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hope-for-the-planet · 11 months

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"Until recently, a visit to the Colorado River’s delta, below Morelos Dam, would be met with a mostly dry barren desert sprinkled with salt cedar and other undesirable invasive plant species. Today, that arid landscape is broken up with large areas of healthy riparian habitat filled with cottonwood, willow, and mesquite trees. These are restoration sites which are stewarded through binational agreements between the United States and Mexico, and implemented by Raise the River—a coalition of NGOs including Audubon"

Thanks to @aersidhe for sending this in!

#submission #bird conservation #river conservation #wildlife #biodiversity #conservation #environment #good news #hope #ecosystem #habitat #habitat restoration #river restoration #climate change #global warming

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wachinyeya · 11 months

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#good news #colorado #colorado river #water #water laws #water rights #water conservation #water is life #rivers #water protection #river protection #river conservation #usa #united states

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grasshoppergeography · 1 year

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Pedagogical puzzle of French watersheds

The first time we heard of NatExplorers was in February 2022, when Barbara Réthoré contacted us to see if they can use our river basin map of France to aid their next project. Loire Sentinelle in the summer of 2022 was a hybrid project, both scientific and artistic - so a perfect match to our map. Barbara and her partner Julien Chapuis walked and canoed along the Loire river in 80 days, covering 1000 km altogether, and carried out the very first joint assessment of plastic contamination (via microplastics sampling) and global biodiversity (via environmental DNA sampling) across the entire Loire continuum. During their stopovers they met the locals, organized creative programs for the public and, with the help of local artists, raised awareness about nature conservation in the Loire watershed.

There are many volunteers helping NatExplorers in the important work they are doing. One of them is Estelle, who developed pedagogical tools to help educate the public about the overall health of the Loire river and its biodiversity. Our colourful map of France seemed to provide a perfect base for a puzzle that people of all ages could enjoy.

The puzzle seemed to be so successful that they felt the need to improve it and recreate it from a sturdier material. With the help of a professional modeller, and after several weeks of learning and experimenting, Estelle managed to finish the puzzle. The finishing touch was to hand-paint all the pieces: a long and thorough work but as you can see, every minute was worth it. The final piece is 34x36 cm and made out of local cherry wood. It's the best thing that ever happened to our map of France, for sure. The new puzzle will be used during some events in the summer and in Barbara and Julien's new expedition later in the year. We are very much looking forward to see the puzzle in action, and we wish all the best for NatExplorers in their journey.

All images © Natexplorers, used with permission.

#Natexplorers #NGO #environmentalism #environmental activism #loire #loire valley #French rivers #France #geography #river conservation #microplastics #river pollution #climate change #maps #maps reimagined #river map #puzzle #pedagogical tool #teaching geography

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rebeccathenaturalist · 3 months

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If you aren't following the news here in the Pacific Northwest, this is a very, very big deal. Our native salmon numbers have been plummeting over the past century and change. First it was due to overfishing by commercial canneries, then the dams went in and slowed the rivers down and blocked the salmons' migratory paths. More recently climate change is warming the water even more than the slower river flows have, and salmon can easily die of overheating in temperatures we would consider comfortable.

Removing the dams will allow the Klamath River and its tributaries to return to their natural states, making them more hospitable to salmon and other native wildlife (the reservoirs created by the dams were full of non-native fish stocked there over the years.) Not only will this help the salmon thrive, but it makes the entire ecosystem in the region more resilient. The nutrients that salmon bring back from their years in the ocean, stored within their flesh and bones, works its way through the surrounding forest and can be traced in plants several miles from the river.

This is also a victory for the Yurok, Karuk, and other indigenous people who have relied on the Klamath for many generations. The salmon aren't just a crucial source of food, but also deeply ingrained in indigenous cultures. It's a small step toward righting one of the many wrongs that indigenous people in the Americas have suffered for centuries.

#salmon #dam removal #fish #animals #wildlife #dams #Klamath River #Klamath dams #restoration ecology #indigenous rights #Yurok Tribe #Karuk Tribe #nature #ecology #environment #conservation #PNW #Pacific Northwest

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worldriversday · 7 months

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INDIA - Conducting river health assessments with community members .

