A Pennsylvania landowner bought his homestead in 1988; decades later, he protected 230 acres of forest, ponds and wetlands forever |

Allen Jones and NPC Land Steward Sara Schlesinger at the Stillwater conservation easement, marking a shared commitment to conservation. Image Credit: Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy (NPC) The Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy has helped place 230 acres of forest, ponds and wetlands along the Snyder-Mifflin county line under permanent conservation protection. The land, known as Stillwater, belongs to…

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NASA astronaut John Young carried a corned beef sandwich hidden in his spacesuit aboard Gemini III in 1965; rye crumbs floated through the cabin, and it became a $30 million problem for NASA |

John Young and the preserved corned-beef sandwich displayed at the Grissom Memorial Museum in Indiana. NASA astronaut John W. Young secretly carried a freshly made corned-beef sandwich on rye into space during the Gemini III mission on March 23, 1965, hiding it in a pocket of his spacesuit. Nearly two hours into the flight, Young…

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In 2019, California researchers used 1,500 volunteers to count seals and sea lions from drone images; 11 repeated counts improved accuracy |

More than 1,500 people helped researchers count seals and sea lions on California’s Año Nuevo Island by studying thousands of drone photographs. The citizen science project ran for 212 days, with volunteers counting about 94,000 image tiles. Researchers then compared the volunteer counts with counts made by experts. According to the study published in Plos…

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At England’s Studland Bay, replacing damaging boat anchors with eco-moorings cut scars in seagrass by 94%; researchers say the recovering meadow is also supporting a growing population of seahorses

The eco-moorings used at Studland Bay are designed to avoid that movement across the seabed (Photo: National Trust via The Guardian) At England’s Studland Bay, damage to seagrass caused by traditional boat anchors has fallen sharply after eco-moorings were introduced, with scars in one trial area shrinking by 94% between 2021 and 2025. Researchers say…

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Massachusetts restores cranberry bog to protect rare trout that moves between river and ocean

Massachusetts is restoring Century Bog, a former cranberry farm in Plymouth and Wareham, to complete protection of Red Brook from White Island Pond to Buttermilk Bay. The restored wetland and stream channel could benefit about 60 conservation-priority species, including “salter” brook trout that move between freshwater and saltwater estuaries. Source link

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A brightly striped wasp spider has been recorded in Cheshire for the first time; Chester Zoo says the harmless species is moving north as warming reshapes where British wildlife can survive

A striking yellow-and-black spider has turned up in Cheshire for the first time (Image Credit: Chester Zoo) A striking yellow-and-black spider has turned up in Cheshire for the first time, giving conservationists another glimpse of how Britain’s wildlife is responding to a changing climate. The discovery was made during a biodiversity survey on the Chester…

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Scientists found a new amoeba in California’s Lassen Volcanic National Park that can reproduce at 145°F, stay active at 147°F and recover after five minutes at 158°F, setting a new heat record for complex life

The discovery also has implications far beyond Lassen Volcanic National Park. Astrobiologists study extremophiles to understand the physical and chemical boundaries within which life can survive In the steaming pools of California’s Lassen Volcanic National Park, life has found a way to thrive where most cells would begin to fall apart. Hidden in geothermal waters,…

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A solar-powered pump installed at California’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory in 2024 has removed more than 65,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater in two years, nearly 70% of everything pumped there since 2017

The new setup can pump groundwater seven days a week, without relying on electricity from the grid or a generator. That has allowed the cleanup operation to run more consistently while increasing the volume of water that can be removed from the affected area. A small shift in how groundwater is collected is making a…

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Scientists warmed a Colorado grassland for 29 years, but shrubs increased 150% while grasses and wildflowers fell 28% |

Representative Image of a subalpine grassland transitioning from grasses to shrubs under warming conditions over 29 years (AI Generated Image) A 29-year climate-warming experiment in Colorado has documented a major shift in a subalpine grassland, with shrubs increasing by 150% while grasses and forbs, including wildflowers, declined by about 28%. The findings come from one…

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Engineers dredged 500,000 cubic yards of sand from the Mississippi River and used it to build seven islands; six years later, the $25 million McGregor Lake project has restored 270 acres of aquatic habitat and protected 22 acres of wetlands

For years, sand dredged from the Mississippi River was removed to keep one of America’s most important waterways navigable. At one restoration site, engineers found another use for that material, building islands. The US Army Corps of Engineers has completed a $25 million habitat restoration project at McGregor Lake in Wisconsin, where about 500,000 cubic…

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