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California's first Black land trust fights climate change, makes the outdoors more inclusive

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Sunday, May 19, 2024

EMIGRANT GAP, Calif. — Jade Stevens stands at the edge of a snowy cliff and takes in the jaw-dropping panorama of the Sierra.Peaks reaching more than a mile high form the backdrop to Bear Valley, a kaleidoscope of green pastures mixed with ponderosa pines, firs, cedars and oak trees.Stevens, 34, is well aware that some of her fellow Black Americans can’t picture themselves in places like this. Camping, hiking, mountain biking, snow sports, venturing to locales with wild animals in their names — those are things white people do.As co-founder of the 40 Acre Conservation League, California’s first Black-led land conservancy, she’s determined to change that perception. Darryl Lucien snowshoes near Lake Putt. The nonprofit recently secured $3 million in funding from the state Wildlife Conservation Board and the nonprofit Sierra Nevada Conservancy to purchase 650 acres of a former logging forest north of Lake Tahoe. It will be a haven for experienced Black outdoor lovers and novices alike.The land trust, almost by necessity, has both an environmental and a social mission, Stevens says as she leads a tour of the parcels straddling Interstate 80.The most obvious goal for the property is to help the state reach a target of protecting 30% of its open space by 2030 — as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s overall climate and conservation initiative.Given that Black Americans historically have not enjoyed equal access to national parks and wilderness recreation areas — and have often been deprived of the chance to steward large open spaces because of discriminatory land policies — the purchase carries immense cultural importance too.The group’s name derives from Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s unfulfilled promise to grant some emancipated slaves “40 acres and a mule” to help them start over after the Civil War.An avid cyclist, Stevens is part of a growing movement among environmentalists, outdoor enthusiasts and naturalists who believe that safeguarding the ecosystem, promoting wellness and confronting historical injustices go hand-in-hand. Although surveys show that Black people care as much about climate change and protecting the environment as other Americans, these issues aren’t necessarily top of mind in a era when racial strife, police violence and economic inequities command more attention. Lake Putt is the main attraction among the the 40 Acre League’s recently purchased parcels. How can you heed the call of the wild when life in your own backyard presents so many challenges? Stevens, a marketing professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills who lives in a historically Black neighborhood in Los Angeles — 385 miles to the south — can appreciate why some might feel this way.The 70-mile drive from Sacramento, the state capital, feels like a journey to another dimension, one where Black people make up only about 1% of the population. A Trump 2024 sign greets you upon leaving Sacramento’s suburbs and entering Placer County. Winding past Gold Rush-era towns, forests and rocky outcroppings, the elevation soon rises to 3,000 feet, 4,000 feet and finally 5,000 feet.At Emigrant Gap, Stevens sits at the edge of Lake Putt and smiles like a woman on top of the world. The lake is the main attraction among the conservancy’s parcels and it’s the body of water motorists see on the right as they head toward Nevada.The water is so still you can see a perfect reflection of the snow-capped ridges. Jade Stevens walks over a bridge in Emigrant Gap. This is also an ideal spot for Stevens to envision all that the 40 Acre group wants to do on this land, from helping to protect species such as southern long-toed salamanders and foothill yellow-legged frogs to helping humans who don’t see themselves as nature or wildlife lovers develop a new appreciation for California’s fragile ecosystem.“These plants, everything here, they all rely on each other,” she says. “I haven’t brought my family out here yet, but just from them seeing what I’m doing, it’s already sparking conversation.”Trudging in snowshoes alongside Stevens is Darryl Lucien, an attorney for the 40 Acre group who has acted as a liaison between the nonprofit and officials in local and state government.The land trust isn’t as disconnected from Black Californians as some might think, Lucien says. Next to the lake, a spillway flows into a stream that the Department of Water Resources refers to as Blue Canyon Creek. Blue Canyon Creek runs through land recently purchased by the 40 Acre Conservation League, California’s first Black-led land conservancy. Waters from Blue Canyon Creek eventually flow into the North Fork of the American River, then the Sacramento River, and then the California delta, where some flows will be channeled into the State Water Project, “which eventually finds its way down to Los Angeles,” Lucien says. A look of racial pride washes over Lucien, 38, when he contemplates the possibility that these waters might reach the homes of Black Angelenos.