Latest Plants News
Joshua trees are in peril. California has a plan to save them
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has released a new plan to protect the state's iconic Joshua trees, which are imperiled by wildfires, human development and climate change. The 294-page draft plan includes calls for avoiding or minimizing direct and indirect impacts...
From yuck to profits: Some Zimbabwe farmers turn to maggots to survive drought and thrive
NYANGAMBE, Zimbabwe (AP) — At first, the suggestion to try farming maggots spooked Mari Choumumba and other farmers in Nyangambe, a region in southeastern Zimbabwe where drought wiped out the staple crop of corn. After multiple cholera outbreaks in the southern African nation...
Agribusiness-friendly states in Brazil try to undo forest protections
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Several states in Brazil are trying to rid themselves of rainforest protections, bowing to pressure from cattle ranchers and soybean growers to cut down trees and expand agriculture. Their efforts run counter to those of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,...
New York judge rejects state efforts to shutter bitcoin mine over climate concerns
NEW YORK (AP) — A cryptocurrency plant in central New York can continue operating after a court rejected the state’s effort to shutter the facility over concerns about its climate impact. The decision was hailed as a victory by Greenidge Generation, a large-scale crypto mine in...
Papuan women's mangrove forest in Indonesia is increasingly threatened by development and pollution
JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — On the southeastern coast of the city of Jayapura, Petronela Merauje walked from house to house in her floating village inviting women to join her the next morning in the surrounding mangrove forests. Merauje and the women of her village, Enggros,...
Serviceberry is a sadly underused native tree that helps wildlife and is worth planting
Winters were brutal throughout most of New England in Colonial America. It snowed a lot, often into spring, and there were no radiators (or antibiotics). Many settlers didn’t survive the season, but because the ground was frozen solid, the colonists couldn’t bury their dead in real time....
In southern India's tea country, small but mighty efforts are brewing to bring back native forests
UDHAGAMANDALAM, India (AP) — Scattered groves of native trees, flowers and the occasional prehistoric burial ground are squeezed between hundreds of thousands of tea shrubs in southern India's Nilgiris region — a gateway to a time before colonization and the commercial growing of tea that...
From the Amazon rainforest, Biden declares nobody can reverse US progress on clean energy
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Speaking from the Amazon rainforest, President Joe Biden declared Sunday that there’s no going back in America’s “clean energy revolution” even as the incoming Trump administration vows to spur fossil fuel production and scale back efforts against climate change. ...
Wisconsin agency issues first round of permits for Enbridge Line 5 reroute around reservation
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Enbridge's contentious plan to reroute an aging pipeline around a northern Wisconsin tribal reservation moved closer to reality Thursday after the company won its first permits from state regulators. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officials...
Food aid interventions can curb climate change-induced hardship. But should they do more?
CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Gertrude Siduna appears to have little appetite for corn farming season. Rather than prepare her land in Zimbabwe’s arid southeastern Chipinge district for the crop that has fed her family for generations, the 49-year-old — bitter at repeated droughts...
