Across major farming regions, crop conditions are shifting quickly as rainfall and temperature patterns become more uneven. Too much rain is creating problems in some places, while others are dealing with persistent dryness.
Issue: Agriculture, Forestry & Conservation
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We Know How to Reduce Wildfire Risk. Policy Is Standing in the Way
The need to reduce fire risk is apparent, and we know how to do so through active forest management. Yet policy continues to slow those efforts down and that urgently needs to change.
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Common Sense Returns to the Endangered Species Act
By rescinding the expansive regulatory definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act and returning to Justice Scalia’s narrower textual reading that limits “take” to direct actions against individual animals, federal agencies have struck a blow for property rights, reduced unnecessary land-use controls, and restored freer market incentives.
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Endangered Species Modernization and Genetic Rescue Will Flip The Script On Conservation
The 50-year era of “don’t-touch” conservation may have ended three weeks ago, after the Trump administration narrowed the definition of harm under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Harming an endangered species used to encompass damage to the land the species lives on. Landowners with endangered species were limited in how they could steward their plots of land. After all, endangered species’ recoveries relied on proactive efforts by landowners, which will remain intact regardless of the changing incentive structure of the ESA. The unnecessary penalties landowners had to incur were lifted, and conservation efforts will be able to fit the needs of the land and life rather than keeping the overburdening punishments of the ESA.
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How EarthOptics Is Digging Deeper Into Soil Health
Soil is arguably the most critical factor involved in any plant’s life cycle. It serves many roles, including anchoring a plant in place, storing and supplying nutrients, breaking down organic matter, and insulating the plant. These are just a few of the many functions soil performs for a single plant.
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How Conservation X Labs Is Reimagining Wildlife Conservation
Conservation science has long defined itself as a crisis-solution field, rooted in problem-solving. Yet for years it has been better at identifying species and regions at risk than at delivering solutions to help them. Identifying this key downfall, Conservation X Labs has risen to the occasion. A non-profit focused on slowing biodiversity loss, it promotes innovation and the development of cutting-edge technology to tackle conservation challenges.
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How Satellite Technology Is Unlocking Virtual Fencing for Ranchers
American agriculture is becoming increasingly reliant on technology. From precision agriculture to virtual fencing, farmers and ranchers are finding smarter ways to manage their operations, driving productivity and environmental gains at the same time. But most of these tools depend on one thing: reliable connectivity.
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End the Penalty on Prescribed Burns
With respect to addressing America’s wildfire crisis, the CAA can ironically penalize states for conducting prescribed burns, which are among the most effective tools for preventing catastrophic wildfires and the harmful air pollution they produce.
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Louisiana’s Coastal Crisis Won’t Be Solved in Court
Louisiana has lost over 2,000 square miles of coastal land since the 1930s, an area the size of Delaware. Wetlands continue to disappear at an alarming rate, threatening communities, infrastructure, and one of America’s most productive fisheries.
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To Save the Sequoias, Bring Back Good Fire
At the current pace, it would take the Forest Service more than 50 years to treat the 19 most at-risk sequoia groves in the country, a timeline the species cannot afford. With faster treatment efforts, more groves will be safeguarded from out-of-control wildfires.