Wildlife

"Every January, Charles Linder travels from Illinois to Idaho to retrieve thousands of bee hives from a temperature-controlled storage facility. He loads boxes of hives onto a semi truck headed west for almond season, the first of many stops his bees will make on a cross-country pollination tour. But two winters ago, Mr. Linder opened those boxes and discovered that around 90 percent of his bees were dead."

"Experts scrambling to understand losses in hives across the country are finally identifying the culprits. And the damage to farmed bees is a sign of trouble for wild bees too" 

"Researchers in Europe found everyday plastics, especially farmers’ baler twine, being used by the birds as a building material and entangling their young. It is a problem that affects other species too, say experts in the US, UK and Argentina" 

"Wetlands provide freshwater, food, storm protection and climate regulation. Yet over the last 50 years, humans have destroyed one-fifth of them." "A landmark report for the global agreement on wetlands paints a dire picture of the state of the world’s water bodies that underpin all life on Earth."

"Stepping onto an old wooden duck blind in the middle of the York River, Bryan Watts looks down at a circle of sticks and pine cones on the weathered, guano-spattered platform. It’s a failed osprey nest, taken over by diving terns."

"New research suggests Sonoran Desert toads went into steep decline after stories of their mind-bending chemical properties began circulating among drug users." 

"The Bird Banding Laboratory has turned duck hunters into citizen scientists. What happens if it is defunded?" 

"It’s time to rethink the American lawn: a landscaping default that sucks up money, water, chemicals, and time."

"USDA research points to viruses spread by pesticide-resistant mites, indicating a worrying trend"

"Most comments reviewed by The Post were positive, though some visitors complained that there were too many mosquitos and “not enough moose.”"