GoGreenNation news

It's good to be a California beaver. Again.

News Feed

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

For the first time in 200 years it’s great to be a beaver in California. In a show of unanimous bipartisan support, the state Legislature voted this summer to pass Assembly Bill 2196, which codifies the state’s Beaver Restoration Program at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The law gives the program, which implements beaver-assisted environmental projects, protection from state budget cuts and political upheaval, and it stands as a rebuke to the Supreme Court’s devastating ruling in 2023 that removed up to 70% of the nation’s waterways and wetlands from Clean Water Act protections.California environmental activists, biologists and Indian tribes have been advocating for beavers for more than two decades, launching an extensive education campaign that included having to convince authorities that beavers are a native species throughout the state. Now the restoration effort will add to California’s “30x30” goals — the national effort to set aside and protect 30% of U.S. lands and coastal waters by 2030.A beaver management plan is underway, and $2 million has been allocated to develop statewide coexistence strategies and help relocate beavers from where they cause problems to where they can solve them. Finally Castor canadensis, long maligned as a pest, is getting a rebrand as an ecological hero.“I’m really proud of the transition we’ve made from laggard to leader on beavers,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s secretary for natural resources. “While there’s no silver bullet solutions to environmental restoration, beavers are a keystone species, and an important part of the puzzle to restore our ecosystems in California.”Beavers, once plentiful, were wiped out of most of their range in California by 1900, hunted by fur traders and chased out by development. Those that were left often annoyed landowners who didn’t want their trees gnawed down to the ground and carted off to build dams, or who found their farmland or roadways inundated when a beaver colony moved in nearby. “Nuisance” beavers were killed. And yet California needs beavers — they are nature’s superlative ecosystem and water engineers.Climate change has fundamentally altered California’s hydrology, delivering more rainwater and less snowmelt, exacerbating wildfire, drought and the depletion of groundwater and aquifers. When beavers move into a stream or creek and begin building their damming complexes, the ponds and wetlands they create are an antidote to all these problems.The water swelling out of a beaver pond is just the beginning. Beaver ponds slow rivers and streams, storing an average of three times the water that’s visible by creating what are essentially huge underground sponges that can keep things flowing in dry summers and during drought. In times of flood, those same sponges soak up some of the excess, creating resiliency.Studies have shown in stark terms how beavers fight fire. Satellite photos of the aftermath of the massive Manter fire in 2000 in Tulare County show a charred landscape except for a line of healthy green where beavers had built dams. Before and after data convinced the researchers that “Smokey the Beaver” was a low-cost creator of “ribbons” of fire-resistant habitat.Beavers are critical to healthy rivers and our future water supply. The wetlands ringing a beaver pond sequester carbon and clean the water, filtering out pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus. Beaver “engineers” build dams and canals that create connectivity between land and water; these beaver wetlands function as vital biodiversity hubs for plant and animal species, including many that are endangered. River wetland systems with beavers have 30% more animal and plant species than those without.In recent years, studies have established the dollar value of having beavers in the landscape. The University of Helsinki, for instance, estimated the savings at $500 million annually for the Northern Hemisphere alone.Molly Alves, a senior environmental scientist who joined the California Department of Fish and Wildlife this past summer as the Beaver Restoration Program supervisor, is mapping watersheds and collecting data so she can move nuisance beavers to where they can do the most good.“We are looking at the landscape as a whole,” she said. “Where is the greatest wildfire risk? What areas are most impacted by drought? Where is erosion?” She is also working on a progress report of current translocations.Last year, beavers were returned to two sites on the traditional lands of Indigenous Californians, the Mountain Maidu and the Tule River Indians.On land the Maidu call Tásmam Koyóm, 2,000 acres near the headwaters of the Feather River, seven beavers joined a single resident in October 2023. In June of 2024, the Fish and Wildlife department announced that another group of beavers was translocated to the south fork of the Tule River, in Sequoia National Forest east of Porterville, Calif.In both cases, the releases were true homecomings. Researchers found remnant beaver dams in the mountain meadow Tásmam Koyóm streams, and in the southern Sierra, as Kenneth McDarment, the range manager for the Tule River Tribe, puts it, “There are beaver in our [ancient] pictographs.”Tribal leaders worked with scientists, nonprofits and the state to prepare beaver-friendly habitat, planting willows and other plants beavers eat and installing human-made beaver dam analogs to bring enough water to the area that beavers could survive to establish colonies.The Maidu want Tásmam Koyóm to be a showcase for traditional ecological knowledge. “Bringing the beaver back,” said Lorena Gorbert, a spokesperson for the Maidu Consortium, “was bringing back more balance to the area, putting it back … the way it should be.”As for the Tule River site, as McDarment explains, “We were in a drought in 2014 and the river was drying up. We said, ‘Why not bring beaver home?’ When the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of waterways covered by the Clean Water Act, it denied protection from development, pollution and destruction to “noncontinuous” rivers and streams — these include tributaries and wetlands, the exact waterways that beavers help construct, maintain and keep healthy. We’ve already destroyed more than 50% of our national wetlands, even more in California. With pilot beaver relocations and the codification of the restoration project, California is pushing back against that history and the Supreme Court’s dangerous shortsightedness. It’s showing the nation how political engagement with nature-based solutions can create environmental and economic resiliency. All eyes are on California now … and its beavers.Leila Philip is the author of “Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America.” She is a professor at the College of the Holy Cross, where she holds a chair in the humanities.

