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Saving Giant Sequoias | Earth Wise

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Last year, the KNP Complex Fire burning in Sequoia National Park drew global attention as the General Sherman, the world’s largest tree, was wrapped in tinfoil-like material in order to repel the flames from the fire.  Hundreds of firefighters labored for weeks trying to save giant redwood trees.  Despite these efforts, the U.S. Forest Service estimates that wildfires killed 13% to 19% of the world’s giant sequoias in 2020 and 2021.

This past July, the Washburn Fire burned through part of Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove and the giant sequoias there were surrounded by automated sprinklers trying to shelter them from the flames.

For a century, government agencies have worked to extinguish all natural wildfires and prohibited Native people in the region from lighting the fires they traditionally used to manage their lands.  As a result, forests have grown far thicker with trees that can fuel fires.  The Sierras are now home to more than three times as many trees as when they were managed by indigenous communities.  But more than 100 million of those trees had died by 2016 because of drought.

Add to this massive amount of kindling the effects of climate change – a hotter and drier environment – and there is the perfect storm for megafires among the giant sequoias.

There is federal legislation pending that would provide resources for prescribed burning and other forms of active forest management.  It is controversial.  It has attracted support from the Nature Conservancy, the Save The Redwoods League, and others, but also opposition from more than 80 environmental groups.

What is not controversial is that the Giant Sequoias are in the midst of a crisis and urgent action is needed.

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In California, a Race to Save the World’s Largest Trees From Megafires

Photo, posted December 10, 2014, courtesy of Laura Camp via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

California Climate Legislation | Earth Wise

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At the end of its summer session, California’s state legislature passed five climate-related bills including ones that it had been unable to pass in previous sessions.  Taking all of these actions puts California in the position of blazing a trail for the country and the rest of world in taking aggressive action on climate issues.

One bill confirmed California’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2045.  Another bill added interim-term targets to go along with the state’s goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2045.  It sets a target of 90% by 2030 and 95% by 2040.  That bill mandates that California state agencies use 100% clean energy by 2035, which is a decade earlier than the previous requirement.

A third bill requires the California Air Resources Board to determine steps and regulations for carbon-capture and storage projects at pollution hotspots like oil refineries.

A fourth bill requires the state to set goals for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through natural means such as tree planting.

The California state budget includes a record-breaking $54 billion to be spent on climate programs over the next five years, including $6.1 billion toward electric vehicles, $14.8 billion towards public transit projects, more than $8 billion for electric grid stabilization, $2.7 billion towards preventing wildfires, and $2.8 billion towards managing drought.

California has been dealing with ongoing drought and numerous wildfires and is highly motivated to take decisive action in dealing with the climate crisis.  California’s environmental initiatives often result in comparable actions taken by other states.

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California Passes Massive Climate Legislation Package

Photo, posted March 16, 2019, courtesy of Raymond Shobe via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Pacific Bluefin Tuna On The Rebound | Earth Wise

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The Pacific Bluefin Tuna is a commercially valuable species that is especially prized in Japan.  The fish is particularly valued for sashimi and sushi and large specimens have been known to fetch enormous prices at seafood auctions.

Aggressive fishing reduced the bluefin biomass through the late 1990s and 2000s to only a few percent of its potential unfished levels.  Beginning in 2011, The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission began management measures that reduced the catch of smaller bluefin as well as limited the catch of larger bluefin.  The goal was to allow more fish to grow to maturity.  The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission adopted similar resolutions a year later.  Despite these efforts, increasing concern about declining bluefin levels led to a petition to list the species as endangered.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries organization determined that while the population was near historical lows, the remaining 1.6 million fish was a sufficient number to avoid the risk of extinction and that the measures in place were sufficient.

A new assessment of the bluefin population has shown that the species is now increasing and includes many younger fish that will help accelerate its rebound.  The assessment by NOAA showed that the bluefin stock was greater than the first rebuilding target set for 2019. 

According to the NOAA Fisheries biologists that performed the assessment, the species has responded exactly as predicted given the actions that were taken.  The bluefin tuna is an amazingly resilient fish and it is continuing to demonstrate that fact.

