deploys passive traps that can sit in place for months, quietly filling with wings, legs, and data.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/californias-grand-insect-census/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308312</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As wolves roam California, livestock losses remain low, yet ranchers’ fears grow</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-wolves-roam-california-livestock-losses-remain-low-yet-ranchers-fears-grow/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-wolves-roam-california-livestock-losses-remain-low-yet-ranchers-fears-grow/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2025 20:17:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/16120223/3c589a96-f102-4b07-a3e9-601b22bbd964-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307707</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cattle, Conflict, Conservation, Ranching, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the second part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first, third and fourth parts. In May 2025, five counties in northern California — mostly rural farm and ranch land — declared an unprecedented state of emergency. It wasn’t a natural disaster or civil unrest that led to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first, third and fourth parts. In May 2025, five counties in northern California — mostly rural farm and ranch land — declared an unprecedented state of emergency. It wasn’t a natural disaster or civil unrest that led to panic, but rather a bunch of thriving canids — wolves, to be precise. They’d killed livestock, and according to some residents, were exhibiting “bold, abnormal behavior” and “coming too close to homes.” Between October and December 2024, wolves killed 19 cattle in an area home to more than 300,000 cows, but the wolves are, in reality, returning to what was once their own homes. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) roamed the Californian landscape for thousands of years until the last one was shot in the 1920s. But over the last decade, they have started recolonizing their former territories, migrating south from Oregon, and their numbers have begun to rebound with howling success. Today, between 50 and 70 wolves live in 10 packs across the state, with most concentrated in the northeast — around counties that declared a state of emergency. Wolves, like all big carnivores, can go after livestock, but they prefer wild prey, particularly elk and deer, said Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, who has spent more than three decades studying wolves across the United States. “That&#8217;s what they evolved to eat for millions of years.” Studies show wolves&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-wolves-roam-california-livestock-losses-remain-low-yet-ranchers-fears-grow/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-wolves-roam-california-livestock-losses-remain-low-yet-ranchers-fears-grow/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307707</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uphill battle to save California’s endangered mountain yellow-legged frog</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2025 16:32:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10094533/Image_6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307350</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Drought, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, Frogs, Fungi, Habitat Degradation, Lakes, Pollution, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running battle fought by authorities, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and conservationists to stave [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running battle fought by authorities, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and conservationists to stave off extinction of this highly threatened species. The mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa), despite its name, can display a wide array of color variations, often a mix of brown and yellow, but also gray, red, or greenish-brown. There are two distinct populations of this medium-sized frog: one in Southern California and another up north in the Sierra Nevada. An endangered mountain yellow-legged frog leaps into its new home after being released into the lake. This release, a collaboration between Birch Aquarium, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, UCLA and Big Bear Alpine Zoo, is part of a long-running reintroduction program that began in 2010. Image courtesy of Birch Aquarium at Scripps/Alex Feltes. Biologists say this frog was once so common you couldn’t walk through its range without tripping on one. That’s far from the case today in Southern California. The last comprehensive surveys carried out in 2023 counted fewer than 200 adults in the wild. Though exact numbers are unclear, conservationists say the northern population is much more robust. The southern reintroductions began in 2010 in the San Jacinto Mountains. This year’s release is part of what Sean Bruce, assistant curator of fishes and invertebrates at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307350</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Regenerative fashion initiative in Indonesia wins 2025 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/regenerative-fashion-initiative-in-indonesia-wins-2025-pritzker-environmental-genius-award/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/regenerative-fashion-initiative-in-indonesia-wins-2025-pritzker-environmental-genius-award/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 15:14:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/09151209/denica-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307322</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, California, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Amphibians, Bioacoustics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Green Design, Hope and optimism, Regenerative production landscapes, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a world defined by extraction, Denica Riadini-Flesch is proving that creation can heal instead. The Indonesian economist-turned-entrepreneur