California has by law acknowledged beavers, nature's preeminent water and environmental engineers, as partners in environmental restoration.

California environmental activists, biologists and Indian tribes have been advocating for beavers for more than two decades, launching an extensive education campaign that included having to convince authorities that beavers are a native species throughout the state. Now the restoration effort will add to California’s “30x30” goals — the national effort to set aside and protect 30% of U.S. lands and coastal waters by 2030.

A beaver management plan is underway, and $2 million has been allocated to develop statewide coexistence strategies and help relocate beavers from where they cause problems to where they can solve them. Finally Castor canadensis, long maligned as a pest, is getting a rebrand as an ecological hero.

“I’m really proud of the transition we’ve made from laggard to leader on beavers,” said Wade Crowfoot, California’s secretary for natural resources. “While there’s no silver bullet solutions to environmental restoration, beavers are a keystone species, and an important part of the puzzle to restore our ecosystems in California.”

Beavers, once plentiful, were wiped out of most of their range in California by 1900, hunted by fur traders and chased out by development. Those that were left often annoyed landowners who didn’t want their trees gnawed down to the ground and carted off to build dams, or who found their farmland or roadways inundated when a beaver colony moved in nearby. “Nuisance” beavers were killed. And yet California needs beavers — they are nature’s superlative ecosystem and water engineers.

Climate change has fundamentally altered California’s hydrology, delivering more rainwater and less snowmelt, exacerbating wildfire, drought and the depletion of groundwater and aquifers. When beavers move into a stream or creek and begin building their damming complexes, the ponds and wetlands they create are an antidote to all these problems.

The water swelling out of a beaver pond is just the beginning. Beaver ponds slow rivers and streams, storing an average of three times the water that’s visible by creating what are essentially huge underground sponges that can keep things flowing in dry summers and during drought. In times of flood, those same sponges soak up some of the excess, creating resiliency.

Studies have shown in stark terms how beavers fight fire. Satellite photos of the aftermath of the massive Manter fire in 2000 in Tulare County show a charred landscape except for a line of healthy green where beavers had built dams. Before and after data convinced the researchers that “Smokey the Beaver” was a low-cost creator of “ribbons” of fire-resistant habitat.

Beavers are critical to healthy rivers and our future water supply. The wetlands ringing a beaver pond sequester carbon and clean the water, filtering out pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus. Beaver “engineers” build dams and canals that create connectivity between land and water; these beaver wetlands function as vital biodiversity hubs for plant and animal species, including many that are endangered. River wetland systems with beavers have 30% more animal and plant species than those without.

In recent years, studies have established the dollar value of having beavers in the landscape. The University of Helsinki, for instance, estimated the savings at $500 million annually for the Northern Hemisphere alone.

Molly Alves, a senior environmental scientist who joined the California Department of Fish and Wildlife this past summer as the Beaver Restoration Program supervisor, is mapping watersheds and collecting data so she can move nuisance beavers to where they can do the most good.

“We are looking at the landscape as a whole,” she said. “Where is the greatest wildfire risk? What areas are most impacted by drought? Where is erosion?” She is also working on a progress report of current translocations.

Last year, beavers were returned to two sites on the traditional lands of Indigenous Californians, the Mountain Maidu and the Tule River Indians.

