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GoGreenNation news

Earth Day 2024: Houston area offers variety of ways to celebrate the planet

News Feed
Thursday, April 18, 2024

Reliant EnergyEmployees from Reliant Energy plant flowering plants at the Houston Botanic Garden as part of an Earth Day event on Thursday, April 18, 2024.Earth Day is Monday, but Houston-area residents can celebrate the planet and advocate for protecting it throughout the upcoming weekend and beyond. Several family-friendly events, many of which are free, are being held around town leading up to the holiday, which started in 1970. There are Earth Day events at local parks, museums, artists studios and the Houston Botanic Garden, where a flower-planting event was held Thursday. The lineup includes an inaugural celebration organized by the Healthy Port Communities Commission, which is holding a free event at Hidalgo Park in Houston's Second Ward. The park is situated near the Houston Ship Channel, a heavily polluted industrial area that was deemed as a "sacrifice zone" by Amnesty International. Erandi Trevino, the Houston organizer for the Austin-based nonprofit Public Citizen, which is part of the coalition, said she put together the event as a way to give back to an impacted community while calling attention to the importance of protecting the environment. "The reality for a lot of people is living right across the street from a chemical plant or a refinery or the Houston Ship Channel," Trevino said. "Hidalgo Park does embody that." The following is a rundown of 12 Earth Day events happening around the Houston area: SATURDAY Earth Day Community Clean-Up Challenge | 9 a.m. at 6345 Windswept Ln. The Houston Millennials organization is holding a trash-collecting competition to help clean up the southwest part of town while calling attention to the need for a cleaner environment. Participants can volunteer individually or as part of small teams, and prizes will be awarded to the winning teams after the 11:30 a.m. weigh-in. Light bites and beverages will be provided to volunteers, along with clean-up equipment such as gloves and trash bags. Visit the event webpage for more information. Sugar Land Earth Day Festival | 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Houston Museum of Natural Science-Sugar Land, 13016 University Blvd. in Sugar Land Visitors to the pollinator garden at the Sugar Land museum can discover creatures and their habitats, learn about biodiversity in the ecosystem and participate in hands-on activities related to Earth Day. Tickets start at $5 for museum members and $15 for non-members and can be purchased online. Artful Earth: A Spring Celebration | 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Spring Street Studios, 1824 Spring St. Head to Sawyer Yards for a free, art-centric Earth Day event that will include light bites and beverages, open artist studios, three exhibitions and guided meditation and sound bowls. Representatives from the Houston Botanic Garden, The Ranch Houston and Cornelius Nursery will be on hand, and original, Earth Day-themed art pieces in a variety of mediums will be available for $150 apiece, with proceeds benefitting the botanic garden and the Spring Street Studios building fund. Visit the event website for more information. Picnic in the Park | noon-4 p.m. at Evelyn's Park, 4400 Bellaire Blvd. The Evelyn's Park Conservancy is celebrating Earth Day and the Bellaire park's seventh anniversary with this free, family-friendly event, where 5,000 seedlings from a variety of tree species will be among the many giveaways. There also will be computer recycling a "Crush the Can" event and a community rock-painting project, along with vendors, a cake-cutting and entertainment for children and adults. Visit the event website for more information. Green Mountain Energy Earth Day at Discovery Green | noon-5 p.m. at Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney St. All are welcome at this free downtown event put on by the Discovery Green Conservancy and the Citizens' Environmental Coalition. It will feature the Houston Public Works Water Works Festival along with an afternoon of art, dancing, music and Earth Day-themed short films. Visit the event website for more information. SUNDAY Healthy Port Communities Inaugural Earth Day Celebration | 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Hidalgo Park, 7000 Avenue Q Houston's Second Ward will serve as the site for a new Earth Day event being organized by the Healthy Port Communities Coalition, which includes nonprofits such as Air Alliance Houston and Public Citizen. The free, family-friendly celebration is being held near the Houston Ship Channel, a heavily polluted industrial area that has been deemed as a "sacrifice zone" by Amnesty International. Sunday's event will include presentations about the dangers of plastics to people and the planet, and attendees also can enjoy live music, door prizes, food trucks and vendors. Those who plan to go are encouraged to walk, bike or use public transportation. Earth Day Bash | 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at Children's Museum Houston, 1500 Binz St. A variety of Earth Day-related activities are planned at the children's museum, including a water filtration demonstration, physics experiments from Rice University representatives, talks about ants and birds and a tree sapling giveaway. Tickets cost $17 and can be reserved online. Akaal Pachamama Earth Day at Old Town Harrisburg | noon-7 p.m. at 6632 Harrisburg Blvd. Attendees are asked to wear green and white to this free Earth Day celebration in the Second Ward, where there will be a pop-up market featuring a variety of local vendors. There also will be entertainment from 3-7 p.m. The Energy Corridor District's Earth Day Celebration | 1-4 p.m. at Terry Hershey Park, 15200 Memorial Dr. Admission is free to this family-friendly event in West Houston, where attendees can enjoy local food trucks, DJ music, a fashion show featuring clothing made with recycled materials, eco-friendly vendors and educational booths. They also can contribute to a communal art piece, and there will be tree seedling giveaways and children's activities such as games and face painting. More information can be found on the event webpage. MONDAY "Wild Texas" Mural Unveiling | 10-11 a.m. at Houston Botanic Garden, 1 Botanic Ln. The Houston Botanic Garden, Houston Parks Board and Gulfgate Redevelopment Authority will celebrate Earth Day by unveiling a 300-foot mural located along the Sims Bayou Greenway. "Wild Texas," by artist David Cobb, was more than six months in the making and "celebrates the diverse landscape of Texas in a stunning display of color and community spirit," according to event organizers. Earth Day HTX | 3:30 p.m. at Watonga Park, 4100 Watonga Blvd. The City of Houston and Apache Corporation are teaming up to plant 2,500 trees at Watonga Park in the northwest part of town, utilizing both volunteers from the community as well as employees from the Houston-based energy company. The event is part of a broader reforestation initiative by the Houston Parks and Recreation Department. APRIL 27 Earth Day Celebration | 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, 4501 Woodway Dr. This free, post-Earth Day event will feature a scavenger hunt, interactive activities and crafts and the chance to see and learn about a variety of plants and animals. More information is available at the event website.

