Natural Resources

"Even as groundwater levels have rapidly declined in farming regions from California’s Central Valley to the High Plains, the federal government has mostly taken a hands-off approach to the chronic depletion of the nation’s aquifers. But in a new report for the White House, scientists say the country is facing serious and unprecedented groundwater challenges that call for the federal government to play a larger role."

"The Everglades ecosystem was degraded and transformed when a highway connecting Tampa and Miami was built in 1928, cutting through a mosaic of prairies, sawgrass marshes, freshwater ponds and forested uplands. Sections of the road are now being elevated to restore water flows into the Shark River Slough – a vital restoration area deep in the Everglades National Park."

"Experts believe three more cats in Los Angeles County have been infected with H5N1 bird flu. Two others succumbed to the disease earlier this month after drinking recalled raw milk from Fresno-based Raw Farm LLC dairies."

"The hunt for invasive “murder hornets” is over in Washington and the rest of the U.S. after three years without confirmed detections, state and federal officials said Wednesday."

"PFAS chemicals have unexpectedly turned up in well water in rural farmland, far from any industrial areas, airports, or military bases."

"Thousands of years ago, the Arctic was ice-free. What can its past teach us about its future?"

"Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) won a Democratic Steering and Policy Committee vote Monday to succeed Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) as the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, advancing him to a full vote of the Democratic caucus."

"You never forget your first time seeing a giant salamander, according to Andy Hill. He was a teenager, standing thigh-high in the Watauga River outside Boone, North Carolina, casting a line on an early fall day when he saw his first eastern hellbender. The salamander stretched 2 feet long and was camouflaged among rocks beneath the clear water."

"President Joe Biden elevated the Frances Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark in Maine to national monument status Monday, honoring the nation’s first female Cabinet secretary and an architect of the New Deal."

"Despite two weeks of U.N.-sponsored talks in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, the participating 197 nations failed to agree early Saturday on a plan to deal with global droughts, made longer and more severe by a warming climate."