“Little do they know their water starts on Black land,” he says. “You’re standing at the source, baby.”It has been less than a year since state Assemblymember Mike Gipson, a Democrat from South L.A. County and an early champion of the nonprofit, presented the group with a check to purchase the land. The planned habitat restoration will take time, but Stevens already has other big ideas. Gazing across the lake to the southern shore, Stevens sees a location for a nature center that can hold environmental education classes and double as a rentable lodge for gatherings. She daydreams about installing a pier for fishing, lookout points along the shore and adult treehouses for glamping among conifers so tall they don’t fit in a camera’s viewfinder. Just beyond the southern shore there are old timber-company clearings which could someday be converted into trails that hikers can use to reach the adjacent Tahoe National Forest.“This is an area where a lot of community building will take place,” Stevens says. “We’re hoping that everyone finds at least one thing that makes them feel welcome on this property.” The 40 Acre Conservation League has secured $3 million in funding from the state Wildlife Conservation Board and the nonprofit Sierra Nevada Conservancy to purchase 650 acres of a former logging area north of Lake Tahoe. “Welcome” is not a word that has historically greeted Black people in the nation’s rural spaces and wilderness parks, says KangJae “Jerry” Lee, a social and environmental justice researcher and assistant professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.Lee notes the irony that most Black Americans descend from enslaved Africans who were stolen from their homelands specifically for their expertise in land stewardship and farming. Engaging with the outdoors was anything but a foreign concept.“Some of them had better skill sets than the European colonists,” Lee says. Black people built whole towns in the Great Plains and the West — including Allensworth, in Tulare County — though many were overrun by white mobs, seized or suffered decline due to a lack of equal access to resources such as water. Some of the first rangers stationed at Yosemite and Sequoia national parks were Black, yet the reality is that the national park system was originally designed as way for white visitors to enjoy nature’s splendor, Lee says.In response, Black-owned resorts catering to an African American clientele sprang up in the early 20th century — including in Val Verde, a “black Palm Springs” an hour’s drive north of Los Angeles; at Lake Elsinore near Riverside; and at Manhattan Beach.The parks ostensibly welcome all today, but studies show that Black Americans are among the least likely of any racial group to visit them.“Black people inherently had a deep, deep connection to the land,” Lee says.”That relationship has been severed over centuries.” Stevens reflects on this painful history as she talks about the group’s plan to acquire other lands throughout California, including open spaces closer to L.A. Recreation and conservation aren’t the only imperatives at Emigrant Gap.Stevens pulls out a copy of a handwritten letter she received from a Black man from L.A. who is an inmate at San Quentin. He saw a TV report about the land purchase and felt inspired by its mission. He writes about how exposure to nature and recreation can help steer Black and brown teens away from gangs and violence, and out of the criminal justice system. Stevens agrees.The property will be a small-business incubator too. The nonprofit intends to help Black and brown entrepreneurs develop sustainable, outdoor-oriented ventures such as hiking excursions — fostering generational wealth in the process.“How we get back to this truth of appreciating nature, being connected to the outdoors, is our story to tell,” Stevens says.One local ally wants to help the group shift the narrative around Black people and nature — Cindy Gustafson, who sits on the Placer County Board of Supervisors. Gustafson also serves on the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, which awarded the league $750,000 to help purchase the land. The 40 Acre League’s Jade Stevens, left, and Darryl Lucien walk along an earthen dam at Lake Putt. Gustafson, who is white, appreciates the league’s desire to help Northern Californians manage forested lands, which have been devastated in recent years by deadly and costly wildfires. Fires have grown more and more severe due to rising global temperatures, posing a greater risk to flora, fauna and residents in cities and rural areas alike. “Many of us haven’t had the experiences or the background to understand the nature of these forests and how important they are to our climate, our environment,” Gustafson says. “Having new stewards is really important, as is diversity. It’s a sign of hope for me in these divisive times. ... Taking care of this land takes us all.”Stevens seems undaunted by the challenge of persuading reluctant Black Californians to view Emigrant Gap as a setting where they can celebrate their culture while learning about the ecosystem.Her pitch is a simple one:“Here,” Stevens says, “you’re safe.”

