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RFK Jr. Says He Plans to Tell CDC to Stop Recommending Fluoride in Drinking Water

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention soon to stop recommending fluoridation in communities nationwide. Kennedy also said he’s assembling a task force to focus on the issue.Also on Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it is reviewing “new scientific information" on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water.Kennedy told The Associated Press of his plans after a news conference in Salt Lake City. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation barring cities and communities from deciding whether to add the cavity-preventing mineral to their water systems. Water systems across the state must shut down their fluoridation systems by May 7.Kennedy praised Utah for emerging as “the leader in making America healthy again.” He was flanked by Utah legislative leaders and the sponsor of the state’s fluoride law. “I’m very, very proud of this state for being the first state to ban it, and I hope many more will,” he said.EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who appeared with Kennedy at the news conference, said his agency was launching a renewed examination of scientific studies on the potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water to help inform any changes to the national standards.“When this evaluation is completed, we will have an updated foundational scientific evaluation that will inform the agency’s future steps,” Zeldin said. “Secretary Kennedy has long been at the forefront of this issue. His advocacy was instrumental in our decision to review fluoride exposure risks and we are committed to working alongside him, utilizing sound science as we advance our mission of protecting human health and the environment.”Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the CDC. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and in 1962 set guidelines for how much should be added to water.Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has called fluoride a “dangerous neurotoxin” and said also it’s been associated with arthritis, bone breaks, and thyroid disease. Some studies have suggested such links might exist, usually at higher-than-recommended fluoride levels, though some reviewers have questioned the quality of available evidence and said no definitive conclusions can be drawn.Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main one for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water was long considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.About one-third of community water systems — 17,000 out of 51,000 across the U.S. — serving more than 60% of the population fluoridated their water, according to a 2022 CDC analysis. The agency currently recommends 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water.But over time, studies have documented potential problems. Too much fluoride has been associated with streaking or spots on teeth. Studies also have traced a link between excess fluoride and brain development.A report last year by the federal government’s National Toxicology Program, which summarized studies conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico, concluded that drinking water with more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter — more than twice the recommended level in the U.S. — was associated with lower IQs in kids.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

FDA "prepared to act" on RFK's request to remove fluoride from drinking water

The Trump administration is formally taking on fluoride in drinking water, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy planning to tell the CDC to end its longtime recommendation for the practice.EPA head Lee Zeldin also said his agency is "ready to act."Why it matters: Public health and dental experts have warned ending the addition of fluoride to drinking water will harm children's teeth.Driving the news: Zeldin and Kennedy joined Utah lawmakers in a Monday media event to praise the state's first-in-the-nation ban on fluoride in public water systems.Kennedy later told the AP he planned to assemble a task force to examine the mineral in drinking water and tell the CDC to stop recommending it. Catch up quick: Kennedy last November called fluoride "an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease." The latest: He renewed those criticisms Monday, citing an August report by the National Toxicology Program that found, "with moderate confidence," an association between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQs in children.Reality check: The analysis looked at fluoride levels more than double what federal regulators recommend in drinking water."It is important to note that there were insufficient data to determine if the low fluoride level of 0.7 mg/L currently recommended for U.S. community water supplies has a negative effect on children's IQ," the paper states.Most U.S. water systems contain fluoride below that level. Higher readings are almost always the result of naturally occurring fluoride in the ground, the New York Times reported. What they're saying: "It is top of the list for the Environmental Protection Agency," Zeldin said, pledging the agency will "go back and look at these studies that have come out."Yes, but: Zeldin did not specify what, if anything, the EPA will do. Kennedy previously said the Trump administration would advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.By the numbers: More than 60% of the U.S. population is connected to water systems that contain added fluoride, per the Kaiser Family Foundation.What we're watching: Bills similar to Utah's have been introduced in Tennessee, North Dakota and Montana.

The Trump administration is formally taking on fluoride in drinking water, with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy planning to tell the CDC to end its longtime recommendation for the practice.EPA head Lee Zeldin also said his agency is "ready to act."Why it matters: Public health and dental experts have warned ending the addition of fluoride to drinking water will harm children's teeth.Driving the news: Zeldin and Kennedy joined Utah lawmakers in a Monday media event to praise the state's first-in-the-nation ban on fluoride in public water systems.Kennedy later told the AP he planned to assemble a task force to examine the mineral in drinking water and tell the CDC to stop recommending it. Catch up quick: Kennedy last November called fluoride "an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease." The latest: He renewed those criticisms Monday, citing an August report by the National Toxicology Program that found, "with moderate confidence," an association between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQs in children.Reality check: The analysis looked at fluoride levels more than double what federal regulators recommend in drinking water."It is important to note that there were insufficient data to determine if the low fluoride level of 0.7 mg/L currently recommended for U.S. community water supplies has a negative effect on children's IQ," the paper states.Most U.S. water systems contain fluoride below that level. Higher readings are almost always the result of naturally occurring fluoride in the ground, the New York Times reported. What they're saying: "It is top of the list for the Environmental Protection Agency," Zeldin said, pledging the agency will "go back and look at these studies that have come out."Yes, but: Zeldin did not specify what, if anything, the EPA will do. Kennedy previously said the Trump administration would advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.By the numbers: More than 60% of the U.S. population is connected to water systems that contain added fluoride, per the Kaiser Family Foundation.What we're watching: Bills similar to Utah's have been introduced in Tennessee, North Dakota and Montana.