has won UCLA’s 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award for building a “farm-to-closet” supply chain—a system that regenerates land, restores heritage craft, and empowers rural women. Riadini-Flesch founded SukkhaCitta after an encounter that reshaped her view of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a world defined by extraction, Denica Riadini-Flesch is proving that creation can heal instead. The Indonesian economist-turned-entrepreneur has won UCLA’s 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award for building a “farm-to-closet” supply chain—a system that regenerates land, restores heritage craft, and empowers rural women. Riadini-Flesch founded SukkhaCitta after an encounter that reshaped her view of progress. As a young economist from Jakarta, she once equated development with growth—an upward line without end. That illusion unraveled when she visited a village where women labored for weeks over textiles only to earn a few dollars, their skin and lungs scarred by synthetic dyes. “It burns my hands, my eyes, my lungs,” one woman told her. The remark revealed what Riadini-Flesch calls “the true cost of convenience.” SukkhaCitta set out to invert that logic. Instead of sprawling factories, production takes place in courtyards and small farms across Java, Bali, Flores, and West Timor. Cotton is grown on mixed plots that regenerate the soil; dyes come from indigo and mahogany leaves; fabrics are woven on handlooms. The enterprise has restored more than 120 acres of degraded land, kept five million liters of toxic dye wastewater out of rivers, and raised women’s incomes by 60 percent on average. The environmental benefits are measurable, but the social ones may matter more. Through decentralized Rumah SukkhaCitta schools, women learn ecological literacy, entrepreneurship, and heritage techniques side by side. Younger generations—once drawn to city sweatshops—are returning home to earn dignified incomes. “Artisans and farmers are the missing link&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/regenerative-fashion-initiative-in-indonesia-wins-2025-pritzker-environmental-genius-award/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307322</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will California&#8217;s marine mammal conservation success come undone?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/will-californias-marine-mammal-conservation-success-come-undone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/will-californias-marine-mammal-conservation-success-come-undone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 13:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Helvarg]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/09104318/F.-A-harbor-seal-pup-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307294</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Governance, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Pollution, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SAN DIEGO, U.S. — The bluff at La Jolla Cove in San Diego is covered with pelicans and cormorants; below, some two dozen sea lions lounge on a rocky ledge or bark and frolic in the shallows, some leaping clear out of the water. On the shore, a volunteer from the local Sierra Club’s Seal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SAN DIEGO, U.S. — The bluff at La Jolla Cove in San Diego is covered with pelicans and cormorants; below, some two dozen sea lions lounge on a rocky ledge or bark and frolic in the shallows, some leaping clear out of the water. On the shore, a volunteer from the local Sierra Club’s Seal Society, an organization that educates and advocates for pinniped protection, is monitoring an emaciated 13.5-kilogram (30-pound) pup, just a few months old, that has spent the last several days hauling up on the beach, with no sign of an adult nearby. Now, Hubbs Sea World has a response team on the way to rescue it. Hubbs is part of a marine mammal stranding network that covers California’s entire 1,770-kilometer (1,100-mile) coastline. Snorkeling in the cove amid healthy green surf grass, with bright orange Garibaldi damselfish (Hypsypops rubicundus) swimming by (think goldfish on steroids), my cameraman friend Charlie Landon and I are suddenly surrounded by swooping, barrel-rolling sea lions. They move like flexible torpedoes, twisting through the water column, some streaming bubbles from their snouts. Watching a rockfish near the bottom of the cove, I sense movement and turn to see a large sea lion, maybe 110 kg (250 lbs), eyeing me from less than arm’s length away before gliding on. A curious juvenile bites down on Charlie’s GoPro camera before approaching me, close enough that I put my hands on my chest lest it “mouth feel” my fingers. Then it heads back into the swirling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/will-californias-marine-mammal-conservation-success-come-undone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307294</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tony Pritzker’s patient strategy for the planet</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2025 01:28:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/05222902/tony-pritzker-06-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307076</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Education, Environment, Environmental Policy, Green, Green Design, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, philanthropy, Recycling, Sustainability, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tony Pritzker approaches environmental philanthropy like a patient strategist. A scion of one of America’s best-known business families, he has spent decades moving between boardrooms, laboratories, and community meetings, applying the training of an engineer to problems that range from stormwater treatment in Los Angeles to packaging waste in global supply chains. Guided less by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tony Pritzker approaches environmental philanthropy like a patient strategist. A scion of one of America’s best-known business families, he has spent decades moving between boardrooms, laboratories, and community meetings, applying the training