A sampling of recent, published Environmental Journalism pieces:
Ecologist David Kaplan surveys dying coastal trees in the Withlacoochee Gulf Preserve in Yankeetown, Florida. Photo by Roger Real Drouin.
Ghost Forests: How Rising Seas Are Killing U.S. Southern Woodlands
On a recent afternoon, University of Florida watershed ecologist David Kaplan and Ph.D. candidate Katie Glodzik hiked through the Withlacoochee Gulf Preserve, on the Big Bend coast of northwestern Florida. Not long ago, red cedar, live oaks, and cabbage palms grew in profusion on the raised “hammock island” forests set amid the preserve’s wetlands. But as the researchers walked through thigh-high marsh grass, the barren trunks of dead cedars were silhouetted against passing clouds. Dead snag cabbage palms stood like toothpicks snapped at the top. Other trees and shrubs, such as wax myrtle, had long been replaced by more salt-tolerant black needlerush marsh grass.
Saltwater, flowing into this swampy, freshwater-dependent ecosystem as a result of rising sea levels, is turning these stands of hardwoods into “ghost forests” of dead and dying trees.
“The loss of these islands changes the landscape from a mosaic to one dominated by a single habitat — salt marsh,” said Kaplan, noting that the change means reduced habitat for some species of wading and migratory birds, as well as for turtles and snakes . . . (Read More at Yale Environment 360, Nov. 1, 2016, or view as PDF.)
On a recent afternoon, University of Florida watershed ecologist David Kaplan and Ph.D. candidate Katie Glodzik hiked through the Withlacoochee Gulf Preserve, on the Big Bend coast of northwestern Florida. Not long ago, red cedar, live oaks, and cabbage palms grew in profusion on the raised “hammock island” forests set amid the preserve’s wetlands. But as the researchers walked through thigh-high marsh grass, the barren trunks of dead cedars were silhouetted against passing clouds. Dead snag cabbage palms stood like toothpicks snapped at the top. Other trees and shrubs, such as wax myrtle, had long been replaced by more salt-tolerant black needlerush marsh grass.
Saltwater, flowing into this swampy, freshwater-dependent ecosystem as a result of rising sea levels, is turning these stands of hardwoods into “ghost forests” of dead and dying trees.
“The loss of these islands changes the landscape from a mosaic to one dominated by a single habitat — salt marsh,” said Kaplan, noting that the change means reduced habitat for some species of wading and migratory birds, as well as for turtles and snakes . . . (Read More at Yale Environment 360, Nov. 1, 2016, or view as PDF.)
A Lift for Lichens
As a result of climate change, saltwater is predicted to soon swallow much of a North Carolina swamp forest and its biodiversity. But certain denizens of Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge might get a ticket out in time . . . Read More. (Scientific American, April 2017 issue)
As a result of climate change, saltwater is predicted to soon swallow much of a North Carolina swamp forest and its biodiversity. But certain denizens of Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge might get a ticket out in time . . . Read More. (Scientific American, April 2017 issue)
This young male tiger died in a poacher’s trap in central India in 2012. Photo by Nitin Desai, WPSI.
Can Big Data Save the Last of India's Wild Tigers?
Traveling in small, nomadic groups, carrying knives, axes and steel traps, tiger poachers in India have long held advantages over those trying to protect the big cats. The poachers, motivated mainly by demand for tiger bones used in traditional medicine in China, return every two to three years to places where they know “every stream and rocky outcrop” and set traps along tigers’ pathways or near watering holes, says Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. They are seldom caught. “They have unbelievable knowledge and jungle craft,” Wright says. “They will use every trick in the book.”
But a study published last August by Wright, ecologist Koustubh Sharma and colleagues could help turn the tide against tiger poaching in India, home to more than half of the tiger’s global wild population ... (First published at Ensia, January 12, 2015; reposted at Huffington Post.)