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International Actions Pay Off For Pacific Bluefin Tuna as Species Rebounds at Accelerating Rate

Photo, posted June 1, 2022, courtesy of Philippe Yuan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

What Is Healthy Soil? | Earth Wise

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Soil supports life by providing many critical ecosystem services.  For example, soil acts as a water filter, a growing medium, and provides habitat for billions of organisms.  Soil is also the foundation of our cities and towns, and the basis of global agroecosystems, which provide humans with feed, fiber, food, and fuel.

For all of these reasons and many more, having healthy soil is vital.  But what does soil health mean? And how should it be measured?

According to new analysis by researchers from Cranfield University and Nottingham University in the U.K., how we think about, measure, and study soil must change in order to better understand how to manage this resource effectively. 

While the term ‘soil health’ is widely used, it means different things to different people.  There is no single agreed upon way to gauge the overall health of soil. 

Current approaches to assess soil health measure individual soil properties and use findings  to assign a single number giving an overall score.  But according to the research team, this does not reflect the wider system perspective that’s needed to fully evaluate the health of soil over time.

Instead, the researchers propose a new system to assess soil health based on a hierarchical framework that takes in several measures, including signs of life, signs of function, signs of complexity, and signs of emergence, which is the extent to which soils recover from multiple stressors. 

This new approach, which can be applied to all soils, moves us closer to an interdisciplinary understanding of the whole picture of soil health.  After all, healthy soil is fundamental to our survival.

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We need to change how we think about soil

Photo, posted April 8, 2008, courtesy of Brian Boucheron via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Better Marine Protected Areas | Earth Wise

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Marine protected areas are regions of seas, oceans, estuaries, and in the US, the Great Lakes, that are afforded special protections.  MPAs restrict human activity for conservation purposes, generally in order to protect natural or possibly cultural resources.   MPAs may limit such things as development, fishing practices, fishing seasons, catch limits, moorings, and removal or disruption of marine life.

A new study by the University of Plymouth in the UK looked at the effectiveness of MPAs in increasing the total abundance of reef species.  It looked at the MPAs in Lyme Bay, off the south coast of England, where two of them are co-located but governed by different constraints.

The study found that whole-site management of an MPA can increase the total abundance of reef species within its borders by up to 95%.  This is in contrast to the MPA where only known features are conserved and human activity is otherwise allowed to continue unchecked.  In that place, species abundance increased by only 15%.

The whole-site MPAs were observed to have other benefits as well.   They show higher levels of functional redundancy, meaning that when there are species losses, they are compensated by other species.  Whole-site MPAs also exhibit higher levels of species diversity.

MPAs are increasingly being recognized as a sustainable way to enhance the marine environment even while supporting coastal communities.  The Global Ocean Alliance, a 72-country alliance led by the UK, has set a target of protecting 30% of all marine areas by 2030.  The new study shows that even more important than simply establishing marine protected areas, it is essential that they are effectively implemented.

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Whole-site management of Marine Protected Areas can lead to a 95% increase in reef species

Photo, posted October 28, 2011, courtesy of Benjamin Evans via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Geoengineering Research Plan | Earth Wise

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The 2022 federal appropriations act, signed into law in March, directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a cross-agency group to coordinate research on climate interventions, in partnership with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Energy.

The group is tasked with creating a research framework to “provide guidance on transparency, engagement, and risk management for publicly funded work on solar geoengineering research.”  The group is supposed to develop a five-year plan that will define research goals for the field, assess the potential hazards of climate interventions, and evaluate the level of federal funding required to carry out the work.

This marks the first federally coordinated effort of this kind and is especially significant because it contributes to the perception that geoengineering is an appropriate and important area of research as the climate continues to warm.

It is an understatement to say that such research is controversial.  Geoengineering has often been a taboo topic among scientists. There are significant questions about potential environmental side effects and concerns that the impact of any such efforts would be felt unevenly in different parts of the world.  There are challenging questions about global governance , including who should be able to make decisions about any potential deployment of climate interventions and what the goals of such interventions should be.

These are momentous issues to grapple with, but as the threat of climate change grows and nations continue to fail to make rapid progress on emissions, researchers, universities, and nations are increasingly motivated to seriously explore the potential effects of geoengineering approaches.  We can’t hide from the fact that these issues are going to be explored.

