NBC Bay Area reported
A miles-long cluster of dolphins was filmed leaping, gliding and cavorting their way across Carmel Bay on the central coast of California.
See video and read on www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/super-pod-dolphins-drone-video/3774070/
Posted in Animals | Tags: Dolphin Superpod Video
BerkeleySide reported on what is important to know about bird flu for humans and pets
How are people contracting bird flu? Can people pass bird flu to each other? Is there bird flu in Berkeley? All your questions, answered.
Posted in Animals, Birds | Tags: Avian Bird Flu
RV Travel reported
New federal hiring freeze implemented under President Trump’s new administration pulls job offers, including the National Park Service
Read on www.rvtravel.com/national-park-service-rescinds-1000-job-offers-amid-trumps-federal-hiring-freeze/
Posted in Park | Tags: National Park Jobs
WildEarth Guarians reported
BeaverCON is a biennial International Conference organized by The Beaver Institute. The event is held every other year and this year’s event was held at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This was the third BeaverCON and my first time attending. It was attended by professionals, practitioners, researchers, and everyday people who are interested to learn from others and to celebrate beavers. Such a wonderfully conceived advocacy, educational, and social event.
Read on wildearthguardians.org/brave-new-wild/news/beavers-are-having-a-moment/
Inside Climate News reports
The increased frequency and size of conflagrations like those burning in LA threaten even species that evolved with wildfires, including the region’s struggling mountain lions.
Read on Are Southern California Fires Outpacing Wildlife’s Ability to Adapt? – Inside Climate News
Posted in Animals, Environment | Tags: Wildlife Adaptation to Wildfires, Wildlife daptation to Wildfire
Palisades Fire: 94% Eaton Fire: 98% Hughes Fire: 95% Border 2 Fire: 43%
Topanga State Park Will Rogers State Historic Park Los Encinos State Historic Park
For the latest park closure updates: https://ow.ly/PsMX50UO4YU Support wildfire relief and recovery efforts: https://ow.ly/Ys5r50UO4YYPosted in Park | Tags: S.Calif. Fire and State Park Updates
NPR reported
In one Indian town, monkeys will steal your glasses — and give them back if you toss them a container of mango juice. It’s one more sign of the impact of urbanization on the wild.
Read on www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/01/05/g-s1-38669/india-monkeys-habitat-hindu-temples
The Guardian reported
As people have shaped the natural world, so wildlife – from mahoganies to magpies – has had to evolve to survive
Posted in Animals, Environment | Tags: Adaptation
ScienceDaily reports
A new study has used a modelling approach to show that it is unlikely that plants would evolve to warn other plants of impending attack. Instead of using their communication networks to transmit warning signals, the findings suggest it is more likely that plants ‘eavesdrop’ on their neighbors.
— Read on www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/01/250122130033.htm
Posted in Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Plant Communication
from Las Padres ForestWatch
The recent wind-driven fires in Los Angeles were not because of a lack of forest management. In fact, these fires burned almost entirely in chaparral, where fires naturally burn intensely, especially during Santa Ana winds. The fires highlight just how badly home hardening programs and resources are needed as climate change continues to make these types of events more likely. Click to learn more and watch the full video clip
Posted in Drives | Tags: Forest Management, L.A. Fires
The Generals Highway will close tonight, Jan. 24, at 5 p.m. between the Wuksachi Lodge and Montecito Sequoia Lodge in anticipation of winter weather. This is a regularly scheduled winter closure that often occurs earlier in the season when snow and ice accumulate. This section of the highway is expected to reopen March 21.
Recent reports from visitors indicate that online maps have shown a road closure in Three Rivers, directing travel through the Big Stump Entrance of Kings Canyon on the north side of the parks. Although there are construction delays, Highway 198 remains open to traffic. After the closure, traveling through Three Rivers is the only way to access the Giant Forest.
For the most up to date 24-hour road conditions and advisories, please call (559) 565-3341 (press 1, 1).
Posted in Drives, Park | Tags: Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Parks Road Closures
The Guardian reported
After four dams were blasted from the Klamath River, the work to restore the ecosystem is under way
Already it’s been among the most hopeful environmental stories of past years. “It has been more successful than we ever imagined,” said Ren Brownell, the spokesperson for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a non-profit created to oversee and implement the removal, adding: “There’s an incredible amount of joy.”