Several family-friendly events, many of which are free, are being held around the Houston region before, on and after Earth Day, which is Monday.

Houston Botanic Garden Reliant Flower Planting

Reliant Energy

Employees from Reliant Energy plant flowering plants at the Houston Botanic Garden as part of an Earth Day event on Thursday, April 18, 2024.

Earth Day is Monday, but Houston-area residents can celebrate the planet and advocate for protecting it throughout the upcoming weekend and beyond.

Several family-friendly events, many of which are free, are being held around town leading up to the holiday, which started in 1970. There are Earth Day events at local parks, museums, artists studios and the Houston Botanic Garden, where a flower-planting event was held Thursday.

The lineup includes an inaugural celebration organized by the Healthy Port Communities Commission, which is holding a free event at Hidalgo Park in Houston's Second Ward. The park is situated near the Houston Ship Channel, a heavily polluted industrial area that was deemed as a "sacrifice zone" by Amnesty International.

Erandi Trevino, the Houston organizer for the Austin-based nonprofit Public Citizen, which is part of the coalition, said she put together the event as a way to give back to an impacted community while calling attention to the importance of protecting the environment.

"The reality for a lot of people is living right across the street from a chemical plant or a refinery or the Houston Ship Channel," Trevino said. "Hidalgo Park does embody that."

The following is a rundown of 12 Earth Day events happening around the Houston area:

SATURDAY

Earth Day Community Clean-Up Challenge | 9 a.m. at 6345 Windswept Ln.

The Houston Millennials organization is holding a trash-collecting competition to help clean up the southwest part of town while calling attention to the need for a cleaner environment. Participants can volunteer individually or as part of small teams, and prizes will be awarded to the winning teams after the 11:30 a.m. weigh-in. Light bites and beverages will be provided to volunteers, along with clean-up equipment such as gloves and trash bags.

Visit the event webpage for more information.

Sugar Land Earth Day Festival | 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Houston Museum of Natural Science-Sugar Land, 13016 University Blvd. in Sugar Land

Visitors to the pollinator garden at the Sugar Land museum can discover creatures and their habitats, learn about biodiversity in the ecosystem and participate in hands-on activities related to Earth Day.

Tickets start at $5 for museum members and $15 for non-members and can be purchased online.

Artful Earth: A Spring Celebration | 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Spring Street Studios, 1824 Spring St.

Head to Sawyer Yards for a free, art-centric Earth Day event that will include light bites and beverages, open artist studios, three exhibitions and guided meditation and sound bowls. Representatives from the Houston Botanic Garden, The Ranch Houston and Cornelius Nursery will be on hand, and original, Earth Day-themed art pieces in a variety of mediums will be available for $150 apiece, with proceeds benefitting the botanic garden and the Spring Street Studios building fund.

Visit the event website for more information.

Picnic in the Park | noon-4 p.m. at Evelyn's Park, 4400 Bellaire Blvd.

The Evelyn's Park Conservancy is celebrating Earth Day and the Bellaire park's seventh anniversary with this free, family-friendly event, where 5,000 seedlings from a variety of tree species will be among the many giveaways. There also will be computer recycling a "Crush the Can" event and a community rock-painting project, along with vendors, a cake-cutting and entertainment for children and adults.

Visit the event website for more information.

Green Mountain Energy Earth Day at Discovery Green | noon-5 p.m. at Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney St.