EPA says it will reconsider safety of fluoride in drinking water

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will reconsider the health impacts of fluoride in drinking water — taking what could be an initial step toward new national limits or a ban on the substance. An EPA press release said Monday that the agency would “expeditiously review new scientific information on potential health risks of fluoride in...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will reconsider the health impacts of fluoride in drinking water — taking what could be an initial step toward new national limits or a ban on the substance. An EPA press release said Monday that the agency would “expeditiously review new scientific information on potential health risks of fluoride in drinking water” and that doing so will inform any potential moves to restrict fluoride under the Safe Drinking Water Act. “Without prejudging any outcomes, when this evaluation is completed, we will have an updated foundational scientific evaluation that will inform the agency's future steps to meet statutory obligations under the Safe Drinking Water Act,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a written statement.  In September, a judge ruled that the EPA must “engage with a regulatory response” to fluoride, though it did not dictate what that response should be.  It’s not immediately clear whether Zeldin’s announcement differs from work the agency would have otherwise done in response to that order. But the administrator credited advocacy from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for bringing about the review.  “Secretary Kennedy has long been at the forefront of this issue. His advocacy was instrumental in our decision to review fluoride exposure risks and we are committed to working alongside him, utilizing sound science as we advance our mission of protecting human health and the environment,” Zeldin said. Fluoride is intentionally added to drinking water to prevent tooth decay. About 200 million Americans drink water with added fluoride.  While it’s clear that fluoride is good for teeth, some recent studies have linked it to lower IQ. Notably, the Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) National Toxicology Program found in August that higher levels of fluoride exposure is linked to lower IQs in children.  However, health associations including the the American Academy of Pediatrics stood by recommendations in favor of adding fluoride to water and toothpaste even in light of the finding. The pediatrics organization said that among other issues, the toxicology program left out studies that did not find a link between fluoride and IQ. And earlier in 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that “expert panels … have not found convincing scientific evidence linking community water fluoridation with any potential adverse health effect,” including low intelligence.  The attention paid to potential impacts of fluoride has grown in recent years amid the rise of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement. In the EPA's announcement, the agency cited the August 2024 toxicology program finding in its decision to revisit the health impacts of fluoride, which were previously assessed by the EPA in July 2024. EPA says its review will be conducted “in coordination” with Kennedy and HHS. 

Earless dragons were presumed extinct in Australia – now Daisy and Kip have sniffed out 13 of them

Zoos Victoria wildlife detection dogs uncovered the ‘bloody gorgeous’ reptiles in return for treats and cuddles Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereWildlife detection dogs successfully sniffed out 13 critically endangered earless dragons in previously unknown burrows in Melbourne’s west, after a training program launched by Zoos Victoria in 2023.The Victorian grassland earless dragon – Australia’s most imperilled reptile – had not been seen for 50 years and was thought extinct before its remarkable rediscovery on privately owned grassland in 2023.Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Wildlife detection dogs successfully sniffed out 13 critically endangered earless dragons in previously unknown burrows in Melbourne’s west, after a training program launched by Zoos Victoria in 2023.The Victorian grassland earless dragon – Australia’s most imperilled reptile – had not been seen for 50 years and was thought extinct before its remarkable rediscovery on privately owned grassland in 2023.Register: it’s quick and easyIt’s still free to read – this is not a paywallWe’re committed to keeping our quality reporting open. By registering and providing us with insight into your preferences, you’re helping us to engage with you more deeply, and that allows us to keep our journalism free for all.Have a subscription? Made a contribution? Already registered?Sign InGiven this “second chance” at survival, Garry Peterson, the zoo’s general manager of threatened species, said the organisation launched intensive training and search efforts the same year.“We’re really lucky to have a second opportunity with this species that was presumed extinct,” Peterson said.But it wasn’t going to be easy to find them. It’s thought there are probably fewer than 200 dragons left in the wild and the short, nuggetty and extremely rare dragons often hid inside wolf spider burrows or under rocks, making them challenging to find using traditional survey techniques.That’s where the zoo’s dogs came in.After a year of training, Daisy, a 6-year-old lagotto romagnolo and Kip, an 8-year-old kelpie cross, had sniffed out a total of 13 of the wild dragons by March this year, in return for treats, cuddles, ball games and praise.Daisy mostly works with wildlife detection dog officer Dr Nick Rutter, who said it was a “career highlight” when she finally found a dragon on her own in May 2024, making him feel “an overwhelming cascade of joy”.The palm-sized reptiles were “bloody gorgeous”, he said, with intricate patterns down their backs and striking colours during the breeding season.Daisy and Kip were chosen for their safe behaviour around small animals, and experience surveying for threatened species, like Baw Baw frogs and freshwater turtles.Each undertook about 80 days of scent-based training and survey work, initially sniffing out a small number of captive animals and graduating to opportunistic lessons in the field when biologists came across a wild dragon.When assessed, the dog-handler teams detected earless dragons with speed and accuracy, according to results published on the National Environmental Science Program’s Resilient Landscapes hub.Wildlife detection dog officer Dr Nick Rutter said it was a ‘career highlight’ when Daisy found her first earless dragon in May 2024. Photograph: Zoos VictoriaEmma Bennett, who has researched the effectiveness of detection dogs in searching for rare species, said dogs provided a scent-based search method that was complimentary to traditional surveys using visual cues.“If something is hidden, or camouflaged, in a burrow, and just difficult to see, it might be easy to smell,” she said.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Clear Air AustraliaAdam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisisPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionDetection dogs were being successfully used in Australia, as well as globally, for finding threatened species, searching for invasive viruses and pathogens, and conducting bird and bat surveys at wind farms.Bennett, who has worked with detection dogs for 20 years and was not involved with the zoo project, said success relied on a strong partnership between human and hound.“From the dog’s perspective, the role of the human is to carry the ball around for when they do find something, and then to throw it,” Bennett said.Zoos Victoria also trained two other dogs, Sugar and Moss, to search for dragon scats – droppings roughly the size of corn kernels. While the dogs were effective at finding them, they were limited by how quickly scats were scavenged by ants and other invertebrates in the wild.It’s thought there are probably fewer than 200 Victorian grassland earless dragons left in the wild. Photograph: Zoos VictoriaHistorical records show the Victorian grassland earless dragon was once recorded in St Kilda, Moonee Ponds and Sunbury, habitat that disappeared as housing and farmland expanded. Approximately 0.5% of suitable grassland habitat remains.Dr Jane Melville, senior curator of terrestrial vertebrates at Museums Victoria Research Institute – who named the Victorian grassland earless dragon as a distinct species in 2019 – said its rediscovery was a reminder that animals could still persist, even in places where they hadn’t been seen in decades.“They’ve shown amazing resilience,” she said. “This little dragon has managed to hold on under really difficult circumstances.”