On land the Maidu call Tásmam Koyóm, 2,000 acres near the headwaters of the Feather River, seven beavers joined a single resident in October 2023. In June of 2024, the Fish and Wildlife department announced that another group of beavers was translocated to the south fork of the Tule River, in Sequoia National Forest east of Porterville, Calif.

In both cases, the releases were true homecomings. Researchers found remnant beaver dams in the mountain meadow Tásmam Koyóm streams, and in the southern Sierra, as Kenneth McDarment, the range manager for the Tule River Tribe, puts it, “There are beaver in our [ancient] pictographs.”

Tribal leaders worked with scientists, nonprofits and the state to prepare beaver-friendly habitat, planting willows and other plants beavers eat and installing human-made beaver dam analogs to bring enough water to the area that beavers could survive to establish colonies.

The Maidu want Tásmam Koyóm to be a showcase for traditional ecological knowledge. “Bringing the beaver back,” said Lorena Gorbert, a spokesperson for the Maidu Consortium, “was bringing back more balance to the area, putting it back … the way it should be.”

As for the Tule River site, as McDarment explains, “We were in a drought in 2014 and the river was drying up. We said, ‘Why not bring beaver home?’

When the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of waterways covered by the Clean Water Act, it denied protection from development, pollution and destruction to “noncontinuous” rivers and streams — these include tributaries and wetlands, the exact waterways that beavers help construct, maintain and keep healthy.

We’ve already destroyed more than 50% of our national wetlands, even more in California. With pilot beaver relocations and the codification of the restoration project, California is pushing back against that history and the Supreme Court’s dangerous shortsightedness. It’s showing the nation how political engagement with nature-based solutions can create environmental and economic resiliency.

All eyes are on California now … and its beavers.

Leila Philip is the author of “Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America.” She is a professor at the College of the Holy Cross, where she holds a chair in the humanities.

Read the full story here.

Photos courtesy of

Related News

Even Ground Squirrels Got In on the Vole Feast Last Summer

For the first time, scientists documented concerted carnivory by California ground squirrels. But why were there so many voles? The post Even Ground Squirrels Got In on the Vole Feast Last Summer appeared first on Bay Nature.