All are welcome at this free downtown event put on by the Discovery Green Conservancy and the Citizens' Environmental Coalition. It will feature the Houston Public Works Water Works Festival along with an afternoon of art, dancing, music and Earth Day-themed short films.

Visit the event website for more information.

SUNDAY

Healthy Port Communities Inaugural Earth Day Celebration | 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Hidalgo Park, 7000 Avenue Q

Houston's Second Ward will serve as the site for a new Earth Day event being organized by the Healthy Port Communities Coalition, which includes nonprofits such as Air Alliance Houston and Public Citizen. The free, family-friendly celebration is being held near the Houston Ship Channel, a heavily polluted industrial area that has been deemed as a "sacrifice zone" by Amnesty International. Sunday's event will include presentations about the dangers of plastics to people and the planet, and attendees also can enjoy live music, door prizes, food trucks and vendors. Those who plan to go are encouraged to walk, bike or use public transportation.

Earth Day Bash | 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at Children's Museum Houston, 1500 Binz St.

A variety of Earth Day-related activities are planned at the children's museum, including a water filtration demonstration, physics experiments from Rice University representatives, talks about ants and birds and a tree sapling giveaway.

Tickets cost $17 and can be reserved online.

Akaal Pachamama Earth Day at Old Town Harrisburg | noon-7 p.m. at 6632 Harrisburg Blvd.

Attendees are asked to wear green and white to this free Earth Day celebration in the Second Ward, where there will be a pop-up market featuring a variety of local vendors. There also will be entertainment from 3-7 p.m.

The Energy Corridor District's Earth Day Celebration | 1-4 p.m. at Terry Hershey Park, 15200 Memorial Dr.

Admission is free to this family-friendly event in West Houston, where attendees can enjoy local food trucks, DJ music, a fashion show featuring clothing made with recycled materials, eco-friendly vendors and educational booths. They also can contribute to a communal art piece, and there will be tree seedling giveaways and children's activities such as games and face painting.

More information can be found on the event webpage.

MONDAY

"Wild Texas" Mural Unveiling | 10-11 a.m. at Houston Botanic Garden, 1 Botanic Ln.

The Houston Botanic Garden, Houston Parks Board and Gulfgate Redevelopment Authority will celebrate Earth Day by unveiling a 300-foot mural located along the Sims Bayou Greenway. "Wild Texas," by artist David Cobb, was more than six months in the making and "celebrates the diverse landscape of Texas in a stunning display of color and community spirit," according to event organizers.

Earth Day HTX | 3:30 p.m. at Watonga Park, 4100 Watonga Blvd.

The City of Houston and Apache Corporation are teaming up to plant 2,500 trees at Watonga Park in the northwest part of town, utilizing both volunteers from the community as well as employees from the Houston-based energy company. The event is part of a broader reforestation initiative by the Houston Parks and Recreation Department.

APRIL 27

Earth Day Celebration | 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Houston Arboretum & Nature Center, 4501 Woodway Dr.

This free, post-Earth Day event will feature a scavenger hunt, interactive activities and crafts and the chance to see and learn about a variety of plants and animals.

More information is available at the event website.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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Giant Sloths and Many Other Massive Creatures Were Once Common on Our Planet. With Environmental Changes, Such Giants Could Thrive Again

If large creatures like elephants, giraffes and bison are allowed to thrive, they could alter habitats that allow for the rise of other giants