Many native New Zealand species face threat of extinction, report finds

A three-yearly environmental update issues stark warning over biodiversity – and reports air pollution has improved in some areasA major new report on New Zealand’s environment has revealed a worrying outlook for its unique species and highlighted declining water health, while also noting some improvements in air quality.The ministry of the environment’s three-yearly update, Our Environment 2025, collates statistics, data and research across five domains – air, atmosphere and climate, freshwater, land, and marine – to paint a picture of the state of New Zealand’s environment. Continue reading...

A major new report on New Zealand’s environment has revealed a worrying outlook for its unique species and highlighted declining water health, while also noting some improvements in air quality.The ministry of the environment’s three-yearly update, Our Environment 2025, collates statistics, data and research across five domains – air, atmosphere and climate, freshwater, land, and marine – to paint a picture of the state of New Zealand’s environment.James Palmer, the ministry’s secretary for the environment, said the findings in the report were a “mixed bag”.“It does highlight the real risks to people, communities and places, which left unaddressed threaten our livelihoods and our quality of life for generations to come,” Palmer said. “But the report also shows that there are reasons for optimism.”The report painted a sobering picture for New Zealand’s indigenous animals, with 76% of freshwater fish, 68% of freshwater birds, 78% of terrestrial birds, 93% of frogs, and 94% of reptiles threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened.“New Zealand’s unique biodiversity has a high proportion of threatened or at-risk species – one of the highest amid the global biodiversity crisis”, the report said, noting that land use, pollution, invasive species and climate change can all have an impact on biodiversity.The report also found the most widespread water quality issue affecting groundwaters was the presence of E coli – a bacteria found in the guts of animals and humans that can cause serious illness and has been linked to farming and cities in New Zealand.Of more than 1,000 groundwater monitoring sites, nearly half failed to meet the drinking water standard for E coli on at least one occasion between 2019 and 2024, while nearly half of the monitored rivers shows worsening E coli trends.Meanwhile, a significant proportion of groundwaters have accumulated excess nitrate due to activities such as intensive farming, logging and urbanisation, which also affects water quality and degrades surface water ecosystems.Dr Mike Joy, a senior research fellow in freshwater ecology and environmental science at Victoria University of Wellington, said the report revealed the ongoing and – in most cases – worsening decline of the environment. “The report reveals starkly the fallacy of the label ‘clean green New Zealand’ and the urgent need for this to be taken seriously by government,” he said.New Zealand also faced a significant problem with pest plants. “The most spectacular of those, arguably, is the wilding conifer,” Palmer said.Around 2m hectares are thought to be invaded by wilding conifers, an introduced pest plant that spreads from plantation forests. Their area is expanding by around 90,000 hectares a year and, without proper management, could invade about a quarter of New Zealand’s land within 30 years, the majority of which would be conservation land.The report traverses how New Zealanders will be affected by the climate crisis and the increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023. Around 750,000 people and 500,000 buildings, are near rivers and in coastal areas already exposed to extreme flooding, while low-lying communities are vulnerable to sea-level rise, and rural communities are at risk of wildfires.“We’ll face some tough choices about our priorities as a country, including about where we put our efforts and our scarce dollars,” Palmer said.The report identified some environmental improvements, particularly in air quality. While road transport remains the main source of nitrogen oxide pollution, air pollution from motor vehicles was reducing due to stronger emission standards, more people choosing to use lower-emission vehicles, and improvements to engines and fuel.“We’ve started to turn the corner in meaningful ways on some of our measures – choices about the cars we drive, the heating we use for our homes, for example, are showing up in better air quality, which is likely to flow through into better health,” Palmer said.“That underscores that we can make a difference, and we can build on the momentum that is already underway by doing more.”

