Rachel Becker

Conservation Enters a New Era - bioGraphic One year after the Trump administration slashed biodiversity protections at home and abroad, people and organizations are figuring out where to go from here.

For a century, the United States dominated & influenced conservation around the world--for better and for worse. That era is over.

@biographic.bsky.social has a special issue on the next era of conservation--what it looks like, who's funding it, & what it means for people, species, & ecosystems 🌱

What's an E-Bike? California Wants You to Know Cities want to stop kids from getting hurt. A lawmaker thinks warning them away from legal gray-area “e-motos” could help.

Cities want to stop kids from getting hurt. A lawmaker thinks warning them away from legal gray-area “e-motos” could help. www.wired.com/story/what-i...

Map depicting predicted departures from average of temperatures later on Friday across the U.S. Southwest from the ECMWF model. Highly anomalously warm values are depicted nearly everywhere.

Map from NOAA NWS depicting specific locations expected to approach or exceed high temperatures today. Many such locations are noted in southern CA, AZ, NV, and adjacent regions.

Exceptionally warm-to-hot late winter conditions expected across the Southwest through the weekend, peaking Fri and Sat. Numerous daily record highs (and record warm overnight minimums) will be set, along with some Feb monthly records possible. [Thread] #CAwx #AZwx #NVwx

The hidden surveillance network sending Californians' license plates to Border Patrol California residents are noticing new license plate readers that appear to be operated by the Border Patrol. Some have had confusing encounters with agents.

Privacy experts, civil liberties advocates and humanitarian aid workers are surfacing concerns over a federal surveillance system near the California border. An in-depth look at the license plate readers on state highways by @wendyfry.bsky.social @khari.bsky.social calmatters.org/justice/2026...

The crisis on the Colorado River — six things to know States are preparing for, while trying to avoid, cutbacks to the water they get from the Colorado River. Here are some key things to know about this moment.

This week's @latimes.com Boiling Point newsletter features must-read climate and environment coverage by @hayleysmith.bsky.social @cvonka.bsky.social @landdesk.bsky.social @ra-becks.bsky.social @brandonloomis.bsky.social & more: www.latimes.com/environment/...

A photo of a heat pump attached to a red brick wall. Photo via iStock.

California wants to slash greenhouse gases by electrifying homes and installing six million heat pumps by 2030. Lawmakers are pushing new policies to speed adoption. But some of the nation’s highest electricity rates stand in the way. bit.ly/3ZSla7D

📸 iStock

hold on i gotta take this

As a Colorado River deadline passes, reservoirs keep declining Seven states have missed a federal deadline to reach a water deal on the Colorado River. They remain divided how to cut water use.

The Trump administration gave seven states a deadline to reach a Colorado River deal. As they missed it, the governors of California, Arizona and Nevada called their stance "firm and fair." www.latimes.com/environment/...

On Nov. 16, a mental health counselor recorded in Kamilla’s medical records that her mother reported the girl had lost her appetite after being “served food that contained worms.” A week later, the couple said, children were told to gather in the gym for what they believed would be a Thanksgiving celebration. Excitement spread as families saw tables set with turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, they said. The children waited expectantly. But when a parent asked when the celebration would begin, Oksana said, staff told them the holiday meal was for employees, not detainees. The children, she said, watched despondently as the feast was packed away.

On Thanksgiving, the immigrant children held at the Dilley detention center gathered in the gym for what they thought was a holiday feast.

The kids salivated over a spread of turkey, sandwiches, pastries and pies, a family told me.

But the food wasn’t for detainees — it was for the staff.

Kittens from a local mountain lion population tracked by the National Park Service and UCLA in 2015. Photo via National Park Service

Breaking: California officials voted unanimously to list Central Coast and Southern California mountain lions as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act. bit.ly/4kwyicd

📸 National Park Service

Illegal cannabis farms poison California's forests. Who's cleaning them up? Even after legalization, illicit cannabis grows continue to pollute California’s public lands. And the contamination, new research shows, lingers.

And for all the state funding and efforts to tackle the environmental harms of cannabis grows, there's no federal funding designated for cleaning them up. No govt agency is comprehensively tracking them. And thousands of them linger on California's public lands.

calmatters.org/environment/...

Illegal cannabis farms poison California's forests. Who's cleaning them up? Even after legalization, illicit cannabis grows continue to pollute California’s public lands. And the contamination, new research shows, lingers.

Then I found out that that researchers have identified thousands of these sites littering California's public lands, mostly federally-managed forests. calmatters.org/environment/...

Illegal cannabis farms poison California's forests. Who's cleaning them up? Even after legalization, illicit cannabis grows continue to pollute California’s public lands. And the contamination, new research shows, lingers.

This story started out as a simple story about a research study showing pollution from pot grows persists in the soil and stream sediments of California's public lands for months or even years. But it didn't stay that way.

calmatters.org/environment/...

