Erica Gies / SlowWater.world

Indigenous communities oppose Papua forest rezoning for palm oil JAKARTA — Indigenous communities in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua accuse the government of underhanded zoning changes to expand the so-called food estate program there to include…

Indigenous communities in Indonesian Papua are challenging forestry decrees that reclassified more than 1 million acres as nonforest land for oil palm under the food estate program.

They say the move lacked consent and may sue if ignored, warning forests and livelihoods are at risk.

Analysis of 261 bird species over 34 yrs shows continental decline of abundance of all birds, w/decline hotspots in southern warm parts of NAmerica & accelerating declines in Midatlantic, Midwest & California MATCHING PATTERNS OF AGRICULTURAL INTENSITY.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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 🌱

Ancient stepwells brought back to life as India begins to run out of water Centuries-old wells restored to provide drinking water as parts of the country head towards “day zero” when no water will be available

Great to see India's restoration of traditional water management is expanding. I wrote about Tamil Nadu's eris system for @biographic.bsky.social and in my book, Water Always Wins. Good story by @shomaabhyankar.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Thank you!

This is one of the things I am constantly (including in our book, Life After Cars) trying to get people to care about! This is killing us, folks

Thanks, Mike. Will do.

Ha! Not yet, I’m afraid.

Kiliii Yüyan puts Indigenous ‘Guardians of Life’ and their planetary stewardship in focus National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan returns to the Mongabay Newscast to share his experience creating his new book, Guardians of Life: Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Science, and Restoring...

Almost three years ago I interviewed @kiliiiyuyan.bsky.social about a project he was working on documenting the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of nine Indigenous communities worldwide. He returns to the podcast to talk about the experience, and the knowledge he's gleaned. Listen here:

I feel the same!

Nice! One time I saw ravens flying up, joining talons, and doing death drops, pulling apart just before the ground. That was outside of Victoria, BC. I am well. Hope you are too!

Some day we'll all regret this & we'll hold hearings & rend garments & pledge "never again" & we'll be just as full of shit as we were last time.

YES! My next book will be partly about this.

Aww! Beautiful! I saw two redtail hawks in an aerial dance yesterday at Lands End.

Congrats to BART rider and Oakland legend Alysa Liu on winning a gold medal at the Olympics and making the Bay Area proud!

happy Oakland creek news!

Braided rivers look chaotic, but their food webs tell a different story.
Using stable isotopes, we found that fish, birds, and spiders connect resources across huge spatial scales — revealing hidden structures that help stabilise these dynamic ecosystems.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

I think we haven’t quantified all the things the land carbon sink might do yet. And the land carbon cycles in ESMs are quite linear but are missing a number of processes which could be quite non-linear.

안석진 Bassoonjwa Seokjin Ahn on Instagram: "If "Slim Shady" had a Bassoon Solo [Oli Parker Ver.] @oliparker_music #slimshady #jazz #bassoon #music #meme" 154K likes, 1,141 comments - ahn_gooon on February 6, 2026: "If "Slim Shady" had a Bassoon Solo [Oli Parker Ver.] @oliparker_music #slimshady #jazz #bassoon #music #meme".

Little known fact about me: I played bassoon for several years, including in San Francisco’s short-lived Punk Rock Orchestra. So my brother, who played drums in PRO for a bit, sends me incredible vids like this. www.instagram.com/reel/DUbPRg1...

Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say Continued global heating could set irreversible course by triggering climate tipping points, but most people unaware

The only biosphere in the known universe capable of supporting human life is being turned into a hell planet because most of Earth's governments refuse to stop trying to satisfy the insatiable greed of a plutocracy composed of people who already have more money than they could spend in 20 lifetimes.

YOU CAN PRINT THAT... honestly, too many outlets not being able to share this obvious and dangerous truth is a big part of how we've gotten to where we are.

Serpentine! Do you know the state flower?

California quail!

He also coauthored a report with his student James "Huck" Rees exploring managed retreat by Midwest towns. Published in 2019, I think?

Geomorphologist Nicholas Pinter (UC Davis, used to be Illinois Champagne-Urbana) has done some great work on managed retreat, and the Corps' history of extreme levee building. Great paper:
Nicholas Pinter, “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back on U.S. Floodplains,” Science 308, no. 5719 (2005): 207–8.

BTW, the Pajaro project was partly to benefit steelhead

Smarter, More Natural Levees Could Better Protect against Floods The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has uncharacteristically been working with nature instead of bulldozing it into submission. Will this enlightened approach prevail?

And last year I wrote about the Corps' "Engineering with Nature" initiative for @sciam.bsky.social, and two of the featured projects are floodplains. I prefer the print headline: Softer Corps. LOL www.scientificamerican.com/article/smar...

Raised in Rice Fields - bioGraphic California’s Chinook salmon have been losing habitat to agriculture for decades. Now, they’re getting a much-needed boost from strategically flooded fields.

I cited this great story by Robin Meadows in my book. Actually, a lot of "Water Always Wins" is about floodplains, which I like to say, exist to absorb floods: www.biographic.com/raised-in-ri...

Cambodia’s canal mega-project threatens coastal communities and marine life This is the first of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Part two, about consequences for inland communities and wildlife, will be published soon. KEP, Camb...

Latest for @mongabay.com w. @vantha.bsky.social looks at #Cambodia's controversial Funan Techo Canal - specifically, at the impacts the canal will have on coastal communities and marine habitats when it reaches the sea, threatening conservation efforts.

The Stillaguamish Tribe gives its river north of Seattle room to roam “Now the river can connect to its floodplain like it hasn't in 140 years.”

How about most recent writing about floodplains?
www.kuow.org/stories/the-...