The Endangered Species Next Door

Amidst a comeback for the red-cockaded woodpecker — the South’s not-always-welcome neighbor — a new legal status and presidential administration create uncertainty. The post The Endangered Species Next Door appeared first on The Revelator.

For decades I observed the paradox. The landscape around the coastal North Carolina home where my parents retired was being developed at a rate that I have never seen anywhere. Yet right across a frenetic, four-lane state highway from my parents’ house sat a 63,000-acre state refuge — a little gem of native habitat supporting a longleaf pine savanna and a unique wetland called pocosin or Carolina bay. The Holly Shelter Game Lands are home to many species, including Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) and red-cockaded woodpeckers (Leuconotopicus borealis), a bird first listed as endangered in 1970 under a precursor to the federal 1973 Endangered Species Act. When developers wedged a Dollar General between the game lands and the highway a few years ago, I trusted the Endangered Species Act to protect the red-cockaded woodpeckers living nearby. Then, in October 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it had “downlisted” the red-cockaded woodpecker from “endangered” to “threatened” — still at risk, but in better shape thanks to ongoing conservation efforts. That’s typically considered good news, but when I heard it, my heart sank. I could see the vise tightening on the red-cockaded woodpeckers of the Holly Shelter Game Lands. Each time I visited North Carolina, acres of longleaf pines (Pinus palustris) had disappeared. Some were replaced by the looming piles of dirt that would become a highway bypass, meant to ease traffic and speed commuters between two of the state’s biggest cities, Wilmington and Jacksonville. Other acres of trees gave way to massive apartment complexes that turn their bland backs to the highway. How could the species not need more protection than ever? An Unpopular Bird When I first told my parents, years ago, that their neighbors included a federally endangered species, the red-cockaded woodpecker, my dad waved his hand dismissively toward the birdfeeders in their backyard. “Those woodpeckers are everywhere,” he said. He wasn’t alone in that sentiment. In the 1990s a lot of people in North Carolina thought there were entirely too many red-cockaded woodpeckers around. The birds were, in some peoples’ minds, preventing development and logging on private property. “They called it the woodpecker wars,” says Jeff Walters, a biology professor at Virginia Tech and a leading expert on red-cockaded woodpeckers. Rumor had it that property owners were killing the birds to avoid having their land tied up by conservation. Peace came in 1995 with a new federal policy, the Safe Harbor Program, which allows voluntary agreements between the Fish and Wildlife Service and private landowners. The landowner promises to improve habitat for federally endangered species, and the government promises not to increase restrictions on the land, even if the population of endangered species grows. Today they are called Conservation Benefit Agreements, and while they were created in North Carolina for red-cockaded woodpeckers, the popular program is used for many species across the country. “Even in Guam,” a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean, Walters says. But even with this program, the woodpeckers continued to suffer and decline. For Want of a Tree Longleaf pine forests once blanketed over 90 million acres in the southeastern United States, from eastern Texas to southern Virginia, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service. This was the red-cockaded woodpecker’s empire. Red-cockaded woodpeckers depend on longleaf pines and on a specific habitat — the longleaf pine savanna. They will build cavities in other species of pine, but they strongly prefer longleaf. The woodpecker relies on the specific biology of the longleaf pine. It’s the only woodpecker to build cavities in living trees. The longleaf pine’s susceptibility to red heart disease, a fungus that rots a tree’s inner wood, makes it easier for the birds to carve out their homes. Red-cockaded woodpeckers also depend on the longleaf pine forest’s unique ecosystem, which relies on frequent, low-intensity fires and lacks a midstory, that layer of trees in between the shrubby ground cover and the soaring pines themselves. With these requirements met, the woodpeckers are resilient and thrive even on military bases. “I’ve seen a bird fall off a tree in the middle of artillery training. It just flew back up, not bothered at all,” Walters says. But European settlers started cutting down longleaf pine forests almost as soon as they landed. Cut-down forests were replanted with faster-growing pine species. Longleaf pine seeds couldn’t sprout when wildfires were suppressed. The birds declined with the forests, and by 2006 longleaf pine forests had hit a low of just 3 million acres — about a 97% decline over their historic numbers. Today longleaf pine savannas are one of the nation’s most endangered ecosystems, but conservation efforts across the Southeast have boosted the extent of longleaf pine forests to over 5 million acres, according to the Natural Resource Conservation Service. That increase is a success story — but it represents a mere splinter of the forest’s former glory. Meet the Neighbors I wanted to meet my parents’ threatened neighbors, so on a warm, sunny Saturday in February, I walked down a dirt road in the Holly Shelter Game Lands looking for them. David Allen, a wildlife biologist who spent his entire professional career working with red-cockaded woodpeckers, including 28 years with the North Carolina Wildlife Commission, had given me a complicated plan that guaranteed a sighting. But finding a red-cockaded woodpecker proved much simpler than Allen’s plan: I just looked around when I heard a gentle tapping. As I walked along the road, I could see where the game lands staff had painted broad, white stripes on trees with woodpecker cavities. I kept walking and heard faint tapping. I could see a black-and-white woodpecker clinging to a pine trunk. But had I found the right bird? Red-cockaded woodpeckers look a lot like their relatives, hairy woodpeckers (L. villosus), who are common and found all over North America. Both are robin-sized, have black wings with white spots and a white belly. The red-cockaded woodpecker’s belly has black spots. Allen told me to focus in on a woodpecker’s “cheeks” to tell them apart, looking for the broad white patch on a red-cockaded woodpecker’s head, compared to the two thin white stripes on the hairy woodpecker. Focusing my binoculars on the correct pine trunk in a forest of identical pine trunks was the most difficult part. Then I located it. This bird’s cheek had a broad white patch. Red-cockaded woodpeckers are average-looking, but their behavior is exceptional. They raise their chicks in family groups — mostly brothers, but also sisters — helping to guard the nest, keep the eggs warm, and bring food to the chicks. This is rare among birds. Walters says the acorn