Traveling in small, nomadic groups, carrying knives, axes and steel traps, tiger poachers in India have long held advantages over those trying to protect the big cats. The poachers, motivated mainly by demand for tiger bones used in traditional medicine in China, return every two to three years to places where they know “every stream and rocky outcrop” and set traps along tigers’ pathways or near watering holes, says Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. They are seldom caught. “They have unbelievable knowledge and jungle craft,” Wright says. “They will use every trick in the book.”
But a study published last August by Wright, ecologist Koustubh Sharma and colleagues could help turn the tide against tiger poaching in India, home to more than half of the tiger’s global wild population ... (First published at Ensia, January 12, 2015; reposted at Huffington Post.)
Saving "Bambi"
The monarch butterfly hits the peak of its winter migration in October, and as it makes its way from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico, all three countries will be watching its numbers closely ... Read More (Scientific American, Advances, October 2014 issue)
“We are on the verge of losing one of the most magical animal migrations,” says Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The monarch butterfly hits the peak of its winter migration in October, and as it makes its way from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico, all three countries will be watching its numbers closely ... Read More (Scientific American, Advances, October 2014 issue)
“We are on the verge of losing one of the most magical animal migrations,” says Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Bat Deterrents
Wind turbines are a notorious hazard for birds, but less well known is the danger they pose to bats. In 2012 turbines killed more bats than birds, and the numbers of the dead were substantial: about 888,000 bats were found on wind farms, compared with 573,000 birds.
Migrating bats such as the hoary bat, which can travel from as far as northern Canada to Argentina and Chile, make up most of those fatalities because they often navigate through areas dotted with wind farms. Yet researchers have also found carcasses of cave-hibernating bats, including the little brown bat and the northern long-eared myotis—two species that have been devastated by the fungal disease white nose syndrome and that are now being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act ... Read More (Scientific American, Advances, September 2014 issue)
Wind turbines are a notorious hazard for birds, but less well known is the danger they pose to bats. In 2012 turbines killed more bats than birds, and the numbers of the dead were substantial: about 888,000 bats were found on wind farms, compared with 573,000 birds.
Migrating bats such as the hoary bat, which can travel from as far as northern Canada to Argentina and Chile, make up most of those fatalities because they often navigate through areas dotted with wind farms. Yet researchers have also found carcasses of cave-hibernating bats, including the little brown bat and the northern long-eared myotis—two species that have been devastated by the fungal disease white nose syndrome and that are now being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act ... Read More (Scientific American, Advances, September 2014 issue)
As Fracking Booms, Growing Concerns About Wastewater
An hour south of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania’s Washington County, millions of gallons of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing wells are stored in large impoundment ponds and so-called "closed container" tanks. The wastewater is then piped to treatment plants, where it is cleaned up and discharged into streams; trucked to Ohio and pumped deep down injection wells; or reused in other fracking operations.
But tracking where the fracking wastewater from Washington County and sites across the United States ends up — and how much pollution it causes — is exceedingly difficult ... Read More (Yale Environment 360, Feb. 18, 2014)
An hour south of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania’s Washington County, millions of gallons of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing wells are stored in large impoundment ponds and so-called "closed container" tanks. The wastewater is then piped to treatment plants, where it is cleaned up and discharged into streams; trucked to Ohio and pumped deep down injection wells; or reused in other fracking operations.
But tracking where the fracking wastewater from Washington County and sites across the United States ends up — and how much pollution it causes — is exceedingly difficult ... Read More (Yale Environment 360, Feb. 18, 2014)
8 Ways Wind Power Companies Are Trying to Stop Killing Birds and Bats
Hundreds of thousands of birds and bats are killed by wind turbines in the US each year, including some protected species such as the golden eagle and the Indiana bat. That's only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions killed by buildings, pesticides, fossil-fuel power plants, and other human causes, but it’s still worrying—especially as wind power is experiencing record growth.