Storms line up to revive California's winter After quite the lull over the last month, a pattern flip will take place along the West Coast early this week, as storms bring in periods of rain, showers and even feet of mountain snow for some.

After quite the lull over the last month, a pattern flip will take place along the West Coast early this week, as storms bring in periods of rain, showers and even feet of mountain snow for some. #cawater www.accuweather.com/en/winter-we...

Hey if you don't know I'm a temporary host for the Scientific American podcast Science Quickly. We are doing an upcoming episode on kissing and we want your kissing stories! (next skeet tells you how to submit)

In Burned Forests, the West’s Snowpack Is Melting Earlier KEY POINTS Elevation, temperature, burn severity, vegetation type, and the amount of incoming solar radiation are among the drivers explaining when snowpack disappears after a wildfire. Wildfires had ...

Another climate feedback loop: Snowpack has trouble sticking around after forests are burned in megafires www.circleofblue.org/2025/water-c...

At Lake Powell, Engineering Is Outpacing Colorado River Policy As Lake Powell drops toward critical thresholds, engineers are making long-term infrastructure decisions even as post-2026 Colorado River rules remain unresolved.

"The drop (in Lake Powell) is compressing the margin between routine operations and hard infrastructure limits at Glen Canyon Dam as negotiations over post-2026 Colorado River operating rules remain unresolved." www.enr.com/articles/622...

L.A. fire cleanups reports describe repeated violations, illegal dumping allegation We reviewed thousands of pages of Army Corps of Engineering quality assurance reports for the January fire soil cleanup. The results were startling.

Records obtained by the Times depict dozens of instances in which oversight personnel flagged federal workers cleaning up the Eaton and Palisades fires for disregarding cleanup procedures in a way that likely spread toxic substances. Read more here: www.latimes.com/environment/...

A lot of rain is coming to California. Here’s the precipitation forecast through Christmas morning. 6-8 inches in San Francisco, according to the National Weather Service.

In addition to the brief linked below, @ra-becks.bsky.social wrote a related piece about the “hydrants ran dry” narrative in the LA fires @calmatters.org calmatters.org/environment/...

The hydrants will run dry: Trump's LA fire claims missed the mark, study shows Echoing state and local officials, a new analysis agrees: hydrant failures in the Palisades fire were ‘the rule rather than the exception.’

thanks to @ra-becks.bsky.social for covering our just-released work on how often the 'hydrants run dry' in major wildfires across the U.S. West

calmatters.org/environment/...

Snowpack off to a terrible start across the Western U.S. with no relief in sight.

all of this AND it all houses an incredible goodreads scoop

Covid Vaccines Reduced Children’s Likelihood of E.R. and Urgent Care Visits, the C.D.C. Reported

Covid vaccines released last fall sharply decreased the risk of ER and urgent care visits in children, according to new data released by the CDC — providing a striking counterpoint to Trump administration rhetoric about the shots

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/h...

California wildlife officials quietly shift on killing a high-profile predator California wildlife officials are now allowing mountain lions to be killed to protect endangered bighorn sheep, changing a nearly decade-long practice of just moving them.

California wildlife officials now allow mountain lions to be killed when they eat endangered bighorn sheep, a practice that was halted nearly a decade ago.

How we got here is complex, involving angry hunters and another beloved species: deer. I get into all of it in my latest: bit.ly/4s9bFOv

REPORT: NASEM reviews science behind Central Valley Project and State Water Project operations Managing the delicate balance between reliable water delivery and environmental stewardship in California requires rigorous scientific backing. At the request of the US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), t...

National Academies report on CVP operations. mavensnotebook.com/2025/12/11/n...

Scientists Thought Parkinson’s Was in Our Genes. It Might Be in the Water New ideas about chronic illness could revolutionize treatment, if we take the research seriously.

The environment flows through our bodies, altering our trajectories in ways medicine is just starting to see. "Your 'environment' could be the refinery a town over, the lead in the paint of your mother’s home, the plastic sheath of a Hot Pocket you microwaved in 1996." www.wired.com/story/scient...

New @cw3escripps study presents a comprehensive 2000–2024 database of California postfire debris flows, and analyzes their spatial distribution, seasonal timing, atmospheric drivers, & variability.

cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

California cities pay a lot for water; some agricultural districts get it for free Water costs are confusing — even for the experts. A new study shows huge differences in what cities and farm water districts pay for supplies from rivers and reservoirs in California, Arizona, and Nev...

Been waiting for this to come out from colleagues Noah Garrison & Mark Gold of @uclaioes.bsky.social:

The team investigated how much major suppliers spend on water from rivers and reservoirs in California, Arizona and Nevada.

As covered by @ra-becks.bsky.social:

calmatters.org/environment/...

A study on 1.7 million people in Hong Kong shows superior hybrid immunity to Covid in people who got vaccinated before infection vs. people who got infected first. "Our findings are a direct rebuttal to arguments for natural immunity," the authors write. doi.org/10.1016/j.va...