Giant Sloths and Many Other Massive Creatures Were Once Common on Our Planet. With Environmental Changes, Such Giants Could Thrive Again If large creatures like elephants, giraffes and bison are allowed to thrive, they could alter habitats that allow for the rise of other giants Riley Black - Science Correspondent July 11, 2025 8:00 a.m. Ancient sloths lived in trees, on mountains, in deserts, in boreal forests and on open savannas. Some grew as large as elephants. Illustration by Diego Barletta The largest sloth of all time was the size of an elephant. Known to paleontologists as Eremotherium, the shaggy giant shuffled across the woodlands of the ancient Americas between 60,000 and five million years ago. Paleontologists have spent decades hotly debating why such magnificent beasts went extinct, the emerging picture involving a one-two punch of increasing human influence on the landscape and a warmer interglacial climate that began to change the world’s ecosystems. But even less understood is how our planet came to host entire communities of such immense animals during the Pleistocene. Now, a new study on the success of the sloths helps to reveal how the world of Ice Age giants came to be, and hints that an Earth brimming with enormous animals could come again. Florida Museum of Natural History paleontologist Rachel Narducci and colleagues tracked how sloths came to be such widespread and essential parts of the Pleistocene Americas and published their findings in Science this May. The researchers found that climate shifts that underwrote the spread of grasslands allowed big sloths to arise, the shaggy mammals then altering those habitats to maintain open spaces best suited to big bodies capable of moving long distances. The interactions between the animals and environment show how giants attained their massive size, and how strange it is that now our planet has fewer big animals than would otherwise be here. Earth still boasts some impressively big species. In fact, the largest animal of all time is alive right now and only evolved relatively recently. The earliest blue whale fossils date to about 1.5 million years ago, and, at 98 feet long and more than 200 tons, the whale is larger than any mammoth or dinosaur. Our planet has always boasted a greater array of small species than large ones, even during prehistoric ages thought of as synonymous with megafauna. Nevertheless, Earth’s ecosystems are still in a megafaunal lull that began at the close of the Ice Age. “I often say we are living on a downsized planet Earth,” says University of Maine paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill.Consider what North America was like during the Pleistocene, between 11,000 years and two million ago. The landmass used to host multiple forms of mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, enormous armadillos, multiple species of sabercat, huge bison, dire wolves and many more large creatures that formed ancient ecosystems unlike anything on our planet today. In addition, many familiar species such as jaguars, black bears, coyotes, white-tailed deer and golden eagles also thrived. Elsewhere in the world lived terror birds taller than an adult human, wombats the size of cars, woolly rhinos, a variety of elephants with unusual tusks and other creatures. Ecosystems capable of supporting such giants have been the norm rather than the exception for tens of millions of years. Giant sloths were among the greatest success stories among the giant-size menagerie. The herbivores evolved on South America when it was still an island continent, only moving into Central and North America as prehistoric Panama connected the landmasses about 2.7 million years ago. Some were small, like living two- and three-toed sloths, while others embodied a range of sizes all the way up to elephant-sized giants like Eremotherium and the “giant beast” Megatherium. An Eremotherium skeleton at the Houston Museum of Natural Science demonstrates just how large the creature grew. James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images The earliest sloths originated on South America about 35 million years ago. They were already big. Narducci and colleagues estimate that the common ancestor of all sloths was between about 150 and 770 pounds—or similar to the range of sizes seen among black bears today—and they walked on the ground. “I was surprised and thrilled” to find that sloths started off large, Narducci says, as ancestral forms of major mammal groups are often small, nocturnal creatures. The earliest sloths were already in a good position to shift with Earth’s climate and ecological changes. The uplift of the Andes Mountains in South America led to changes on the continent as more open, drier grasslands spread where there had previously been wetter woodlands and forests. While some sloths became smaller as they spent more time around and within trees, the grasslands would host the broadest diversity of sloth species. The grasslands sloths were the ones that ballooned to exceptional sizes. Earth has been shifting between warmer and wetter times, like now, and cooler and drier climates over millions of years. The chillier and more arid times are what gave sloths their size boost. During these colder spans, bigger sloths were better able to hold on to their body heat, but they also didn’t need as much water, and they were capable of traveling long distances more efficiently thanks to their size. “The cooler and drier the climate, especially after 11.6 million years ago, led to expansive grasslands, which tends to favor the evolution of increasing body mass,” Narducci says. The combination of climate shifts, mountain uplift and vegetation changes created environments where sloths could evolve into a variety of forms—including multiple times when sloths became giants again. Gill says that large body size was a “winning strategy” for herbivores. “At a certain point, megaherbivores get so large that most predators can’t touch them; they’re able to access nutrition in foods that other animals can’t really even digest thanks to gut microbes that help them digest cellulose, and being large means you’re also mobile,” Gill adds, underscoring advantages that have repeatedly pushed animals to get big time and again. The same advantages underwrote the rise of the biggest dinosaurs as well as more recent giants like the sloths and mastodons. As large sloths could travel further, suitable grassland habitats stretched from Central America to prehistoric Florida. “This is what also allowed for their passage into North America,” Narducci says. Sloths were able to follow their favored habitats between continents. If the world were to shift back toward cooler and drier conditions that assisted the spread of the grasslands that gave sloths their size boost, perhaps similar giants could evolve. The sticking point is what humans are doing to Earth’s climate, ecosystems and existing species. The diversity and number of large species alive today is vastly, and often negatively, affected by humans. A 2019 study of human influences on 362 megafauna species, on land and in the water, found that 70 percent are diminishing in number, and 59 percent are getting dangerously close to extinction. But if that relationship were to change, either through our actions or intentions, studies like the new paper on giant sloths hint that ecosystems brimming with a wealth of megafaunal species could evolve again. Big animals change the habitats where they live, which in turn tends to support more large species adapted to those environments. The giant sloths that evolved among ancient grasslands helped to keep those spaces open in tandem with other big herbivores, such as mastodons, as well as the large carnivores that preyed upon them. Paleontologists and ecologists know this from studies of how large animals such as giraffes and rhinos affect vegetation around them. Big herbivores, in particular, tend to keep habitats relatively open. Elephants and other big beasts push over trees, trample vegetation underfoot, eat vast amounts of greenery and transport seeds in their dung, disassembling vegetation while unintentionally planting the beginnings of new habitats. Such broad, open spaces were essential to the origins of the giant sloths, and so creating wide-open spaces helps spur the evolution of giants to roam such environments. For now, we are left with the fossil record of giant animals that were here so recently that some of their bones aren’t even petrified, skin and fur still clinging to some skeletons. “The grasslands they left behind are just not the same, in ways we’re really only starting to understand and appreciate,” Gill says. A 2019 study on prehistoric herbivores in Africa, for example, found that the large plant-eaters altered the water cycling, incidence of fire and vegetation of their environment in a way that has no modern equivalent and can’t just be assumed to be an ancient version of today’s savannas. The few megaherbivores still with us alter the plant life, water flow, seed dispersal and other aspects of modern environments in their own unique ways, she notes, which should be a warning to us to protect them—and the ways in which they affect our planet. If humans wish to see the origin of new magnificent giants like the ones we visit museums to see, we must change our relationship to the Earth first. Get the latest Science stories in your inbox.