of an engineer to problems that range from stormwater treatment in Los Angeles to packaging waste in global supply chains. Guided less by ideology than by pragmatism, he insists that “science is science and it’s fact-based,” and that durable solutions come from setting clear goals, gathering evidence, and persisting until results are visible. Growing up in northern California and later raising a family in Los Angeles, he was never far from the state’s landscapes—from Lake Tahoe’s ski slopes to Santa Monica Bay. “I’m also a swimmer,” he says, recalling the moment when his love of the ocean turned into action. “I wanted the bay to be super clean because I swam there.” That instinct brought him to Heal the Bay two decades ago, where he joined the board under the leadership of Mark Gold. What began as an effort to keep a beach swimmable became a lesson in how to harness science, advocacy, and civic partnerships. Gold, he says, “really was my mentor.” The template endures. For Heal the Bay the goals were simple: gather the science, train teachers, bring children to the ocean, and press policymakers. Out of such apparently modest steps came infrastructure investments such as stormwater treatment at Hyperion, which now filters hundreds of millions of gallons of runoff a year. Along the way the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307076</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jane Goodall (1934–2025): primatologist, conservationist, and messenger of hope</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/jane-goodall-1934-2025-primatologist-conservationist-and-messenger-of-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/jane-goodall-1934-2025-primatologist-conservationist-and-messenger-of-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2025 23:15:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/01215754/Jane-Goodall-credit-Michael-Neugebauer-2560x1720-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306934</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, Global, Tanzania, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Heroes, Green, Jane Goodall, Obituary, and Primates]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Jane Goodall, who revealed the intimate lives of chimpanzees and gave the modern world a language of hope, has died at the age of 91. Over the course of six decades, she moved from an unlikely young researcher in the forests of East Africa to one of the most recognizable scientists and conservationists of her [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Jane Goodall, who revealed the intimate lives of chimpanzees and gave the modern world a language of hope, has died at the age of 91. Over the course of six decades, she moved from an unlikely young researcher in the forests of East Africa to one of the most recognizable scientists and conservationists of her time. Her patient fieldwork at Gombe transformed primatology, overturning entrenched beliefs about the uniqueness of humans and forcing science to reckon with animal minds. She went on to found the Jane Goodall Institute, launch sanctuaries and community programs across Africa, and inspire millions through her Roots &amp; Shoots movement for young people. Her influence reached far beyond science: she became a United Nations Messenger of Peace, an advocate for animal welfare, and a tireless voice for conservation at a time of mounting global crisis. Yet through all of this she remained known simply as “Jane,” a figure who insisted that hope was not naïve but necessary. Jane Goodall in 2024. Courtesy of the Jane Goodall Institute. When she stepped into the forests of Gombe, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania in 1960, she carried little more than a notebook, binoculars, and an unlikely determination. She was not a scientist by training, but a young woman from Bournemouth with a childhood fascination for Africa, encouraged by a mother who told her never to give up. Within a few years she had overturned long-held certainties. Her observations showed that chimpanzees were not mere instinctive creatures&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/jane-goodall-1934-2025-primatologist-conservationist-and-messenger-of-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306934</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>When does beaver reintroduction make sense?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/when-does-beaver-reintroduction-make-sense/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/when-does-beaver-reintroduction-make-sense/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Sep 2025 19:16:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/23171503/20231018_AVU_Beaver-3798-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306470</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Impact Of Climate Change, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Restoration, Rewilding, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the second installment of Mongabay’s coverage of beaver restoration in California. Read the first story. TÁSMAM KOYÓM, U.S. — “It’s a little wet!” Ben Cunningham shouted over his shoulder as he slipped knee-deep into one of the unseen rivulets spidering through the hip-high grasses and willow galleries around us. Up until that point [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second installment of Mongabay’s coverage of beaver restoration in California. Read the first story. TÁSMAM KOYÓM, U.S. — “It’s a little wet!” Ben Cunningham shouted over his shoulder as he slipped knee-deep into one of the unseen rivulets spidering through the hip-high grasses and willow galleries around us. Up until that point in our walk, Cunningham had been agreeably taciturn, contemplative about the return of this meadow to the Mountain Maidu people in recent years, and their efforts to bring beavers back as part of the tribe’s work to restore its health. “Next time, you’ll have to bring your boots,” he said, chuckling over the din of rushing water that seems to be both everywhere and nowhere under a thicket of green peppered with yellow-eyed, purple-petaled asters. Above, a young osprey circled in low loops above our heads. The bird dropped periodically, flying