Both the wind industry and the federal government have been under intense public scrutiny over the issue in recent weeks ... Read More (Mother Jones, Jan. 6, 2014)
Hundreds of thousands of birds and bats are killed by wind turbines in the US each year, including some protected species such as the golden eagle and the Indiana bat. That's only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions killed by buildings, pesticides, fossil-fuel power plants, and other human causes, but it’s still worrying—especially as wind power is experiencing record growth.
Both the wind industry and the federal government have been under intense public scrutiny over the issue in recent weeks ... Read More (Mother Jones, Jan. 6, 2014)
How the Fracking Boom Could Lead to a Housing Bust
When it comes to the real estate market in Bradford County, Pa., where 62,600 residents live above the Marcellus Shale, nothing is black and white, says Bob Benjamin, a local broker and certified appraiser. There aren’t exactly “fifty shades of grey,” he says, but residential mortgage lending here is an especially murky situation.
When Benjamin fills out an appraisal for a lender, he has to note if there is a fracked well or an impoundment lake on or near the property. “I’m having to explain a lot of things when I give the appraisal to the lender,” he says. “They are asking questions about the well quite often.”
And national lenders are becoming more cautious about underwriting mortgages for properties near fracking, even ones they would have routinely financed in the past, Benjamin says.
That’s a real problem in Bradford County, where 93 percent of the acreage is now under lease to a gas company ... Read More. (The Atlantic Cities, Aug. 19, 2013)
When Benjamin fills out an appraisal for a lender, he has to note if there is a fracked well or an impoundment lake on or near the property. “I’m having to explain a lot of things when I give the appraisal to the lender,” he says. “They are asking questions about the well quite often.”
And national lenders are becoming more cautious about underwriting mortgages for properties near fracking, even ones they would have routinely financed in the past, Benjamin says.
That’s a real problem in Bradford County, where 93 percent of the acreage is now under lease to a gas company ... Read More. (The Atlantic Cities, Aug. 19, 2013)
Tar-sands Oil Could be Coming Soon to New England
A citizens group in South Portland, Maine, is hoping to beat back an effort by Big Oil to pipe tar-sands crude through their city. The group gathered enough signatures to put an initiative on the November ballot that would stymie oil companies’ plans, and now the activists are going door-to-door to convince their neighbors to vote for it.
South Portland is a relatively quiet place where major news doesn’t happen often, and lobstermen and clammers still make a living on the water. When Vanessa Capelluti and her husband moved to their dream home on Casco Bay here a year ago, they didn’t know that oil companies had plans for this area too ... Read More. (Grist.org, Sept. 16, 2013) |
UPDATE follow-up piece: How a town in Maine is blocking an Exxon tar-sands pipeline
Citizens trying to stop the piping of tar-sands oil through their community wore blue “Clear Skies” shirts at a city council meeting in South Portland, Maine, this week. But they might as well have been wearing boxing gloves. The small city struck a mighty blow against Canadian tar-sands extraction. “It’s been a long fight,” said resident Andy Jones after a 6-1 city council vote on Monday to approve the Clear Skies Ordinance, which will block the loading of heavy tar-sands bitumen onto tankers at the city’s port ... Read More. (Grist.org, July 23, 2014) 
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The Eagles Have Landed
Ed Smith Stadium’s resident bald eagles have survived.
In 2010, the eagles’ previous nest built atop the right field ballpark lights was removed by wildlife officials and destroyed to make way for the $31 million stadium renovation.
And Monday, a few weeks after their arrival for the winter breeding season, the pair survived the threat of a fire that destroyed a building close to their new nest, which is nestled atop a tall, metal cell-phone tower one block north of the stadium ... Read More. (Sarasota Observer, Oct. 25, 2012)
In 2010, the eagles’ previous nest built atop the right field ballpark lights was removed by wildlife officials and destroyed to make way for the $31 million stadium renovation.
And Monday, a few weeks after their arrival for the winter breeding season, the pair survived the threat of a fire that destroyed a building close to their new nest, which is nestled atop a tall, metal cell-phone tower one block north of the stadium ... Read More. (Sarasota Observer, Oct. 25, 2012)