Animals
Climate
Extinction

How changes in California culture have influenced the evolution of wild animals in Los Angeles

A new study argues that religion, politics and war affect how animals and plants in cities evolve, and the confluence of these forces seem to be actively affecting urban wildlife in L.A.

For decades, biologists have studied how cities affect wildlife by altering food supplies, fragmenting habitats and polluting the environment. But a new global study argues that these physical factors are only part of the story. Societal factors, the researchers claim, especially those tied to religion, politics and war, also leave lasting marks on the evolutionary paths of the animals and plants that share our cities.Published in Nature Cities, the comprehensive review synthesizes evidence from cities worldwide, revealing how human conflict and cultural practices affect wildlife genetics, behavior and survival in urban environments.The paper challenges the tendency to treat the social world as separate from ecological processes. Instead, the study argues, we should consider the ways the aftershocks of religious traditions, political systems and armed conflicts can influence the genetic structure of urban wildlife populations. (Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times) “Social sciences have been very far removed from life sciences for a very long time, and they haven’t been integrated,” said Elizabeth Carlen, a biologist at Washington University in St. Louis and co-lead author of the study. “We started just kind of playing around with what social and cultural processes haven’t been talked about,” eventually focusing on religion, politics and war because of their persistent yet underexamined impacts on evolutionary biology, particularly in cities, where cultural values and built environments are densely concentrated.Carlen’s own work in St. Louis examines how racial segregation and urban design, often influenced by policing strategies, affect ecological conditions and wild animals’ access to green spaces.“Crime prevention through environmental design,” she said, is one example of how these factors influence urban wildlife. “Law enforcement can request that there not be bushes … or short trees, because then they don’t have a sight line across the park.” Although that design choice may serve surveillance goals, it also limits the ability of small animals to navigate those spaces.These patterns, she emphasized, aren’t unique to St. Louis. “I’m positive that it’s happening in Los Angeles. Parks in Beverly Hills are going to look very different than parks in Compton. And part of that is based on what policing looks like in those different places.” This may very well be the case, as there is a significantly lower level of urban tree species richness in areas like Compton than in areas like Beverly Hills, according to UCLA’s Biodiversity Atlas. A coyote wanders onto the fairway, with the sprinklers turned on, as a golfer makes his way back to his cart after hitting a shot on the 16th hole of the Harding golf course at Griffith Park. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) The study also examines war and its disruptions, which can have unpredictable effects on animal populations. Human evacuation from war zones can open urban habitats to wildlife, while the destruction of green spaces or contamination of soil and water can fragment ecosystems and reduce genetic diversity.In Kharkiv, Ukraine, for example, human displacement during the Russian invasion led to the return of wild boars and deer to urban parks, according to the study. In contrast, sparrows, which depend on human food waste, nearly vanished from high-rise areas.All of this, the researchers argue, underscores the need to rethink how cities are designed and managed by recognizing how religion, politics and war shape not just human communities but also the evolutionary trajectories of urban wildlife. By integrating ecological and social considerations into urban development, planners and scientists can help create cities that are more livable for people while also supporting the long-term genetic diversity and adaptability of the other species that inhabit them.This intersection of culture and biology may be playing out in cities across the globe, including Los Angeles.A study released earlier this year tracking coyotes across L.A. County found that the animals were more likely to avoid wealthier neighborhoods, not because of a lack of access or food scarcity, but possibly due to more aggressive human behavior toward them and higher rates of “removal” — including trapping and releasing elsewhere, and in some rare cases, killing them. In lower-income areas, where trapping is less common, coyotes tended to roam more freely, even though these neighborhoods often had more pollution and fewer resources that would typically support wild canines. Researchers say these patterns reflect how broader urban inequities are written directly into the movements of and risks faced by wildlife in the city.Black bears, parrots and even peacocks tell a similar story in Los Angeles. Wilson Sherman, a PhD student at UCLA who is studying human-black bear interactions, highlights how local politics and fragmented municipal governance shape not only how animals are managed but also where they appear. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) “Sierra Madre has an ordinance requiring everyone to have bear-resistant trash cans,” Sherman noted. “Neighboring Arcadia doesn’t.” This kind of patchwork governance, Sherman said, can influence where wild animals ultimately spend their time, creating a mosaic of risk and opportunity for species whose ranges extend across multiple jurisdictions.Cultural values also play a role. Thriving populations of non-native birds, such as Amazon parrots and peacocks, illustrate how aesthetic preferences and everyday choices can significantly influence the city’s ecological makeup in lasting ways.Sherman also pointed to subtler, often overlooked influences, such as policing and surveillance infrastructure. Ideally, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife would be the first agency to respond in a “wildlife situation,” as Sherman put it. But, he said, what often ends up happening is that people default to calling the police, especially when the circumstances involve animals that some urban-dwelling humans may find threatening, like bears.Police departments typically do not possess the same expertise and ability as CDFW to manage and then relocate bears. If a bear poses a threat to human life, police policy is to kill the bear. However, protocols for responding to wildlife conflicts that are not life-threatening can vary from one community to another. And how police use non-lethal methods of deterrence — such as rubber bullets and loud noises — can shape bear behavior.Meanwhile, the growing prevalence of security cameras and motion-triggered alerts has provided residents with new forms of visibility into urban biodiversity. “That might mean that people are suddenly aware that a coyote is using their yard,” Sherman said. In turn, that could trigger a homeowner to purposefully rework the landscape of their property so as to discourage coyotes from using it. Surveillance systems, he said, are quietly reshaping both public perception and policy around who belongs in the city, and who doesn’t. A mountain lion sits in a tree after being tranquilized along San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood on Oct. 27, 2022. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) Korinna Domingo, founder and director of the Cougar Conservancy, emphasized how cougar behavior in Los Angeles is similarly shaped by decades of urban development, fragmented landscapes and the social and political choices that structure them. “Policies like freeway construction, zoning and even how communities have been historically policed or funded can affect where and how cougars move throughout L.A.,” she said. For example, these forces have prompted cougars to adapt by becoming more nocturnal, using culverts or taking riskier crossings across fragmented landscapes.Urban planning and evolutionary consequences are deeply intertwined, Domingo says. For example, mountain lion populations in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana mountains have shown signs of reduced genetic diversity due to inbreeding, an issue created not by natural processes, but by political and planning decisions — such as freeway construction and zoning decisions— that restricted their movement decades ago.Today, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, is an attempt to rectify that. The massive infrastructure project is happening only, Domingo said, “because of community, scientific and political will all being aligned.”However, infrastructure alone isn’t enough. “You can have habitat connectivity all you want,” she said, but you also have to think about social tolerance. Urban planning that allows for animal movement also increases the likelihood of contact with people, pets and livestock — which means humans need to learn how to interact with wild animals in a healthier way.In L.A., coexistence strategies can look very different depending on the resources, ordinances and attitudes of each community. Although wealthier residents may have the means to build predator-proof enclosures, others lack the financial or institutional support to do the same. And some with the means simply choose not to, instead demanding lethal removal., “Wildlife management is not just about biology,” Domingo said. “It’s about values, power, and really, who’s at the table.”Wildlife management in the United States has long been informed by dominant cultural and religious worldviews, particularly those grounded in notions of human exceptionalism and control over nature. Carlen, Sherman and Domingo all brought up how these values shaped early policies that framed predators as threats to be removed rather than species to be understood or respected. In California, this worldview contributed not only to the widespread killing of wolves, bears and cougars but also to the displacement of American Indian communities whose land-based practices and beliefs conflicted with these approaches. A male peacock makes its way past Ian Choi, 21 months old, standing in front of his home on Altura Road in Arcadia. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Wildlife management in California, specifically, has long been shaped by these same forces of violence, originating in bounty campaigns not just against predators like cougars and wolves but also against American Indian peoples. These intertwined legacies of removal, extermination and land seizure continue to influence how certain animals and communities are perceived and treated today.For Alan Salazar, a tribal elder with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, those legacies run deep. “What happened to native peoples happened to our large predators in California,” he said. “Happened to our plant relatives.” Reflecting on the genocide of Indigenous Californians and the coordinated extermination of grizzly bears, wolves and mountain lions, Salazar sees a clear parallel.“There were three parts to our world — the humans, the animals and the plants,” he explained. “We were all connected. We respected all of them.” Salazar explains that his people’s relationship with the land, animals and plants is itself a form of religion, one grounded in ceremony, reciprocity and deep respect. Salazar said his ancestors lived in harmony with mountain lions for over 10,000 years, not by eliminating them but by learning from them. Other predators — cougars, bears, coyotes and wolves — were also considered teachers, honored through ceremony and studied for their power and intelligence. “Maybe we had a better plan on how to live with mountain lions, wolves and bears,” he said. “Maybe you should look at tribal knowledge.”He views the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing — for which he is a Native American consultant — as a cultural opportunity. “It’s not just for mountain lions,” he said. “It’s for all animals. And that’s why I wanted to be involved.” He believes the project has already helped raise awareness and shift perceptions about coexistence and planning, and hopes that it will help native plants, animals and peoples.As L.A. continues to grapple with the future of wildlife in its neighborhoods, canyons and corridors, Salazar and others argue that it is an opportunity to rethink the cultural frameworks, governance systems and historical injustices that have long shaped human-animal relations in the city. Whether through policy reform, neighborhood education or sacred ceremony, residents need reminders that evolutionary futures are being shaped not only in forests and preserves but right here, across freeways, backyards and local council meetings. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing under construction over the 101 Freeway near Liberty Canyon Road in Agoura Hills on July 12, 2024. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times) The research makes clear that wildlife is not simply adapting to urban environments in isolation; it is adapting to a range of factors, including policing, architecture and neighborhood design. Carlen believes this opens a crucial frontier for interdisciplinary research, especially in cities like Los Angeles, where uneven geographies, biodiversity and political decisions intersect daily. “I think there’s a lot of injustice in cities that are happening to both humans and wildlife,” she said. “And I think the potential is out there for justice to be brought to both of those things.”