The 40 Acres Conservation League is on a mission to establish an open space where Black Californians and other people of color can feel at home in nature.

EMIGRANT GAP, Calif. —

Jade Stevens stands at the edge of a snowy cliff and takes in the jaw-dropping panorama of the Sierra.

Peaks reaching more than a mile high form the backdrop to Bear Valley, a kaleidoscope of green pastures mixed with ponderosa pines, firs, cedars and oak trees.

Stevens, 34, is well aware that some of her fellow Black Americans can’t picture themselves in places like this. Camping, hiking, mountain biking, snow sports, venturing to locales with wild animals in their names — those are things white people do.

As co-founder of the 40 Acre Conservation League, California’s first Black-led land conservancy, she’s determined to change that perception.

The nonprofit recently secured $3 million in funding from the state Wildlife Conservation Board and the nonprofit Sierra Nevada Conservancy to purchase 650 acres of a former logging forest north of Lake Tahoe. It will be a haven for experienced Black outdoor lovers and novices alike.

The land trust, almost by necessity, has both an environmental and a social mission, Stevens says as she leads a tour of the parcels straddling Interstate 80.

The most obvious goal for the property is to help the state reach a target of protecting 30% of its open space by 2030 — as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s overall climate and conservation initiative.

Given that Black Americans historically have not enjoyed equal access to national parks and wilderness recreation areas — and have often been deprived of the chance to steward large open spaces because of discriminatory land policies — the purchase carries immense cultural importance too.

