Author: Frances Monroe

In western Oregon, there is a hollow on a hillside where the temperature is two to three degrees lower than that of the open pasture fifty meters away. No irrigation. No structure for shade. Only the land’s slope and a group of old-growth Douglas fir trees that have been there for more than a century. The sheep that graze close to that hollow appear to possess knowledge that their keeper has only lately discovered. As it happens, the land is doing the work. Old-growth forests can reduce maximum spring temperatures by up to 2.5 degrees Celsius when compared to nearby…

People moved in the same manner as their parents and grandparents for many generations. Families in the Middle East, Central America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa followed corridors that were more than just routes; they were inherited knowledge. Which crossing was safer, who to call, and where to stop. Like recipes, that information was disseminated covertly. And it held for a very long time. It is no longer holding. Over the past ten years, something changed—a convergence of pressures that was difficult to sum up in a single headline. Communities that are already overburdened are affected by climate shocks. Wars…

In pharmacies all over the nation, the same custom is carried out each fall. People roll up their sleeves, put up with a minor sting, and leave with faith that this year’s flu shot will work. It could. Perhaps it won’t. The virus continues to spread, as it usually does. Xiu-Feng “Henry” Wan, a virologist at the University of Missouri, is driven into his lab most mornings by this uncomfortable reality. Wan oversees the NextGen Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases in Columbia, which recently finished a significant expansion that doubled the center’s research capacity by adding more than…

A rural property in Blount County, Tennessee, doesn’t seem like much at first. Perhaps some land, a few outbuildings, and a location that doesn’t attract attention from the road. However, what agents discovered there after more than a year of federal surveillance—dozens of gamefowl, proof of coordinated fighting operations, and connections that extended well beyond state lines—told a completely different tale. One of the biggest cockfighting takedowns the area had seen in years, the bust led to about 75 arrests. Federal intervention indicates a problem that goes beyond a local ordinance infraction. When federal prosecutors and the Animal Care division…

Anyone who has taken the time to photograph birds in the field will instantly recognize a certain frustration. You’ve been edging closer to a heron that is motionless at the water’s edge for twenty minutes. Light is beneficial. The angle is good. The bird is still there. When you press the shutter, there’s a mechanical clack, the mirror slaps back into position, and all of a sudden your frame is empty and the heron is in the air. You understood the sound. The shot did not reach you. For decades, thousands of wetlands, forests, and meadows experienced that situation. Really,…

The events taking place along the North Sea coastline’s chalk cliffs are no longer subtle. The tens of thousands of kittiwakes, puffins, and gannets that once inhabited coastal rock faces have been quietly declining for years, but at a different rate. Ten years ago, there were many nesting birds at some locations; today, only a small number of pairs remain. There’s a certain stillness that shouldn’t exist when you stroll along the clifftops in early summer. It would be simple to place the blame solely on climate change. Unpredictable weather, changing temperatures, and warmer waters all have an impact. However,…

The air has weight when you stand at the edge of a tidal salt marsh in coastal Virginia in July. It smells of wet peat and sulfur, of something old and slowly rotting underfoot. You fall to your thigh if you take a wrong step. A woven cup of vegetation, possibly containing four eggs, is positioned almost precisely above the tide line when you step right and the grass parts. Those eggs won’t make it through the month if they are a few inches lower. For birds like the saltmarsh sparrow, that margin—a few inches, a few days, or a…

The endless forest canopy over Bukidnon is a cathedral of green, and the wind carries tales that no one yet fully comprehends. Less than 400 pairs of Philippine eagles continue to hunt, breed, and traverse a terrain that is becoming more and more hostile to their survival somewhere in those shadows. The math is straightforward and harsh for Dr. Jayson Ibañez, who has spent years watching these birds slip silently toward extinction. Their time runs out without widespread intervention. That is the fundamental idea behind the Kitanglad Protocol, an initiative that was born out of a strange kind of desperation…

Ornithologist Stefano Avilla froze in the middle of a muddy forest trail in October 2025, deep within the Brazilian Amazon close to Manaus. The morning mist had been broken by a single flute-like cry, the musician wren’s song. Jared Wolfe, a wildlife ecologist who works with him, silently nodded. They both knew the significance of that moment. It had become strange to hear it at all. Deforestation is not the subject of this story. This area is free of encroaching farms, burn scars, and chainsaws. There is no damage to the canopy. The trees are quite old. These forests should…

The fact that one of the most significant ecological changes in contemporary Britain took place outside the kitchen window rather than in a nature reserve or rewilding project is subtly amazing. A feeder for peanuts. A mealworm tray. Before the coffee was even made, a wooden box on a garden post was refilled on chilly mornings. Millions of British homes resorted to this little ritual during lockdown, and it’s still unclear what happened next. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp increase in interest in bird feeding. Within two weeks of the start of the lockdown, searches for terms like “bird…