Natural History Wanderings

the Press Democrat reported

A San Francisco conservation group has reached an agreement to purchase 200 acres in northwest Sonoma County that will expand its existing old-growth redwood reserve east of Stewarts Point and Salt Point State Park.

Under the agreement, Save the Redwoods League will buy the property for $4 million from the family of the late Harold Richardson. The land will be added to the group’s Harold Richardson Redwoods Reserve, a 730-acre forest that was acquired from the family in 2018, bringing the combined reserve to nearly 1,000 acres.

The Guardian reported

Planet’s oldest bee species and primary pollinators were under threat from deforestation and competition from ‘killer bees’

Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere.

Read more at Stingless bees from the Amazon granted legal rights in world first

Friends of California Condors Wild and Free Upcoming Events at  Events | Friends of California Condors Wild and Free

The Rural Blog reported

National Park staffing reductions have left Yosemite’s increasing number of visitors to their own devices. Park guests “were far less supervised than they normally were, which had led to the wrong kind of wildness — littering, cliff jumping, drone-flying,” reports Soumya Karlamangla of The New York Times. Since 2025, the National Park Service staff has shrunk by 25%

Read more at With too few employees and rangers, Yosemite National Park hosts visitors with the ‘wrong kind of wildness

ScienceDaily reported

A tiny fish long feared lost has resurfaced in Bolivia, offering a rare conservation success story amid widespread habitat destruction. Moema claudiae, a seasonal killifish unseen for more than 20 years, was rediscovered in a small temporary pond hidden within a fragment of forest surrounded by farmland. The find allowed scientists to photograph the species alive for the first time and uncover new details about its behavior and ecology.

Read more at Back from the dead: “Extinct” fish rediscovered in a remote Bolivian pond after 20 years