The group’s name derives from Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s unfulfilled promise to grant some emancipated slaves “40 acres and a mule” to help them start over after the Civil War.

An avid cyclist, Stevens is part of a growing movement among environmentalists, outdoor enthusiasts and naturalists who believe that safeguarding the ecosystem, promoting wellness and confronting historical injustices go hand-in-hand.

Although surveys show that Black people care as much about climate change and protecting the environment as other Americans, these issues aren’t necessarily top of mind in a era when racial strife, police violence and economic inequities command more attention.

Clouds hover over a bright blue lake surrounded by evergreens. Snowy mountains rise in the background.

How can you heed the call of the wild when life in your own backyard presents so many challenges? Stevens, a marketing professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills who lives in a historically Black neighborhood in Los Angeles — 385 miles to the south — can appreciate why some might feel this way.

The 70-mile drive from Sacramento, the state capital, feels like a journey to another dimension, one where Black people make up only about 1% of the population.

A Trump 2024 sign greets you upon leaving Sacramento’s suburbs and entering Placer County. Winding past Gold Rush-era towns, forests and rocky outcroppings, the elevation soon rises to 3,000 feet, 4,000 feet and finally 5,000 feet.

At Emigrant Gap, Stevens sits at the edge of Lake Putt and smiles like a woman on top of the world. The lake is the main attraction among the conservancy’s parcels and it’s the body of water motorists see on the right as they head toward Nevada.

The water is so still you can see a perfect reflection of the snow-capped ridges.

A woman walks over a bridge on a forested path.

This is also an ideal spot for Stevens to envision all that the 40 Acre group wants to do on this land, from helping to protect species such as southern long-toed salamanders and foothill yellow-legged frogs to helping humans who don’t see themselves as nature or wildlife lovers develop a new appreciation for California’s fragile ecosystem.

“These plants, everything here, they all rely on each other,” she says. “I haven’t brought my family out here yet, but just from them seeing what I’m doing, it’s already sparking conversation.”

Trudging in snowshoes alongside Stevens is Darryl Lucien, an attorney for the 40 Acre group who has acted as a liaison between the nonprofit and officials in local and state government.

The land trust isn’t as disconnected from Black Californians as some might think, Lucien says.

Next to the lake, a spillway flows into a stream that the Department of Water Resources refers to as Blue Canyon Creek.

Waters from Blue Canyon Creek eventually flow into the North Fork of the American River, then the Sacramento River, and then the California delta, where some flows will be channeled into the State Water Project, “which eventually finds its way down to Los Angeles,” Lucien says.

A look of racial pride washes over Lucien, 38, when he contemplates the possibility that these waters might reach the homes of Black Angelenos.

“Little do they know their water starts on Black land,” he says. “You’re standing at the source, baby.”

It has been less than a year since state Assemblymember Mike Gipson, a Democrat from South L.A. County and an early champion of the nonprofit, presented the group with a check to purchase the land. The planned habitat restoration will take time, but Stevens already has other big ideas.

Gazing across the lake to the southern shore, Stevens sees a location for a nature center that can hold environmental education classes and double as a rentable lodge for gatherings.

She daydreams about installing a pier for fishing, lookout points along the shore and adult treehouses for glamping among conifers so tall they don’t fit in a camera’s viewfinder.

Just beyond the southern shore there are old timber-company clearings which could someday be converted into trails that hikers can use to reach the adjacent Tahoe National Forest.

“This is an area where a lot of community building will take place,” Stevens says. “We’re hoping that everyone finds at least one thing that makes them feel welcome on this property.”

A hilltop view of a clearing in a forest.

“Welcome” is not a word that has historically greeted Black people in the nation’s rural spaces and wilderness parks, says KangJae “Jerry” Lee, a social and environmental justice researcher and assistant professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

Lee notes the irony that most Black Americans descend from enslaved Africans who were stolen from their homelands specifically for their expertise in land stewardship and farming. Engaging with the outdoors was anything but a foreign concept.

“Some of them had better skill sets than the European colonists,” Lee says.

Black people built whole towns in the Great Plains and the West — including Allensworth, in Tulare County — though many were overrun by white mobs, seized or suffered decline due to a lack of equal access to resources such as water.

Some of the first rangers stationed at Yosemite and Sequoia national parks were Black, yet the reality is that the national park system was originally designed as way for white visitors to enjoy nature’s splendor, Lee says.

In response, Black-owned resorts catering to an African American clientele sprang up in the early 20th century — including in Val Verde, a “black Palm Springs” an hour’s drive north of Los Angeles; at Lake Elsinore near Riverside; and at Manhattan Beach.

The parks ostensibly welcome all today, but studies show that Black Americans are among the least likely of any racial group to visit them.

“Black people inherently had a deep, deep connection to the land,” Lee says.”That relationship has been severed over centuries.”

