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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Sierra Nevada environmental news</title>
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				<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>
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											<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]]>
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							<![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>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312309</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will Nevada support renewable energy vs biodiversity &#038; Indigenous rights? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/will-nevada-support-renewable-energy-vs-biodiversity-indigenous-rights-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/will-nevada-support-renewable-energy-vs-biodiversity-indigenous-rights-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2021 15:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Max Wilbert]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243815</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Sierra Nevada and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Energy, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Lithium, Mining, Renewable Energy, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Update, 2/2022: The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved this mine in northern Nevada, despite efforts to protect the sacred site, read more here at Mongabay. Global emissions of carbon dioxide reached 36.8 billion metric tons in 2019, and were on track for the highest levels ever in 2020. But then the coronavirus hit, and the resulting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Update, 2/2022: The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved this mine in northern Nevada, despite efforts to protect the sacred site, read more here at Mongabay. Global emissions of carbon dioxide reached 36.8 billion metric tons in 2019, and were on track for the highest levels ever in 2020. But then the coronavirus hit, and the resulting economic slowdown caused carbon emissions to fall by 7 percent. Now that the economy is beginning to hum again, oil consumption is rebounding and is projected to surge past pre-pandemic levels. All of this shows how difficult it will be to break our addiction to fossil fuels. Of course, we know the Biden administration has an ambitious $2 trillion climate plan to try to replace fossil fuels with investments in renewable energy, electric vehicles and charging stations, and other infrastructure. But while renewable energy has the potential to reduce our dependence on oil, gas, and coal, at scale it poses its own environmental threats. Fossil fuel extraction and processing is harmful, but renewable energy technologies impact more land to produce a similar amount of energy. For example, the clean energy plan promoted by Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobson, a prominent advocate for 100% renewable power in California, would necessitate more than 4,000 square miles of land dedicated to the installation of wind turbines — that is an area four times the size of Yosemite National Park. Members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe protest outside a public meeting in Orovada, Nevada. Photo courtesy of Max Wilbert. In fact,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/will-nevada-support-renewable-energy-vs-biodiversity-indigenous-rights-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243815</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Water supply for 2 billion people at risk as snowpack declines across northern hemisphere</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/11/water-supply-for-2-billion-people-at-risk-as-snowpack-declines-across-northern-hemisphere/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/11/water-supply-for-2-billion-people-at-risk-as-snowpack-declines-across-northern-hemisphere/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2015 01:05:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, Europe, Sierra Nevada, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have observed declining snowpack accumulation across the globe, with snowfields that were once considered permanent shrinking from the Rocky Mountains to the Himalayas. Snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevadas was reported earlier this year to be at just 5 percent of the historical average — the lowest it’s been in five centuries. A number of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have observed declining snowpack accumulation across the globe, with snowfields that were once considered permanent shrinking from the Rocky Mountains to the Himalayas. Snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevadas was reported earlier this year to be at just 5 percent of the historical average — the lowest it’s been in five centuries. A number of studies have shown that there will be declines to snowpack across the globe by mid-century thanks to rising global temperatures, but less attention has been paid to how that will impact human water supplies. A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters aims to address this gap in our knowledge by examining how reduced snowmelt runoff will affect different parts of the world. The results are significant: Nearly 100 drainage basins across the northern hemisphere that currently supply water to 2 billion people in the American West, southern Europe, the Mideast and central Asia were found to be at considerable risk over the next century. Snow is an important seasonal water source, especially in areas surrounding large mountain chains, where it accumulates at high elevations in the winter. In the spring and summer, snow melts and the runoff works its way down to lowlands just in time to nourish annual crops. Snowpack in the Lesser Caucasus mountains of northeastern Turkey, elevation about 2,700 feet, late April 2012. The lowlands below depend heavily on seasonal snowmelt, projected to decline in this region and others in coming decades, due to global warming. Photo by Dario&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/11/water-supply-for-2-billion-people-at-risk-as-snowpack-declines-across-northern-hemisphere/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-161159</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Snowpack in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains at a 500-year low</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/snowpack-in-californias-sierra-nevadas-at-a-500-year-low/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/snowpack-in-californias-sierra-nevadas-at-a-500-year-low/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2015 21:50:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California and Sierra Nevada]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Drought, and Global Warming]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On April 1, California Governor Jerry Brown stood in a Sierra Nevada meadow atop parched, brown grass — at an elevation of 6,800 feet, where there would normally be five feet of snow at that time of year — and announced the state’s first-ever mandatory water restrictions. The Golden State is still in the grip [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On April 1, California Governor Jerry Brown stood in a Sierra Nevada meadow atop parched, brown grass — at an elevation of 6,800 feet, where there would normally be five feet of snow at that time of year — and announced the state’s first-ever mandatory water restrictions. The Golden State is still in the grip of a severe drought that began in 2012, and new research suggests it is one of the worst in centuries. The day Gov. Brown announced the statewide water restrictions, snowpack in the Sierra Nevadas was reported to be at just 5 percent of its historical average, as calculated from records dating back to the 1930s. Now a team of researchers at the University of Arizona has found that snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which is responsible for 30 percent of the state&#8217;s water supply, is actually at the lowest it’s been in five centuries. The results of the team&#8217;s study were recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change. California, known for its dry summer climate, gets about 80 percent of its precipitation in winter months. The historically low snowpack in 2015 stems from a lack of winter precipitation and record high temperatures, according to the report. Thousand Island Lake (2997m) and Banner Peak (3943m), looking southwest from John Muir Trail/Pacific Crest Trail at 3080m, in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the Sierra Nevada, California. Photo via Wikimedia Commons. To figure out snowpack levels for the past 500 years, the team used tree-ring&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/snowpack-in-californias-sierra-nevadas-at-a-500-year-low/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-148936</doi>				</item>
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