By last summer, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire professor Jennifer Elaine Smith had been studying California ground squirrels at Briones Regional Park for twelve years. There wasn’t much these rodents could do that could surprise her. Then her team saw a ground squirrel stalk, hunt, and eat a California vole. It wasn’t a fluke, like some weirdly motivated or superintelligent squirrel. Because, as the researchers found, the squirrels kept doing it. Again and again. They weren’t sit-and-wait-type predators, but instead chased down the voles over short stretches of dirt. The research team documented 27 individual squirrels hunting voles that summer. “I could barely believe my eyes,” says Sonja Wild, a postdoctoral research fellow in the UC Davis Environmental Science and Policy department who co-authored a paper in the Journal of Ethology on the unusual phenomenon. “From then, we saw that behavior almost every day. Once we started looking, we saw it everywhere.” A California ground squirrel on the move with its unusual prey: a California vole. Normally, ground squirrels eat a mostly plant-forward diet. (Sonja Wild/UC Davis)It was easy to see what was triggering it: there were just so many voles around. “This was shocking,” says Smith, a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire professor who studies social mammals and lead-authored the paper, which was published in December last year. “We had never seen this behavior before.” California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi), on most days, have a plant-forward diet. They have also been known to eat meat such as bird eggs, hatchlings, insects, or each other on occasion—but this is the first time in nature that they had ever been documented hunting and eating California voles. “The widespread nature of vole hunting in our population fundamentally changes our understanding of this primarily granivorous species, suggesting that they are considerably more flexible in their diet than previously assumed,” the researchers wrote. California voles (Microtus californicus) are a burrowing rodent species that range from southern Oregon down to Baja California—sometimes living (dangerously?) in ground squirrel burrows. They are ubiquitous, but since they live underground, I usually only see a handful of these rodents every year. That all changed last year. Female voles can have back-to-back litters—every 21 days—if conditions are right. Just imagine. (Vishal Subramanyan)A heck of a lot of voles In May, I was hiking in Sycamore Grove Park, a regional preserve in Livermore that I’ve been visiting for over seven years. As a wildlife photographer, I spend a lot of time in nature: being still and quiet, watching for animals. This time, from the start, I saw dozens of these tiny rodents running all over the trails. I’d only seen a couple of voles in this park over the years. I saw more of them in a few minutes than I had over the past several years. Throughout the course of my hike, I counted over 100 voles. It was a photographer’s dream. I hunched down and took dozens of photos as the voles scurried through fields, climbed on stalks, and ran in and out of their burrows. It appeared Northern California was in the midst of a vole population boom. Reports emerged of huge surges in their numbers, from San Francisco to Pleasanton to the El Dorado Hills, east of Sacramento. Smith’s team, crunching numbers from the community science platform iNaturalist, reported people logged seven times as many vole sightings in California as the average over the past decade. Livermore, like Briones Regional Park, was crawling with California voles last summer. (Vishal Subramanyan)Booms like this have occurred in the past. Just like their more famous cousins the lemmings, vole populations sometimes just go through the roof—reaching densities of up to 5,000 animals per acre. To humans, these booms may seem random. Vole populations typically cycle up and down over periods of three or four years, Smith says, but this was the biggest boom she saw over twelve years of study. One thing that’s clear: Peak Vole is achieved by female voles reproducing at much higher rates than usual, according to Phoebe Edwards. She studied meadow vole population cycles for her Ph.D. thesis and is now an assistant professor of ecology, evolution, and organismal biology at Iowa State University. “As they’re increasing from a low population density, the females that are sexually mature are having lots of litters rapidly, back to back,” Edwards says. “They can even become pregnant once they’ve just given birth, and not all mammals can do that.” Voles can give birth to new litters every 21 days, she says. At the boom’s peak, birth rates slow. What sets off such industrious behavior? Generally, Edwards says, it’s because an opportunity has arisen: there’s more food around (possibly because of the climate changing), or fewer predators, or “changes to landscape use where voles are colonizing new kinds of habitats that weren’t really suited to them before,” said Dr. Edwards. Everybody likes eating voles The ground squirrels, like many, took advantage of the situation. Over the summer of 2024, researchers observed them hunting voles on 74 occasions over just 18 days of fieldwork. Of these, 31 involved active hunting, with squirrels stalking through tall grass or chasing voles across open dirt. And the hunters were quite successful—17 of the 31 documented attempts (55 percent) resulted in a kill. Sometimes, squirrels tolerated other squirrels grabbing their killed voles. But occasionally the researchers saw squirrels fighting over their prizes. That made sense, they wrote, because “the energy contained in a single vole far outweighs that of more common food items, such as seeds or grasses.” Population booms of small mammals like voles impact whole ecosystems, affecting predators and other animals. A slew of animals prey on voles, as Smith and team noted in their paper—“hawks, owls, egrets, long-tailed weasels, coyotes, skunks, mountain lions, and garter snakes”—all of which likely had more to eat. Burrowing rodents like voles are often ecosystem engineers, too, creating tunnels that other animals use. So more voles could also mean more habitat for those species. But these booms don’t last forever—so as vole populations crash, predators may be once again forced to turn to other prey, and small animals will have fewer places to live. While the vole boom was a boon for animals with a taste for rodents, it touched human lives a bit differently. Grape grower Dane Stark, who runs Page Mill Winery in Livermore, noticed one summer day that some unknown vandal had nibbled a ring out of the bark on many of his youngest vines. He waited and watched, and quickly learned that the culprits were voles. They got to nearly all his vines. “I’ve been growing grapes for twenty years, and this is the first time I’ve ever noticed something like this,” Stark says. He hoped that the surge in vole numbers would bring in more predators to help control their exploding populations. Researchers documented last summer’s sharp spike in iNaturalist observations of California voles in their paper in the Journal of Ethology. (Courtesy of the authors)Have we passed Peak Vole? It’s hard to know when or if the vole population boom is over. It would likely require an intensive field survey to get an accurate idea of their numbers. However, on my recent hikes this winter, I’ve observed far fewer voles compared to last summer. Community science reports on platforms like iNaturalist, which were essential in recording the vole boom last year, may also help understand the timing of the boom’s end. Bobcats were among those that likely cashed in on a surfeit of voles last summer, along with “hawks, owls, egrets, long-tailed weasels, coyotes, skunks, mountain lions, and garter snakes,” according to researchers. (Vishal Subramanyan)The boom also raises other ecological questions, such as whether California ground squirrels learn hunting strategies socially or if it is a genetic predisposition. Wild and Smith are also interested in disease implications of the novel squirrel–vole interaction. “Parasites might be shared between voles and squirrels,” says Smith. “Future research will reveal the extent to which these interactions have positive or potentially negative consequences for ground squirrel populations.” I’ll remember it fondly, as a wildlife photographer, given the abundance of photo opportunities the voles gave me. One evening, at a local park in Fremont. Down on the ground, voles were scampering across the fields. I watched as a bobcat quietly stalked prey alongside the trail. After patiently waiting for a few minutes, the bobcat pounced, grabbing one of the many voles that scattered these fields. It immediately took the vole and started trotting towards the cover, disappearing over the ridge as the sun set. In a prey boom, the mandate is the same for photographers as for bobcats: strike while it’s hot. VIDEO A video compilation of ground squirrels hunting. Note: this contains some graphic imagery. (Sonja Wild, UC Davis)