Stevens reflects on this painful history as she talks about the group’s plan to acquire other lands throughout California, including open spaces closer to L.A.

Recreation and conservation aren’t the only imperatives at Emigrant Gap.

Stevens pulls out a copy of a handwritten letter she received from a Black man from L.A. who is an inmate at San Quentin. He saw a TV report about the land purchase and felt inspired by its mission. He writes about how exposure to nature and recreation can help steer Black and brown teens away from gangs and violence, and out of the criminal justice system. Stevens agrees.

The property will be a small-business incubator too. The nonprofit intends to help Black and brown entrepreneurs develop sustainable, outdoor-oriented ventures such as hiking excursions — fostering generational wealth in the process.

“How we get back to this truth of appreciating nature, being connected to the outdoors, is our story to tell,” Stevens says.

One local ally wants to help the group shift the narrative around Black people and nature — Cindy Gustafson, who sits on the Placer County Board of Supervisors.

Gustafson also serves on the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, which awarded the league $750,000 to help purchase the land.

A man and woman walk along a snow-covered earthen dam.

Gustafson, who is white, appreciates the league’s desire to help Northern Californians manage forested lands, which have been devastated in recent years by deadly and costly wildfires. Fires have grown more and more severe due to rising global temperatures, posing a greater risk to flora, fauna and residents in cities and rural areas alike.

“Many of us haven’t had the experiences or the background to understand the nature of these forests and how important they are to our climate, our environment,” Gustafson says. “Having new stewards is really important, as is diversity. It’s a sign of hope for me in these divisive times. ... Taking care of this land takes us all.”

Stevens seems undaunted by the challenge of persuading reluctant Black Californians to view Emigrant Gap as a setting where they can celebrate their culture while learning about the ecosystem.

Her pitch is a simple one:

“Here,” Stevens says, “you’re safe.”

Read the full story here.

Photos courtesy of

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New England kicks off $450M plan to supercharge heat pump adoption

The program aims to use federal funds awarded under the Biden administration to deploy more than 500,000 heat pumps in the chilly region over the next few years.

New England winters can get wicked cold. This week, five of the region’s states launched a $450 million effort to warm more homes in the often-frigid region with energy-efficient, low-emission heat pumps instead of by burning fossil fuels. “It’s a big deal,” said Katie Dykes, commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. “It’s unprecedented to see five states aligning together on a transformational approach to deploying more affordable clean-heat options.” The New England Heat Pump Accelerator is a collaboration between Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The initiative is funded by the federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, which was created by President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The accelerator’s launch marks a rare milestone for a Biden-era climate initiative amid the Trump administration’s relentless attempts to scrap federal clean energy and environmental programs. The goal: Get more heat pumps into more homes through a combination of financial incentives, educational outreach, and workforce development. New England is a rich target for such an effort because of its current dependence on fossil-fuel heating. Natural gas and propane are in wide use, and heating oil is still widespread throughout the region; more than half of Maine’s homes are heated by oil, and the other coalition states all use oil at rates much higher than the national average. The prevalence of oil in particular means there’s plenty of opportunity to grow heat-pump adoption, cut emissions, and lower residents’ energy bills. Read Next Installing heat pumps in factories could save $1.5 trillion and 77,000 lives Matt Simon At the same time, heat pumps have faced barriers in the region, including the upfront cost of equipment, New England’s high price of electricity, and misconceptions about heat pumps’ ability to work in cold weather. “There’s not a full awareness that these cold-temperature heat pumps can handle our winters, and do it at a cost that is lower than many of our delivered fuels,” said Joseph DeNicola, deputy commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. To some degree, the momentum is shifting. Maine has had notable success, hitting its aim of 100,000 new heat pump installations in 2023, two years ahead of its initial deadline. Massachusetts is on track to reach its 2025 target, but needs adoption rates to rise in order to make its 2030 goal. The accelerator aims to speed up adoption by supporting the installation of some 580,000 residential heat pumps, which would reduce carbon emissions by 2.5 million metric tons by 2030 — the equivalent of taking more than 540,000 gas-powered passenger vehicles off the road. The initiative is organized into three program areas, or “hubs,” as planners called them during a webinar kicking off the accelerator this week. The largest portion of money, some $270 million, will go to the “market hub.” Distributors will receive incentives for selling heat pumps. They will keep a small percentage of the money for themselves and pass most of the savings on to the contractors buying the equipment. The contractors, in turn, will pass the lower price on to the customers. In addition to reducing upfront costs for consumers, this approach is designed to shift the market by encouraging distributors to keep the equipment in stock, therefore making it an easier choice for contractors and their customers. Read Next 10 charts prove that clean energy is winning — even in the Trump era Umair Irfan, Vox, Benji Jones, Adam Clark Estes, & Sam Delgado, Vox These midstream incentives are expected to reduce the cost of cold-climate air-source heat pumps by $500 to $700 per unit and heat-pump water heaters by $200 to $300 per unit. When contractors buy the appliances, the incentive will be applied automatically — no extra paperwork or claims process required. “It should be very simple for contractors to access this funding,” said Ellen Pfeiffer, a senior manager with Energy Solutions, a clean energy consultancy that is helping implement the program. “It should be almost seamless.” Consumers will also remain eligible for any incentives available through state efficiency programs, such as rebates from Mass Save or Efficiency Maine, but will likely not be able to stack the accelerator benefits with federal incentives like the Home Efficiency Rebates and Home Electrification and Appliances Rebate programs. Program planners expect to be finalizing the incentive levels through the end of the year, enrolling and training distributors in the early months of 2026, and making the first participating products available in February 2026, said New England Heat Pump Accelerator program manager Jennifer Gottlieb Elazhari. The second program area is the innovation hub. Each state will receive $14.5 million to fund one or two pilot programs testing out new ways to overcome barriers to heat pump adoption by low- and moderate-income households and in disadvantaged communities. One state might, for example, create a lending library of window-mounted air-source heat pumps, allowing someone whose oil heating breaks down all the time to research replacement options rather than just installing new oil equipment. The innovation hub will also include workforce development and training. Organizers are talking with contractors and other partners to figure out where the gaps are in heat pump training. In the first few months of 2026, they will develop a program with a target start date in April. The goal will be not only to ensure that there are tradespeople with the needed skills to install the systems, but also to lay the groundwork for faster adoption by spreading knowledge about the capabilities of the technology and the available incentives. The third major area of the accelerator is a resource hub to aggregate information for contractors, distributors, program implementers, and other stakeholders. Overall, organizers hope to have all three hubs operational in spring 2026. Accelerator planners expect programs to boost adoption even as a federal tax credit of up to $2,000 on heat pumps and heat-pump water heaters is phased out at the end of the year, leaving states to lead the way on clean energy action. “At the state level, this is one example of a way we are helping to make progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but with a solution that can help people take control of their energy costs,” Dykes said. “That’s really what we’re focused on.” This story was originally published by Grist with the headline New England kicks off $450M plan to supercharge heat pump adoption on Nov 29, 2025.