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The US government is developing a solar geoengineering research plan

Photo, posted June 28, 2013, courtesy of Fernando Aramburu via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A War On Wolves

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America has a long history of persecuting wolves.  In 1905 the federal government tried biological warfare, infecting wolves with mange.  In 1915, Congress passed a law requiring the eradication of wolves from federal land.  By 1926, all the wolves in Yellowstone National Park had been poisoned, shot, or trapped.   By 1945, wolves had been essentially eliminated from the American West.

All of this was driven by the fantasy that wolves were a major menace to livestock and a threat to big game.

In the 1990s, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho and the result was one of the greatest success stories in the history of wildlife management.  There were multiple improvements to the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.  Wolves as important predators are essential elements of healthy ecosystems in the American west.

For reasons difficult to fathom, the status of wolves has become political.  Conservative lawmakers in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Wisconsin have essentially declared war on wolves, radically liberalizing wolf trapping and hunting regulations.  In Wyoming, it is now legal to kill wolves at any time by virtually any means, including running them over with snowmobiles and incinerating pups and nursing mothers in dens.  Idaho has bounties as high as $2,000 for killing wolves.

The reasons are just as bogus as ever.  Livestock predation is the big claim.  In 2015, 1,904 wolves shared the Rocky Mountain West with 1.6 million cattle.  Wolves killed all of 148 of them. 

Evidently, wolves have become identified as a liberal cause and, as such, are now the enemy of conservative politics.

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America’s New War on Wolves and Why It Must Be Stopped

Photo, posted April 6, 2016, courtesy of Yellowstone National Park via Flickr.

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Avoiding Blackouts With Renewable Energy | Earth Wise

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There are some people who worry that an electric grid heavily dependent upon intermittent sources like solar and wind power may be more susceptible to blackouts.  According to a new study by Stanford University, these fears are misplaced.

The study, published in the journal Renewable Energy, found that an energy system running on wind, water, and solar, when combined with energy storage, avoids blackouts, and lowers energy requirements and consumer costs.  In addition, implementing such a system would create millions of jobs, improve people’s health, and reduce land requirements.

The study focused on the stability in all U.S. grid regions as well as individual states based on the requirement that all electricity is provided by clean and renewable sources. No fossil fuel use, bioenergy, blue hydrogen, or even nuclear power were included in the modeling.  Critics of such a shift in the energy system point to grid blackouts during extreme weather events in California in 2020 and Texas in 2021 as evidence that renewable sources can’t be trusted.  But in both cases, renewable energy was not found to be any more vulnerable than other sources.

The study looked at the costs of the transition – which would be substantial – but found that it would pay for itself fairly quickly based on energy cost savings alone.

A significant finding of the study was that long-duration batteries were neither necessary nor helpful for grid stability.  That stability could be obtained by linking together currently available short-duration batteries.  Interconnecting larger and larger geographic regions would make the power system smoother and more reliable.  Overall, intelligent management of the electric grid can result in a reliable and clean power system.

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Stanford researchers point the way to avoiding blackouts with clean, renewable energy

Photo, posted October 17, 2016, courtesy of B Sarangi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Marine Heatwaves And Fish | Earth Wise

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Marine heatwaves are periods of abnormally high temperatures in the ocean that can trigger devastating impacts on ecosystems, including coral bleaching, toxic algal blooms, and mass mortality events.  Marine heatwaves can occur in any ocean and in any season.  They are defined based on the differences between actual and expected temperatures for the location and time of year.     

According to several studies, even under moderate climate warming scenarios, oceans will experience more frequent and longer-lasting marine heatwaves in the years to come.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries in Canada have found that extremely hot years will wipe out hundreds of thousands of tons of fish globally this century.  These losses are in addition to the projected decreases to fish stocks from long-term climate change. 

Under a worst-case scenario where no action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the research team’s model predicts a 6% drop in the amount of potential catches per year.  In addition, the biomass (or amount of fish by weight) is projected to decrease in 77% of exploited species due to the extreme temperatures.

As a result of climate change and these extreme heat events, the research team projected that fisheries’ revenues would decrease by an average of 3% globally, and employment would fall by 2% globally – a loss of likely millions of jobs.

The research team says active fisheries management is critical.  Catch quotas, for example, need to be adjusted in years when fish stocks are suffering from marine heat events.  In severe cases, the fisheries may need to be shuttered in order to allow fish stocks to rebuild.  