Nature

Animals

Energy

Markus Buehler receives 2025 Washington Award

Materials scientist is honored for his academic leadership and innovative research that bridge engineering and nature.

MIT Professor Markus J. Buehler has been named the recipient of the 2025 Washington Award, one of the nation’s oldest and most esteemed engineering honors. The Washington Award is conferred to “an engineer(s) whose professional attainments have preeminently advanced the welfare of humankind,” recognizing those who have made a profound impact on society through engineering innovation. Past recipients of this award include influential figures such as Herbert Hoover, the award’s inaugural recipient in 1919, as well as Orville Wright, Henry Ford, Neil Armstrong, John Bardeen, and renowned MIT affiliates Vannevar Bush, Robert Langer, and software engineer Margaret Hamilton.Buehler was selected for his “groundbreaking accomplishments in computational modeling and mechanics of biological materials, and his contributions to engineering education and leadership in academia.” Buehler has authored over 500 peer-reviewed publications, pioneering the atomic-level properties and structures of biomaterials such as silk, elastin, and collagen, utilizing computational modeling to characterize, design, and create sustainable materials with features spanning from the nano- to the macro- scale. Buehler was the first to explain how hydrogen bonds, molecular confinement, and hierarchical architectures govern the mechanics of biological materials via the development of a theory that bridges molecular interactions with macroscale properties.His innovative research includes the development of physics-aware artificial intelligence methods that integrate computational mechanics, bioinformatics, and generative AI to explore universal design principles of biological and bioinspired materials. His work has advanced the understanding of hierarchical structures in nature, revealing the mechanics by which complex biomaterials achieve remarkable strength, flexibility, and resilience through molecular interactions across scales.Buehler's research included the use of deep learning models to predict and generate new protein structures, self-assembling peptides, and sustainable biomimetic materials. His work on materiomusic — converting molecular structures into musical compositions — has provided new insights into the hidden patterns within biological systems.Buehler is the Jerry McAfee (1940) Professor in Engineering in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Mechanical Engineering. He served as the department head of CEE from 2013 to 2020, as well as in other leadership roles, including as president of the Society of Engineering Science.A dedicated educator, Buehler has played a vital role in mentoring future engineers, leading K-12 STEM summer camps to inspire the next generation and serving as an instructor for MIT Professional Education summer courses.His achievements have been recognized with numerous prestigious honors, including the Feynman Prize, the Drucker Medal, the Leonardo da Vinci Award, and the J.R. Rice Medal, and election to the National Academy of Engineering. His work continues to push the boundaries of computational science, materials engineering, and biomimetic design.The Washington Award was presented during National Engineers Week in February, in a ceremony attended by members of prominent engineering societies, including the Western Society of Engineers; the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers; the American Society of Civil Engineers; the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; the National Society of Professional Engineers; and the American Nuclear Society. The event also celebrated nearly 100 pre-college students recognized for their achievements in regional STEM competitions, highlighting the next generation of engineering talent.

Nature

Education

Sustainable

UN Talks End in Rome With Nations Backing $200 Billion a Year Plan to Protect Nature

Global negotiators concluded an extended session of the United Nations biodiversity conference, COP16, with key commitments on funds needed and the institutions through which the funds will be channeled to protect the world’s biodiversity

