"A new generation of pesticides is making honeybees far more susceptible to disease, even at tiny doses, and may be a clue to the mysterious colony collapse disorder that has devastated bees across the world, the US government's leading bee researcher has found. Yet the discovery has remained unpublished for nearly two years since it was made by the US Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory."
"Simply put, a rain garden is a depressed bed planted with native perennials and shrubs selected for their high-water tolerance. It’s strategically situated in a spot where water — from downspouts, driveways, compacted soil and other sources of runoff — flows downward toward it. That runoff waters the plants and filters pollutants as the soil absorbs it."
"Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, data center projects in rural areas could be eligible for major tax benefits starting next year. Some hyperscalers do not seem eager to take the free cash."
"A US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plan to reduce the amount of atrazine running off into US rivers, lakes and streams would leave 99% of watersheds contaminated at levels that exceed the agency’s threshold for harm to plants, fish and other species, according to a new study."
"A legacy of deforestation has left Ethiopia struggling with more intense flooding and drought. The country is trying to restore its native forests through one of the world’s most ambitious and well-funded tree-planting campaigns, but experts question whether the trees will survive."
"The leaders of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup have officially missed another deadline for achieving their nutrient-reduction targets needed to meet the estuary’s water-quality goals — the third time that’s happened in as many tries."
The Interior Department keeps an extensive database of thousands of permits it issues to use federal lands for grazing livestock. And as the latest Reporter’s Toolbox notes, that data can readily be used as an investigative tool to look for one thing the government would rather the public not see — a penchant for permit partiality.
"The US should review policies that allow major food crops to be sprayed directly with herbicides shortly before harvest, and should tighten related policies that allow for high levels of residues of those pesticides in finished food products, according to a petition filed Thursday with the government regulators."
"California regulators broke state environmental laws by allowing polluters to buy clean fuel credits from large farms that are extracting gas from manure, a policy that harms poor communities and perverts the state’s clean air program, four advocacy groups allege in a lawsuit."