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Fevers are plaguing the oceans — and climate change is making them worse

Marine heatwaves could wipe out an extra six per cent of a country’s fish catches, costing millions their jobs

Photo, posted October 11, 2016, courtesy of Kahunapule Michael Johnson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Right Whales And The Warming Atlantic | Earth Wise

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The warming of the Atlantic Ocean has driven the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population from its traditional and protected habitat.  This has exposed the whales to more lethal ship collisions, increased entanglements with commercial fishing gear, and greatly reduced calving rates.

Since 2010, the calving rate has declined, and the right whale population has dropped by an estimated 26%.  Ten years ago, there were about 500 North Atlantic right whales; now there are an estimated 356.

These are some of the best studied whales in the oceans; scientists basically recognize each individual whale and when they are the victims of ship collisions or fishing entanglements, it is easy to identify which animal was killed.

Because of the warming climate, the Atlantic Meridian Overturning Circulation – an important system of surface and deep currents – has slowed down, causing the Gulf Stream to move north.  This has injected warmer and saltier water into the Gulf of Maine.  The warming Gulf of Maine has reduced the abundance of copepods, tiny crustations that are the favorite snack of right whales.   This has reduced whale calving rates and forced the whales to move north to the cooler waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

For the past 6 years, more and more right whales have been observed feeding in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where there were no protections in place to prevent ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement.  In 2017 alone, 17 right whale deaths were confirmed.

According to a recent report from Cornell University and the University of South Carolina, unless its management is improved, right whale populations will decline and potentially become extinct in the coming decades.

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Warming Atlantic forces whales into new habitats, danger

Photo, posted December 8, 2016, courtesy of Sea to Shore Alliance/NOAA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Reducing Agriculture’s Carbon Footprint | Earth Wise

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Agriculture is responsible for about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions.  Those emissions come from livestock such as cows, the disturbance of agricultural soils, and activities like rice production.

Recent research from Texas A&M University presents sustainable solutions for grazing agriculture.  According to the research, published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, ruminant animals like cattle contribute to the maintenance of healthy soils and grasslands, and proper grazing management can reduce the industry’s carbon emissions and overall footprint.

Grassland ecosystems co-evolved with herbivores over thousands of years.  These complex, dynamic ecosystems include grasses, soil biota, grazing animals, and predators.  The ecosystems degrade in the absence of periodic grazing.

The research contends that ruminant livestock are an important tool for achieving sustainable agriculture with appropriate grazing management.  With such management, grazing cattle on permanent perennial grasslands helps develop soil biology to improve soil carbon, rainfall infiltration, and soil fertility.

Permanent cover of forage plants is highly effective in reducing soil erosion and increasing soil infiltration.  Ruminants consuming grazed forages under appropriate management results in considerably more carbon sequestration than carbon emissions.

This overall approach is known as regenerative agriculture and is built around the ideas of practices that restore soil health and ecosystem function to support healthy agroecosystems. 

These ideas constitute alternatives to ones that call for the reduction or elimination of cattle and livestock agricultural production.  The future of agriculture needs to consider the full impacts of the entire food production chain and its environmental impacts.

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Grazing Cattle Can Reduce Agriculture’s Carbon Footprint

Photo, posted April 27, 2010, courtesy of Beverly Moseley/USDA NRCS Texas via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Increasing Palm Oil Production Without Harming The Environment | Earth Wise

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Palm oil is the most important source of vegetable oil in the world.  The oil itself and ingredients based on it are found in approximately 50% of the products on supermarket shelves, including both food and non-food items.  Many of the mysterious chemicals that show up on ingredient lists such as sodium lauryl sulfate are actually derived from palm oil.

Dozens of countries produce palm oil, but about 2/3 of the world’s supply comes from Indonesia and the demand for its oil keeps growing.  To keep up with that demand, Indonesia continues to convert valuable ecosystems that contribute greatly to biodiversity to palm production.

A four-year research project at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln has found that keeping up with palm oil demand may not necessarily mean converting valuable, fragile ecosystems into agricultural land.  According to the study published in Nature Sustainability, palm oil yields on existing farms and plantations could be greatly increased with improved management practices.

