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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Spox Says He Wasn't Joking About Wild Way He Feeds His Birds

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Thursday, August 8, 2024

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — It wasn’t just the dead bear.Days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted to taking a bear carcass from the side of the road and placing it in Central Park as a prank a decade ago, he said that has been picking up roadkill his “whole life” and once had a “freezer full of it” at home.The comment came as the independent presidential candidate was leaving an upstate New York courtroom Wednesday where he had testified in a lawsuit seeking to exclude him from the state’s ballot in November.The trial has focused on whether Kennedy improperly listed a residence in the New York City suburb of Katonah as his home address on his nominating petitions, when he has actually been living in the Los Angeles area since 2014.But the substance of the trial has been largely overshadowed in recent days by a story, unearthed by The New Yorker, that Kennedy once put a dead bear cub in his car while on a hiking trip, drove around with it for a day, then dumped it in Central Park with a group of friends when he realized he had to catch a flight.In a video posted to social media Sunday, Kennedy told comedian Roseanne Barr that he planned to skin the bear, which was in “very good condition.” He continued, saying, “I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator,” but did not specify what he intended to do with it.Speaking to reporters in a hallway after court ended Wednesday, Kennedy was asked whether he picked up other roadkill.“I’ve been picking up roadkill my whole life. I have a freezer full of it,” he said, eliciting laughter.Kennedy campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear later said by text that he wasn’t joking. She said that’s how Kennedy — a falconer who trains ravens — feeds his birds. She added that he no longer has the 21 cubic foot (0.59 cubic meter) refrigerator, which had been in New York’s Westchester County suburbs.Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, arrives at the Albany County Courthouse on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)New York Police and New York State Environmental Conservation officers handle the body of bear cub that found dead under bushes in Central Park, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, in New York. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once retrieved a bear that was killed by a motorist and left it in New York's Central Park with a bicycle on top, sparking a mystery that consumed the city a decade ago. Kennedy described the incident in a video posted to social media Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, adding it will be included in a forthcoming New Yorker article that he expects to be damaging. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)On the witness stand, Kennedy was grilled for a second day about where he lives and whether he should be kept off New York’s ballot in November.He testified that his move to California a decade ago was only temporary so he could be with his wife, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines, and that he always planned to return to New York.Attorneys representing several New York voters have sought to demonstrate Kennedy is not a New York resident, relying on government documents and even a recent social media video in which Kennedy talks about taming ravens he feeds at his Los Angeles home.In a testy exchange in the Albany courtroom, attorney Keith Corbett repeatedly asked Kennedy whether moving to California with his family and pets demonstrated his intention to reside in that state.Kennedy balked at providing a “yes” or “no” answer, saying the reality was more nuanced.“Do you want a yes or no answer, or do you want the truth?” Kennedy said.“My intention is to return to New York and that’s the only requirement for residency,” he said.Under questioning from his own lawyer, Kennedy said he moved to California out of love for his wife and concern for her career.“I said I would figure out a way to make a living in California until we could move back, and that was our agreement,” he said.He said it was difficult for him to leave New York because he had built his life there.The residence in question is a room in a home in well-to-do Katonah, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of midtown Manhattan. Kennedy testified Wednesday that he has only slept in that room once, citing his constant travel for his campaign.Shown a photograph of the room, Kennedy acknowledged the furniture and painting in the room are not his, but he said pictures on the nightstand belong to him.“I think one of them is a photo of me and Mick Jagger,” he said.Kennedy’s lawyer, William F. Savino, asked him why he didn’t just rent or buy a house in New York in the last 10 years. Kennedy said homeownership is time consuming and expensive.“It snows a lot here,” he said. “The pipes break, the driveway needs to be plowed and all these other burdens that are associated with home ownership.”Kennedy, who lived in New York for years before moving to California, noted his father was similarly accused when he ran for a New York Senate seat in 1964 and won. Months before that election, his father, Robert F. Kennedy, rented a home on Long Island.“He was also accused of not being a New Yorker,” he said.The woman who owns the Katonah property testified Tuesday that Kennedy rents a room for $500 a month, but she acknowledged those payments began in May, a day after a New York Post story questioned the candidate’s claim that he lives in New York. Kennedy testified that he thought his assistant had been paying rent for the previous year and that he made sure payments started after the newspaper story.The lawsuit against Kennedy is backed by Clear Choice PAC, a super PAC led by supporters of Democratic President Joe Biden. A judge is set to decide the outcome without a jury.Kennedy’s campaign has said he has enough signatures to qualify in a majority of states, but his ballot drive has faced challenges and lawsuits in several states, including North Carolina and New Jersey.Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.

The comment arrives days after Kennedy admitted to once placing a bear carcass in Central Park as a prank.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — It wasn’t just the dead bear.

Days after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. admitted to taking a bear carcass from the side of the road and placing it in Central Park as a prank a decade ago, he said that has been picking up roadkill his “whole life” and once had a “freezer full of it” at home.

The comment came as the independent presidential candidate was leaving an upstate New York courtroom Wednesday where he had testified in a lawsuit seeking to exclude him from the state’s ballot in November.

