BugsBugsBugs

Remember all that snow that fell from the Carolinas to Boston? I bet you assume this has been quite a snow season overall. Well, for the Lower 48, this is the least snowy season (through February) for any year since at least 1940-41 when looking at all years through February. Thanks humans!

The Serviceberry written and read Robin Wall Kimmerer is a truly magical experience.

*non-audio books* (aka plain ol’ books lol)

Second vote for Libby. All ya need is a library card, its free! It also has non-audio and magazines.

The West has been in a 32-year drought. But it may be worse than that A drought has a beginning and an end. What's happening in the West doesn't seem to have an end, so what is it?

The Southwest isn’t just drying.

It’s holding less water.

Grazing, aquifer depletion, river control, agriculture…..centuries of hydrologic modification.

Now add warming.

Drought is temporary.
Aridification rewrites the system.

Will Trump’s Push to Drill on California Public Lands be More Successful This Time Around? - Inside Climate News The BLM has revived its effort to open more of California’s public lands to oil extraction. But its strategy has changed little since the agency’s earlier attempt in 2019 and drillers may not be…

"The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposed plans to open nearly 2 million acres of land from Santa Barbara to the Bay Area for oil drilling and fracking, including land adjacent to national and state parks, along coastlines and waterways, and areas near schools and homes." buff.ly/5GcUATP

Lesser Prairie Chickens Delisted from ESA The U.S. Fish and Wildlife (FWS) recently moved to confirm the delisting of the lesser prairie chicken, a rare and long-embattled species of upland bird. The action is the latest in a back-and-forth o...

Oh for fucks sake

I miss that they delisted the lesser prairie chicken from the Endangered Species Act last week. Ranchers and oil fought tooth and nail for years for the right to destroy habitat

www.themeateater.com/conservation...

BLM proposes quadrupling allowed logging on millions of acres in western Oregon The Bureau of Land Management is preparing a revision to how much logging is allowed on Oregon and California Railroad Lands. That proposal is causing excitement and criticism.

#AltCitizen comment opportunity.

I’ll post more— comment by 03/23/26:

www.federalregister.gov/d/2026-03290

“The agency is seeking to increase its sustained yield timber harvest to around 1 billion board feet annually, an amount matching levels prior to conservation restrictions in the 1990s.”

Thoughts & prayers to the EPA :(

Judge orders changes to Columbia and Snake river dam operations to help 'disappearing' salmon A federal judge in Oregon has ordered narrow changes to hydropower dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest to help salmon. U.S.

Across Republican and Democratic administrations alike, federal courts have often done more to enforce ESA protections than the agencies responsible for them.
Conservation by litigation is a symptom of structural failure.

😩

Urban tree funding axed in WA House budget proposal • Washington State Standard If the funding reduction is approved, the Department of Natural Resources says it would be unable to maintain current staffing levels.

Funding that helps Washington communities plant trees in urban areas is on the chopping block in the state Legislature. washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/02/27/u...

New report reveals alarming reason why the western US is running out of water: 'It is a stupid system' Vox revealed that agriculture is the top offender with livestock, in particular, dominating the issue of water usage in the Colorado River.

Livestock doesn’t just consume water through feed crops. It also alters dryland watersheds, reducing infiltration, increasing runoff, and weakening the system’s ability to store snowmelt.

You can’t stabilize a river while destabilizing the land that feeds it.

helpful illustration from Marvaldi & Lanteri's weevil key, demonstrating the difference between a mucro (sharp spur at the tibial apex) and an uncus (sharp spur at the tibial apex)

welcome to WEEVIL HELL, today we will be playing
*audience roars*
MUCRO
or
UNCUS

YOU LITERALLY STARTED IT PETE. #drama #liar #clown #rant #history
UNLIKE YOU I SOBERED UP AND LEARNED FROM THE HISTORY I LIVED THROUGH.

Congress has appropriated the funds to NSF but OMB is delaying the release. When funds are released, NSF, which has lost almost 1/5 of its staff, will struggle to evaluate proposals. Since they have to award the funds, big projects with established PIs will benefit. This is how US science dies.

BLM Announces Plan to Fell Oregon's Last Great Forests One billion board feet per year... 30 days to make your voice heard.

You only have a short time to comment. They are trying to destroy our forests to enrich a few logging company executives and the politicians they’ve paid off.
Leave your comment here:

eplanning.blm.gov/Participate-...

morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/blm-announ...

The local pinnipeds love to party here. Excellent road trip stop.

Did you know that the bees that need saving are NOT honeybees?

Honeybees are the dairy cows of bees. People brought them over from Europe to make us honey.

The problem with honeybees, esp in resource-limited ecosystems (like hey! cities!) is that they compete with our native bees for food.

*Sky Cattle* is what we in the meadow ecology world call em.

December 2025 through February 2026 was the 2nd warmest winter on record for the Contiguous U.S. according to Prism climate data. The widespread record to near record warmth in the west easily outweighed the cool temps in the east. 🔥🔥🔥

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Free Range Archives The federal grazing system, propped up by subsidies and access to 375,000 square miles of the West, disproportionately benefits billionaires, mining companies and large corporate outfits. Dwindling…

"Dwindling oversight has allowed grazing where it’s not allowed and for longer than permitted, damaging the environment."

Kansas informs trans residents their driver’s licenses become invalid on Thursday Some transgender Kansans said they had received the letters from the Department of Revenue. Others hadn’t by Wednesday evening.

“‘The persecution is the point,’ said Rep. Abi Boatman, a Wichita Democrat and the only transgender member of the Legislature, who received the [Kansas Dept of Revenue] notice on Wednesday.” To underscore that: a Kansas state legislator is among those whose driver’s license will be voided. (🎁 link:)

This is simultaneously the most inspiring and horrifying INaturalist post I have ever witnessed. Standing ovation. No notes.

The West’s Winter Has Been a Slow-Moving Catastrophe Without snow in the mountains, the places that depend on the West’s rivers will hurt for water.

The real slow-moving catastrophe began with the Industrial Revolution when we started rearranging atmosphere, water, and energy flows faster than Earth systems could absorb.

We’re unable to perceive incremental change.
Until suddenly it isn’t incremental anymore.

Data and Riker chilling in a trailer and blasting cigs

It’s the freakin weekend

“great comprehension” just took me all the way out lol