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Global negotiators concluded an extended session of the United Nations biodiversity conference, COP16, with key commitments on funds needed and the institutions through which the funds will be channeled to protect the world's biodiversity.The countries agreed on how they would contribute $200 billion a year by 2030 that was committed in principle at an earlier meeting in Montreal. The money includes a plan to raise $20 billion in annual conservation financing for developing nations by 2025, with that number rising to $30 billion annually by 2030, and on details of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims at placing 30% of the planet and 30% of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030. Earlier this week, the countries also agreed to create the Cali Fund, which will create methods for industries that commercially benefit from biodiversity to contribute to its conservation.As the meeting concluded late Wednesday in Rome, participants stood up and applauded the outcomes. “The applause is for all of you. You have done an amazing job,” said the COP16 president, Susana Muhamad of Colombia.COP16’s successful conclusion is the first United Nations meeting in many months which ended on a positive note, as various meetings all through last year related to dealing with the global plastic pollution, climate change and the earlier biodiversity meeting itself failed to reach agreements or left many stakeholders disappointed with the outcomes reached. “These days of work in Rome have demonstrated the commitment of the parties to advance the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework,” said Muhamad who is also Colombia’s former environment minister. Muhamad said it was the collective effort of all stakeholders which resulted in the key decisions being agreed upon. “Only by working together can we make Peace with Nature a reality,” she said.The two-day meeting addressed issues that were left unresolved in earlier discussions held in Cali, Colombia in late 2024, focusing on securing funds to meet ambitious targets set in Montreal in 2022. The Cali meetings ended without a quorum as talks ran into overtime and too few delegates remained to guarantee that any decisions made had the backing of all U.N. member states. Linda Krueger, Director of Biodiversity & Infrastructure Policy at The Nature Conservancy, said that in Cali many parties felt that funds created to support biodiversity didn't meet the original goals they had hoped. But in Rome, negotiators were able to agree on a financial “roadmap” that would allow the body to fulfill its original obligations.“At a complicated geopolitical moment, this is an exciting show of progress and international cooperation for nature,” she said. "Technocratic as they might sound, these are the details that will transform ambitions on paper into tangible conservation action on the ground."Oscar Soria, chief executive of The Common Initiative, a think tank, said the decision by the U.N. negotiators marked “a positive step” toward funding biodiversity efforts, setting clear goals and a review process.“However, effectiveness will depend on the implementation of the commitments, the availability of financing and the political will of countries to increase their contributions,” he added.Even though key issues related to funding were finally resolved in the extended meeting in Rome, the COP16 talks in Colombia, which concluded in November, produced several notable agreements, including a landmark deal requiring companies that profit from natural genetic resources, such as developing medicines from rainforest plants, to share those benefits. Progress was also made toward strengthening the role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in conservation efforts.Scientists say biodiversity is essential for maintaining balanced ecosystems, providing clean air, water and food while supporting climate resilience. It also drives medical discoveries, economic stability, and the well-being of all life on Earth.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

Nature

Climate

Food

‘Green roofs deliver for biodiversity’: how Basel put nature on top

For decades, the Swiss city has been transforming its skyline, and now boasts some of the greenest rooftops in EuropeSusanne Hablützel breaks up her work day by staring out the window at a rooftop garden. The view is not spectacular: a pile of dead wood sits atop an untidy plot that houses chicory, toadflax, thistle and moss.But Hablützel, a biologist in charge of nature projects in Basel, is enthralled by the plants and creatures the roof has brought in. “Tree fungi have settled in the trunks, and they are great to see – I love mushrooms. You can also see birds now – that wasn’t the case before.” Continue reading...