The trial has focused on whether Kennedy improperly listed a residence in the New York City suburb of Katonah as his home address on his nominating petitions, when he has actually been living in the Los Angeles area since 2014.

But the substance of the trial has been largely overshadowed in recent days by a story, unearthed by The New Yorker, that Kennedy once put a dead bear cub in his car while on a hiking trip, drove around with it for a day, then dumped it in Central Park with a group of friends when he realized he had to catch a flight.

In a video posted to social media Sunday, Kennedy told comedian Roseanne Barr that he planned to skin the bear, which was in “very good condition.” He continued, saying, “I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator,” but did not specify what he intended to do with it.

Speaking to reporters in a hallway after court ended Wednesday, Kennedy was asked whether he picked up other roadkill.

“I’ve been picking up roadkill my whole life. I have a freezer full of it,” he said, eliciting laughter.

Kennedy campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear later said by text that he wasn’t joking. She said that’s how Kennedy — a falconer who trains ravens — feeds his birds. She added that he no longer has the 21 cubic foot (0.59 cubic meter) refrigerator, which had been in New York’s Westchester County suburbs.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, arrives at the Albany County Courthouse on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

New York Police and New York State Environmental Conservation officers handle the body of bear cub that found dead under bushes in Central Park, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, in New York. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once retrieved a bear that was killed by a motorist and left it in New York's Central Park with a bicycle on top, sparking a mystery that consumed the city a decade ago. Kennedy described the incident in a video posted to social media Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, adding it will be included in a forthcoming New Yorker article that he expects to be damaging. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

On the witness stand, Kennedy was grilled for a second day about where he lives and whether he should be kept off New York’s ballot in November.

He testified that his move to California a decade ago was only temporary so he could be with his wife, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines, and that he always planned to return to New York.

Attorneys representing several New York voters have sought to demonstrate Kennedy is not a New York resident, relying on government documents and even a recent social media video in which Kennedy talks about taming ravens he feeds at his Los Angeles home.

In a testy exchange in the Albany courtroom, attorney Keith Corbett repeatedly asked Kennedy whether moving to California with his family and pets demonstrated his intention to reside in that state.

Kennedy balked at providing a “yes” or “no” answer, saying the reality was more nuanced.

“Do you want a yes or no answer, or do you want the truth?” Kennedy said.

“My intention is to return to New York and that’s the only requirement for residency,” he said.

Under questioning from his own lawyer, Kennedy said he moved to California out of love for his wife and concern for her career.

“I said I would figure out a way to make a living in California until we could move back, and that was our agreement,” he said.

He said it was difficult for him to leave New York because he had built his life there.

The residence in question is a room in a home in well-to-do Katonah, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of midtown Manhattan. Kennedy testified Wednesday that he has only slept in that room once, citing his constant travel for his campaign.

Shown a photograph of the room, Kennedy acknowledged the furniture and painting in the room are not his, but he said pictures on the nightstand belong to him.

“I think one of them is a photo of me and Mick Jagger,” he said.

Kennedy’s lawyer, William F. Savino, asked him why he didn’t just rent or buy a house in New York in the last 10 years. Kennedy said homeownership is time consuming and expensive.

“It snows a lot here,” he said. “The pipes break, the driveway needs to be plowed and all these other burdens that are associated with home ownership.”

Kennedy, who lived in New York for years before moving to California, noted his father was similarly accused when he ran for a New York Senate seat in 1964 and won. Months before that election, his father, Robert F. Kennedy, rented a home on Long Island.

“He was also accused of not being a New Yorker,” he said.

The woman who owns the Katonah property testified Tuesday that Kennedy rents a room for $500 a month, but she acknowledged those payments began in May, a day after a New York Post story questioned the candidate’s claim that he lives in New York. Kennedy testified that he thought his assistant had been paying rent for the previous year and that he made sure payments started after the newspaper story.

The lawsuit against Kennedy is backed by Clear Choice PAC, a super PAC led by supporters of Democratic President Joe Biden. A judge is set to decide the outcome without a jury.

Kennedy’s campaign has said he has enough signatures to qualify in a majority of states, but his ballot drive has faced challenges and lawsuits in several states, including North Carolina and New Jersey.

Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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This Year in Conservation Science: Whales, Birds, and Killer Roads

We asked conservation researchers around the world to send us their favorite papers of 2025. They address the planet’s most pressing problems — and important solutions. The post This Year in Conservation Science: Whales, Birds, and Killer Roads appeared first on The Revelator.