Animals
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Food

Something Strange Is Happening to Tomatoes Growing on the Galápagos Islands

Scientists say wild tomato plants on the archipelago's western islands are experiencing "reverse evolution" and reverting back to ancestral traits

Something Strange Is Happening to Tomatoes Growing on the Galápagos Islands Scientists say wild tomato plants on the archipelago’s western islands are experiencing “reverse evolution” and reverting back to ancestral traits Sarah Kuta - Daily Correspondent July 9, 2025 4:29 p.m. Scientists are investigating the production of ancestral alkaloids by tomatoes in the Galápagos Islands. Adam Jozwiak / University of California, Riverside Some tomatoes growing on the Galápagos Islands appear to be going back in time by producing the same toxins their ancestors did millions of years ago. Scientists describe this development—a controversial process known as “reverse evolution”—in a June 18 paper published in the journal Nature Communications. Tomatoes are nightshades, a group of plants that also includes eggplants, potatoes and peppers. Nightshades, also known as Solanaceae, produce bitter compounds called alkaloids, which help fend off hungry bugs, animals and fungi. When plants produce alkaloids in high concentrations, they can sicken the humans who eat them. To better understand alkaloid synthesis, researchers traveled to the Galápagos Islands, the volcanic chain roughly 600 miles off the coast of mainland Ecuador made famous by British naturalist Charles Darwin. They gathered and studied more than 30 wild tomato plants growing in different places on various islands. The Galápagos tomatoes are the descendents of plants from South America that were probably carried to the archipelago by birds. The team’s analyses revealed that the tomatoes growing on the eastern islands were behaving as expected, by producing alkaloids that are similar to those found in modern, cultivated varieties. But those growing on the western islands, they found, were creating alkaloids that were more closely related to those produced by eggplants millions of years ago. Tomatoes growing on the western islands (shown here) are producing ancestral alkaloids.  Adam Jozwiak / University of California, Riverside Researchers suspect the environment may be responsible for the plants’ unexpected return to ancestral alkaloids. The western islands are much younger than the eastern islands, so the soil is less developed and the landscape is more barren. To survive in these harsh conditions, perhaps it was advantageous for the tomato plants to revert back to older alkaloids, the researchers posit. “The plants may be responding to an environment that more closely resembles what their ancestors faced,” says lead author Adam Jozwiak, a biochemist at the University of California, Riverside, to BBC Wildlife’s Beki Hooper. However, for now, this is just a theory. Scientists say they need to conduct more research to understand why tomato plants on the western islands have adapted this way. Scientists were able to uncover the underlying molecular mechanisms at play: Four amino acids in a single enzyme appear to be responsible for the reversion back to the ancestral alkaloids, they found. They also used evolutionary modeling to confirm the direction of the adaptation—that is, that the tomatoes on the western islands had indeed returned to an earlier, ancestral state. Among evolutionary biologists, “reverse evolution” is somewhat contentious. The commonly held belief is that evolution marches forward, not backward. It’s also difficult to prove an organism has reverted back to an older trait through the same genetic pathways. But, with the new study, researchers say they’ve done exactly that. “Some people don’t believe in this,” says Jozwiak in a statement. “But the genetic and chemical evidence points to a return to an ancestral state. The mechanism is there. It happened.” So, if “reverse evolution” happened in wild tomatoes, could something similar happen in humans? In theory, yes, but it would take a long time, Jozwiak says. “If environmental conditions shifted dramatically over long timescales, it’s possible that traits from our distant past could re-emerge, but whether that ever happens is highly uncertain,” Jozwiak tells Newsweek’s Daniella Gray. “It’s speculative and would take millions of years, if at all.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Animals
Chemicals
Nature