Climate

Education

Energy

The Mystery of the Missing Porcupines

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Porcupines are easy to recognize but hard to find—so elusive, in fact, that few people have ever seen one in the wild. Emilio Tripp, a wildlife manager and citizen of the Karuk Tribe in Northern California, might have been one of the lucky ones. On a nighttime drive with his father in the late 1990s, a ghostly silhouette flashed by the window. “That was my only time I’ve even thought I’ve seen one,” he recalled decades later. Tripp still can’t say for sure whether it was a kaschiip, the Karuk word for porcupine, but he holds on to the memory like a talisman. The 43-year-old hasn’t seen another porcupine since. Porcupine encounters are rare among his tribe, and the few witnesses seem to fit a pattern: Almost all of them are elders, and they fondly remember an abundance of porcupines until the turn of this century. Now, each new sighting rings like an echo from the past: a carcass on the road; a midnight run-in. The tribe can’t help wondering: Where did all the porcupines go? “It’s important for (porcupines) to be a part of our landscape. That’s part of why they’re chosen to be part of this ceremonial item.” “Everyone’s concerned,” Tripp said. “If there were more (observations), we’d hear about it.” The decline isn’t just in Northern California: Across the West, porcupines are vanishing. Wildlife scientists are racing to find where porcupines are still living, and why they’re disappearing. Others, including the Karuk Tribe, are already thinking ahead, charting ambitious plans to restore porcupines to their forests. Porcupines are walking pincushions. Their permanently unkempt hairdo is actually a protective fortress of some 30,000 quills. But their body armor can be a liability, too—porcupines are known to accidentally quill themselves. “They’re big and dopey and slow,” said Tim Bean, an ecologist at California Polytechnic State University who has collared porcupines as part of his research. They waddle from tree to tree, usually at night, to snack on foliage or the nutrient-rich inner layer of bark. But these large rodents are far from universally beloved. Their tree-gnawing habits damage lumber, and the timber industry has long regarded them as pests. Widespread poisoning and hunting campaigns took place throughout the 1900s in the US Between 1957 and 1959, Vermont alone massacred over 10,800 porcupines. Forest Service officials in California declared open season on porcupines in 1950, claiming that the species would ultimately destroy pine forests. Though state bounty programs had ended by 1979, porcupine numbers have not rebounded. Recent surveys by researchers in British Columbia, Arizona, western Montana and Northern California show that porcupines remain scarce in those regions today. Historically, porcupine populations haven’t been well-monitored, so scientists can’t say for sure whether they are still declining or simply haven’t recovered after decades of persecution. “We still don’t understand (why) they’re not reproducing and filling back in.” But anecdotal evidence from those who recall when sightings were common is enough to ring alarm bells. Similar patterns appear to be playing out across the West: Veterinarians are treating fewer quilled pets, for example, and longtime rural homeowners have noticed fewer porcupines lurking in their backyards. Hikers’ accounts note that porcupines are harder to find than ever before. Some forest ecosystems are already showing the effects of losing an entire species from the food chain: In the Sierra Nevada, an endangered member of the weasel family called the fisher is suffering from lack of the protein porcupines once provided. As a result, the fishers are scrawnier and birth smaller litters in the Sierras than they do elsewhere. Porcupines are culturally important to the Karuk Tribe, whose members weave quills into cultural and ceremonial items, such as baskets. But these days, the tribe imports quills more often than it harvests them. That’s more than just an inconvenience: Not being able to gather quills locally constitutes a form of lost connection between tribal members and their homelands. “It’s important for (porcupines) to be a part of our landscape. That’s part of why they’re chosen to be part of this ceremonial item,” Tripp said. Erik Beever, an ecologist at the US Geological Survey, worries that the great porcupine vanishing act points to a broader trend. Across the country, biodiversity is declining faster than scientists can track it. The porcupine might just be one example of what Beever calls “this silent erosion of animal abundance.” But no one really knows what’s going on. Beever said, “We’re wondering whether the species is either increasing or declining without anybody even knowing.” Scientists are racing to fill this knowledge gap. Bean and his team combed through a century’s worth of public records to map porcupine distribution patterns in the Pacific Northwest. Roadkill databases, wildlife agency reports and citizen science hits revealed that porcupines are dwindling in conifer forests but popping up in nontraditional habitats, such as deserts and grasslands. Beever is now leading a similar study across the entire Western United States. Concerned scientists have several theories about why porcupines have not returned to their former stomping grounds. Illegal marijuana farms, which are often tucked away in forests, use rodenticides that kill many animals, including porcupines, while increased protections for apex predators like mountain lions may have inadvertently increased the decline of porcupines. On top of all this, porcupines have low reproduction rates, birthing only a single offspring at a time. “Things don’t seem to be getting better in over the course of my lifetime.” Understanding porcupine distribution isn’t easy. Porcupines are generalists, inhabiting a wide variety of forest types, so it’s challenging for researchers to know where to look. As herbivores, porcupines aren’t that easy to bait, either. Scientists have experimented with using brine-soaked wood blocks, peanut butter and even porcupine urine to coax the cautious critters toward cameras, but with only mixed success. In 34 years of both baited and unbaited camera surveys by the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center in the Sierra Nevada, porcupines have only shown up three times. “It’s a mystery,” said John Buckley, the center’s executive director. “We still don’t understand (why) they’re not reproducing and filling back in where there’s very little disturbance of their habitat, like Yosemite National Park.” The Karuk tribe is eager to bring porcupines back. But first, the tribe needs to figure out where healthy populations may already exist. Years of camera trap surveys have turned up scant evidence of the creature’s presence; one area that Tripp considers a “hotspot” had photographed a single porcupine. “That’s how rare they are,” Tripp said. So Karuk biologists are considering other methods, including using trained dogs to conduct scat surveys. Reintroducing the species would require a delicate balancing act. Porcupines are already scarce, and it’s unclear whether already-small source populations could afford to lose a few members to be reintroduced elsewhere. Still, Tripp feels like it’s time to act, since the ecosystem doesn’t appear to be healing on its own. “Things don’t seem to be getting better in over the course of my lifetime,” Tripp said. Yet his actions betray some lingering optimism. Tripp, his wife and daughter still regularly attend basket-weaving events involving quills, doing their part to uphold the Karuk’s age-old traditions that honor the porcupine. It’s a small act of stubborn hope—that, perhaps in a few years, the tribe will be able to welcome the porcupine home.

Climate

Animals

Forests

More than 1,000 Amazon workers warn rapid AI rollout threatens jobs and climate

Workers say the firm’s ‘warp-speed’ approach fuels pressure, layoffs and rising emissionsMore than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” about AI development, saying that the company’s “all-costs justified, warp speed” approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to “democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”The letter, published on Wednesday, was signed by the Amazon workers anonymously, and comes a month after Amazon announced mass layoff plans as it increases adoption of AI in its operations. Continue reading...