The road to hell is paved with … more roads. That seems to be the message of one of this year’s most striking conservation papers. The research, published this April in the journal Current Biology, linked the “explosive growth” of secondary roads — those that branch off what the papers call “first-cut roads” — to tropical deforestation around the world. These aren’t the typical suburban Streets, Drives, and Courts that spring up around developments. They’re “illicit, unplanned, often illegal roads,” says the paper’s senior author, William Laurance, distinguished research professor at James Cook University. The research was led by ecologist Jayden Engert. “The numbers are almost crazy,” says Laurance. “For example, we found an enormous proliferation of secondary roads in the Congo Basin, Amazon, and New Guinea — especially in the Amazon,” where every mile of official roads generated around 50 miles of unofficial roads. “These secondary roads are opening tropical forest frontiers like a flayed fish, exposing them to illegal land-grabbers, loggers, poachers, miners, and illegal drug producers whose activities are driving rampant forest loss.” Sadly, Laurance says, these secondary roads don’t exist on official maps and they’re hard for governments to control. But research like this helps to document them — and that’s the first step to addressing the problem. That can also be said of the other new papers and reports sent to us this month by conservation experts around the world who sent us their best or favorite research from 2025. Forests Connect Us Other research also called out the importance of forests — this time connecting the dots between places like New York City’s Central Park and other North American forests, especially rapidly disappearing landscapes in Central America. “It’s easy to think of migratory birds as ‘ours,’ tied to a particular state or region, but their survival depends just as much on distant habitats far from home,” says the study’s lead author, Anna Lello-Smith of the World Conservation Society. “Using millions of bird observations from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird platform, our study shows that eastern North America’s forest birds rely on Central America’s last large tropical forests — the Five Great Forests — to survive migration and the winter. Because billions of migratory birds funnel into the narrow land bridge of Central America, these forests hold staggering concentrations of warblers, thrushes, and hawks — in some cases nearly half their global populations — yet several are rapidly disappearing due to illegal ranching and fires.” The study identified what it called “sister landscapes” — sites across the U.S. and Canada that are linked to the Five Great Forests by shared bird species. Lello-Smith says this offers “a roadmap for connecting bird lovers and communities across the hemisphere to help protect and restore the tropical forests that keep our birds in the sky.” Three From the Ocean Shifting from the skies to the seas, frequent Revelator contributor and shark scientist David Shiffman shared new research by Mark E. Bond and other experts about how the world has improved conservation and management of sharks and related species. “The ocean science and conservation community has invested a lot of time, energy, and resources into protecting sharks via the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species,” says Shiffman, who was not involved in this research. “We’ve seen promising signs that this approach is working for years, but Bond et al. is the first global-scale analysis of the impacts of CITES protections on shark management regulations around the world. They found that several countries who previously had no shark conservation or management regulations of any kind made their first regulations — a huge step. They also found improvements in regulations of more than half of shark fishing and exporting nations, including many that are substantive and important. There is no silver bullet to complex conservation challenges, but these results are clear that for many shark species in many countries, CITES helps.” All ocean species face an ongoing and growing threat from human activities, though. That’s why a dozen conservation experts — including Callum M. Roberts, Sylvia Earle, and Stuart Pimm — recently penned a commentary in Nature calling for an end to extraction in the high seas in perpetuity. Such a move, the authors argued, would protect species and the planet from increased fishing, deep-sea mining, and other threats. Pimm called it his “most important contribution” of the past year. On a more specific ocean note, one recent paper looked at critically endangered Rice’s whales, who scientists identified less than five years ago. Unfortunately the news coverage of that discovery failed to shift the needle on the forces endangering the whales. “My co-author and I took a communication and media studies approach to research Rice’s whale conservation and management and intentionally included insights that anyone with an interest in conservation can use,” says Marcus B. Reamer, a lecturer at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. “We highlight the essential role of communication and media in conservation and offer actionable strategies for navigating media systems and communicating effectively in challenging political and ecological environments, providing a roadmap for individuals and organizations working on conservation challenges across ecosystems and geographies. It’s a unique direction for marine mammal conservation research — and timely given ongoing efforts to weaken environmental