It’s probably pretty close to Tufted Puffin season on that there rock (easier to see with binoculars or a scope), they are spectacularly cute.

Snake Plissken saying “Get a new president”

NSF LTER program “archived”.

LTER=“Long Term Ecological Research”.

This program has been incredibly successful, incredibly frugal for what they accomplish, and…of course…targeted by evil know-nothings.

My heart is breaking.

<me, standing in the corner, staring at my shoes and whispering to myself> uhhhh happy international beaver day

Trump administration orders dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service Late Tuesday afternoon, with the subtlety of a wrecking ball and the morality of a foreclosure notice, the Trump administration announced the most devastating attack on the U.S. Forest Service in the ...

Amidst everything else, the Trump regime has quietly killed off the U.S. Forest Service 🌲

“One hundred and ninety-three million acres of your national forests… just handed, on a silver platter, to the people who’ve spent their entire careers trying to destroy it.”

www.hatchmag.com/articles/tru...

Hell yeah. I will switch careers altogether before doing most of that work.

U.S. Forest Service unveils extensive closures of research facilities Cost-cutting move is expected to cause resignations and turmoil

What will happen to the 82 USFS experimental forests around the country? Many sites have decades-long experiments that are tracking how forests are changed by timber harvesting practices and climate change. As I say here, “you can't just pick up an experimental forest site and move it to SLC.”

From the state that is going to be in charge of all of the US National Forests.

If anyone on here works at one of the 57 forest service research stations that are going to be closed and you want to tell me about your work there and why it's important, reach out: jmckenzie@thebulletin.org

A scenic view of a lush forest landscape featuring a waterfall surrounded by trees. Overlaid is a quote: “National forests belong to all Americans. Our nation’s capital is where federal policy is made and where the Forest Service headquarters belongs.” The quote is attributed to Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director.

#ICYMI: This week the Trump administration announced a plan to move the #ForestService headquarters to Salt Lake City.

It's not good.

Conservation Group Launches Investigation of Forest Service Livestock Program  - Western Watersheds Project For immediate release: April 2, 2026 Media contacts:  Megan Backsen, Western Watersheds Project, megan@westernwatersheds.org; 719-207-2493  Greg LeDonne, Western Watersheds Project, greg@westernwaters...

Western Watersheds Project filed a lawsuit today seeking public documents from the U.S. Forest Service under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain long-overdue requests for information about public lands livestock grazing in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada.

I extend this to arboretums with international trees I am unfamiliar with.

Forest Service Sheds Research Capacity in Move to Utah USDA Abandons Science, Closing 57 Forest Service Research Stations

As part of a wide-ranging reorganization and headquarters move from DC to Utah, the U.S. Forest Service is shuttering more than 57 research stations and eliminating a significant number of forestry scientists.

https://ow.ly/HE8i50YCiQl

#ForestService #NationalForests

"...the U.S. Forest Service announced plans to move its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, Utah. It will also close or repurpose all nine of its regional offices, create 15 state offices, and shutter research and development facilities in more than 30 states."

1/

Let's dive into this a bit. A short and very incomplete thread on US Forest Service research. 1/

The younger folks in my area are currently super stoked on herps if thats anything! Big fans of toads, newts and salamanders in my recent intern group.

Let’s be crystal clear about why these facilities have been targeted:

Forest Facts threaten rapacious land use.

Research at Fresno California was instrumental in establishing the need for conservation of old growth forests.

If we don’t ask pesky questions, industry can do whatever it wants, yes?

COMMENTARY | The Intentional Vandalization of America’s National Parks The National Park Service is being dismantled through political interference, workforce depletion, corruption, and the erasure of history.

Under Interior Secretary Burgum’s leadership, the National Park Service is being dismantled piece by piece—through political interference, workforce depletion, corruption, and the systematic erasure of American history.

https://ow.ly/hO1y50YBPaY

#NationalParks #PublicLands

Idaho governor signs law making transgender bathroom use a felony Gov. Brad Little signed the measure on Transgender Day of Visibility as advocates rallied outside the statehouse.

Idaho Governor Brad Little has signed the law that makes it a felony punishable up to 5 years in prison for trans people to use the bathroom. He did so on trans day of visibility.

www.advocate.com/politics/sta...

In Sweeping ESA Rollback, Doug Burgum and Pete Hegseth Play God The so-called ‘God Squad’ obliterated Endangered Species Act restrictions on Gulf oil and gas developers at its first meeting in more than 30 years.

The rarely convened “God Squad” today squashed Endangered Species Act restrictions in the Gulf of Mexico — a move that could push one of the world’s rarest whale species into extinction. Public Domain reports: www.publicdomain.media/p/endangered-species-bur...

BREAKING: The Trump administration just voted to let Big Oil ignore every endangered species protection in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a single meeting, Trump's corrupt cabinet gave oil companies a free pass to kill endangered whales & sea turtles so they can drill without limits.

🧵

Lands used for livestock grazing in health spiral, greens say An environmental group is raising concerns that monitoring public land health could go by the wayside as agencies face staffing shortfalls.

PEER's new analysis based on data compiled by the Bureau of Land Management, shows public lands are in steep decline, showing that healthy lands dropped from 72 percent in 2022 to 58 percent in 2024. A 2025 report shows that only 53 percent of BLM managed lands have healthy native plant communities.

Idaho Fish and Game commissioner charged with poaching a bull elk.

Not the first time state leadership has had ties to poaching.

At some point it stops being an anomaly and starts looking like alignment.

Wildlife isn’t mismanaged.
It’s managed as inventory.
www.idahostatesman.c...

Rise of the shrubs: what happened when scientists heated a Rocky Mountain wildlife meadow by 2C? A long-running experiment in Colorado provides an ‘alarming’ view of how rapidly unchecked global heating could transform fragile ecosystems

update on the experiment my colleague John Harte started almost 30 years ago

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As Rangeland Health Declines, BLM Stops Monitoring Science-Based Land Management Falls Victim to Trump Budget Cuts

As rangeland health on federal public lands declines, the Bureau of Land Management simply stops monitoring because science-based public lands management falls victim to Trump budget cuts.

Learn more via @peer.org.

peer.org/as-rangeland...

Chinook salmon are hatching in Upper Klamath for first time in a century The Klamath Tribes are celebrating evidence of Chinook salmon spawning in Klamath River tributary.

More positive fish news on the Klamath River

CPR for a Planet Hands performing chest compressions during CPR, a life-saving intervention used when a patient is in critical condition—an image that mirrors modern conservation efforts focused on keeping ecosystems ...

What if modern conservation isn’t restoration—but CPR?
open.substack.com/pub/lylel/p/...