Thank you to everyone who connected with Evan in this space. He truly was a voice for the trees and left a powerful conservation legacy. I will be keeping his account active for posterity's sake -Maria (Evan's partner)

Lyle Lewis@race2extinct.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I’m saddened to share that my friend and collaborator Evan Frost has died. Evan spent decades defending forests and in recent years found a public voice here. His work gave context to what we’ve lost, and clarity to what remains at risk. He will be deeply missed.

A new report shows California’s controversial Zone Zero requirements helped save homes in the Palisades and Eaton fires — but some experts warned the insurance-backed investigation doesn’t tell the full story: www.latimes.com/environment/...

Early adopters of 'zone zero' fared better in L.A. County fires, insurance-backed investigation finds

A new study found that in the Eaton and Palisades fires, homes that had already adopted proposed regulations on creating vegetation-free buffers were less likely to burn.

latimes.com

And the premise for needing #SPEEDAct #PermittingReform is essentially made up. Check out this cool story map from @weact4ej.bsky.social:

NEPA Does Not Delay

Deregulation is Not the Solution for Clean Energy

storymaps.arcgis.com

In our Climate Report my coauthors and I say: We are hurtling toward climate chaos. The planet's vital signs are flashing red. Consequences of human-driven alterations of the climate are no longer future threats but are here now. Read report here doi.org/10.1093/bios...

The 2025 state of the climate report: a planet on the brink

We are hurtling toward climate chaos. The planet's vital signs are flashing red. The consequences of human-driven alterations of the climate are no longer

doi.org

"The U.S. wildfire community is about to undergo one of the biggest structural changes in our lifetime. Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy has announced his retirement and has accepted the position as the FIRST Director of the newly created United States Wildland Fire Service."

If Brazil thinks this is a win for loggers and not protecting forests they will collapse. Look at Nauru and Indonesia. The president said Palm oil trees are trees too. Sumatra gone now. One by one countries will collapse for corporations

Indonesia will collapse like Nauru greed. Sumatra collapse already. Then Brazil next will collapse. Greed. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

The loggers and ranchers are closing in but still Brazil’s Kawahiva people wait for protection

Bureaucratic delays and funding shortages stall plans to carve out a forest reserve for the uncontacted Indigenous group on the southern fringe of the Brazilian Amazon

theguardian.com

open.substack.com/pub/ecointeg... THIS IS THE WAY THEY PUNISH COLORADO

Brand New “Biggest Logging Project in Colorado History” Brings Total to Half-Million Acres and Seventeen Roadless Areas

This week, the U.S.

open.substack.com

Idaho is planning to work with the U.S. Forest Service to significantly boost logging and timber sales from National Forest trees in the Gem State.

Idaho partners with US Forest Service with goal to double timber sales • Idaho Capital Sun

Idaho is planning to work with the U.S. Forest Service to significantly boost logging and timber sales from National Forest trees.

idahocapitalsun.com

Monarch butterflies are declining as their habitat degrades, even in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. A 50-year forest review shows logging bans succeed only when local communities are consulted and compensated — and fail when they’re not involved.

Saving critical winter habitat for monarch butterflies may depend on buy-in from their human neighbors

The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population has plummeted by 80% to 95% since the 1990s, depending on the region and monitoring method. A major cause of the species’ decline is deforestation…

news.mongabay.com

A new study finds the Zambezi River starts not in Zambia but in Angola’s highlands, adding 342 km to its length. Rivers there supply ~70% of the water that feeds Victoria Falls, underscoring the need to protect the Upper Zambezi Basin, where forest loss is rising.

Scientists chart a new source, and length, for Africa’s famous Zambezi River

A new study suggests that the Zambezi River, Africa’s fourth-longest, is 11% longer than previously thought, with its most distant source lying in Angola, not Zambia. While the finding leaves the…

news.mongabay.com

Most extinctions today are ‘dark extinctions’….species that vanish before they’re described, monitored, or counted. No database can record what was never discovered. Biology is not accounting, and absence of paperwork is not absence of extinction. news.arizona.edu/news/extinct...

Extinction rates have slowed across many plant and animal groups, study shows

The first analysis of recent extinctions across plants and animals finds that, contrary to previous studies, the rate at which many groups of organisms have gone extinct has declined over the last 100...

news.arizona.edu

Offsets are like a smoker paying a healthy person to go for a run, then claiming they’ve reduced their risk of cancer. The healthy person gains some benefit. The smoker gains nothing. And cancer rates don’t change. apple.news/AGbRqsgfcQWa...

Forestry Carbon Credit Programs Have a Poor Track Record. Can a More Refined Approach Fix the Problem? — Inside Climate News

The Family Forest Carbon Program pays landowners not to timber their trees, then sells the additional growth as carbon credits. But critics question whether it leads to overall emissions reductions.

apple.news

What was once the US National Nature Assessment is now the United by Nature Assessment. These reports are only as good as the feedback they receive - nominations for expert reviewers is now open!

Phil Levin@phillevin.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The National Academies is inviting nominations for experts to review the draft United by Nature assessment. Ecology, climate, conservation, social science, sci-comm + more. If someone comes to mind—maybe you—please nominate & please the word! www.nationalacademies.org/projects/DEL...