The researchers identified key practices that could lead to larger yield.  These include improved harvest methods, better weed control, improved pruning, and better plant nutrition.  With such practices, Indonesia could produce 68% more palm oil on existing plantation areas.

The results were surprising to the researchers and are significant from both environmental and economic standpoints.  In particular, it could have a great impact on the millions of individual farmers who draw their livelihood from small palm farms often containing just a few acres.  In Indonesia, about 42% of land used for palm oil production is owned by smallholder farms.

The researchers are now working with various stakeholders in Indonesia to put these management techniques into practice.

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Husker research shows palm oil production can grow while protecting ecosystems

Photo, posted August 15, 2006, courtesy of Lian Pin Koh via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Costs Of Mislabeled Seafood | Earth Wise

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Seafood is the world’s most highly traded food commodity and reports of seafood mislabeling have become increasingly common over time.  A new study by Arizona State University looked at the environmental effects of mislabeled seafood.

What is mislabeled seafood?  Sometimes the snapper you were served was really Pacific Ocean Perch.  Maybe grouper was really whitefin weakfish.  Many times white leg shrimp are actually giant tiger prawns.

Approximately 190,000 to 250,000 tons of mislabeled seafood are sold in the U.S. each year, or 3.4 to 4.3% of consumed seafood.  Previous studies focused on the economic aspects of getting cheaper fish when paying for more expensive fish.  The new research looks at the environmental costs associated with mislabeled seafood.

Substituted seafood is 28% more likely to be imported from other countries, which may have weaker environmental laws than the U.S.  In the United States, fishery management is pretty good.  There is strong monitoring and enforcement to support limits on fishing.  Metrics like fish abundance, fishing mortality, bycatch, and discards are all monitored.  In many other places, this is not the case.

To really evaluate the overall effects of seafood mislabeling, one has to take into account both the rates of substitution and the levels of consumption. 

Consuming fish from a well-managed fishery should not have a negative impact in terms of the population now or in the future.  But even inadvertently consuming fish from poorly managed fisheries in not sustainable.  It is good to get your seafood from a trusted source.

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ASU Study Looks At The Environmental Effects Of Purchasing, Consuming Mislabeled Fish

Photo, posted August 1, 2014, courtesy of Ralph Daily via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Shifting Climate Attitudes – Even In Texas | Earth Wise

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Any conversation about climate policy and energy in the United States has to take Texas into consideration.  Texas leads the nation in energy production, providing more than one-fifth of U.S. domestically produced energy.  Texas also uses more energy than any other state and accounts for almost one-seventh of total U.S. energy consumption.  The state’s industrial sector, which includes petroleum refining and chemical manufacturing, accounts for almost half of Texas energy consumption.

As a result, longstanding skepticism among Texans toward the climate movement has represented a real impediment in developing and implementing effective climate policy in this country.  But according to new research at the University of Houston, attitudes in Texas have changed and now mirror those in the rest of the United States.

About 80% of Americans believe that climate change is happening, and now about 81% of Texans hold the same view.  Two out of three Americans are worried about climate change; more than 60% of Texans agree.

Nationwide, 55% agree that the oil and gas industries have deliberately misled people on climate change; 49% of Texans agree. 64% of Americans say hydraulic fracking has a negative effect on the environment and 61% of Texans agree.  People everywhere are willing to pay more for carbon-neutral energy, and a higher premium for gasoline as well.

Mitigation strategies for climate change are not well understood.  While 61% nationwide have heard of carbon taxes, less than half are familiar with carbon management, and only a third have heard of carbon pricing.

As the U.S. heads toward reengaging in efforts to address climate change, Texans appear to have caught up with the rest of the nation.

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Attitudes About Climate Change Are Shifting, Even in Texas

Photo, posted October 1, 2011, courtesy of Steve Rainwater via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The United States And Ticks | Earth Wise

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Tiny ticks are a big problem.  Measuring only three to five millimeters in size, ticks are widely distributed around the world.  They are external parasites, feasting on the blood of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals – including humans.

According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ticks infect more than 300,000 people with Lyme disease in the United States every year, and the numbers continue to rise.  Other common tick-borne diseases include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and powassan encephalitis.