laws and ramp up oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.” Indigenous Science Two researchers called out the importance of traditional Indigenous knowledge and related systems. First, Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellow Sara E. Cannon sent a paper about “a respectful and transparent way to uphold ancestral Indigenous Pacific salmon stream caretaking knowledge, longstanding Indigenous rights and relationships to land and waters, and our joint responsibilities to care for these watersheds.” “This paper is an essential read for conservation practitioners and researchers across Canada,” says Cannon, who was not involved in the research. “It recenters Indigenous laws, governance systems, and ancestral caretaking knowledge as foundational to restoring Pacific salmon and their watersheds. By documenting Indigenous-led restoration initiatives across British Columbia, it offers tangible, place-based examples of how ethical collaboration and Indigenous leadership can guide more just and sustainable approaches to salmon recovery. It invites readers to rethink restoration not only as ecological repair, but as the renewal of relationships, rights, and responsibilities between people and salmon.” Aerin Jacob, director of science and research at the Nature Conservancy of Canada, included a paper she coauthored about navigating the divide between science and policy. “Environmental decision-makers often rely on natural science or familiar expert networks while feeling uncertain about how to meaningfully include Indigenous knowledge, social science, or local experience,” Jacob says. “This can lead to decisions that are less effective and less supported. Our study examines what Canadian science–policy professionals consider ‘good evidence,’ why some evidence gets used or overlooked, and how to build more balanced, credible decision-making. I like this paper because it’s frank about challenges while also focusing on solutions.” And as a reminder that important science can come in many forms, Jacob also sent a report (funded in part by her organization) entitled “A Guide to Choosing and Using Community-Based Data Management Systems for Indigenous Land-Based Programs.” “Around the world, Indigenous guardians collect vital information about nature and people — including photos, maps, datasets, stories, and more,” Jacob says. “It’s crucial to keep that information organized, secure, and aligned with community values. I’m a big fan of this new work from northern Canada for two reasons. First, it supports guardians and other land-based program staff to decide what matters most to them and how they want to proceed. Second, it helps external parties to be better partners in the technical and governance aspects of data, software, funding, infrastructure, staffing, and more.” Quick Hits Chris Shepherd, another frequent Revelator contributor and source, sent an interesting (and worrying) paper about Canada’s role in the trade of live monitor lizards. “Very little is known about the reptile trade in Canada, or about Canada’s role in the international wildlife trade at all,” he says. “Here we focused on the trade in monitor lizards in Canada and found Canada to be a major player. This issue is largely unknown in Canada, and we are only just starting to scratch the surface.” Dominick A. DellaSala, senior conservation scientist associate at the Conservation Biology Institute and another Revelator contributor, sent a new paper he coauthored that suggested a conservation opportunity in the Montana’s Yaak River Watershed. The paper “provides new protected area assessments for the Northern Rockies and identifies proposed climate refugia based on climate modeling and GAP analyses methods,” he says. Has the world failed the Sumatran rhino? K Yoganand of the Malaysian organization Bringing Back Our Rare Animals sent a coauthored paper published in the journal Pachyderm detailing the status, history, and fraught future of this critically endangered species. “We present a sobering case study of how decades of missteps, indecision, and cognitive biases have driven the Sumatran rhinoceros to the brink of extinction,” Yoganand writes. “For anyone committed to preventing future extinctions, the paper offers both a cautionary tale and a roadmap for how conservation must adapt to avoid repeating these failures.” Finally citizen scientist Paula Borchardt wrote to remind us that everyday citizens play an important, ongoing role in collecting data about the natural world. “I’m an artist, journalist, naturalist, and citizen scientist who publishes a weekly blog sharing my art and stories about natural history, mostly about my Tucson, Arizona, backyard and the environment here in the Sonoran Desert.” She pointed out one recent entry, “describing my husband’s and my project to grow saguaros from seed, to help an effort by several Tucson-based organizations to support saguaros and combat their declining numbers.” The striking headline: “We have 1,518 saguaros on our patio.” That’s it for this year’s “This Year in Conservation Science.” But the new year is around the corner, and with it come 12 more months of new, exciting, important research about endangered species, habitats, environmental justice, climate change, and related topics. Keep reading The Revelator for coverage of that new science, and stay in touch if you publish research you think our readers would enjoy or could use in their own efforts to preserve life on Earth. Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. The post This Year in Conservation Science: Whales, Birds, and Killer Roads appeared first on The Revelator.