More than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” about AI development, saying that the company’s “all-costs justified, warp speed” approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to “democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”The letter, published on Wednesday, was signed by the Amazon workers anonymously, and comes a month after Amazon announced mass layoff plans as it increases adoption of AI in its operations.Among the signatories are staffers in a range of positions, including engineers, product managers and warehouse associates.Reflecting broader AI concerns across the industry, the letter was also supported by more than 2,400 workers from companies including Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft.The letter contains a range of demands for Amazon, concerning its impact on the workplace and the environment. Staffers are calling on the company to power all its data centers with clean energy, make sure its AI-powered products and services do not enable “violence, surveillance and mass deportation”, and form a working group comprised of non-managers “that will have significant ownership over org-level goals and how or if AI should be used in their orgs, how or if AI-related layoffs or headcount freezes are implemented, and how to mitigate or minimize the collateral effects of AI use, such as environmental impact”.The letter was organized by employees affiliated with the advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. One worker who was involved in drafting the letter explained that workers were compelled to speak out because of negative experiences with using AI tools in the workplace, as well as broader environmental concerns about the AI boom. The staffers, the employee said, wanted to advocate for a better way to develop, deploy and use the technology.“I signed the letter because of leadership’s increasing emphasis on arbitrary productivity metrics and quotas, using AI as justification to push myself and my colleagues to work longer hours and push out more projects on tighter deadlines,” said a senior software engineer, who has been with the company for over a decade, and requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal.Climate goalsThe letter accuses Amazon of “casting aside its climate goals to build AI”.Like other companies in the generative AI race, Amazon has invested heavily in building new data centers to power new tools – which are more resource intensive and demand high amounts of electricity to operate. The company plans to spend $150bn on data centers in the next 15 years, and just recently said it will invest $15bn to build data centers in northern Indiana and at least $3bn for data centers in Mississippi.The letter claims that Amazon’s annual emissions have “grown roughly 35% since 2019”, despite the company’s promise in 2019 to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040. It warns many of Amazon’s investments in AI infrastructure will be in “locations where their energy demands will force utility companies to keep coal plans online or build new gas plants”.“‘AI’ is being used as a magic word that is code for less worker power, hoarding of more resources, and making an uninformed gamble on high energy demand computer chips magically saving us from climate change,” said an Amazon customer researcher, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation for speaking out. “If we can build a climate saving AI – that’s awesome! But that’s not what Amazon is spending billions of dollars to develop. They are investing fossil fuel energy draining data centers for AI that is intended to surveil, exploit, and squeeze every extra cent out of customers, communities, and government agencies.”In a statement to the Guardian, Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser pushed back on employees’ claims and pointed toward the company’s climate goals. “Not only are we the leading data center operator in efficiency, we’re the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for five consecutive years with over 600 projects globally,” said Glasser. “We’ve also invested significantly in nuclear energy through existing plants and new SMR technology–these aren’t distractions, they’re concrete actions demonstrating real progress toward our Climate Pledge commitment to reach net-zero carbon across our global operations by 2040.”AI for productivityThe letter also includes strict demands around the role of AI in the Amazon workplace, demands that, staffers say, arose out of challenges employees are experiencing.Three Amazon employees who spoke to the Guardian claimed that the company is pressuring them to use AI tools for productivity, in an effort to increase output. “I’m getting messaging from my direct manager and [from] of all the way up the chain, about how I should be using AI for coding, for writing, for basically all of my day-to-day tasks, and that those will make me more efficient, and also that if I don’t get on board and use them, that I’m going to fall behind, that it’s sort of sink or swim,” said a software engineer who has been with Amazon for over two years, requesting anonymity due to fear of reprisal.The worker added that just weeks ago she was told by her manager that they were “expected to do twice as much work because of AI tools”, and expressed concern that the output expected demanded with fewer people is unsustainable, and “the tools are just not making up that gap.”The customer researcher echoed similar concerns. “I have both personally felt the pressure to use AI in my role, and hear from so many of my colleagues they are under the same pressure …”.“All the while, there’s no discussion about the immediate effects on us as workers – from unprecedented layoffs to unrealistic expectations for output.”The senior software engineer said that the adoption of AI has had imperfect outcomes. He said that most commonly, workers are pressured to adopt agentic code generation tools: “Recently I worked on a project that was just cleaning up after a high-level engineer tried to use AI to generate code to complete a complex project,” said this worker. “But none of it worked and he didn’t understand why – starting from scratch would have actually been easier.”Amazon did not respond to questions about the staffers’ workplace critiques about AI use.Workers emphasized they are not against AI outright, rather they want it to be developed sustainably and with input from the people building and using it. “I see Amazon using AI to justify a power grab over community resources like water and energy, but also over its own workers, who are increasingly subject to surveillance, work speedups, and implicit threats of layoffs,” said the senior software engineer. “There is a culture of fear around openly discussing the drawbacks of AI at work, and one thing the letter is setting out to accomplish is to show our colleagues that many of us feel this way and that another path is possible.”

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Technology

Energy

Australia finally acknowledges environment underpins all else. That’s no small thing | Ken Henry

In what are dangerous times for democracies around the world, parliament’s overhaul of nature laws in the EPBC Act shows ambitious reform remains possibleSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe passage of long overdue reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act demonstrates powerfully that democratic governance is alive and well in Australia.The Australian parliament has done its job and passed 21st-century reforms that support a modern economy, enable the creation of new and sustainable jobs while promising not to destroy, but in fact improve, the health of the natural world. Continue reading...