But while the prevalence of tick-borne illnesses has steadily increased in the United States over the past two decades, a new study on tick surveillance and control “has revealed an inconsistent and often under-supported patchwork of programs across the country.”

The study, by university researchers at the CDC’s five Vector-Borne Disease Regional Centers of Excellence, is the first-ever examination of tick management programs in the United States.  The researchers found clear gaps in our public health infrastructure. 

According to the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, less than 50% of public health and vector-control agencies conduct tick surveillance.  Only 25% test ticks for disease-causing germs.  And only 12% conduct or support tick-control efforts.  Researchers also discovered that the capacity for public tick-control efforts is low, as is the capacity for information and data sharing between agencies on ticks.    

The findings highlight the degree to which tick surveillance and control is lagging in the United States.  According to the research team, greater support for tick-management programs is critical, and they hope their findings will serve as a baseline from which to measure future improvements.  

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Tick surveillance and control lagging in US

Photo, posted May 4, 2009, courtesy of Jerry Kirkhart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Family Forests And Climate Change | Earth Wise

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Climate experts consider sequestration and storage of carbon in trees to be among the most affordable and scalable natural climate solutions.  If implemented globally, trees could provide a third of the near-term climate change mitigation needed to meet the terms of the Paris Agreement.

Small family-owned forests make up 38% of U.S. forests, a total area 1.5 times the size of Texas and more than any other ownership type.  Most small landowners want to do right by their land, but they rarely have access to the expertise or resources needed to optimize their forests for carbon sequestration.

This spring, the Nature Conservancy, the American Forest Foundation, and the Vermont Land Trust announced two new programs, funded in part by a $10 million grant by Amazon, that will provide funds to small landowners to grow larger, healthier forests.

Few forests are managed for carbon sequestration.  Practices like fast logging rotations, so-called high-grading that strips out the largest, most valuable trees, and rampant invasive species all compromise the ability of a forest to lock away carbon.  It turns out that most small landowners would like to do better, but they don’t have the expertise or the financial resources to implement sustainable management.

Existing carbon markets are not geared towards small forest owners.  Their payments are tiny and the required contract terms are onerous.  The Family Forest Carbon Program commits landowners for only 10 to 20 years.  Typical landowners won’t get a windfall.  A 100-acre landholding would stand to earn around $24,500 over 20 years. 

If these programs can sign up 20% of U.S. forest landowners, it could offset the emissions from 6 million cars.

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How Small Family Forests Can Help Meet the Climate Challenge

Photo, posted July 14, 2013, courtesy of Joshua Mayer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Planting Trees and Climate Change | Earth Wise

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Forests are among the most important natural carbon sinks.  Trees remove carbon from the air and store it in their trunks, branches, and leaves, and transfer part of it into the soil.  But in some regions, these natural carbon sinks are starting to weaken due to deforestation, forest degradation, and the impacts of climate change.  This problem has led some climate mitigation projects to focus on increasing the overall number of trees on the planet. 

But, according to a paper recently published in the journal Science, “we can’t plant our way out of climate change.”  That’s the simple message from Restoration Ecologist Karen Holl and University of São Paulo Professor Pedro Brancalion to anyone who thinks planting one trillion trees will reverse the effects of climate change.  They say planting more trees is only one piece of the puzzle.  Any initiatives like 1t.org or the Trillion Tree Campaign must be done carefully and be accompanied by commitments to long-term management.

Tree plantings can provide many environmental benefits, including improving water quality, biodiversity, and increasing shade.  But trees can sometimes have undesirable impacts, such as harming native species and ecosystems or reducing water availability, depending on where and how the trees are planted.

The authors suggest four principles that should guide forest enhancement initiatives: reduce forest clearing and degradation, balance ecological and social goals, view tree plantings as one part of a multifaceted solution, and plan, coordinate and monitor the work. 

While tree plantings can clearly be part of the solution, slowing the pace of climate change requires a comprehensive approach that must start with burning less fossil fuels.

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Challenges in tree-planting programs

Planting trees is no panacea for climate change

Photo, posted December 1, 2019, courtesy of Akuppa John Wigham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Too Many Bison | Earth Wise

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The population of large herbivores in Yellowstone National Park has undergone many dramatic changes over the course of time.  The numbers of both the iconic Rocky Mountain elk and bison have gone up and down as a result of human interactions.