Conservation
Science
Climate

As Reefs Vanish, Assisted Coral Fertilization Offers Hope in the Dominican Republic

In an underwater nursery just off the Dominican Republic coast, tiny corals born in a laboratory are slowly growing under the eye of conservationists

BAYAHIBE, Dominican Republic (AP) — Oxygen tank strapped to his back, Michael del Rosario moves his fins delicately as he glides along an underwater nursery just off the Dominican Republic coast, proudly showing off the “coral babies” growing on metal structures that look like large spiders. The conservationist enthusiastically points a finger to trace around the largest corals, just starting to reveal their vibrant colors.Del Rosario helped plant these tiny animals in the nursery after they were conceived in an assisted reproduction laboratory run by the marine conservation organization Fundemar. In a process something like in vitro fertilization, coral egg and sperm are joined to form a new individual.“We live on an island. We depend entirely on coral reefs, and seeing them all disappear is really depressing,” del Rosario said once back on the surface, his words flowing like bubbles underwater. “But seeing our coral babies growing, alive, in the sea gives us hope, which is what we were losing.”The state of corals around the Dominican Republic, as in the rest of the world, is not encouraging. Fundemar’s latest monitoring last year found that 70% of the Dominican Republic’s reefs have less than 5% coral coverage. Healthy colonies are so far apart that the probability of one coral’s eggs meeting another’s sperm during the spawning season is decreasing. “That’s why assisted reproduction programs are so important now, because what used to be normal in coral reefs is probably no longer possible for many species,” biologist Andreina Valdez, operations manager at Fundemar, said at the organization’s new marine research center. “So that’s where we come in to help a little bit.”Though many people may think corals are plants, they are animals. They spawn once a year, a few days after the full moon and at dusk, when they release millions of eggs and sperm in a spectacle that turns the sea around them into a kind of Milky Way. Fundemar monitors spawning periods, collects eggs and sperm, performs assisted fertilization in the laboratory, and cares for the larvae until they are strong enough to be taken to the reef.In the laboratory, Ariel Álvarez examines one of the star-shaped pieces on which the corals are growing through a microscope. They're so tiny they can hardly be seen with the naked eye. Álvarez switches off the lights, turns on an ultraviolet light, and the coral’s rounded, fractal shapes appear through a camera on the microscope projected onto a screen.One research center room holds dozens of fish tanks, each with hundreds of tiny corals awaiting return to the reef. Del Rosario said the lab produces more than 2.5 million coral embryos per year. Only 1% will survive in the ocean, yet that figure is better than the rate with natural fertilization on these degraded reefs now, he said.In the past, Fundemar and other conservation organizations focused on asexual reproduction. That meant cutting a small piece of healthy coral and transplanting it to another location so that a new one would grow. The method can produce corals faster than assisted fertilization.The problem, Andreina Valdez said, is that it clones the same individual, meaning all those coral share the same disease vulnerabilities. In contrast, assisted sexual reproduction creates genetically different individuals, reducing the chance that a single illness could strike them all down.Australia pioneered assisted coral fertilization. It's expanding in the Caribbean, with leading projects at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Carmabi Foundation in Curaçao, and it's being adopted in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Jamaica, Valdez said.“You can’t conserve something if you don’t have it. So (these programs) are helping to expand the population that’s out there,” said Mark Eakin, corresponding secretary for the International Coral Reef Society and retired chief of the Coral Reef Watch program of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But the world must still tackle “the 800-pound gorilla of climate change,” Eakin said, or a lot of the restoration work “is just going to be wiped out.”Burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal produces greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, driving up temperatures both on Earth’s surface and in its seas. Oceans are warming at twice the rate of 20 years ago, according to UNESCO’s most recent State of the Ocean Report last year. And that's devastating for corals. Rising heat causes them to feel sick and expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide them both their striking colors and their food. The process is known as bleaching because it exposes the coral's white skeleton. The corals may survive, but they are weakened and vulnerable to disease and death if temperatures don't drop.Half the world’s reefs have been lost since 1950, according to research by the University of British Columbia published in the journal One Earth. More than pretty creatures For countries such as the Dominican Republic, in the so-called “hurricane corridor,” preserving reefs is particularly important. Coral skeletons help absorb wave energy, creating a natural barrier against stronger waves. “What do we sell in the Dominican Republic? Beaches,” del Rosario said. “If we don’t have corals, we lose coastal protection, we lose the sand on our beaches, and we lose tourism.”Corals also are home to more than 25% of marine life, making them crucial for the millions of people around the world who make a living from fishing. Alido Luis Báez knows this well.It's not yet dawn in Bayahibe when he climbs into a boat to fish with his father, who at 65 still goes to sea every week. The engine roars as they travel mile after mile until the coastline fades into the horizon. To catch tuna, dorado, or marlin, Luis Báez sails up to 50 miles offshore. “We didn’t have to go so far before,” he said. “But because of overfishing, habitat loss, and climate change, now you have to go a little further every day.”Things were very different when his father, also named Alido Luis, started fishing in the 1970s. Back then, they went out in a sailboat, and the coral reefs were so healthy they found plenty of fish close to the coast."I used to be a diver, and I caught a lot of lobster and queen conch,” he said in a voice weakened by the passage of time. “In a short time, I would catch 50 or 60 pounds of fish. But now, to catch two or three fish, they spend the whole day out there.”Del Rosario said there's still time to halt the decline of the reefs.“More needs to be done, of course ... but we are investing a lot of effort and time to preserve what we love so much," he said. "And we trust and believe that many people around the world are doing the same.”The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – December 2025

Conservation
Water
Climate

Piping Plovers Inspire Volunteer Conservationists Despite New Threats From the Trump Administration

Proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act and park staffing cuts are putting the endangered coastal bird in danger. The post Piping Plovers Inspire Volunteer Conservationists Despite New Threats From the Trump Administration appeared first on The Revelator.