woodpecker, a western species, does something similar. Crows also raise their young in family groups. Red-cockaded woodpeckers drill sap wells around future and current nest cavities. It can take anywhere from several months to over a decade to get the dripping pine sap just the way they like it. The sticky sap protects the chicks inside from snakes. A marked tree with woodpecker cavity. Photo: Madeline Bodin As I walked through Holly Shelter, I saw lots of small, round cavities in trees. The helper birds roost in those holes. Two holes were surrounded by greenish-gray sap — potential nest cavities. “Breeding territories are a patriarchy,” Walters says. Sons hang around to inherit a good, sappy nest cavity from their fathers. Sometimes a nest cavity may be started by a grandfather and first used by a grandson. The combination of family breeding and multigenerational construction could make for telenovela-worthy drama, but on that warm February day, the bird was just theatrically flicking a piece of bark off the tree now and then as it searched for insects. I looked for a long time. Then, with a flash of dark wings, the woodpecker was gone. The Downlisting Walters, who was an academic advisor on the Species Status Assessment that provided the scientific foundation for the downlisting of the red-cockaded woodpecker from endangered to threatened, believes the downlisting is warranted. “We found that most populations, about 75%, have increased,” he tells me. Holly Shelter is in the smaller group of populations that haven’t grown, he adds. Why are red-cockaded woodpecker populations thriving in some areas and struggling in others? “It comes down to forest management,” Walters says. A healthy forest for these woodpeckers starts with prescribed fire: intentionally set, controlled burns made by trained land managers. By preventing the midstory trees from growing, managers encourage red-cockaded woodpeckers to stick around. Without fire they tend to abandon an area. Evidence of fire. Photo: Madeline Bodin Walters says populations also tend to increase when wildlife managers create artificial nest cavities in appropriate habitat near existing family groups. The Holly Shelter staff does both these things, says Alexander Parker, North Carolina Wildlife Commission’s species and habitat biologist for the site. The federal government has provided most of the funding for this work. And it’s unclear, between the downlisting and executive branch spending cuts, what will happen with this funding in the future. While Walters remains confident about the downlisting, the data included in the status assessment acknowledges that most red-cockaded woodpecker populations are small and have not reached their recovery targets. Even the official announcement of the downlisting in the Federal Register said, “The current status of red-cockaded woodpecker partially meets the 2003 downlisting criteria.” Partially? I emailed the Fish and Wildlife Service’s red-cockaded woodpecker recovery coordinator, John Doresky, for clarification. But I wasn’t allowed to speak with him, and I didn’t receive specific answers to my emailed questions. The people at the Southern Environmental Law Center have some theories about the downlisting. An investigation by SELC and Defenders of Wildlife found documentation of a regional Fish and Wildlife quota to downlist, delist or not list 30 species a year as a “wildly important goal.” “That cast a shadow over the proposal to downlist the species,” says Elizabeth Rasheed, a North Carolina-based staff attorney at SELC. It’s bad news for the entire region, since the Southeast is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. When the downlisting was proposed in 2020, in the waning days of the first Trump administration, SELC wanted to make sure it didn’t go too far. Rasheed says, “SELC was most concerned about the loss of protections against killing, harassing or otherwise harming the birds — by cutting down nesting trees, for example.” At the time the Trump administration had removed that protection for species classified as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Rob Waddell – NC Wildlife Photographer & Videographer (@robwaddellphotography) SELC and other conservation organizations asked for these protections in their comments to the federal agency. When the woodpecker was officially downlisted in the waning days of the Biden administration, specific protections against harm were indeed added, even though the Biden administration had also restored the protections for all species listed as threatened. Because the protections were specifically written into the downlisting, those protections will continue to protect red-cockaded woodpeckers even if, as Rasheed and others expect, the Trump administration removes protections from threatened species yet again. There Goes the Neighborhood There are at least two towns in North Carolina where red-cockaded woodpeckers live among people’s homes, but my parents’ town isn’t known to be one of them. With the downlisting, federal funding woes, and the local construction boom, I wanted to believe my dad when he said that “those woodpeckers are everywhere” in his housing development. In the face of so many threats, I hoped that red-cockaded woodpeckers could survive even in a place with streets, lawns, and houses. But I also didn’t trust my father’s birding skills; he’s limited to the species that are also baseball team mascots. So we looked at photos. He pointed to a picture of a dark, crow-sized woodpecker with a bright red mohawk — a pileated woodpecker, a common backyard bird. I wonder how many of them were killed in the woodpecker wars. Allen told me that even for the people who live among red-cockaded woodpeckers, 90% of the small woodpeckers in their yards are the common ones — hairy and downy woodpeckers, and sapsuckers. Still, I stick by my idea of my parents’ neighborhood as a harbinger of the birds’ fate. This busy little corner of the North Carolina coast, with its road construction and boxy apartment complexes, is not exceptional. U.S. Census Bureau figures show that the Southeast — the red-cockaded woodpecker’s former empire — is the nation’s fastest-growing region. It’s not just the Holly Shelter red-cockaded woodpeckers who are being squeezed. I’m concerned about that squeeze because I’ve learned that the conservation success of the red-cockaded woodpecker is delicate. It relies on things that are no longer certain, such as federal funding for prescribed fires. Also, nearly half of all red-cockaded woodpeckers live in national forests. An April 4 order targets national forests for timber cutting, even overriding endangered species protections — another uncertainty. The future is tenuous for all of us, not just woodpeckers with a unique lifestyle. A red-cockaded woodpecker once picked itself up off the ground after being shaken off a tree by artillery fire. That kind of resilience is valuable, no matter what your conservation status or your species. Previously in The Revelator: What 70 Celebrity Tortoises Can Teach Us About Conservation Stories The post The Endangered Species Next Door appeared first on The Revelator.