Susanne Hablützel breaks up her work day by staring out the window at a rooftop garden. The view is not spectacular: a pile of dead wood sits atop an untidy plot that houses chicory, toadflax, thistle and moss.But Hablützel, a biologist in charge of nature projects in Basel, is enthralled by the plants and creatures the roof has brought in. “Tree fungi have settled in the trunks, and they are great to see – I love mushrooms. You can also see birds now – that wasn’t the case before.”Hidden high above the streets of Basel is an unappreciated environmental wonder: thousands of gardens perched on otherwise unused roofs. As a result of policies set decades ago, the city boasts some of the greenest rooftops in Europe – averaging more than five square metres (50 sq ft) per person in 2019, or about the size of a large balcony.The roofs range from those on small office buildings, such as the one on which Hablützel spies blackbirds snapping worms into their beaks, to the vast open spaces that cover shopping malls, warehouses and hospitals. But what makes Basel stand out from many other cities that have pioneered green roofs, industry insiders say, is that it has insisted on using native seeds and plants – and not treated green roofs as a box-ticking exercise.“The green roofs in Basel were like industrial wastelands, which have really good wild flowers,” says Dusty Gedge, president of the European Federation of Green Roofs and Walls, who visited the city in 2000 and brought its ideas back to London. He describes Basel’s roofs as being like brownfield sites that are closer to dry and nature-rich grasslands than monotonous green meadows.“Now, you show that to most people and they go: ‘I don’t want that on my roof,’” says Gedge. “But that’s what delivers for biodiversity.”Basel’s foray into green roofs began in the early 1990s, when residents voted to put part of their bills into a fund to finance energy-saving measures; green roofs were among the solutions. Although it was not the first city to hit upon the concept – Linz in Austria and Stuttgart in Germany started promoting them in the 80s and boast impressive coverage today – Basel quickly beefed up its scheme by mandating green roofs on all new and renovated buildings with a slope of less than 10 degrees.“This was the recipe for success,” says Hablützel. “Not just the legal requirement, but also the support of subsidies, plus the back-and-forth between scientists and the city.”The best-known of those experts is Stephan Brenneisen, who leads the city ecology research group at Zürich University of Applied Sciences. He gave an academic presentation on green roofs 30 years ago that captured the interest of the Basel authorities, and he has since gone on to develop guidelines for how to design the city’s green roofs.“When we started, we made them really basic,” says Brenneisen – builders would dig up soil during construction and then place some of it on the roof at the end. “But we found out it’s very hard and complicated for the companies who make green roofs to do it this way, because this kind of topsoil is not easy to handle.”Brenneisen has since worked with the city to set standards for the depth of the garden and the types of seeds that can be used. It is an exercise in fine-tuning. As climate breakdown has left Basel more exposed to violent weather, for instance, the city has increased the minimum thickness of substrate from 12cm (5in) to 15cm.Despite this, Brenneisen says, the fundamentals have not changed over the past three decades. “What I learned is that in the end it’s a simple technology.”Supporters praise green roofs as a cheap tool that cities short on space can use to create natural oases in urban areas. Like parks, green roofs cool the air during heatwaves and store water during storms. They also shield citizens from noise, reduce air pollution and provide a home to wildlife that people can also enjoy.But without policies to support green roofs or price in their societal benefits, property developers are put off by the cost of building them – and owners deterred by the maintenance fees. Depending on their size, the extra weight may also mean using more concrete and steel in construction, which can increase the carbon footprint of a building.skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy 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 promotion“It’s an argument that an Excel file is very good at arguing,” says Gedge, who counters that you also have to look at the other benefits a green roof provides. “Green roofs do a lot of things medium-well … a solar panel, or an air conditioning unit, performs one benefit. What we need is things that offer multiple benefits. And green roofs are one of the few things that do.”So far, green roofs have faced little of the backlash or lobbying that has held back other environmentally friendly building solutions – such as heat pumps – but there are still conflicts. When cities such as Basel first started building green roofs, they were making use of unwanted space. But the boom in renewable energy has increasingly led developers and building owners to cover rooftops with solar panels rather than plants.“A photovoltaic panel pays for itself directly, so it is profitable for everyone,” says Rebecca Landwehr from the German Association of Building Greening. “This makes it difficult when there’s so much competition for roof space.”Some cities are trying to resolve that tension – between slowing climate change and adapting to its effects – by pairing green roofs with elevated solar panels. The panels shade the plants and protect them from the wind, while the plants cool the panels and so increase their efficiency. Hamburg will make “solar green roofs” compulsory in new buildings and renovations from 2027.The bigger barrier for green roofs, the industry says, is convincing city planners to update their building codes.“In reality, it is not so easy to change a city,” says Brenneisen, adding that most cities rely on information campaigns and subsidies but stop short of making it a requirement.Thirty years ago, he adds, an Austrian traffic planner told him that people like making brochures about their green plans – but if they don’t go further with it, it’s just an alibi. “After a certain point, you have to make it mandatory.”

Nature

Climate

Pollution

Cop16 countries strike crucial deal on nature despite global tensions

Delegates hammer out compromise on delivering billions of dollars to protect species and their habitatsDelegates from across the world have cheered a last-gasp deal to map out funding to protect nature, breaking a deadlock at UN talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.Rich and developing countries on Thursday hammered out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia last year. Continue reading...