For a piping plover, access to safe habitat means the difference between merely staying alive and preparing for the next generation. Chris Allieri knows this dynamic all too well. He saw the federally endangered shorebirds — and the drama around protecting their breeding habitat — up close for the first time in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. “I saw people up on the dunes, kites, drones, off-leash dogs,” he says. No one was paying any attention to the birds’ need for a protected space. “There were no signs, there was no fencing.” He says he “couldn’t believe” the petite-sized birds were essentially left to fend for themselves. Allieri’s epiphany led to the creation of the NYC Plover Project, the first volunteer nonprofit in New York City dedicated to the birds. A communications professional by trade, he now spends most of his free time as the unpaid executive director of the nonprofit, where he has four paid employees on staff. The heart of the program, Allieri says, lies in the hundreds of volunteers who care for the piping plovers every day of their nesting season, from March to September, after which the birds and their young head down the coast. Similar stories unspool across the country. Piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) have found their home across the beaches of the United States, trailing down the Atlantic coast, around the Great Lakes, into the northern Great Plains. Between nesting and migrating, piping plovers can be seen and heard across dozens of U.S. states, dashing across the sand in quick spurts of energy and sounding off with their signature bell-like peeps. While the species remains federally endangered (they’re designated as “threatened” in the Atlantic Coast and Great Plains), the piping plovers’ population have been rebounding in some areas due to the stewardship of wildlife agencies, as well as various volunteer groups. But even with those major conservation wins, piping plovers today face a new challenge: the Trump administration. Cuts and ‘Harm’ Allieri points to firings at federal agencies that manage national parks and public lands as a threat to plover management. Conservation experts in Michigan warned that piping plovers “will die” due to the administration’s cuts, as reported by MLive. In Maine staff levels for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partners were down in 2025, which required Maine Audubon and other nonfederal partners to do more work, according to Laura Minich Zitske, director of Maine Audubon’s coastal birds project. The organization’s funding for 2025 was set in 2023, but Minich Zitske says they are “anxiously waiting” to see how funding plays out for next season. On top of budgetary and personnel issues, the Trump administration has also proposed a rollback of the Endangered Species Act, the foundational law that has provided a critical safety net to protecting threatened species and their habitats.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by NYC PLOVER PROJECT (@nycploverproject) The Trump administration wants to change the way the law is interpreted, specifically the definition of the word “harm.” Historically the law has upheld harm to include any attacks on a species’ habitat. Now the administration is looking to narrow that definition to only recognize killing the protected species. “Harming habitat is also harming endangered species,” says Jewel Tomasula, national policy director of the Endangered Species Coalition, an environmental nonprofit that helps connect conservation groups like the NYC Plover Project to the national network of conservation groups to share strategies. “Species need a safe place to live. They need places to find food, to reproduce, and that is so integral to species survival,” she says. “Habitat loss is also the driving factor for extinction for [the] majority of species, especially our terrestrial species.” Problems for Plovers This potential definition change is really concerning to the NYC Plover Project, says Allieri. “A plover without habitat cannot exist. A plover doesn’t just go to another beach. It doesn’t just go to a wetland or go to a marsh. It doesn’t nest in a tree… This is a very specific species that has a very specific breeding range and it’s already been winded down to within an inch of its life to where it can survive.” Allieri says the group already sees the birds having difficulties due to sea-level rise and narrowing beaches, which has caused competition within the species and with other beach-nesting birds. “We’re seeing purgation of nests by other birds,” he adds. “We’re having a lot of nest loss early in the season, and this will only continue.” Wherever conservationists work to protect wild species, uncertainty now runs high. “It’s sort of hard to wrap our heads around all these challenges to the ESA could influence how we manage endangered species demands,” says Minich Zitske. She worries about the potential that the plovers’ habitats could be damaged while the birds are away on migration, which would not count as a violation of the ESA if the “harm” rule changes. Maine Audubon has been working to monitor piping plovers since 1981 and manages most of the nesting sites across the state with some help from their partners at the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge. General concerns are echoed by the group’s volunteer base. “I do think that there is a perception that violations of the ESA will not be prosecuted or taken seriously,” says Minich Zitske. “This is a longstanding concern, but it has increased. Volunteers feel discouraged when they are working hard to help our most vulnerable species alive when those in power are reluctant to engage or enforce laws.” The Importance of Volunteers Out of all Maine Audubon’s efforts, more people volunteer to work with piping plovers than any other program. Some work as general monitors, while others focus on educating beachgoers or identifying new nesting sites. “A lot of our volunteers are especially committed currently because they do want to demonstrate the public support for the Endangered Species Act,” says Minich Zitske. The NYC Plover Project has also seen that wave of support for the birds grow over time. “​​That first season we were really just like, ‘we have to get some boots on the ground.’ We have to get some volunteers out there [to] just help educate and to be arms and legs for the park service,” Allieri says. They started with about a dozen volunteers but escalated quickly. In their second season, they were named volunteer group of the year by the National Park Service, beating out groups from huge West Coast national parks. Their fifth season — which just wrapped up — had an estimated 300 to 400 volunteers patrolling the stretch of beaches along the Rockaways and looking after about 100 piping plovers whose breeding sites are protected by temporary fencing or structures put up by the NYC Parks Department. “We’ve done nearly 18,000 hours of volunteer time,” Allieri says. Their volunteers are positioned at each end of the enclosure, sometimes from 6 in the morning till 9 o’clock at night. Plovers Meet the Public In addition to directly protecting the birds, the volunteers help spread the word about the species and efforts to protect them. “We’ve connected with literally tens of thousands of people who have come to the beaches in the Rockaways,” Allieri says. If you live around an area with piping plovers, you may have heard some hate against the small birds, sometimes through the form of “piping plovers taste like chicken” bumper stickers. Talking to people who don’t understand the necessity of plover enclosures is part of the job for volunteers across the nation. It occasionally causes debates about people not getting enough beach access due to the fenced-off sections. That’s less of an issue in Maine, due to the state’s strong cultural wildlife values, according to Minich Zitske. In New York City, an area known for its attitude and abundance of tourists, these conversations can get heated, but Allieri says that’s starting to change. “Sometimes people show up to the beach ready to fight — like they’re ready to fight about a bird — but that’s fewer and far between,” he says. “I think with each season we are seeing more and more support and more and more advocacy on the part of everyday New Yorkers who really are rooting for the plover.” NYC Plover Project volunteers are all trained in de-escalation tactics to address these sorts of situations, which includes giving folks the benefit of the doubt. Allieri thinks the majority of people — even those who are trying to bust volunteers’ chops — are reachable by introducing them to the bird. “We’re gonna be able to point out a piping plover and maybe even a chick or a fledgling to you,” he says. Spreading Their Wings As the NYC Plover Project grows, it’s expanding its programs to include more enhanced coastal ecosystem management and advocacy. “Even though our core program of our volunteer engagement will always be with us, we are moving into public schools and we have a full education program,” Allieri says. “Then we also have community engagement with our local elected officials — not just on the federal level, but also city and state level as well.” Allieri has less patience for elected officials who act like limited beach access or ditching controversial firework shows are merely “equity” issues. “There’s some real public safety concerns out there,” Allieri says. “Dare I say, temporary beach closures are not on the list of injustices.” As threats to endangered species ramp up, the NYC Plover Project is looking to do more year-round programming. “We are realizing quickly that we are no longer just a seasonal operation,” Allieri says. “We haven’t been for years now.” They start to wrap up their volunteer recruitment at the end of the year, and by Jan. 1 they’re fully in the planning stages for next year. In the offseason, they keep the public engaged with a volunteer Slack channel, webinars, mailing lists, and their popular social media pages. Part of their latest program expansion includes making the public aware of the similar battles various endangered species face. “The piping plover has more in common with like grizzlies and gray wolves than most people know,” Allieri says. “Don’t tell [plovers] that they’re tiny. I think that they think that they’re grizzlies.” They’re currently working on a campaign that ties these similarities together. While federal leadership’s actions may paint a different picture, the shorebirds have found support across party lines. “In terms of the voters in the Rockaways, it is everybody from one of the most prevalent Trump-supporting districts to the opposite end of the spectrum,” Allieri says. “We are not hearing one word on the ground about the need to remove endangered species protections. There are a lot of Republican community members who come up to us on the beach and ask, ‘How are the plovers doing?’” Flying Forward While volunteers’ level of commitment is up to the individual, Allieri and Minich Zitske both voice worries about potential burnout, especially with the current attacks on endangered species. “I have concerns that if this continues, at what point will people just start to give up? I don’t know. I hope not, but it’s hard to know the future, especially the way things are going,” Minich Zitske says. Still, even with what sometimes feels like an unsustainable dedication level, Allieri is certain that people will keep showing up for piping plovers, even if the harm definition change is enacted. “What would the plover want us to do? The plover would want us to fight like hell. That’s what we have to do right now.” Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator: Studies: Extreme Weather Fueled by Climate Change Is Adding to Bird Declines The post Piping Plovers Inspire Volunteer Conservationists Despite New Threats From the Trump Administration appeared first on The Revelator.