past dragonfly armadas, their abdomens glowing orange in the August sun. Our feet thoroughly soaked, we came upon a mound of sticks and mud nearly to eye level: a lodge. It had taken this beaver family a little less than a year to build, said Cunningham, a Mountain Maidu elder and chair of the nonprofit Maidu Summit Consortium. They’d been released here in 2023, California’s first beaver translocation in decades. The meadow was once mostly dry. Each year, mountain snowmelt in the spring and summer carved deeply gashed “incised” creeks through this landscape, allowing the water to run swiftly through the meadow and on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/when-does-beaver-reintroduction-make-sense/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306470</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Timing, not traits, helps California’s jewelflowers adapt to diverse landscapes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/timing-not-traits-helps-californias-jewelflowers-adapt-to-diverse-landscapes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/timing-not-traits-helps-californias-jewelflowers-adapt-to-diverse-landscapes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2025 16:17:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/19123019/original-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306244</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Flowers, Habitat, Plants, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The small, bell-shaped flowers that dangle like gems in dazzling hues of yellow, maroon, purple, brown and white give jewelflowers their name. Yet these plants, from the genera Streptanthus and Caulanthus, belong to the humble mustard family. Native to California, more than 60 species dot the state’s myriad landscapes, splashing the hillsides of the Sierras, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The small, bell-shaped flowers that dangle like gems in dazzling hues of yellow, maroon, purple, brown and white give jewelflowers their name. Yet these plants, from the genera Streptanthus and Caulanthus, belong to the humble mustard family. Native to California, more than 60 species dot the state’s myriad landscapes, splashing the hillsides of the Sierras, prettifying arid deserts, splattering the grasslands with colors, and bedazzling coastlines. Most species are highly endemic. For instance, Farnworth’s jewelflower (Streptanthus farnsworthianus) lives in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains, and the Mount Tamalpais jewelflower (Streptanthus batrachopus) grows around the peak just north of San Francisco — and nowhere else. These plants originated in arid southwestern deserts some 2 million to 5 million years ago. Over time, they spread northward, thriving in various climates and at different altitudes, from Baja California to Oregon. Much of California has a Mediterranean climate, where summers are hot and dry; it rains during the cooler months, from fall to spring — quite different from the dry deserts the plants come from. Until now, scientists thought jewelflowers moved into new territories by evolving and adapting to a range of temperatures and rainfall patterns. But they wondered if there was another reason for their successful move to new landscapes. A recent study found an unexpected answer: Yes, jewelflowers evolved to survive in different habitats, but not nearly as much as scientists had thought. Instead, they changed their habits. These plants adjusted their schedules, altering the timing of when they sprouted and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/timing-not-traits-helps-californias-jewelflowers-adapt-to-diverse-landscapes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/timing-not-traits-helps-californias-jewelflowers-adapt-to-diverse-landscapes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306244</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beavers restored to tribal lands in California benefit ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/beavers-restored-to-tribal-lands-in-california-benefit-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/beavers-restored-to-tribal-lands-in-california-benefit-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 21:05:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15125926/beaver-just-keep-swimming-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305928</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Restoration, Rewilding, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the first installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of beaver restoration in California. Read the second story. CHESTER, Calif. — The pictograph, an ochre-red outline with four paws and an unmistakable paddle of a tail, has been on the reservation “my whole life,” said Kenneth McDarment, a member of the Tule River Tribe. It’s just [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the first installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of beaver restoration in California. Read the second story. CHESTER, Calif. — The pictograph, an ochre-red outline with four paws and an unmistakable paddle of a tail, has been on the reservation “my whole life,” said Kenneth McDarment, a member of the Tule River Tribe. It’s just one of many paintings — of people, geometric designs and other wildlife — from 500 to 1,000 years ago adorning the walls of a site called Painted Rock in the southern California foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. But today, it stands out to McDarment, who formerly served on the Tule River Tribal Council. “Sometimes you need to just look at things more often,” he told Mongabay. About a decade ago, a succession of drought years parched the land, and leaders were searching for ways to shore up the reservation’s water. Was there ancient wisdom in that artist’s depiction of the beaver, an animal long absent from these lands? If the tribe could return them to the reservation, McDarment thought, they might have a solution to their water woes. The potential benefits of beavers are manifold, from fire prevention and resilience to improved water quality and fishing. As these “ecosystem engineers” construct their lodges and dams, they