In India:

⦁ Once again, a “River Side Classroom” will be conducted to observe World Rivers Day at Balurghat, Dakshin Dinajpur, West Bengal providing lessons to students on how to observe a river, get closer to a river and how to love and conserve the river ⦁ The Foundation for Ecological Security will be conducting river health assessments with community members and a number of schools along the Narmada River and its tributaries throughout Mandla District, Madhya Pradesh ⦁ While in Nadia District, West Bengal, the group for the “Protection, Pollution Remediation, Reformation of RIVER of Nadia, will be holding a 12-hour sit in and hunger strike in sympathy with the organizers working for the welfare of the river everywhere.

Events WRD2023 - India

#river conservation #india #west bengal #world rivers day #Narmada River #river health assessments #ecosystem health #Nadia river #Pollution Remediation

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reasonsforhope · 4 months

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The Klamath River’s salmon population has declined due to myriad factors, but the biggest culprit is believed to be a series of dams built along the river from 1918 to 1962, cutting off fish migration routes.

Now, after decades of Indigenous advocacy, four of the structures are being demolished as part of the largest dam removal project in United States history. In November, crews finished removing the first of the four dams as part of a push to restore 644 kilometres (400 miles) of fish habitat.

“Dam removal is the largest single step that we can take to restore the Klamath River ecosystem,” [Barry McCovey, a member of the Yurok Tribe and director of tribal fisheries,] told Al Jazeera. “We’re going to see benefits to the ecosystem and then, in turn, to the fishery for decades and decades to come.” ...

A ‘watershed moment’

Four years later, [after a catastrophic fish die-off in 2002,] in 2006, the licence for the hydroelectric dams expired. That created an opportunity, according to Mark Bransom, CEO of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC), a nonprofit founded to oversee the dam removals.

Standards for protecting fisheries had increased since the initial license was issued, and the utility company responsible for the dams faced a choice. It could either upgrade the dams at an economic loss or enter into a settlement agreement that would allow it to operate the dams until they could be demolished.

“A big driver was the economics — knowing that they would have to modify these facilities to bring them up to modern environmental standards,” Bransom explained. “And the economics just didn’t pencil out.”

The utility company chose the settlement. In 2016, the KRRC was created to work with the state governments of California and Oregon to demolish the dams.

Final approval for the deal came in 2022, in what Bransom remembers as a “watershed moment”.

Regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted unanimously to tear down the dams, citing the benefit to the environment as well as to Indigenous tribes...

Tears of joy

Destruction of the first dam — the smallest, known as Copco 2 — began in June, with heavy machinery like excavators tearing down its concrete walls.

[Amy Cordalis, a Yurok Tribe member, fisherwoman and lawyer for the tribe,] was present for the start of the destruction. Bransom had invited her and fellow KRRC board members to visit the bend in the Klamath River where Copco 2 was being removed. She remembers taking his hand as they walked along a gravel ridge towards the water, a vein of blue nestled amid rolling hills.

“And then, there it was,” Cordalis said. “Or there it wasn’t. The dam was gone.”

For the first time in a century, water flowed freely through that area of the river. Cordalis felt like she was seeing her homelands restored.

Tears of joy began to roll down her cheeks. “I just cried so hard because it was so beautiful.”

The experience was also “profound” for Bransom. “It really was literally a jolt of energy that flowed through us,” he said, calling the visit “perhaps one of the most touching, most moving moments in my entire life”.

Demolition on Copco 2 was completed in November, with work starting on the other three dams. The entire project is scheduled to wrap in late 2024.

[A resilient river]

But experts like McCovey say major hurdles remain to restoring the river’s historic salmon population.

Climate change is warming the water. Wildfires and flash floods are contaminating the river with debris. And tiny particles from rubber vehicle tires are washing off roadways and into waterways, where their chemicals can kill fish within hours.

McCovey, however, is optimistic that the dam demolitions will help the river become more resilient.

