Biodiversity for a Livable Climate

Wildfires: Mythology vs. Reality

Wildfire resilience begins closer to home. A forest is an ecosystem, not a fuel load. In Wildfires: Mythology vs. Reality, Hart Hagan and his guest speakers explore practical ways to protect people and property — home hardening, ember-resistant vents, clean gutters, defensible space, and evacuation planning — while taking a closer look at the assumptions behind large-scale thinning and fuel reduction.

Thursdays, September 17–November 5, 12–1:30 PM ET, on Zoom.

Biodiversity 15: Saving the Mother Trees

What keeps a forest, wetland, or grassland alive is often hidden beneath the surface. Join restoration ecologist Jim Laurie for a 10-week exploration of Mother Trees, fungi, water, wildlife, soil, and the relationships that help ecosystems recover and thrive.

Wednesdays, September 16–November 18, 12–2 PM or 7–9 PM ET, on Zoom.

Curious for a snippet? Join Jim’s free introductory webinar on September 2 at 12 PM or 7 PM ET.

Building Water Back Into the Landscape: A Week With Water Stories

Alexandra Ionescu, Bio4Climate’s Associate Director of Regenerative Projects, recently spent a week volunteering alongside the Water Stories team as they built two earthen ponds and connected them to a third.

Water Stories was founded by Zachary Weiss, a protégé of revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer.

Witnessing the genesis of a pond, Alexandra began to see its “anatomy” emerge through the team’s shaping of the earth—the key, dam, spillway, slopes, and terraces taking form as they continuously surveyed the site and worked with the geology of place.

Through near-daily rain, Alexandra and the other volunteers supported the work through a range of side activities, including helping drain water from the construction area. Over time, these ponds will help hold water in the landscape, support vegetation and other life, and slowly rehydrate the surrounding land.

Bio4Climate Mini Conference | The Ocean Starts Upstream

Join us on Saturday, September 19 from 10 AM to 12 PM ET on Zoom for the third session of Bio4Climate’s mini-conference series. The health of the ocean begins long before water reaches the coast.

Rob Moir of the Ocean River Institute and Tom Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance will explore how watersheds, rivers, coastal ecosystems, and coral reefs are linked, and how restoration on land can help protect life downstream. Free and open to all.

Rewilded Land Remains Green Amid Drought-Stricken English Countryside

Aerial images of the National Trust’s Holnicote estate in Somerset show that the areas where rivers were returned to their natural courses and wetlands were restored stayed green and lush through five summer heatwaves, while the surrounding farmland turned parched and brown.

Project staff describe the restored floodplain as a “natural sponge” that stores water during drought and slows it during storms, protecting villages downstream from flooding. They offer it as evidence that nature-based solutions build resilience to wildfire and flooding rather than causing it.

New Zealand Opens Marine Reserves With a Groundbreaking Māori Co-Management Model

In July 2026 New Zealand established five new marine reserves covering 308 square kilometres in the country’s southeast — the first in the country to be jointly managed by the government and Indigenous Māori as Treaty partners, with shared decision-making and a joint ranger team.

Advocates see the model as a shift away from top-down conservation toward recognising Māori as rights-holders in the places they have long cared for.

What If Our Cities Were Designed for Wildlife as Well as People?

Writing in The Conversation, Aberystwyth University researcher Saman Sobhani makes the case for “multispecies justice” in urban planning — designing cities so that other species are treated as co-inhabitants rather than as amenities for people.

Examples already in place include Scotland’s requirement for nesting “swift bricks” in new buildings, legal personhood for New Zealand’s Whanganui River, and Barcelona’s green corridors that let wildlife move through the city.

Mexico Reintroduced 47 Bison After More Than 100 Years, and the Ecosystem Is Restoring Itself

Nearly 50 bison have been returned to the El Santuario Reserve within the Cuatrociénegas protected area in Coahuila, Mexico — a species hunted out of the region roughly two centuries ago — in an effort led by the Fundación Pro Cuatrociénegas.

Within months, the herd’s grazing, hoof action, and manure have begun tilling the soil, spreading seeds, reducing wildfire fuel, and drawing back pumas, lynxes, and peccaries caught on hidden cameras — the work of an ecosystem engineer resuming its role.

Meet the Firefighting Donkeys of Spain

National Geographic reports on Spanish brigades that put donkeys and other grazing livestock to work eating down the dry brush that feeds wildfires, including a herd from the group El Burrito Feliz at Doñana National Park.

Supporters credit the grazing with keeping Doñana free of any recorded wildfire for nine years, even as fires worsen elsewhere in Spain — an ancient practice offered as a modern tool for a hotter, drier landscape.

Smokescreen, by Chad Hanson, PhD

This week’s recommended read is Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate, by Chad Hanson, PhD — a forest and fire ecologist and one of the featured guest speakers in Hart Hagan’s Wildfires: Mythology vs. Reality course.

Chad joins us on October 8 to share his research on wildfire, forest management, and post-fire ecology.