Lifesize herd of puppet animals begins climate action journey from Africa to Arctic Circle

The Herds project from the team behind Little Amal will travel 20,000km taking its message on environmental crisis across the worldHundreds of life-size animal puppets have begun a 20,000km (12,400 mile) journey from central Africa to the Arctic Circle as part of an ambitious project created by the team behind Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian girl that travelled across the world.The public art initiative called The Herds, which has already visited Kinshasa and Lagos, will travel to 20 cities over four months to raise awareness of the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Hundreds of life-size animal puppets have begun a 20,000km (12,400 mile) journey from central Africa to the Arctic Circle as part of an ambitious project created by the team behind Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian girl that travelled across the world.The public art initiative called The Herds, which has already visited Kinshasa and Lagos, will travel to 20 cities over four months to raise awareness of the climate crisis.It is the second major project from The Walk Productions, which introduced Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet, to the world in Gaziantep, near the Turkey-Syria border, in 2021. The award-winning project, co-founded by the Palestinian playwright and director Amir Nizar Zuabi, reached 2 million people in 17 countries as she travelled from Turkey to the UK.The Herds’ journey began in Kinshasa’s Botanical Gardens on 10 April, kicking off four days of events. It moved on to Lagos, Nigeria, the following week, where up to 5,000 people attended events performed by more than 60 puppeteers.On Friday the streets of Dakar in Senegal will be filled with more than 40 puppet zebras, wildebeest, monkeys, giraffes and baboons as they run through Médina, one of the busiest neighbourhoods, where they will encounter a creation by Fabrice Monteiro, a Belgium-born artist who lives in Senegal, and is known for his large-scale sculptures. On Saturday the puppets will be part of an event in the fishing village of Ngor.The Herds’ 20,000km journey began in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph: Berclaire/walk productionsThe first set of animal puppets was created by Ukwanda Puppetry and Designs Art Collective in Cape Town using recycled materials, but in each location local volunteers are taught how to make their own animals using prototypes provided by Ukwanda. The project has already attracted huge interest from people keen to get involved. In Dakar more than 300 artists applied for 80 roles as artists and puppet guides. About 2,000 people will be trained to make the puppets over the duration of the project.“The idea is that we’re migrating with an ever-evolving, growing group of animals,” Zuabi told the Guardian last year.Zuabi has spoken of The Herds as a continuation of Little Amal’s journey, which was inspired by refugees, who often cite climate disaster as a trigger for forced migration. The Herds will put the environmental emergency centre stage, and will encourage communities to launch their own events to discuss the significance of the project and get involved in climate activism.The puppets are created with recycled materials and local volunteers are taught how to make them in each location. Photograph: Ant Strack“The idea is to put in front of people that there is an emergency – not with scientific facts, but with emotions,” said The Herds’ Senegal producer, Sarah Desbois.She expects thousands of people to view the four events being staged over the weekend. “We don’t have a tradition of puppetry in Senegal. As soon as the project started, when people were shown pictures of the puppets, they were going crazy.”Little Amal, the puppet of a Syrian girl that has become a symbol of human rights, in Santiago, Chile on 3 January. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesGrowing as it moves, The Herds will make its way from Dakar to Morocco, then into Europe, including London and Paris, arriving in the Arctic Circle in early August.

Animals
Climate

Dead, sick pelicans turning up along Oregon coast

So far, no signs of bird flu but wildlife officials continue to test the birds.

Sick and dead pelicans are turning up on Oregon’s coast and state wildlife officials say they don’t yet know why. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says it has collected several dead brown pelican carcasses for testing. Lab results from two pelicans found in Newport have come back negative for highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as bird flu, the agency said. Avian influenza was detected in Oregon last fall and earlier this year in both domestic animals and wildlife – but not brown pelicans. Additional test results are pending to determine if another disease or domoic acid toxicity caused by harmful algal blooms may be involved, officials said. In recent months, domoic acid toxicity has sickened or killed dozens of brown pelicans and numerous other wildlife in California. The sport harvest for razor clams is currently closed in Oregon – from Cascade Head to the California border – due to high levels of domoic acid detected last fall.Brown pelicans – easily recognized by their large size, massive bill and brownish plumage – breed in Southern California and migrate north along the Oregon coast in spring. Younger birds sometimes rest on the journey and may just be tired, not sick, officials said. If you find a sick, resting or dead pelican, leave it alone and keep dogs leashed and away from wildlife. State wildlife biologists along the coast are aware of the situation and the public doesn’t need to report sick, resting or dead pelicans. — Gosia Wozniacka covers environmental justice, climate change, the clean energy transition and other environmental issues. Reach her at gwozniacka@oregonian.com or 971-421-3154.Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.

Animals
Climate
Energy

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