“Dam removal is one of the best things we can do to help the Klamath basin be ready to handle climate change,” McCovey explained. He added that the river’s uninterrupted flow will also help flush out sediment and improve water quality.

The removal project is not the solution to all the river’s woes, but McCovey believes it’s a start — a step towards rebuilding the reciprocal relationship between the waterway and the Indigenous people who rely on it.

“We do a little bit of work, and then we start to see more salmon, and then maybe we get to eat more salmon, and that starts to help our people heal a little bit,” McCovey said. “And once we start healing, then we’re in a place where we can start to help the ecosystem a little bit more.”"

-via Al Jazeera, December 4, 2023

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thatsleepymermaid · 3 months

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(via @southriverforest on Instagram)

The City of Atlanta is refusing to count the 116k signatures on the Cop City Referendum petition, denying Atlanta citizens the right to vote on Cop City and the destruction of Weelaunee forest. On Monday, February 5th 2024 Atlanta will be voting on an ordinance for making referendum a clear and fair practice

If you can make it to Atlanta or if you're registered to vote, please show up and vote yes on Ordinance 34482.

#stop cop city #atlanta #environmentalism #politics #weelaunee forest #cop city #atlanta southern river forest #Instagram #tortuguita #ecology #enviornment #biology #conservation

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typhlonectes · 6 months

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Pacific Lamprey Conservation

After hiding under the substrate at a fish research center for nearly 7 years as larvae, Pacific lamprey EMERGED as juveniles with eyes and a suction disk mouth! These fish, which are of Tribal and ecological importance, are now ready for their journey out to sea! The Abernathy Fish Technology Center in Washington worked in collaboration with the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Chelan County Public Utility District to conduct this research to further understand and conserve Pacific lamprey. This is a rare accomplishment to have Pacific lamprey reared and transformed in a captive setting.

USFWS photo: Amanda Sheehy

via: USFWS Columbia Pacific Northwest

#lamprey #ichthyology #fish #agnatha #nature #conservation #ocean #rivers #aquatic #PNW #north america #science #environment

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sir20 · 10 months

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Béziers by sir20

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derangedhyena-delphinidae · 9 months

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URGENT! DO YOU WANT TO HELP THE SOUTHERN RESIDENTS? PLEASE HELP US WRITE, CALL AND TEXT!

A lawsuit, National Wildlife Federation vs National Marine Fisheries Service, may finally determine the fate of the 4 Lower Snake River Dams, the salmon who spawn there and the remaining 75 Southern Resident Orca who desperately need salmon to survive. Biden needs to know that we want those dams breached. He's broken enough of his climate promises - let him know that, and the extinction of these amazing animals, isn't an option!

Public comment is also being sought on the matter. Please visit our page, BidenBreachNow, for talking points, social media shareables, and extensive information about why the dams need to go. This is a critical time. Please call, text, write or email, every day if you can, until August 31st. Even if you already have acted and/or shared, please do it again. Please keep sharing because every voice counts! The Snake River was once one of the top salmon rivers in the world. That is sadly no longer the case. Four deadbeat dams on the Lower Snake River have cost an estimated 8 to 9 billion dollars in failed salmon recovery attempts - taxpayer money! - and they lose millions more every year generating unstorable surplus energy. What they do sell is often sold at a loss. The dams continue to get older and costlier to maintain, while solar and wind energy have replaced their power output; energy efficiency alone has done the same seven times over.

These dams aren't even clean energy! Their reservoirs emit huge amounts of methane, which contributes to the climate crisis. Please help spread this if you can, and join in. We have a real chance here to get this done - so let's do it.

As the late and great Ken Balcomb said: "We're at a point in history where we need to wake up to what we have to consider: do we want whales, or not?"

He never stopped fighting for the Southern Residents, and neither should we.

#srkw #bidenbreachnow #orca #salmon #orcanize #southern residents #snake river dams #killer whale #conservation

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rampantbottles · 1 year

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Red river hog studies. (4-26-23)

These guys are really cute- they've got little tassels on their ears!!!