alter the courses of brooks, streams and creeks, forcing the water to spread out beyond the banks and remain in parts of the landscape for longer. So, the Tule River Tribe decided to find a way to bring&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/beavers-restored-to-tribal-lands-in-california-benefit-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305928</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Post-Blob, California’s kelp crisis isn’t going away</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/post-blob-californias-kelp-crisis-isnt-going-away/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/post-blob-californias-kelp-crisis-isnt-going-away/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2025 14:44:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Helvarg]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18153613/kelp-in-california-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305387</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Invertebrates, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Plants, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Temperatures, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FORT BRAGG, U.S. — In 2024, I was scuba diving in Northern California’s Casper Cove where the Watermen’s Alliance, a group of ex-abalone sports divers, has been culling purple urchins since 2020. It had been six years since abalone season shut down, following the region’s kelp forest collapse. About 4 meters (13 feet) down, I [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FORT BRAGG, U.S. — In 2024, I was scuba diving in Northern California’s Casper Cove where the Watermen’s Alliance, a group of ex-abalone sports divers, has been culling purple urchins since 2020. It had been six years since abalone season shut down, following the region’s kelp forest collapse. About 4 meters (13 feet) down, I spotted a few surviving red abalones, their thick-muscled feet showing from under their single shells as they clung to the bottom of boulders. Purple urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) clustered near them. I also spotted a single white anemone (Diadumene leucolena) and a spiny, bulbous-eyed Cabezon fish (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) amid scattered stalks of remnant kelp. A short distance away, it was all bare rock and purple pin-cushion-like urchins. It’s different than watching videos of urchin barrens: Aside from being wet and cold and breathing underwater, I was taken by the scale: it’s so expansive, even with only 2 m (6 ft) of visibility in the murky water. As far as you go along the northern rim of the cove, there are purple urchins, thousands and tens of thousands, where a kelp forest once thrived. I spread my arms to measure what I guesstimated was a square meter and counted some 120 urchins. To bring kelp back, that number would have to drop to 2 per square meter. That’s when kelp spores can take hold again. This requires a lot of urchin-smashing, which these divers were carrying out with rock hammers. To clear one acre (less than half&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/post-blob-californias-kelp-crisis-isnt-going-away/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305387</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wolves’ continued spread in California brings joy, controversy &#038; conflicts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/wolves-continued-spread-in-california-brings-joy-controversy-conflicts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/wolves-continued-spread-in-california-brings-joy-controversy-conflicts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2025 05:11:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/08134424/Grey-wolves-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303960</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Canids, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Hunting, Law, Mammals, National Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the first part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the second, third and fourth parts. With its enchanting eyes, powerful jaws, acute senses and haunting howls, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) — the largest member of the dog family — is a wilderness icon. Once the most widespread mammal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the first part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the second, third and fourth parts. With its enchanting eyes, powerful jaws, acute senses and haunting howls, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) — the largest member of the dog family — is a wilderness icon. Once the most widespread mammal on the planet, gray wolves roamed across large swaths of North America, Europe and Asia. However, as human settlements grew, these livestock-killing canids became “vermin” and were hunted to near-extinction in many parts of their range. By the mid-20th century, wolves were extirpated from the contiguous U.S. Their remarkable comeback since the 1980s, thanks in part to their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park, has sparked joy, controversy and conflicts. The latest saga is playing out in California, where there’s a lot of potential for conflict: It’s the most populous U.S. state with nearly 40 million people. Some 7 million cattle graze on 57 million acres of rangeland, half of which are privately owned. California’s wolves, which naturally dispersed south from Oregon, are now further expanding their territories, with more  frequent encounters — and conflict — with humans. “Almost every pack does overlap to some degree with an agricultural area with livestock,” said Axel Hunnicutt, a biologist who coordinates the wolf program for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). Almost every group has killed livestock. “That’s one thing that unites all of the packs in California, unfortunately,” he added. Gray wolves are the largest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/wolves-continued-spread-in-california-brings-joy-controversy-conflicts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303960</doi>				</item>
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