The passage of long overdue reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act demonstrates powerfully that democratic governance is alive and well in Australia.The Australian parliament has done its job and passed 21st-century reforms that support a modern economy, enable the creation of new and sustainable jobs while promising not to destroy, but in fact improve, the health of the natural world. This is no small thing. In what are clearly dangerous times for democracies around the world, the Australian parliament has demonstrated emphatically that ambitious economic reform remains possible. And yes, I do mean “economic” reform.As in the past, courageous leadership has been rewarded with agreement. As in the past, the parliament has engaged constructively, in the national interest, rising above the debilitating personality politics and culture wars of recent years.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailThe winners stand to be future generations of Australians. In this instance, our elected representatives have demonstrated they understand that this is where their most weighty obligation is owed. But meeting that obligation is hard. Democracies often appear carefully designed to reward short-termism. Yet the success of a parliament can only be assessed according to what it does for the future. In the final sitting week of 2025, the Australian parliament appears to have delivered.The package of reforms to the EPBC Act fixes an ugly policy mess. The mess had been called out in several reviews, including Graeme Samuel’s review delivered more than five years ago.As I observed in an address to the National Press Club mid-year, report after report tells the same story of failure. The environment is simply not being protected. Biodiversity is not being conserved. Nature is in systemic decline. The environmental impact assessment systems embedded in the laws are simply not fit for purpose. Of particular concern, they are incapable of supporting an economy in transition to net zero.The mess of poorly constructed environmental laws has been undermining productivity. I noted that we simply cannot afford slow, opaque, duplicative and contested environmental planning decisions based on poor information, mired in administrative complexity.This week’s reforms promise to fix the mess.The reformed act will deliver a set of standards that aim to protect matters of national environmental significance. It will provide certainty for all stakeholders about impacts that must be regarded as “unacceptable” and therefore avoided.It builds integrity into the administration of the laws through the establishment of an independent, national EPA. It promises to end the absurd carveout for native forests, the landscapes that remain most richly endowed with biodiversity and healthy ecosystem functioning. And it lays the foundations for the development of regional plans that provide an opportunity for the three levels of government to work with local communities, including First Nations custodians, to design sustainable futures.Significantly, long-overdue protection will be provided for our forests. The lungs of the Earth, a lifeboat against climate change, a filter against sentiment destroying the Great Barrier Reef and a haven for wildlife will be provided real protection, while incentives will be provided to support a modern forestry industry based on plantations.And there is another thing that should be called out at this time. This may be the most important thing.For centuries, humans have believed that economic and social progress necessarily comes at the expense of the environment. We have believed that the destruction of the natural world is a price that must be paid for everything else that matters to us; as we accumulate physical and financial capital, we must run down the stock of natural capital.We have acted as if we can choose, indefinitely, to trade-off environmental integrity for material gains. Our choices have created deserts, waterways incapable of supporting life, soils leached of fertility, climate change driving weather events of such severity and frequency that whole towns, suburbs and agricultural landscapes are fast becoming uninsurable.This week’s amendments acknowledge that the state of the natural world is foundational. That without its rebuilding, future economic and social progress cannot be secured.We should think of economic and social progress as exercises in constrained optimisation. This framing is familiar to those immersed in economic policy. And yet, as I noted in the National Press Club address, economics has for the most part ignored the most important constraints on human choices. These are embedded in the immutable laws of nature. Our failure to recognise that is now undermining productivity growth and having a discernible impact on economic performance. It threatens livelihoods, even lives.Writing into law an acknowledgment that environmental protection and biodiversity conservation necessarily underpin everything else, and that they must therefore have primacy, is a profound achievement. An unprecedented bequest to future generations.

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Conservation

Health

EPA cements delay of Biden-era methane rule for oil and gas

The Trump administration on Wednesday cemented its delay of Biden-era regulations on planet-warming methane coming from the oil and gas industry. Earlier this year, the administration issued an “interim final rule” that pushed back compliance deadlines for the Biden-era climate rule by 18 months. On Wednesday, it announced a final rule that locks in the delay. The delays apply to requirements to install certain technologies meant to reduce emissions. It also applies to timelines for states to create plans for cutting methane emissions from existing oil and gas. Methane is a gas that is about 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at heating the planet over a 100-year period. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said that the administration was acting in order to protect U.S. energy production. “The previous administration used oil and gas standards as a weapon to shut down development and manufacturing in the United States,” Zeldin said in a written statement. “By finalizing compliance extensions, EPA is ensuring unrealistic regulations do not prevent America from unleashing energy dominance,” he added. However, environmental advocates say that the delay will result in more pollution. “The methane standards are already working to reduce pollution, protect people’s health, and prevent the needless waste of American energy. The rule released today means millions of Americans will be exposed to dangerous pollution for another year and a half, for no good reason,” Grace Smith, senior attorney at Environmental Defense Fund, said in a written statement. Meanwhile, the delay comes as the Trump administration reconsiders the rule altogether, having put it on a hit list of regulations earlier this year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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