Delegates from across the world have cheered a last-gasp deal to map out funding to protect nature, breaking a deadlock at UN talks seen as a test for international cooperation in the face of geopolitical tensions.Rich and developing countries on Thursday hammered out a delicate compromise on raising and delivering the billions of dollars needed to protect species, overcoming stark divisions that had scuttled their previous Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia last year.Scientists have long warned that action is urgent. A million of the world’s species are threatened with extinction, while unsustainable farming and consumption destroy forests, deplete soils and spread plastic pollution to even the most remote areas of the planet.Delegates stood and clapped in an emotionally charged final meeting that saw the key decisions adopted in the final minutes of the last day of rebooted negotiations at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome.“The applause is for all of you. You have done an amazing job,” said the Cop16 president, Susana Muhamad of Colombia.Posting online afterwards, she called it a “historic day”, adding: “We achieved the adoption of the first global plan to finance the conservation of life on Earth.”The decision comes more than two years after a landmark deal to slow the rampant destruction of nature this decade and protect at least 30% of the world’s land and seas. That would protect ecosystems and wildlife that humans rely on for food, climate regulation and economic prosperity.The Cop16 agreement on Thursday is seen as crucial to giving impetus to that deal. The talks were also seen as a bellwether for international cooperation more generally.The meeting comes as countries face a range of challenges, from trade disputes and debt worries to the slashing of overseas aid – particularly by the Trump administration.Washington, which has not signed up to the UN’s convention on biological diversity, did not send representatives to the meeting.“Our efforts show that multilateralism can present hope at a time of geopolitical uncertainty,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change.The failure to finalise an agreement in Cali was the first in a string of disappointing outcomes at environmental summits last year.A climate finance deal at Cop29 in Azerbaijan in November was slammed by developing countries as woefully insufficient, while separate negotiations about desertification and plastic pollution stalled in December.Muhamad, who has resigned as Colombia’s environment minister but stayed on to serve until after the Rome conference, said members of her team were brought to tears by the last-minute agreement.Thursday saw intense closed-door talks based on a “compromise attempt” text that Brazil put forward on behalf of the BRICS country bloc that includes Russia, China and India.Brazil’s negotiator Maria Angelica Ikeda told AFP earlier that financing had been a flashpoint long before the current international tensions, adding that the BRICS proposal sought to be “very sensitive” to a broad spectrum of views.Countries had already agreed to deliver $200bn a year in finance for nature by 2030, including $30bn a year from wealthier countries to poorer ones.The total for 2022 was about $15bn, according to the OECD.Thursday’s decision sets out two main strands of action in the coming years – finding the extra billions of dollars in funding for biodiversity and deciding on the institutions that will deliver the money.Georgina Chandler, head of policy and campaigns at the Zoological Society of London, said the finance roadmap was a “key milestone”, but stressed that money is needed urgently.“With only five years left to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, securing the necessary funds to accomplish this mission is more essential than ever,” she said.Other decisions sought to bolster monitoring to ensure countries are held accountable for their progress towards meeting biodiversity targets.

Nature

Agriculture

Conservation

Suggested Viewing

Tellus

"Tellus" is a love letter for Mother Earth which celebrates our connection with her - from pure joy and love towards nature’s elements, to our collective fears and worries about the damage that humankind has done to our planet, to an inspiring call for action and a hope for a greener, more united future. "Tellus" is a sustainable, female-led community project that captures love, concern and hope for our planet from voices across the world.

Culture

Nature

Experimental

Descended: The Fight for Harris Neck

The documentary film “Descended: The Fight for Harris Neck” explores an ongoing land battle in Harris Neck, Georgia. In 1942 the U.S. war department seized 2,687 acres of land from a self-reliant community of seventy-five African American families. Since 1962 the land has been a national wildlife refuge. The film seeks to answer the pivotal question: How has a community been shaped by its common goal to reclaim their land?

Social Justice

Government

Nature

Idjanga, the Gorilla Forest

For more than fifteen years, Max Hurdebourcq, a solitary and passionate observer of gorillas, has been committed to the defence of the tropical forests of Central Africa. In particular, he is trying to find solutions to ensure a sustainable coexistence between forestry operators and the extraordinary wildlife that populates the forest concessions, veritable islands of biodiversity. At the CEB Precious Woods concession in southeast Gabon, Max is preparing for his latest exploration mission. His goal: to set up a refuge area for gorillas and local fauna within this area of nearly 6,000 km2. This is a first in Gabon, which has been imposing sustainable forest certification on operators active on its territory since 2018. This project, if it becomes a reality, could serve as an example throughout the Congo Basin. For Max, this would be the recognition and the outcome of his struggle. Anything but silent forests!

Animals

Nature