Cinema Verde Newsletter April 2025

Check out these Cinema Verde films and more!

We are delighted to announce that we have selected 45 new films to be presented in our 2025 Cinema Verde film festival! As we celebrate the selection of this year’s films, we also face turbulent times. Like so many others in the environmental justice field, we face an uncertain future. We are a team of committed volunteers working eagerly toward a festival to be held in 2025. As an independent nonprofit, we're currently facing a shortage of funding and support, and we need a community more than ever. If Cinema Verde has inspired you, informed you, or sparked your curiosity, we invite you to contribute. Your support—big or small—can bring these stories to life. At this time we are working to produce Cinema Verde 2025 a virtual festival and we hope to open on Earth Day, April 22. We also hope to present some of our official selections in person in the coming year. Please stay tuned for details. Donation Page Featured Films: Now Playing Explore the Cinema Verde channel for a selection of thought-provoking films like the ones below—and so many more! Dive into powerful stories that inspire change and raise awareness about our planet's future. Cinema Verde Channel Mayday Terranean Mayday Terranean is a documentary film portraying the problems of the Mediterranean Sea as well as the beauty it still has to offer. Scientists, conservationists and activists from countries around the Mediterranean Sea talk about the topic, their relationship to ocean conservation and shed light on the story of this wonderful but endangered place. Watch Trailer TUPUNGATO - empathy In Death Tupungato - empathy in death, follows Rafael Pease’s six year obsession of visibilizing a threatened area. A winter expedition to the highest peak, Volcano Tupungato 21,555ft, evolves into a fight for conservation. In hopes of creating a national park, containing 340,000 acres in one of the worlds biodiversity hotspots, as well as a significant source of water for 40% of Chile’s population. Interviews with renowned scientists and activists unveil a web of corruption in the government and multinational corporations, stemming from imperial religion and a dictators constitution. This explosive film is set against the backdrop of historic protests, as the people of Chile rise up for social and environmental rights. Watch Trailer Confessions of An Ecoterrorist A feature length documentary film. A unique look at eco-history from one who was there for 40 years: Peter Jay Brown, and a humorous examination of the word “eco-terrorist” in today’s reality. Watch Trailer Get Involved Today! We’re currently seeking sponsors, partners, advertisers, and small businesses to collaborate with! Fill out the form below to place an ad on our Roku channel and support our mission of showcasing powerful films that inspire action toward a more sustainable world. Let’s work together to create lasting impact. Contact us Copyright (C) * 2025 All rights reserved *

When sadness strikes I remember I’m not alone in loving the wild boundless beauty of the living world | Georgina Woods

Nature will reclaim its place as a terrifying quasi-divine force that cannot be mastered. I find this strangely comfortingExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailAt times my work takes me to the big city and the tall buildings where people with power make decisions that affect the rest of us. While I am there, crossing busy roads, wearing tidy clothes and carrying out my duty, I think of faraway places where life is getting on without me.Logrunners are turning leaf litter on the rainforest floor, albatross are cruising the wind beyond sight of the coast. Why does thinking about these creatures, who have no idea that I exist, bring me such comfort?Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email Continue reading...

