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Earth Day at the Shack

Three springs ago I visited the Leopold Memorial Reserve—the depleted Wisconsin sand county farm Aldo Leopold bought in 1930 known as the “shack.” In the 1940s he recorded in his field notes that without large predators such as wolves to regulate their numbers, deer were eating aspens and other trees and shrubs to death. I wanted to see whether this was still so.
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Bird Survey Suggests If You Plant It, They Will Come

The results of last month's annual Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge Bird Survey indicate that birds may colonize reforested areas much faster than experts had predicted. This year's surveyors spotted all five of the common native forest birds and four endangered forest birds within sections of the refuge that two short decades ago had been treeless areas dominated by non-native plants and animals. "I never thought I'd live to see this," said Jack Jeffrey, who coordinated this bird survey and was the refuge biologist from 1990-2008.
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Brothers in Arms

In my travels through the mangroves of the Americas I was keen to learn how mangroves had influenced or been incorporated into local cultures. In Caravelas, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, I met three remarkable brothers who promote the indigenous culture of Bahia—a culture that is infused with images and myths relating to mangroves. Here is a blog post I wrote from Caravelas ... Read more »
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Victory for the Tongass Rainforest

On March 7, a federal judge in Anchorage ruled in favor of the Organized Village of Kake and conservation groups in reinstating the roadless rule on the 7 million hectare (17 million acre) Tongass National Forest. The judge’s ruling strikes down the 2003 Bush Administration’s decision to “temporarily” exempt the Tongass from the national roadless rule that protects nearly 24 million hectares (60 million acres) of some of the nation’s wildest areas.
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Tapioca and Antarctica

In May 2009 I set out on a two-month “state-of-the-forests” mangrove tour of the Americas. I wanted to document the plight of mangroves in the region and assess the impact of their loss on the thousands of coastal people who rely on these forests for food, shelter and livelihoods.
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Return to the Mangroves

In May 2009 I set out on a two-month “state-of-the-forests” mangrove tour of the Americas. I wanted to document the plight of mangroves in the region and assess the impact of their loss on the thousands of coastal people who rely on these forests for food, shelter and livelihoods.
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Moving Conservation to the Landscape Scale

Parks, like Yellowstone National Park, and wildlife reserves, are the traditional models for conserving large tracts of land. But as the effects of climate change and development encroaches, it’s now clear that even large, protected tracts aren’t protection enough to help preserve biodiversity. As Nature pointed out in a recent editorial:

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