Conservation
Climate
Energy

New York takes additional steps to address ‘forever chemicals’

The Department of Environmental Conservation issued new proposals to address PFAS in biosolids and wastewater.

The Department of Environmental Conservation issued new proposals to address PFAS in biosolids and wastewater.

Conservation
Waste
Water

California Coastal Commission approves land deal to extend last nuclear plant through 2030

A landmark deal with Pacific Gas & Electric will extend the life of the state's remaining nuclear power plant in exchange for thousands of acres of new conservation in San Luis Obispo County.

California environmental regulators on Thursday struck a landmark deal with Pacific Gas & Electric to extend the life of the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant in exchange for thousands of acres of new land conservation in San Luis Obispo County.PG&E’s agreement with the California Coastal Commission is a key hurdle for the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to remain online until at least 2030. The plant was slated to close this year, largely due to concerns over seismic safety, but state officials pushed to delay it — saying the plant remains essential for the reliable operation of California’s electrical grid. Diablo Canyon provides nearly 9% of the electricity generated in the state, making it the state’s single largest source. The Coastal Commission voted 9-3 to approve the plan, settling the fate of some 12,000 acres that surround the power plant as a means of compensation for environmental harm caused by its continued operation. Nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases. But Diablo Canyon uses an estimated 2.5 billion gallons of ocean water each day to absorb heat in a process known as “once-through cooling,” which kills an estimated two billion or more marine organisms each year. Some stakeholders in the region celebrated the conservation deal, while others were disappointed by the decision to trade land for marine impacts — including a Native tribe that had hoped the land would be returned to them. Diablo Canyon sits along one of the most rugged and ecologically rich stretches of the California coast.Under the agreement, PG&E will immediately transfer a 4,500-acre parcel on the north side of the property known as the “North Ranch” into a conservation easement and pursue transfer of its ownership to a public agency such as the California Department of Parks and Recreation, a nonprofit land conservation organization or tribe. A purchase by State Parks would result in a more than 50% expansion of the existing Montaña de Oro State Park. PG&E will also offer a 2,200-acre parcel on the southern part of the property known as “Wild Cherry Canyon” for purchase by a government agency, nonprofit land conservation organization or tribe. In addition, the utility will provide $10 million to plan and manage roughly 25 miles of new public access trails across the entire property. “It’s going to be something that changes lives on the Central Coast in perpetuity,” Commissioner Christopher Lopez said at the meeting. “This matters to generations that have yet to exist on this planet ... this is going to be a place that so many people mark in their minds as a place that transforms their lives as they visit and recreate and love it in a way most of us can’t even imagine today.”Critically, the plan could see Diablo Canyon remain operational much longer than the five years dictated by Thursday’s agreement. While the state Legislature only authorized the plant to operate through 2030, PG&E’s federal license renewal would cover 20 years of operations, potentially keeping it online until 2045. Should that happen, the utility would need to make additional land concessions, including expanding an existing conservation area on the southern part of the property known as the “South Ranch” to 2,500 acres. The plan also includes rights of first refusal for a government agency or a land conservation group to purchase the entirety of the South Ranch, 5,000 acres, along with Wild Cherry Canyon — after 2030. Pelicans along the concrete breakwater at Pacific Gas and Electric’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times) Many stakeholders were frustrated by the carve-out for the South Ranch, but still saw the agreement as an overall victory for Californians. “It is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) said in a phone call ahead of Thursday’s vote. “I have not been out there where it has not been breathtakingly beautiful, where it is not this incredible, unique location, where you’re not seeing, for much of it, a human structure anywhere. It is just one of those last unique opportunities to protect very special land near the California coast.”Others, however, described the deal as disappointing and inadequate.That includes many of the region’s Native Americans who said they felt sidelined by the agreement. The deal does not preclude tribal groups from purchasing the land in the future, but it doesn’t guarantee that or give them priority.The yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and Region, which met with the Coastal Commission several times in the lead-up to Thursday’s vote, had hoped to see the land returned to them. Scott Lanthrop is a member of the tribe’s board and has worked on the issue for several years. “The sad part is our group is not being recognized as the ultimate conservationist,” he told The Times. “Any normal person, if you ask the question, would you rather have a tribal group that is totally connected to earth and wind and water, or would you like to have some state agency or gigantic NGO manage this land, I think the answer would be, ‘Hey, you probably should give it back to the tribe.’” Tribe chair Mona Tucker said she fears that free public access to the land could end up harming it instead of helping it, as the Coastal Commission intends. “In my mind, I’m not understanding how taking the land ... is mitigation for marine life,” Tucker said. “It doesn’t change anything as far as impacts to the water. It changes a lot as far as impacts to the land.” (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times) The deal has been complicated by jurisdictional questions, including who can determine what happens to the land. While PG&E owns the North Ranch parcel that could be transferred to State Parks, the South Ranch and Wild Cherry Canyon are owned by its subsidiary, Eureka Energy Company. What’s more, the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities such as PG&E, has a Tribal Land Transfer Policy that calls for investor-owned power companies to transfer land they no longer want to Native American tribes. In the case of Diablo Canyon, the Coastal Commission became the decision maker because it has the job of compensating for environmental harm from the facility’s continued operation. Since the commission determined Diablo’s use of ocean water can’t be avoided, it looked at land conservation as the next best method.This “out-of-kind” trade-off is a rare, but not unheard of way of making up for the loss of marine life. It’s an approach that is “feasible and more likely to succeed” than several other methods considered, according to the commission’s staff report. “This plan supports the continued operation of a major source of reliable electricity for California, and is in alignment with our state’s clean energy goals and focus on coastal protection,” Paula Gerfen, Diablo Canyon’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer, said in a statement. But Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) said the deal was “not the best we can do” — particularly because the fate of the South Ranch now depends on the plant staying in operation beyond 2030.“I believe the time really is now for the immediate full conservation of the 12,000 [acres], and to bring accountability and trust back for the voters of San Luis Obispo County,” Addis said during the meeting. There are also concerns about the safety of continuing to operate a nuclear plant in California, with its radioactive waste stored in concrete casks on the site. Diablo Canyon is subject to ground shaking and earthquake hazards, including from the nearby Hosgri Fault and the Shorline Fault, about 2.5 miles and 1 mile from the facility, respectively. PG&E says the plant has been built to withstand hazards. It completed a seismic hazard assessment in 2024, and determined Diablo Canyon is safe to continue operation through 2030. The Coastal Commission, however, found if the plant operates longer, it would warrant further seismic study.A key development for continuing Diablo Canyon’s operation came in 2022 with Senate Bill 846, which delayed closure by up to five additional years. At the time, California was plagued by rolling blackouts driven extreme heat waves, and state officials were growing wary about taking such a major source of power offline.But California has made great gains in the last several years — including massive investments in solar energy and battery storage — and some questioned whether the facility is still needed at all. Others said conserving thousands of acres of land still won’t make up for the harms to the ocean.“It is unmitigatable,” said David Weisman, executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility. He noted that the Coastal Commission’s staff report says it would take about 99 years to balance the loss of marine life with the benefits provided by 4,500 acres of land conservation. Twenty more years of operation would take about 305 years to strike that same balance.But some pointed out that neither the commission nor fisheries data find Diablo’s operations cause declines in marine life. Ocean harm may be overestimated, said Seaver Wang, an oceanographer and the climate and energy director at the Breakthrough Institute, a Berkeley-based research center.In California’s push to transition to clean energy, every option comes with downsides, Wang said. In the case of nuclear power — which produces no greenhouse gas emissions — it’s all part of the trade off, he said. “There’s no such thing as impacts-free energy,” he said.The Coastal Commission’s vote is one of the last remaining obstacles to keeping the plant online. PG&E will also need a final nod from the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which decides on a pollution discharge permit in February.The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will also have to sign off on Diablo’s extension.

Conservation
Climate
Government

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