Read full article at California tribes celebrate historic dam removal: ‘More successful than we ever imagined’ | California | The Guardian
Posted in Environment | Tags: Dam removal
Job descriptions are now posted for summer 2025 positions at the Mono Lake Committee—we’ll be hiring Information Center & Bookstore Assistants, Mono
— Read on www.monolake.org/today/hiring-opens-soon-for-mono-lake-summer-jobs/
Posted in Job Openings | Tags: Mono Lake Job Opportunities
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From Sonoma Land Trust January 29, 7-8:30pm, Zoom (Registration required) Join Teresa and Miles Tuffli to explore some backyard birds of Sonoma County. We’ll learn about 20 of our local bird species, discuss how to identify them by sight and sound, learn some birdwatching basics, and explore how to continue learning on your own! Spanish interpretation will be provided. |
Posted in Birds, Talks | Tags: Backyard Birding
The Guardian reports
Researchers say behaviour, identified for first time in non-human primates, aids social cohesion
Read more Marmosets use specific ‘names’ for one another, study finds | Primatology | The Guardian
Posted in Uncategorized
NPR reported
Lebanese volunteers are anxious to get back to sea turtle conservation on southern beaches that were off-limits to civilians when fighting escalated between Israel and Hezbollah.
Listen or read on www.npr.org/2025/01/22/nx-s1-5203017/israel-lebanon-endangered-sea-turtles
Posted in Animals | Tags: Sea Turtles
Posted in Garden | Tags: Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour
NPR reported
Arctic tundra, which has stored carbon for thousands of years, has now become a source of planet-warming pollution. As wildfires increase and hotter temperatures melt long-frozen ground, the region is releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The finding was reported in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual Arctic Report Card, released Tuesday. The new research, led by scientists from the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, signals a dramatic shift in this Arctic ecosystem, which could have widespread implications for the global climate.
Read more at Arctic tundra once stored carbon. Now it emits climate-warming pollution : NPR
Posted in Environment | Tags: Artic Tundra, Climate change, Warming Pollution
Read our breakdown of the budget’s impact on state parks: https://ow.ly/Mbt250UKuZtPosted in Park | Tags: California State Parks Funding
The New York Times reported
Hummingbirds zooming around the garden from flower to flower and sipping nectar probably don’t appear at first glance to be models for instruments of war.
But the tiny thrumming birds are unparalleled aerial acrobats, power in miniature, instantly zipping forward and backward, diving quickly down and soaring back up, pitching, rolling and yawing, and even flying upside down.
Their sophisticated flying abilities have captured the attention of robot designers, especially those studying the use of drones in modern warfare.
Read more at On the Wings of War
Posted in Birds | Tags: Drones, Hummingbirds
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Posted in Garden | Tags: Theodore Payne Garden Tour
Posted in Garden | Tags: UC Berkeley Botancial Garden
The Guardian reported
Researchers in the Alto Mayo region of north-west Peru have discovered 27 species that are new to science, including a rare amphibious mouse, a tree-climbing salamander and an unusual “blob-headed fish”. The 38-day survey recorded more than 2,000 species of wildlife and plants.
The findings are particularly surprising given the region’s high human population density, with significant pressures including deforestation and agriculture.
Read more at : Blob-headed fish and amphibious mouse among 27 new species found in ‘thrilling’ Peru expedition | Peru | The Guardian
Posted in Animals | Tags: Amphibious Mouse, Blob-headed fish
Photographed in the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park in Berkeley, CA on January 19, 2025.
The Regional Parks Botanic Garden is a California native plant garden. It is located within Tilden Park in the hills above Berkeley, California, It is a 10-acre garden includes many of the state’s rare and endangered plants and a place for visitors to wander among trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses from plant communities throughout the state. There are free weekend and holiday tours. Admission and parking are free. For more information about the garden visit the Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden.
See upcoming events calendar of hikes and programs at https://www.abdnha.org/calendar1.htm.
KLA reported
Protections for three rare species (Amargosa toad, the Oasis Valley speckled dace and the Carson Valley monkeyflower) found only in Nevada are a step closer, according to a wildlife conservation organization.
Read on www.yahoo.com/news/next-nevada-environmental-battles-toads-225728031.html
Penn State reported
Despite their reputation as buzzing nuisances, flies serve a critical role as some of the Earth’s most prolific pollinators — and new research led by Penn State scientists suggests they are increasingly at risk due to rising global temperatures.
In a study recently published in the Journal of Melittology, an international team of researchers looked at the heat tolerance for a variety of species of bees and flies in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. Their findings suggest that rising temperatures pose a greater threat to flies than bees, as bees can tolerate much higher temperatures than flies and have a wider habitat range.
Read more at Pollinators most vulnerable to rising global temperatures are flies, study shows | Penn State University
Posted in Animals, Environment, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: pollinators
SF Gate reported
The couple damaged the habitat of an ultrarare flower while preparing to build a residential development.
Read on www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/couple-fined-damaging-pismo-flower-slo-20042720.php
Posted in Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Destruction of Rare Plants, Pismo Clarkia
SF Gate reported
The Grand Canyon fees for popular private boating permits for the Colorado River were last changed in 1998.
Posted in Park | Tags: National Park Fees
MSN reported
Nevada residents outraged as famed Joshua trees are bulldozed to make way for solar farm – ‘There’s 1,000-year-old trees out here,’ a resident complained
Posted in Desert, Environment | Tags: Joshua Tree Destruction
Natural History Wanderings 