Why addressing deforestation is a strategic business priority ->World Economic Forum | #Deforestation | More from Lil Dr Glen EcoChat at BigEarthData.ai

Good fences make good neighbors. An old problem; boundaries matter. A harsh reality is USFS is ultimately a political organization within the President’s cabinet, and the agency responds to Congressional oversight. To borrow a phrase, manure rolls downhill. Grassroots advocacy can push back.

ProPublica@propublica.org · 8mo ago

NEW: Elected officials are quick to support public lands ranchers who are accused of breaking rules. As a result, federal agencies pull punches when enforcing regulations.

'Not to be conquered but preserved': Profound lessons against 'development' on the Nicobar Islands ->Scroll.in | #Island | More from Lil Dr Glen EcoChat at BigEarthData.ai

'Not to be conquered but preserved': Profound lessons against 'development' on the Nicobar Islands

For indigenous communities, the forest is more than a home or a source of sustenance: it is a realm of reverence, reciprocity and deep belonging. The forest is not a resource to be plundered; it is an ancestral guardian that...

scroll.in

substack.com/@thenational...

National Park Journal (@thenationalparkjournal)

Something to keep in mind.

substack.com

How deforestation turbocharged Indonesia's deadly floods phys.org/news/2025-12... via @physorg_com

How deforestation turbocharged Indonesia's deadly floods

The deadly flooding that has killed hundreds in Indonesia was largely the result of monsoon rains and a rare tropical storm. But something else may have played a role: deforestation.

phys.org

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” — John Muir. #fog #photography #forest #oregon

Breaking The University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center (WCC) has tonight confirmed a brand-new jaguar in the United States, Jaguar #5, never before identified, just days after the Trump administration’s new double border wall construction waivers (see below).

Taylor McKinnon@publiccarbon.bsky.social · 8mo ago

ICYMI: Newly issued waivers allow hundreds of miles of new border infrastructure — including double walls, patrol roads, and industrial lighting — in the last open corridors for jaguars, ocelots and dozens of other animals moving between the U.S. and Mexico. biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press...

People say “the scars of the 1910 fire are still visible.” Look closer: the scars aren’t from the fire—they’re from the roads and salvage logging that followed. Yellowstone burned in 1988 with the same intensity. Because it wasn’t salvaged, most visitors have no idea a fire ever happened.

Join us for our latest Fire in Practice webinar on Wed 3rd Dec 2-3pm GMT, with Danny Manning and Beth Rose Middleton Manning, on Indigenous-led prescribed burning in northern California #Wildfires #Indigenous www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fire-in-pr...

Fire in Practice - Indigenous-led prescribed burning in California

Join Danny Manning and Beth Rose Middleton Manning to discuss the return of cultural and Indigenous-led prescribed burning

eventbrite.co.uk

Our new study out today is all good news. Climate change is powerful, but forests have defended sensitive species from fire since Gondwana. If we join their resistance, we can end the fire apocalypse in some places. theconversation.com/in-1939-a-ro...

In 1939, a Royal Commission found burning forests leads to more bushfires. But this cycle of destruction can be stopped

After devastating fires in 1939, authorities began burning forests to reduce fuel load. But we now know this creates conditions for even worse fires.

theconversation.com

The Forest Service is getting slower and slower with wildfire prevention, just as the fires get worse and worse. “The workforce is so shot out and depleted, they’re even decreased expectations. We’re behind the targets, even when the targets have been reduced” — one fire manager to me.

The U.S. Forest Service Is Falling Further Behind on Wildfire Prevention

Outside analysis of Forest Service data is being circulated by Democrats finding the Trump administration lagging on forest management.

notus.org

There is no good smoke. Yet it is an illusion to think all fire can be eliminated. The question is therefore: how would you like your smoke? When do you want it to burn?

Mark Parrington@mparrington.bsky.social · 8mo ago

#Wildfire smoke impacts on #airquality from the recent @easac.bsky.social report easac.eu/publications... presented by @dr-firelady.bsky.social in the Clean Air Forum session on super pollutants & extreme events #CleanAirEU @ecmwf.int @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social

#Fire, #Water, and National #Security: Why #Canada Cannot Backslide www.policymagazine.ca/fire-water-a...

Fire, Water, and National Security: Why Canada Cannot Backslide - Policy Magazine

The August 2023 wildfires, 10 km from Fort Smith, NWT/Jason Johnson

policymagazine.ca

OPINION: Building more roads in national forests won’t prevent wildfires. The administration wants the public to believe new roads and logging help prevent fires. In fact, they facilitate more. columbiainsight.org/building-mor...

One small Indigenous territory is currently the site of roughly 70% of deforestation in Indigenous territories across the Brazilian Amazon due to illegal mining over the last two years, according to government data.

One small Indigenous territory emerges as illegal mining hotspot in Brazil’s Amazon

One small Indigenous territory is currently the site of roughly 70% of deforestation in Indigenous territories across the Brazilian Amazon due to illegal mining over the last two years, according to…

news.mongabay.com

substack.com/@westernwate... !!!!!

Western Watersheds Project (@westernwatersheds)

Out today: The rubber stamping of grazing permits on western public lands is leading to mass degradation, species endangerment and worsening wildfire risk. https://www.propublica.org/article/grazing...

substack.com