At times my work takes me to the big city and the tall buildings where people with power make decisions that affect the rest of us. While I am there, crossing busy roads, wearing tidy clothes and carrying out my duty, I think of faraway places where life is getting on without me.Logrunners are turning leaf litter on the rainforest floor, albatross are cruising the wind beyond sight of the coast. Why does thinking about these creatures, who have no idea that I exist, bring me such comfort?Because they are free, because they are beautiful, and because of their utter indifference to me.Last chance: the extinction crisis this election is ignoring (series trailer) – videoI was in a pub in Newcastle a few weeks ago chatting to a stranger with a lot going on. He runs a business selling household appliances, employs dozens of people, is negotiating a divorce and paying a mortgage. He seemed sceptical about what people tell him about climate change. Given how much else he has to think about, that didn’t surprise me. I asked him, if he was free next week to do anything he wanted, what would he do? He said he would bundle his kids into a van and drive to Seal Rocks to go camping.If you’re not familiar with it, Seal Rocks is among the most beautiful places anywhere on the New South Wales coast. I’d love to be there next week myself.People seek and find freedom in wild places. There is toil in the rest of the natural world and there are dependants to care for, as there are in civilisation, but there is also a sense of boundlessness.This feeling catches me up and I get carried away. I want to cruise in the great ocean currents like a tuna. I want to gather grass and spider silk and nest in the shrubs with the wrens. I suspect the tug of freedom is what takes some people out on hunting trips, and some to earn their living as jackaroos or prawners.Then there is the beauty. Survival is necessary but being gorgeous, creative and excessive has played as important a role in evolution as survival skills. This has filled the world with the resplendent detail of iridescent insects, curly liverworts, currawong song and the synchronised courtship flight-dance of terns.And it is not just living creatures making this beauty. Rays of sunlight bend through a running creek and make bright moving patterns of line and form on its bedrock. All beings have the urge to expression, even including non-living beings: rivers have it, waves have it, the wind. The wind heaps sand in rhythmic curls in the desert.The freedom and beauty of nature guide my sense of right and wrong. If I am to be free, I must care for the freedom of other earthlings. Beauty is the signal to me that this is true.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Clear Air AustraliaAdam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisisPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionWhen self-consciousness traps me in its hall of mirrors, the outside world brings the relief of being unimportant. A friend and I once sat by a creek in a rainforest. A rose robin flew down to drink beside us, unaware we were there. The marvellous world is turning without me and my own life is as dear, marvellous, fleeting and irrelevant as a rose robin’s. What lightness!People talk about cosmic vertigo but how about the giddiness of knowing that the ancestors of the lyrebird you’re listening to have been living in the forests of this continent for 15m years, since there were still trees in Antarctica?We’re living in a thin film of biosphere that is creating its own atmosphere, recycling its own wastes, cleaning its own water, producing and metabolising in complex self-organising systems that we are too small and silly to understand.When we talk about “protecting nature” it makes sense at a certain scale but it is quaintly hubristic. Nature is not all lovely creatures and majestic landscapes. It is mutating viruses, poleward-creeping cyclones and vengeful orcas. Just who needs looking after from whom?Now that greenhouse pollution and the global environmental cataclysms of the last hundred years have broken long-familiar patterns of living within the biosphere, nature will reclaim its place as a terrifying quasi-divine force that cannot be mastered. This, too, is strangely comforting.I often feel overwhelmed with sadness to be living in a culture that doesn’t seem to value all of this but I know that I am not alone in loving the living world.The Biodiversity Council of Australia takes the trouble to ask people how they feel about nature, why and how it is important to them. The overwhelming majority of people feel as I do: that they are part of nature (69%); that being in nature helps them deal with everyday stress (79%); that it is important to them to know that nature is being looked after (88%). The vast majority want more to be done to protect it (96%). The way Australian politics treats “the environment” – either as a decorative irrelevance or as an insidious threat to our prosperity – doesn’t reflect the way the people feel about it.Love and affinity for nature cuts across political, social and economic divisions. Of course, if you ask someone to choose between their own livelihood and the livelihood of a greater glider or a Maugean skate, they’re likely to choose their own – even more so for the non-specific thing they call “net zero”. But why should anyone be asked to make that kind of awful choice?Nature shows me that we don’t have to choose between beauty and freedom on the one hand, and good living on the other. Australians’ desire to be part of and safeguard the living world is a good start but we’re going to lose so much of it unless we take some responsibility for what we’re doing.