Bison, of course, once were a dominant species from east of the Appalachians to west of the Rocky Mountains, with most of an estimated 30 million living on the Great Plains.  As the west was settled, bison populations plummeted and by the late 1800s, they were nearly extinct.

When Yellowstone was established, there were exactly 22 bison in the park.  By 1925, there were more than 750 in the park and culling of the herd in the park’s Lamar Valley was practiced for the next four decades.

The elimination of predators like grey wolves and cougars in the early 1900s caused both elk and bison populations to mushroom and both underwent culling.  When culling was ended in 1968, there were 4,000 elk and 100 bison.  Within 20 years, those numbers were 20,000 and 1,000.   Reintroducing wolves and cougars reduced the elk population to about 5,000, but bison numbers have continued to grow, now reaching about 4,000.

While the long-term recovery of the Yellowstone bison herd is a major conservation success story, the fact is that bison are powerful ecosystem engineers.  Large numbers of them disrupt species distribution across scrub steppe and grasslands because of what they eat, trample, and rub their horns and bodies on.  They have a tremendous capacity to limit the structure and composition of ecosystems.

Park administrators have complicated management decisions to make to take into account the often wide range of ecological effects that abundant large herbivores can have on ecosystems.

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Bison in northern Yellowstone proving to be too much of a good thing

Photo, posted August 10, 2016, courtesy of Brian Gratwicke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Community Action And Coral Reefs

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Coral reef habitats are some of the densest and most varied ecosystems on earth.  While coral reefs cover just 0.2% of the ocean floor, scientists estimate that nearly one million different species of fish, invertebrates, and algae can be found in or around coral reefs. 

However, climate change is wreaking havoc on the health of coral reefs.  Warming and acidifying oceans are resulting in enormous coral losses.  Overfishing, development, and pollution are also threatening coral reef health.

According to new research, positive community action can help boost fish populations in coral reefs and safeguard future fish numbers.  The paper, which was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, details the social and ecological outcomes of work being done in Papua New Guinea since 2001. 

These communities have established a traditional system of rotational fishing closures in order to manage their fisheries resources.   They ban fishing on part of their reefs for a few years, and then open these closures when village elders believe fish behavior has changed and fish populations have recovered.  They then close a different part of their reefs, and repeat the process. 

The researchers found that these rotational practices resulted in more than twice as many fish on the closed reefs as compared to open ones, and the closures made fish less scared of people and easier to catch.  But the researchers did caution that this short term boost in fish numbers may not be enough to stop the overall impact of fishing.

Globally, more than 500 million people depend on coral reefs for food, income, and coastal protection.  Balancing community needs with environmental needs can be tricky business.  

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Positive community action can help coral reef health

Photo, posted October 11, 2011, courtesy of Paul Toogood via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Pesticides In The Great Barrier Reef

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Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is one of the greatest natural wonders in the world and it has been under siege by warming waters and ocean acidification.  Widespread coral bleaching has damaged or destroyed large portions of the 1,400-mile long coral reef system.  But the effects of climate change are not the only threat to the reef.  Pesticides found in waterways that flow into the Great Barrier Reef are another serious problem.

According to a new study by the University of Queensland, the combined toxicity of 22 of the most common pesticides that flow into the Reef are not meeting pollution reduction targets.

Different pesticides affect different organisms.  Herbicides affect organisms that photosynthesize such as seagrass, corals, mangroves, and algae.  Insecticides affect insect larvae in freshwater, and crustaceans such as crabs, prawns, and lobsters.  Previous assessments have only examined individual pesticides and only for limited times.  The new study has utilized a methodology that estimates the combined toxicity of multiple pesticides found in the waterways that discharge into the Reef and does it for the entire wet season.

The research revealed that the pesticide reduction target set in the Australian Government’s Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan is not being met.  Only one natural resource management region – the Cape York region – was found to be meeting its target.

By having estimates of the risk posed by pesticides in the various regions and individual waterways, governments, farmers, and conservationists can see which areas pose the greatest risk and where to maximize efforts.  Stakeholders have to come together to reduce pesticide concentrations through better management practices and by using less toxic pesticides.

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High pesticide concentrations continue to enter Great Barrier Reef

Photo, posted July 29, 2010, courtesy of Kyle Taylor via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)