#art study #digital art #digital sketch #pigs #wild hogs #wild boar #boar #wildlife conservation #red river hog #bushpig #thats not a euphemism #to my knowledge #sketch #sketches #piglet

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hope-for-the-planet · 1 year

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#environment #hope #good news #habitat restoration #river #river conservation #pollution #environmental grief #ecogrief

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wachinyeya · 2 months

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Sugarcane is a widely grown crop in the Nile Basin, but its destructive effects on soils, water resources and biodiversity have become increasingly apparent.

As the thirsty crop draws down water resources, aquatic species like the critically endangered Nubian flapshell turtle suffer a loss of habitat, forage and nesting sites.

In an effort to revive soils, diversify diets and incomes, and boost water levels that many animals rely on, communities are implementing agroforestry projects in lieu of monocultures.

The resulting “food forests” attract an array of wildlife while refilling wetlands and river systems where the culturally important flapshell turtles swim.

#good news #nile river #africa #kenya #nubian flapshell turtle #food forest #restoration #turtles #agroforestry #environmentalism #science #environment #nature #animals #conservation #sugarcane

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troythecatfish · 1 month

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headspace-hotel · 1 year

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so my quest now is to get Arundinaria federally listed as endangered because I think the evidence is highly compelling

it's declined to less than 2% of its original range

it used to be a keystone species in an ecosystem that included Bachman's warbler, passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets, all extinct now

Currently canebrakes are major habitat for several endangered or critically endangered plants including Venus flytraps and Alabama canebrake pitcher plants

it grows in large clonal colonies and reproduces sexually only every 30-40 years. this means that existing genetic diversity could be incredibly low.

(Personal observation) very, very few existing examples of rivercane are large, robust, and healthy canebrakes. like, most photos and observations I can find are of little, twiggy canes growing as part of the underbrush in a forest.

My canebrake has no canes that look like that. The shortest canes are 4-6 feet tall. But it's not declining—it's healthy looking and on the ground there are tiny sprouts nudging up from the rhizomes. ALSO. I found an old photo of the canebrake, from June 2020. It was like. Half the size. I am certain the river cane was not this tall and striking in the spring. I go on walks daily in the neighborhood; I would have noticed it.

I hypothesize that as a canebrake expands and matures, its growth rate increases, so a "mature" canebrake can shoot up 6+ foot canes in a single growing season. Existing research by the few organizations working on canebrake conservation states that after a controlled burn, canes resprout very rapidly from the rhizome system, growing as fast as 1.5 inches a day. Historical records attest that river cane reached 30 or even 45+ feet tall, but there is like, one photo online in existence of cane taller than 15 feet.

What this means is that almost all remaining river cane is in incredibly poor condition, basically existing in a weak immature state. "Maturity" for river cane means a large clonal colony, not a few sparse sticks in the undergrowth. The fact that this plant grows in large clonal colonies is key—if no mature, healthy colonies exist in an area, the plant is almost functionally extinct.

With the rate of development and clearing of land compared next to river cane's slow flowering schedule, it's likely that many clonal colonies are eradicated without ever flowering, meaning that genetic diversity is almost certainly dropping.

Rivercane is dependent on human management via regular controlled burns to thrive. This is not a species that will recover if simply left to itself—if an area of land is left to reforest, the cane will be outcompeted. If it is grazed by cattle, it will be destroyed.

It is already listed as endangered in a couple states

i'm going back to my volunteer job soon, I will bring this proposal, I already know the head forester and ecologist are interested, and i'll be gathering contacts

#river cane #canebrake #canebrakes #bamboo #conservation

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worldriversday · 7 months

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NEPAL - Celebrating river conservation through Music at the Bank of Bagmati River.

⦁ The Nepal River Conservation Trust (NRCT) is planning to celebrate World’s River Day as one of the events of Bagmati River Festival, Bagmati Live Aid, celebrating river conservation through Music at the Bank of Bagmati River. Part of the event will also be a tribute to the memory of Robin Tamang, a river campaigner and wonderful vocal artist with the band, Robin and the Revolution

#Nepal River Conservation Trust (NRCT)#Bagmati River.#world rivers day #24 september #Festival #river conservation

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