A high-flying visitor – the wondrous far eastern curlew – faces fresh threat in NT wetlands haven

Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystemsExplore the series – Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an emailHundreds of far eastern curlews fly non-stop more than 10,000km every year to Darwin Harbour from Russia and China. But their southern habitat is under threat from a large industrial development backed by more than $1bn in federal government funding.Known for its long curved bill and soft brown feathers, the far eastern curlew is the world’s largest migratory shorebird and one of 22 priority bird species the Albanese government has promised to support. The birds fly south each year to forage, rest and fatten up during summer before returning to the northern hemisphere.Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email Continue reading...

Hundreds of far eastern curlews fly non-stop more than 10,000km every year to Darwin Harbour from Russia and China. But their southern habitat is under threat from a large industrial development backed by more than $1bn in federal government funding.Known for its long curved bill and soft brown feathers, the far eastern curlew is the world’s largest migratory shorebird and one of 22 priority bird species the Albanese government has promised to support. The birds fly south each year to forage, rest and fatten up during summer before returning to the northern hemisphere.Register: it’s quick and easyIt’s still free to read – this is not a paywallWe’re committed to keeping our quality reporting open. By registering and providing us with insight into your preferences, you’re helping us to engage with you more deeply, and that allows us to keep our journalism free for all.Have a subscription? Made a contribution? Already registered?Sign InFar eastern curlews are a marvel in the natural world and affectionately described as the ultimate endurance athletes. Unable to glide, soar or land on the ocean, they flap their wings for the entirety of their journeys until they reach safe and familiar coastal habitat thousands of kilometres away.Will the curlew be able to hang on despite habitat loss? Illustration: Meeri AnneliThe curlew’s global population has fallen by 80% over the past 40 years, largely due to destruction and development-related changes to its intertidal habitat.Government documents show the proposed industrial precinct at Middle Arm, on a peninsula 13km south of Darwin, will need about 1,500 hectares (3,705 acres) of native mangroves and savanna woodland to be cleared, affecting “threatened species, and sensitive and significant vegetation”.The precinct is a proposed Northern Territory government development involving the construction of wharves and jetties to be used by industries including liquified natural gas, carbon capture and storage and critical minerals.The former NT Labor government was criticised for promoting it as a “sustainable” development despite documents revealing officials considered it a “key enabler” for a large gas industry expansion.Much of the public scrutiny of the project has focused on its potential contribution to the climate crisis and whether $1.5bn in federal support backed by Labor and the Coalition is effectively a fossil fuel subsidy.But a preliminary assessment by the NT government shows the project would cause significant damage to local wildlife.It would include the “loss of key high tide roosting habitats” for the far eastern curlew and the endangered bar-tailed godwit – another migratory species – as saltpans and mangroves were cleared and reclaimed. Far eastern curlews rely on these areas for foraging and roosting.Dr Amanda Lilleyman, a shorebird expert and BirdLife Top End volunteer based in Darwin, said the Middle Arm development’s potential impact on the species was concerning and consistent with the loss of its coastal habitat around the world. “This has been the direct cause of the population declines over the last 40 years,” she said.Far eastern curlews have ‘been hammered by habitat destruction up and down the entire flyway for the past 40 years’, one expert says. Photograph: Manoj Kutty Padeettathil ManilalThe far eastern curlew is also likely to be harmed by land clearing under way for a defence housing project at Lee Point, north of Darwin, where the birds feed and rest.The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, last year rejected a proposed apartment and marina development at Toondah Harbour in Queensland’s Moreton Bay because of its impact on an internationally significant wetland used by far eastern curlews and other endangered migratory species.Toondah Harbour was designated worthy of protection under the Ramsar convention, a global treaty covering wetlands. The salt pans and intertidal zones of Darwin Harbour are not subject to the treaty. But Lilleyman said they still needed protection.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Clear Air AustraliaAdam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisisPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionShe said the curlew’s survival required all governments of countries within its east Asian-Australasian flyway to act.“The survival of threatened migratory species is dependent on the sum of all of those habitat parts,” she said. “If all of the important habitat is protected then you’re starting to get on track for reversing the decline of the species.”Sean Dooley, a senior adviser at BirdLife Australia, said far eastern curlews had “been hammered by habitat destruction up and down the entire flyway for the past 40 years”.He said Australia’s national environmental law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, was “failing the species badly” because it did not factor in cumulative impacts of habitat loss in different places.Dooley said damage from numerous developments added up to a “serious blow to the viability of the population”. “The idea that they can always just go somewhere else just doesn’t stack up any more and every remaining suitable habitat becomes even more precious,” he said.The NT minister for logistics and infrastructure, Bill Yan, said an environment assessment was being done but the Country Liberal party government was “committed to rebuilding the economy through the development of the Middle Arm precinct”.He said the assessment was identifying “the potential cumulative impacts of the precinct on environmental values and developing ways to protect them”, and it was inappropriate to draw conclusions before it was complete.Dooley said protecting remaining far eastern curlew habitat would be “an act of hope for the future” that the species can be not just saved but could “return and recover”.“The wonder of the curlew’s migration unites cultures across the flyway, their annual return a potent symbol of hope and renewal,” he said. “To consent to further habitat destruction obliterates that hope of a rich and balanced future.”

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