Good News Notes: “Mounting evidence suggests the western United States is now in its worst megadrought in at least 1,200 years. Groundwater supplies are being overpumped in many places, and the dryness, wildfires and shrinking water supplies are making climate change personal for millions of people. As an engineer, I have been working with colleagues on a way to both protect water supplies and…
Tag: habitat loss
Newport Couple Donate $50 Million to Nature Conservancy for Wildlife Preserve in Tehachapi Mountains
Good News Notes: “Frank and Joan Randall of Newport Beach have donated $50 million to the Nature Conservancy for the creation of its largest nature preserve in California, a beautiful 72,000-acre area in the Southern Sierra Nevada and Tehachapi Mountains. According to the Nature Conservancy, the preserve is just over 100 miles north of downtown…
Annual migration of monarch butterflies in California shows sign of resurgence
Good News Notes: “Every year, monarch butterflies from all over the western U.S. migrate to coastal California, to escape the harsh winter weather. In the 1980s and ’90s, more than a million made the trip each year. Those numbers have plummeted by more than 99% in recent years. “The last few years we’ve had less…
Census: Once-endangered Kirtland’s warbler population stable
Good News Notes: “The once-endangered Kirtland’s warbler is maintaining healthy numbers. State and federal officials reported Monday on the latest census of the songbird. It nests primarily in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula as well as the Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin and Ontario. The population was estimated at 4,490 following the June survey. That’s down slightly from the…
Mastercard Looks To Protect Wildlife Facing Extinction In Campaign From McCann XBC
Good News Notes: “Many Critically Endangered species may go extinct by the time a number of Mastercard gift cards expire–as reflected in this film, part of a campaign out of agency McCann XBC. Mastercard, in partnership with Conservation International, is turning the card expiration date into a tool to create awareness about the importance of…
Chinese county brings rare birds back to the wild, farmers out of poverty
Good News Notes: “Efforts to bring a rare bird back from the verge of extinction in northwest China has unintentionally given a rural community a new lease for life. No hunting, no logging, no quarrying and no pesticide using – these might seem like stifling requirements for farmers trying to claw their way out of…
Tennessee 9-year-old reels in nearly 80-pound fish
Good News Notes: “A Tennessee 9-year-old earned bragging rights against his siblings when he caught and released a nearly 80-pound fish on a family trip. Coye Price was on a quest to catch a fish bigger than what his sisters reeled in when he hooked a 79.8-pound sturgeon in the area around Spencer Creek. Price’s…
Study of 8,600 species reveals how 5 crafty birds turn adversity into an advantage
Good News Notes: “Forget the early bird. In an increasingly human-dominated natural environment, it’s the crafty bird who wins big. Birds that devise creative ways to adapt to their surroundings are more likely to have a stable or even increasing population, compared to less flexible birds. That’s the upshot of a huge new study of…
Meet Chimbu, the blue-eyed, bear-eared tree kangaroo. Your cuppa can help save his species
Good News Notes: “Tree kangaroos are so unusual that when Europeans first encountered them in Australia in 1872, they were sceptical. Who would believe a kangaroo could climb a tree? But the recent birth of Chimbu – a Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo at Healesville Sanctuary – gives us the chance to watch one of these unique, and very…
English-born Scottish wildcat moves north in bid to save species
Good News Notes: “The eight-month-old male wildcat is one of a litter of four kittens bred at the Wildwood Trust centre in Kent. He underwent thorough health checks ahead of being selected for a new conservation programme that aims to reintroduce the critically endangered animals back into the wild after being declared “functionally extinct”. He…